NY Islanders all-star Mat Barzal left off NHL's top 20 wingers list

Putting together a list of the top players in the NHL is no easy task. With the points players are putting up these days and their game-breaking abilities, great players are going to be left out, and that's exactly what happened with NY Islanders all-star Mat Barzal.

NHL Network has been naming their top 20 players at each position as they do each off-season. Last week was the goaltenders, with Ilya Sorokin coming in at fifth despite having a down season for his standards.

This week it was the wingers turn, with Barzal's name left out of the top 20.

Most of the names on this list are hard to argue with, as it consists of some of the most deadly goal-scorers and creative players the league has to offer. It's hard to make an argument that Brazal deserves to be higher on the list than 95% of these players, but coming in at No. 20, there's a case to be made ranking Barzal over Travis Konency.

Mat Barzal deserves to be part of this list

Konecny has been a terrific play in his own right, serving as one of the brightest stars on a Philadelphia Flyers team that has struggled the past few seasons. But, Konecny doesn't possess the game-breaking abilities of Barzal.

Perhaps it's the fact that last season was the first Barzal played as a full-time winger after playing his entire career as a center. Despite learning a new position, Barzal had one of the best seasons of his career, finishing with 80 points (23 G, 57 A) in 80 games - 12 more than Konecny's 68 points (33 G, 35 A) in 76 games.

Konecny is a better goal scorer than Barzal, topping the 30-goal mark in each of his last three seasons - a feat Barzal has yet to accomplish. But when it comes to distributing the puck, there are few wingers in the world better than Barzal.

Last season Barzal finished with 57 assists, good enough for seventh-best among all wingers. Of the seven players to better Barzal, each of them is ranked in NHL Network's Top 20 wingers.

Heading into year two on Bo Horvat's wing, it's conceivable that Barzal will only improve this season. He'll likely be playing with Anthony Duclair or Maxim Tsyplakov on the other wing, and it's entirely plausible his numbers will only increase.

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