The overall ranking below is an amalgam of the Top 50 lists from Insiders across the network. For each individual list, players were assigned points based on how high they finished in that particular ranking \u2014 the higher they ranked on an Insider\u2019s list, the more points they accrued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each player\u2019s position on the overall ranking is a result of how many total points they collected across all our Insiders\u2019 lists. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Down to the last crop of stars before the top 10 is revealed, this next group is highlighted by a few Stanley Cup champions, one of the game\u2019s most underrated talents, and the NHL\u2019s ageless wonder.<\/p>\n
Here is Sportsnet\u2019s ranking of the Top 50 Players in the NHL, continuing with Nos. 20-11.<\/p>\n
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Rewind to the first half of his NHL career and William Nylander<\/a> was the most maligned member of the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>\u2019 young core. Now, after four straight seasons of undeniable growth and career highs \u2014\u00a0culminating in a 45-goal campaign last year that saw him finish as the Rocket Richard Trophy runner-up \u2014\u00a0the winger\u2019s evolved into one of the most dynamic offensive talents in the game. And while the playoffs have become a sore point in Toronto, Nylander\u2019s been the Maple Leafs\u2019 steadiest performer when the pressure ramps up \u2014 pacing\u00a0the club in scoring during last year\u2019s run, No. 88 has amassed more post-season goals and points than any other Leaf over the past five years, overall and at even-strength. The blue-and-white are still Auston Matthews\u2019 squad, but with the captain navigating a return to form after an injury-plagued 2024-25, John Tavares in the back half of his 30s, and Mitch Marner<\/a> now out of the picture, Nylander enters the new season as Toronto\u2019s best bet for high-end offence.\u00a0<\/p>\n For a brief moment back in 2022-23, we got the full Jack Hughes<\/a> Experience. Four years into his big-league career, the 2019 first-overall pick came out of the gates flying, racked up a career-best 43 goals and 99 points, and led the New Jersey Devils<\/a> back to the post-season, past the rival New York Rangers, and into the second round. But since announcing himself on the NHL stage with that banner campaign, injuries have stymied Hughes\u2019 attempts to progress. The 24-year-old is coming off two straight years of seeing his season cut short by injuries \u2014 he suited up for only 62 games in both those campaigns, finishing in the 70-point range each year. The chances of New Jersey making any legitimate playoff noise without Hughes firing on all cylinders seem slim \u2014 luckily, the club\u2019s talisman enters the new season injury-free and looking to get back on track. Both he and the Devils faithful are surely hoping for a healthy season and a return to form in 2026.<\/p>\n It would be tough to put together a better two-year stretch than the one Sam Reinhart<\/a> just enjoyed. In 2023-24, the former Buffalo Sabre potted a career-high 57 goals and 94 points for Florida, before helping the Panthers claim the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. In 2024-25, he followed that up by earning a Selke Trophy nomination and playing an even more pivotal role as the Cats won their second-straight title. Reinhart finished the post-season run tied for the team lead in points. He tied for the league lead in even-strength playoff goals too, and capped off the title march by scoring four times in the Cup-clinching Final-ender against Connor McDavid\u2019s Edmonton Oilers. Heading into his fifth season in Florida, the 30-year-old has established himself as one of the most well-rounded offensive talents in the game and figures to be a crucial piece of both the Panthers\u2019 and Canada\u2019s hunt for hardware in 2026.<\/p>\n After years of questions about his future, years of navigating the pressure and chaos and tumult of being a Toronto Maple Leaf, Mitch Marner has moved on. For the first time in his career, the star winger will begin an NHL campaign without a hint of blue on his sweater. Instead, Marner\u2019s taken his talents to Vegas, trading the Eastern Conference for the West, longtime linemate Matthews for another starring American pivot in Jack Eichel, and Toronto’s fishbowl market for one that should bring far more off-ice calm. For the Golden Knights, it\u2019s a franchise-altering move \u2014\u00a0Marner arrives fresh off a 100-point campaign, having earned Selke votes for the past seven years, and with a reputation as one of the most creative offensive minds in the game. In the regular season, his pedigree is clear \u2014\u00a0since debuting in 2016-17, Marner\u2019s amassed the eighth-most points of anyone in the league, and he figures to rack up a fair amount in 2025-26. The question is whether a new environment in Vegas allows him to tap into that all-world skill more consistently when the post-season arrives.<\/p>\n While his Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> might\u2019ve fallen off somewhat over the past three years \u2014\u00a0going from perennial Cup finalist to first-round fodder \u2014\u00a0Brayden Point<\/a> has only gotten better. Already well-established as one of the most talented, well-rounded pivots in the game \u2014\u00a0an all-world scorer who can split defences just as easily as he can shut down the opposition\u2019s best \u2014\u00a0Point\u2019s coming off three straight years as one of the league\u2019s most dangerous scorers. Over that span, the 29-year-old has collected the fourth-most goals overall, the sixth-most even-strength goals, the third-most power-play goals, and the second-most game winners. Unfortunately for him, his Bolts keep running into the Panthers in the post-season, meaning those sterling offensive campaigns have been followed by first-round exits. Tampa Bay\u2019s all-world core is still rolling, still racking up individual hardware, but Father Time is coming \u2014\u00a0the central goal for 2025-26 will be recapturing some of the group\u2019s early playoff magic. Point\u2019s growth into an elite sniper will be a key part of that effort.