The Hockey News ranks teams and players

Well, THN came out with their 07-08 yearbook. We are projected to finish 7th in the East (they picked the Sabres to finish 7th too for some reason). Devils are rated as a B-. Our prospects are rated C.

THN also rates the top 50 players in the league. Brodeur was ranked 10th (Luongo was ranked 3rd and crowned 'officially the best goaltender in the league', just so you know). Elias ranks right behind him at 11th ahead of notables like Sakic, Jagr, Hossa, and Zetterberg. Parise makes #45, above notables such as Shanahan, Kovalchuk and unranked players like Vanek, Savard, and Sundin.

7th?

I thought about 6th.

And how Luongo owns Brodeur?Seriously, last year Brodeur sur-planted Luongo in every stats, and I recall that Luongo had one of the best defensive units.

As for Elias..He's way too high, I would rank him 25-30.Not 11th, Sorry, Jagr/Sakic are way better than Elias.

Parise 45th?Ehh, I would put him btw 55-60.

Always low-balling us. Sixth place? Yeah right. We'll do much better than that.

The rankings are ridiculous.

Ovechkin #2 over Lecavalier and Thornton, both of whom are clearly better now, makes me feel the poll was done by HF posters, rather than "experts." I feel the rankings gave way too much to young players with "potential." How else do you explain Ovechkin at #2 over Lecavalier and Thornton?

Luongo at #3 over Brodeur at #10? Now, I know some think Luongo is better than Brodeur (Devils fans and a slight majority of NHL GMs disagree), but a difference that huge when they had pretty identical seasons can only be explained by the "OMG Luongo is younger" rational. And Jagr is getting on in age, so I guess he is over the hill by the logic of the tards who put together than list.


Personally, I feel the people doing the list wanted to lowball Brodeur to show that the goalie playing for a Canadian team is so much better, then put Elias way too high to try to show they didn't have an anti-Devils bias. But that might just be the conspiracy theorist in me talking.

Other stupid parts of the list:
-Dipietro over Lundqvist
-Jagr out of the top 10 (and below Elias)
-Drury at 22 (way way too high)

Has there ever been a player as great as Brodeur get disregarded so consistently?


Edit: Lundqvist also gets no respect. The goalie rankings: 3) Luongo 10) Brodeur 13) Kiprusoff 20) Miller 23) Turco 29) Hasek 33) Giguere 40) DiPietro 43) Lundqvist 50) Backstrom

I would rank Lundqvist 3rd behind Marty and Luongo.

Has there ever been a player as great as Brodeur get disregarded so consistently?


Edit: Lundqvist also gets no respect. The goalie rankings: 3) Luongo 10) Brodeur 13) Kiprusoff 20) Miller 23) Turco 29) Hasek 33) Giguere 40) DiPietro 43) Lundqvist 50) Backstrom

I would rank Lundqvist 3rd behind Marty and Luongo.
Those goalie rankings are completely screwed up. I would put Lundqvist fourth, behind Marty, Luongo, and Kipper, but no further down than that. And obviously, Brodeur and Luongo should be flipped (with a smaller gap between them).

How very very lame....

Brodeur had an a better season than luongo this past season, with a weaker defence in front of him than luongo.

Horese manure.....

I think the guy who posted that list admitted he had no clue what he was doing.

I dont agree with those rankings. Luongo is good goalie, but in my opinion Brodeur should be higher not just because he is great goalie, but has one the best nerves in the game. He has showen that in the games that realy counts.

I dont agree with those rankings. Luongo is good goalie, but in my opinion Brodeur should be higher not just because he is great goalie, but has one the best nerves in the game. He has showen that in the games that realy counts.

That and he has a proven track record. He also had one of his best seasons last year behind one of the worst D's he had.

These are the Hockey News' Predicted Standings just to see what you guys think:

Ottawa A-
Rangers B+
Carolina B-
Pittsburgh B
Buffalo B-
Tampa Bay B-
New Jersey B-
Atlanta C+

Philly C
Washington C
Toronto C
Florida C-
Montreal D+
Islanders D+
Boston D+

There is no chance in helll that Tampa is ahead of the Devils. That's just laughable. The HOckey News lost all credibility when the put that down. That's a joke. It's debatable if Buffalo is even ahead of us. And Washington's too high too. I don't know but the Hockeynews must be drinking the Southeast Division Kool Aid or something. It's the worst Division in hockey by far and they have 3 teams in the playoffs, the 10th team and the 12th team.

These would be my predictions if the season opened today:

Ottawa A-
Pittsburgh B+
Carolina B-
New Jersey B
NY Rangers B
Buffalo B-
Tampa Bay C+
Toronto C+

Flyers C+
Florida C
Islanders C
Boston C
Atlanta C-
Washington D+
Montreal D+

glad to see Elias getting props but i dont think he should be that high

and ahead of Jagr? please.

As soon as I saw that Kovalchuk was not rated in the top ten in the league, I dismissed this as pure bull****!

Brodeur is a much better goalie, and Luongo is in his prime right now and Brodeur still puts up more stats. When Both carrears end everyone will say Brodeur was the better goalie.

I love Elias, but #11 seems a little bit..meh, after that weird season.

This is the same ranking that put Rick Nash as the 9th best hockey player last year.

As soon as I saw that Kovalchuk was not rated in the top ten in the league, I dismissed this as pure bull****!
Kovalchuk isn't even the best player on his team, Hossa is. IMO, Kovalchuk has lost a lot of the flair he had when he first broke into the league, he just seems content to fire one timers on the PP. I kind of fear the same thing will happen to Ovechkin.

The only game I was able to go to last year was the shootout loss to Atlanta in December. He played 18:20 and I didn't even notice him out there. Whereas Hossa nearly scored a shorthanded hat trick.

I'm not basing this opinion off of one game either, that is just a perfect example though.

Philly makes the playoffs this year, so drop one of those teams out, likely Atlanta. And unless TB gets a goalie, they don't scare anyone.

why is buffalo in the playoffs?

:biglaugh:

at that whole list.

This is the same ranking that put Rick Nash as the 9th best hockey player last year.

I think that's all that needs to be said.

This is my favorite one where they are discussing Savard from Boston who had 95+ points in each of the last season and didn't even make the list:

"You would think that a player who would finish ninth in NHL scoring in back-to-back years would be a shoo-in for the Top 50. But remember, somebody always scores on a lousy team" - quoted from The Hockey News 2007-08 Yearbook rankings

What an idiot. If anything, putting up those kind of points on a lousy team would make those point totals more impressive, not work against him.

The Hockey News is getting worse and worse every year. I remember when it was a good read because they had good writers who knew what they were talking about and know the game. They still do have some good writers but they seem to be a minority nowadays where the crappy writers are writing with their egos instead of using their heads and being objective.