Led by captain Sasha Barkov’s elite rating, EA Sports honors Florida’s offensive depth as several star forwards dominate the top tiers of the latest virtual hockey rankings.
Hockey fans who also enjoy video games are getting geared up for the upcoming release of NHL 27.
The globally popular hockey game made by EA Sports is set for release on Sept. 11 and preorders are being widely accepted.
This week, EA Sports released player rankings for the game, and the Florida Panthers are looking quite solid, especially at forward.
While Florida doesn’t have anyone in the prestigious 99 Club (congrats, McJesus), there are three Panthers forwards whose overall rankings are in the 90s, and two just outside, coming in at 89.
Leading the way for the Cats is their captain, Sasha Barkov, whose overall ranking was 95, which placed him as the 8th forward on the list. This comes as no surprise, with Barkov known far and wide as arguably the best two-way forward in the world.
While Barkov missed the entirety of the 2025-26 season after tearing up his knee during training camp, the Finnish superstar took the ice during May’s IIHF World Championships and looked like he never missed a beat.
Barkov led Finland to a gold medal while pacing the team with 11 points in 10 games.
Next up on EA’s list is Florida’s scoring specialist Sam Reinhart. His overall ranking is 91, closely followed by Matthew Tkachuk at 90 overall, then his brother Brady Tkachuk and Brad Marchand, each with 89 overall rankings.
Last season, it was Reinhart and Marchand who kept the Panthers afloat scoring-wise while both Barkov and Tkachuk, among others, were out with injuries.
It’s not hard to see any of those players reaching or exceeding point-per-game status next season.
Getting back to the NHL 27 rankings, you don’t have to look much further down the list to find the next group of Panthers players.
In fact, there are four more Cats who are all ranked in the 80s.
They are Sam Bennett, coming in with an overall ranking of 86, Anton Lundell, also at 86, Carter Verhaeghe overall ranked 85 and Eetu Luostarinen at 84.
When diving into the breakdown of each player, some interesting tidbits jump out.
First, of all the aforementioned Panthers on the list, the ones with the highest rated speed at 89 were Marchand and Verhaeghe, followed by Bennett at 88 and Barkov at 87.
Marchand was also an 89 at acceleration, as was Bennett, followed by Verhaeghe at 88 and Reinhart at Brady Tkachuk at 87. For those wondering, Matthew Tkachuk was given an 85 for both speed and acceleration.
In the deking category, which is kind of important for forwards, Barkov came in highest with a 93 ranking. Next-highest was Reinhart at 91 and Marchand at 90.
Barkov and Marchand led the way with 94 rankings in the passing category, but also in the 90s were Matthew Tkachuk (93), Reinhart (92) and Brady Tkachuk (90).
The Panthers player deemed to have the hardest, or best I suppose, slapshot was Brady Tkachuk, the only player ranked in the 90s in that category (right at 90).
Brady Tkachuk also had Florida’s highest wrist shot ranking (91), followed by Reinhart at 90.
To check out the full Panthers forward rankings for NHL 27, click here.
This year’s version of EA Sports’ NHL game has fans excited for some new features, including a brand-new broadcast duo of John Buccigross and Darren Pang.
It’s always been a cool feature of playing videos games when you can lead your team to a championship, but that must have a different feel for Panthers fans lately.
You know…now that they know what it feels like to have the Panthers win the actual Stanley Cup.
Let us know what you think of Florida's NHL 27 rankings in the comments below.
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Photo caption: Dec 5, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Florida Panthers center SamReinhart(13), center AleksanderBarkov(16) and left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. (Eric Hartline-Imagn Images)
