Tim Stützle got some Top 25 love from the video game maker while Jake Sanderson just snuck into the top 60. Who rounds out the top 10?
EA Sports has released its player ratings for NHL 27, and 10 Ottawa Senators appear among the game's top 300 players this year.
The list is led by Tim Stützle, who checks in at No. 31 overall with a 91 rating.
Stützle is the only Ottawa player to crack the 90s. His best individual marks are for deking (94), speed and acceleration (93), passing (92) and offensive awareness (92). For a player whose speed and skill have never really been in question, those numbers seem about right.
He stands 14th overall among centres, and what's a little surprising is the big lead he has on teammate Jake Sanderson, who may would argue is the Sens most valuable player..
Sanderson is next for the Sens, ranked 59th overall with an 89 rating. He beat Stützle in speed, with a 94 rating, and also gets a 93 for wrist-shot power. Sanderson's overall rating puts him in some pretty impressive company and reinforces how quickly his reputation has grown around the league.
Despite finishing 10th in Norris Trophy voting, Sanderson's 89 rating has him in 11th place... just among left shot defensemen.
Then, after Sanderson's 59th-best ranking, comes a fairly steep drop-off for Ottawa's local heroes.
Drake Batherson is the Sens' third-highest-rated player at 87, ranking 115th overall. Thomas Chabot also gets an 87 rating.
Batherson's strongest offensive attribute is his passing at 91, while Chabot gets a 90 for both deking and puck control.
Two of the Sens' newer offensive weapons are next.
William Eklund is ranked 150th overall with an 86 rating, immediately followed by Dylan Cozens at No. 151, also at 86. Eklund gets a 90 for passing, while Cozens' best category is acceleration at 89.
From there, the Senators have four players tied with an 85 overall rating.
Goaltender Linus Ullmark is ranked 199th overall and 19th among goalies, followed by Shane Pinto at No. 244, Artem Zub at No. 250 and Claude Giroux at No. 262.
Pinto gets tagged with an 88 for acceleration, while his slap-shot power is also rated at 88.
Giroux may be getting older, but EA Sports still gives him elite marks in one area. His 91 passing rating ties Batherson for the best on the Senators.
While being in the top 300 may no seem all that impressive at a glance, don't lose sight of the fact that 340 other players who will be on opening night NHL rosters this fall aren't on this list.
The full Senators list among EA's published top 262 looks like this:
Overall rank - Player - Rating
31. Tim Stützle - 91
59. Jake Sanderson- 89
115. Drake Batherson - 87
126. Thomas Chabot - 87
150. William Eklund - 86
151. Dylan Cozens - 86
199. Linus Ullmark - 85
244. Shane Pinto - 85
250. Artem Zub - 85
262. Claude Giroux - 85
To put the ratings in perspective, Connor McDavid got an overall rating of 99, becoming the first player ever to receive the game's highest rating.
For the Senators, having just two players in the NHL's top 100 reinforces the fact that, if they succeed, it will be through their depth and team play, not because they're going to clean up on individual awards night.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was first published in The Hockey News. For more Sens coverage at The Hockey News, click on one of the latest headlines below:
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