There is an air of chronic negativity that seeps in whenever anyone calls an athlete “overrated.” When people hear, “overrated” about someone they love, they often hear the word “bad.” Fans push back swiftly and the person making the allegation subconsciously pushes back harder just to maintain their point. The conversations are generally unproductive, but that does not mean they are unworthy of taking place.
NHL 21 is another opportunity for players to debate exactly how fair their favorite athletes have been treated. All professional hockey players have to be great to reach the level of the NHL. To be a superstar among these greats is an honor. Some deserve more recognition; no defensemen will be discussed here because they are all collectively ranked too low. This list fully acknowledges that these players are good, their player ratings are just a bit too high. It’s a study of accuracy and evaluation, not an essay of criticism or disrespect.
10 John Gibson, 90 (Goalie, Anaheim Ducks)
John Gibson deserves high accolades as a goalie, but he’s the second-highest rated goalie in NHL 21 and that’s way above where his performance is at. He plays on the Ducks and rightfully deserves a bit of a boost to compensate for his middling team. FIFA 21 gives the same boost for its unfortunate goalkeepers stuck on subpar teams.
But the fact remains that nobody lost more games last year than Gibson. And with a save percentage just barely above .900, he was outperformed by several other goalies who played better when they went head-to-head.
9 Connor McDavid, 95 (Center, Edmonton Oilers)
Speaking critically about Connor McDavid among centers is the equivalent of speaking poorly of Patrick Mahomes among quarterbacks. They are both top ten material without question and all negative comments must include this praise.
But, unlike the popular Madden franchise, NHL 21 does not have two or three 99 rated players every year. This year, the highest-rated player is McDavid at 95, who is outstanding, but he not only wasn’t the best center in the league, he wasn’t even the best center on his team; fellow Oiler center Leon Draisaitl won the Hart Memorial MVP trophy.
8 Patrice Bergeron, 91 (Center, Boston Bruins)
Every year of video games gives gamers a ton of new and exciting titles. Every year also reveals a few titles that just flat-out dropped the ball. Sometimes a franchise or an entire studio has a down year, but fans still look forward to what comes next.
Patrice Bergeron is the player equivalent of this. He’s usually great, but this last season finished fiftieth (not fifteenth, fiftieth) in points, surpassed by players that are ranked well below him. The game is called NHL 21, not NHL careers, so an average season should absolutely be reflected in the ratings.
7 Taylor Hall, 88 (Left Wing, Buffalo Sabres)
Taylor Hall is someone who shot out of the gate fast, beat a few of Wayne Gretzky’s Oiler records, and then took a drastic nosedive. Gamers know all about getting off to a fun start followed by a disappointing ending.
Fans of his and of hockey in general hope he can regain form, but general managers have given up, as he recently signed with his fourth NHL team. An 88 has no justification whatsoever for a player who was negative 14 goals when on the ice last year and finished outside of the top forty is about every significant statistic.
6 Sidney Crosby, 93 (Center, Pittsburgh Penguins)
American sports fans should be eternally grateful that Sid the Kid made his way out of Canada and into Pittsburgh. Gamers have had the heartbreak of seeing great games never leave Japan, so perish the thought of Crosby ever staying solely a Canadian gem.
The best player of the last decade or so is worthy of admiration, but tied for the second-highest rating in NHL 21 is ranking him on reputation, not on output. The 2020 season limited his playing time to 41 games and showed him an early exit in the playoffs, mercifully ending a year where he was minus 8 on the ice.
5 Braden Holtby, 88 (Goalie, Vancouver Canucks)
Some stars on this list showed a little bit of a fade. Most could blame injuries or age, even just brush it off as an average year due to the pandemic. Braden Holtby played a full season and showed he was a shadow of himself as 2018’s Stanley Cup champion goalie for the Washington Capitals.
The abysmal performance cost Holtby his job and he is now with the Vancouver Canucks where hopefully things get back on track. His save percentage was below .900; worse than over fifty other goalies. With 31 teams in the NHL, that’s the stuff of a backup goalie, not an 88 rating.
4 Steven Stamkos, 90 (Center, Tampa Bay Lightning)
It really helps to be the captain of a team, especially the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Mass Effect players know that Commander Shepard had to do a lot of the heavy lifting for some of his weaker teammates, so it stands to reason that Stamkos probably deserves his 90 rating.
Stamkos was good last year, but Tampa Bay played a complete team game in order to win the Stanley Cup and Stamkos was a piece of the puzzle more than he was the solution. He’s a sniper, which was good for 18th in goals, but his passing and deking ability need work before being considered top-tier.
3 Alexander Ovechkin, 93 (Left Wing, Washington Capitals)
Sniper games are fun and getting even better. Hockey and video game fanatics might not think of NHL 21 as a sniper game until playing as center sniper Alexander Ovechkin. He rightfully earned his status as one of the game’s top shooters as he led the league in goals in 2020.
But Ovechkin, tied for the second-highest rating in the entire game, had an off-year in about every other statistic. His negative twelve goals while on the ice says it all. The goals helped, but a paltry 19 assists for the entire year should have been taken into consideration.
2 Jack Eichel, 91 (Center, Buffalo Sabres)
There aren’t too many bad things to say about Jack Eichel. He was top ten in goals and points, competent in assists, and somehow managed to get a plus five while on the ice for the miserable Buffalo Sabres who missed the playoffs.
Eichel deserves the maximum credit for all of those things, but the reason he makes this list is that he’s tied for fourth-highest as a center. The statistics don’t back up this sky-high rating. He’s an elite hockey player, to be sure, but tied for seventh-highest among all athletes does not sync up with him on paper or on the ice.
1 Vladimir Tarasenko, 89 (Right Wing, St. Louis Blues)
Perhaps no single player deserves to be on this list more than Vladimir Tarasenko. As the cover athlete of NHL 17, perhaps the game’s statisticians are hesitant to be too hard on their once golden boy.
He was worthy back in 2017, that’s not in question, but his last two years have been personally rocky, even the one where he won a championship with the Blues. After falling back to average in 2019, he spent 2020 mostly injured after some more subpar play. Getting back to the ice for the playoffs, he was a huge liability for the Blues. He went 0 for 10 shooting and delivered the top-seeded Blues a first-round exit.
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