Tonight at 5:30 p.m EST, the puck will drop between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. The game, along with the four others tonight, mark the end of hockey’s multiple month-long hiatus. To celebrate the hockey’s return, the staff at Drive4Five have submitted an anonymous survey on thoughts going into the NHL 2021 season.

In the anonymous survey, when asked for the superlatives for individual members of an NHL hockey program it was broken down into four different parts: one iteration for skaters, one for defenseman, one for goalies and one for coaches.

Best of the Best

A predominant conversation held by fans young and old alike is a simple one: who is the best?

For the NHL’s top skater, there was a glaring and predictable winner. Connor McDavid was able to net 83 percent of the total vote, outshining the second and only other consideration Nathan MacKinnon who only received 17 percent.

On the blueline, there was a pure consensus. Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lighting was able to capture the vote of all those surveyed on the website. Roman Josi surprisingly did not receive a vote.

This consensus then immediately broke down. Goalies are notoriously hard to differentiate and dictating who’s the best can be even more of a challenge. Tied for first were Andrei Vasilevsky and Connor Hellebuyck, who both received a third of the vote. Splitting the other third were Carey Price and Tuukka Rask. 

When evaluating the best coach in the NHL, Drive4Five’s Islanders bias is a little pronounced. 100 percent of those surveyed picked Barry Trotz as their number one bench manager. However, this is understandable. Bias aside, Trotz is a top-NHL coach.

Not Bad, But Overrated

Overrated is an overused term in the world of sports. At the highest level of play, every single athlete is at the top of their game. Though, maybe some players do deserve the adjective placed next to their name. 

When it came to the most overrated skaters within the NHL, a unified front was absent. Coming out on top, which here is really the bottom, was Patrick Laine with 33 percent of the vote. Four players then split the remaining two thirds evenly. This group of four included Jamie Benn, Elias Petterson, Mika Zibinajad and Patrick Kane.

For defensemen, it was an eerily similar story. PK Subban came out with the most voters, a third of the total. Then, four players split the two-thirds that remained. These players were Seth Jones, Ryan Suter, Brent Burns and John Carlson.

Two times is a coincidence, three is scary. Once again, the most voted for player captured two thirds of the vote. This time, for goaltenders, it was Brayden Holtby. The four players who then made up the remaining two-thirds were Jordan Binnington, Marc-Andre Fleury and Igor Shesterkin.

The coaches section of the survey serves as something of a combo-breaking, though not by much. There was a tie for the most votes between Butch Cassidy and Mike Sullivan. Both coaches received a third of the vote. Paul Maurice and Alan Vineagult split the last third of the vote. 

A Better Place To Land

Rounding out the list of superlatives on the survey is a distinction much better received: underrated. 

For skaters, there are six players that evenly split the vote. Included in the list is Elias Pettersson, Kyler Connor, Dominik Kubalik, Jack Eichel, Anthony Mantha and Mark Scheifele.

Once again, the staff at Drive4Five have a bit of an Islanders bias. Though this one when compared to the “best coach” category is a lot more understandable in my own opinion. For the most underrated defensemen in the NHL, two-thirds of the vote went to Islander Adam Pelech. Colton Parayko and Ryan Graves both received 17 percent of the vote to round out the section.

Goalies lend themselves, as previously noted, to be difficult to rate due to the amount of variables out of their control that can contribute or dismantle their success. When choosing the most underrated goaltender, one-third chose Darcy Kemper. The other four goaltenders who took up 17 percent each were Elvis Merzlikens, Carter Hart, MacKenzie Blackwood and Igor Shesterkin.

Shesterkin was, in the entire survey, the only players to be deemed the most underrated and most overrated player. This once again proves how hard it is to rate a goalie, one name can run gamut of overrated to under without the bat of an eye.

In the land of underrated coaches, a very common pattern kept its place. Travis Green of the Canucks took the top spot with a third of the vote while four other names evenly filled the remaining piece of the pie. These coaches were Jeremy Colliton, John Tortorella, Peter Laviolette, and Rick Bowness.

Acting As Nostradamus

The world of predictions are a shaky, shaky place. While there are an infinite amount of ways you could possibly be wrong, there is only one where you are right. The cards could not be more stacked against you. Though going into the 2021 NHL season, we’re going to try.

There was a slanted split between the writers on who will capture the most amount of points this shortened season. 83 percent of the respondents chose the previous Stanley Cup champion and perennial regular season stalwarts: The Tampa Bay Lightning. The remaining 17 percent chose 2019’s Stanley Cup winner: The St. Louis Blues.

The conversation between the votes on who would be the winner of the Calder (Rookie of the Year) was similar to the national conversation with a bit of an Islanders twist. Half of the respondents chose Kirill Kaprizov, one-third went to Alexis Lafrenierre and the remaining went to Islanders winger Oliver Wahlstrom.

Next up is the Rocket Richard, the award for tallying the most goals in the entire NHL. A very safe bet on the award going into this season is Alexander Ovechkin, who has won the award seven times over the last eight seasons. Two-thirds of the staff surveyed did take this route while both Auston Matthews and Leon Draisaitl received 17 percent of the vote.

Out of all the votes concerning goaltenders, the pick for the Vezina award for best goaltender held the most consistency. Andrei Vasilevskiy was able to garner two-thirds of the vote while Connor Hart and Connor Hellebuyck split the remaining. All three of these goalies, expectedly, either appeared on the tally for “best” or “most underrated” goaltender.

Following was the Art Ross award for most points over a season. Connor McDavid, who is a two-time winner of the award, led the voting with two-thirds of it. Leon Draisaitl, the most recent recipient of the award, and Nathan MacKinnon both received 17 percent.

It is rare to win the Jack Adams award for best coaching in the NHL more than once. In the past 16 seasons, other two coaches have accomplished this task: Barry Trotz and John Tortorella. Due to this rarity, there is a large disparity in the choices for the Jack Adams Award. There were six coaches selected, each receiving 17 percent of the vote. Those coaches were Rod Brind’Amour, Barry Trotz, John Tortorella, Peter Laviolette, David Quinn and Travis Green.

Finally, the most important piece of hardware: Lord Stanley’s Cup. Despite the Lightning and Blues being the two picks for receiving the most points this season, neither were found when selecting the Stanley Cup champion. The most likely winners, according to the Drive4Five staff surveyed, were the Colorado Avalanche who captured half the vote. The Golden Knights followed the Avs up with a third of the vote. Finally, the Flyers received 17 percent of the vote rounding out the collection of teams.

HOT TAKES 

Finally, to add a little fun to the survey, the writers at Drive4Five were asked for “hot takes” for the season. Here were some highlights:

• “Hurricanes will upset the Lightning in the playoffs and reach the Stanley Cup Final.”
• “Florida will surprise many people and win a playoff round.”
• “Boston will miss the playoffs.”
• “The Canadian Division is actually one of the toughest divisions.”
• “Antti Raanta will be the starter in Arizona by the end of the season.”
• “The Sharks will make the playoffs.”
• “Elias Pettersson will struggle and only record 30 points.”
• “The Senators will miss the playoffs, but they will not be eliminated until the last day of the season.”
• “Jared Spurgeon will place top-five in the Norris Trophy voting.”
• “COVID-19 will play a big role in the NHL season and multiple teams will struggle with breaks.”

John Smark