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New York Islanders: Mathew Barzal Misses Cut In Top 20 Centers

By Matt O'Leary
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 02: Mathew Barzal #13 of the New York Islanders celebrates his goal at 13:46 of the third period against the Los Angeles Kings at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on February 02, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. The Islanders defeated the Kings 4-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 02: Mathew Barzal #13 of the New York Islanders celebrates his goal at 13:46 of the third period against the Los Angeles Kings at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on February 02, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. The Islanders defeated the Kings 4-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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NHL.com is ranking the top 20 centers, and Mathew Barzal just didn’t crack the list. Is that a fair ranking for the New York Islanders star?

In the middle of the dry season in August, it’s the perfect time to break out a ranking in order to get the conversation going. That’s exactly what happened here when New York Islanders center, Mathew Barzal was left of the top 20 centers list.

For context, last year after an 85 point season Barzal was ranked 16th. At the time, that was definitely a fair ranking for Barzy coming off a Calder Trophy-winning season. In 2018-2019, he didn’t have the same production.

He had 62 points (a 23 point dropoff) this past year. While he is clearly the best player on the Islanders it’s not too surprising that NHL.com removed him from the top 20 centers list after the season he had.

Just looking at the 16-20 ranger the competition is extremely deep. Elias Pettersson, Sean Monahan, Nicklas Backstrom, Logan Couture, and Evgeny Kuznetsov round out the list.

It’s hard to imagine Barzal being ranked above any of those guys right no. Unfortunately, there’s no angry rant or hot take, I think it was fair to leave him off the list (he was mentioned as an honorable mention).

Next year, if Barzal is back to the production we saw in year one than he should get himself back on this list.

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