<\/p>\n There was a lengthy stretch before Florida\u2019s back-to-back Cup runs during which Aleksander Barkov was routinely hailed as the most underrated star in the league. Ahead of 2025-26, that crown can safely pass to Kyle Connor<\/a>. Nearly a decade into his big-league career, Connor\u2019s made his name as a reliable scorer for Winnipeg, but last year\u2019s 97-point outburst proved just how dominant the Jets sniper can be. It wasn\u2019t his first brush with all-world production \u2014\u00a0the veteran put up 47 goals and 93 points back in 2021-22, and 80 points the year after that \u2014 but it still seems the hockey world at large doesn\u2019t fully appreciate what the Shelby Township, Mich., product brings to the table. Over the past four seasons, only Matthews, David Pastrnak<\/a>, and Nathan MacKinnon have potted more even-strength goals than Connor\u2019s 118. He’s collected the third-most game winners in the league in that time too, and the fourth-most overtime tallies. Now, after a career year that saw him finish seventh in the Art Ross Trophy race \u2014\u00a0just behind McDavid, just above Eichel \u2014\u00a0and lead the Jets in playoff scoring, Connor heads into a contract year with eyes on truly making his presence known.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no doubt that at this moment Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> reigns supreme as the best goaltender in the world. The Winnipeg Jets<\/a> veteran enters the new season coming off two straight Vezina Trophy-winning campaigns. Overall, he has three career Vezina wins to his name and he\u2019s finished top three in voting five times. So, there\u2019s no debating Hellebuyck\u2019s greatness.\u00a0He\u2019s already established himself as an all-time netminding talent. But there\u2019s also no denying the 32-year-old\u2019s playoff reputation has taken a hit. Hellebuyck put up quality numbers over his first four years in the playoffs, managing a .921 post-season save percentage between 2018 and ’21, but\u00a0he\u2019s coming off three straight years of subpar performances, and an .870 save percentage over that span. Winnipeg\u2019s run last year, in particular, was a rollercoaster. While the veteran had his moments, he finished with a tumultuous home-and-away split, putting up a .916 save percentage in seven home games (allowing 13 goals in those tilts) and an .809 in six road games (allowing a staggering 26 goals in those). The Jets have built themselves into a legitimate contender, but\u00a0for them to realize that potential, they need Hellebuyck\u2019s regular-season magic to carry onto the playoff stage.<\/p>\n Few scorned stars get the chance to carry out the type of score-settling Mikko Rantanen<\/a> did this past May. Traded away from Colorado in January, after becoming a franchise icon and helping the Avalanche claim a Stanley Cup in 2022, Rantanen wound up back in the West as a Dallas Star on trade deadline day \u2014\u00a0setting up a first-round meeting with none other than his former club. If there were any doubts about Rantanen\u2019s status as a proven playoff performer, he quashed them with his efforts against the Avs, putting up 12 points in the series and ultimately eliminating Colorado with a wild third-period hat trick in Game 7. He collected 22 points over the Stars\u2019 three-round run, and finished top 10 league-wide in both points and goals in the post-season. That was precisely the reason the Stars went out and added the six-foot-four scoring machine \u2014\u00a0he brings the type of undeniable star power their lineup lacked of late. Now, Dallas heads into the new year ready to see what the 28-year-old can do with a full season in Stars colours and a healthy Miro Heiskanen out there with him. Coming off three straight trips to the Conference Finals, Dallas remains a bona fide contender, and Rantanen\u2019s potential should have them dreaming big.<\/p>\n If this latest chapter of Sidney Crosby<\/a>\u2019s career has taught us anything, it\u2019s that the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> captain simply seems incapable of providing anything other than greatness. Even as the team around him has descended into mediocrity, even as his general manager has traded away his star linemates and pushed his club into a rebuild, Crosby has remained elite. The 38-year-old is coming off his third-straight 90-point campaign in black and gold, putting up 91 last season despite playing his first campaign in nearly a decade without 40-goal threat Jake Guentzel on his wing. The dominance of Crosby\u2019s heyday is well-established \u2014\u00a0for the first 12 years of his career, he was the class of the league, amassing three Stanley Cups, two scoring titles, two Rocket Richard Trophies, and a slew of MVP nods. But since turning 30, the Pens captain has remained among the game\u2019s best \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s collected the ninth-most points in the league since his age-30 season, and the ninth-most league-wide over the past three seasons alone. Regardless of where his Penguins finish in the standings in 2026, expect No. 87 to remain a top-tier scorer \u2014\u00a0and a key piece of Canada\u2019s Olympic dream.<\/p>\n Speaking of the past three seasons, while No. 87\u2019s taken a back seat to the game\u2019s younger talents, Boston\u2019s No. 88 has taken over. After making his name as one of the most skilled, dynamic scorers in the league through the first eight years of his Bruins tenure, David Pastrnak has found a new gear over the past three campaigns \u2014\u00a0no other NHLer has collected more goals than Pastrnak\u2019s 151 in that span, nor the 112 he\u2019s potted at even-strength. And the Czech phenom has been elite in overall scoring, too, with only McDavid, Mackinnon, Nikita Kucherov, and Leon Draisaitl besting the 329 points Pastrnak\u2019s amassed in that span. But even after three straight 100-point campaigns and three 40-goal efforts \u2014\u00a0highlighted by a dominant 61-goal season in 2022-23 \u2014 Pastrnak and his Bruins enter the new campaign after an off-season of soul-searching. Once among the East\u2019s most feared contenders, the Bruins missed the playoffs last year for the first time in nearly a decade. That fall from grace also paved the way for the club\u2019s heart-and-soul leader, Brad Marchand, to leave town and link up with the rival Florida Panthers<\/a>. With a leadership void to be filled and a proud fanbase desperate for a return to the post-season, the 2025-26 campaign figures to be a pivotal one for Pastrnak, the 29-year-old sure to be leaned on heavily as the Bruins look to get themselves back on track.<\/p>\n Check back Friday for the top 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the 2025-26 campaign begins in less than a week, we\u2019re breaking down the most dominant players in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-185012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/top-50-2025-19-jack-hughes.jpeg\")
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