The Top 30 Hockey Centers of All-Time

RankPlayerYears
1Wayne Gretzky1978-1999
2Mario Lemieux1984-2006
3Sidney Crosby2005-active
4Connor McDavid2015-active
5Mark Messier1978-2004
6Phil Esposito1963-1981
7Jean Beliveau1950-1971
8Stan Mikita1958-1980
9Bobby Clarke1969-1984
10Evgeni Malkin2006-active
11Joe Sakic1988-2009
12Steve Yzerman1983-2006
13Bryan Trottier1975-1994
14Nathan MacKinnon2013-active
15Leon Draisaitl2014-active
16Howie Morenz1923-1937
17Sergei Fedorov1990-2009
18Peter Forsberg1994-2011
19Patrice Bergeron2003-2023
20Auston Matthews2016-active
21Newsy Lalonde1917-1927
22Steve Stamkos2008-active
23Marcel Dionne1971-1989
24Anze Kopitar2006-active
25Joe Thornton1997-2022
26Doug Gilmour1983-2003
27Ted Kennedy1942-1957
28Nels Stewart1925-1940
29Elmer Lach1940-1954
30Pavel Datsyuk2001-2016

Leave a Reply

Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. A theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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