Who’s the best player in the NHL right now? What about the top five?
Connor McDavid is the most talented player in the world. You could argue that Nathan MacKinnon is the best player this season, which is a slightly different category. Leon Draisaitl is right behind those two. Kirill Kaprizov has the biggest contract, and he’s mostly lived up to it so far. On the blue line, the eternal Cale Makar vs. Quinn Hughes debate rages on. And in goal, Connor Hellebuyck is the reigning Vezina winner, not to mention the MVP. Of course, all those guys are established veterans, but if you were building a team right now, you might use your top pick on Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini instead.
Do you notice something odd about that paragraph?
It’s all Western Conference guys. Every one of them. And we didn’t even mention names such as Jack Eichel, Mikko Rantanen or Leo Carlsson. The West is stacked. When you really think about it, there’s an embarrassment of riches stuffed into one conference.
And then you start to wonder: Wait, who is the best player in the East? And where would that player even rank league-wide?
This came up last week on Puck Soup, where my beloved co-host Ryan Lambert had recently guested on a Canucks pod. They’d asked a seemingly simple question: If Quinn Hughes had gone to the New Jersey Devils as we all expected, would he have instantly become the East’s best player?
We agreed that, yeah, he probably would have. But instead, he stayed in the West, since that’s apparently where all the brightest stars have to be.
It&x27;s weird that 16 of these 17 players are all from the same conference, right?
— Sean McIndoe (@downgoesbrown.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 8:12 PM
So today, let’s take a look at 10 candidates for that crown of “Best player (in a conference that doesn’t have any of the best players).” Surely we can find somebody who’ll at least crack the NHL’s overall top five, right?
Well, let’s find out. In no particular order, here are my top-10 candidates for “Best in the East” honors.
Auston Matthews
The case for: He’s the most recent Eastern Conference player to win the Hart Trophy, taking it in 2022. He’s won the goal-scoring title three times and has been a Selke finalist for his work in his own end. For most of his career, he’s been right there with McDavid and MacKinnon in the “best player” debate — just one year ago, they were the only three players in the 1A category of our player tiers.
The case against: That ranking came a year and a half ago, and it feels like a lot has changed with Matthews’ game since then. To put it bluntly, he’s just not a superstar anymore. He’s still very good, in all three zones. But something’s missing, and the results in Toronto make that clear.
His decline has been one of the season’s bigger mysteries, and James and Dom took a crack at solving it a few days ago. Whether it’s age or injury or coaching or something else or (most likely) a combination of all of the above, Matthews doesn’t pop off the page like he once did.
Bottom line: Two years ago, we wouldn’t have even needed to have this discussion. But for now at least, Matthews isn’t that guy anymore.
Aleksander Barkov
The case for: He’s the best two-way player in hockey. He’s been better than a point-per-game player for five straight years and has won three Selkes over that time. And that’s just during the regular season; once the playoffs arrive, he’s the best and most important player on a team that’s been to three Finals and won two Stanley Cup titles.
Put it this way: If you had one game to play for everything you owned, a healthy Barkov is absolutely in the mix with MacKinnon and McDavid as far as players you’d want to build your roster around.
The case against: It’s that “healthy” qualifier that stands out, because it obviously doesn’t apply this year. With Barkov out for most, if not all, of the regular season, it might feel weird to count him among the league’s best. And as much as you hate to say it, we can’t be completely sure what he’ll look like when he eventually returns from major surgery on the wrong side of 30.
Bottom line: Finger crossed, Barkov will be back to his old self soon enough. Until then, I’m not sure what it says about the conference if he’s still in the running for best player honors.
Sidney Crosby
The case for: He’s the most decorated and admired player of his generation, arguably still the face of the league even two decades into a stellar career. And he’s still pretty darn good, on pace to deliver yet another point-per-game season.
The case against: He hasn’t had a top-five Hart season since 2021 and hasn’t been a postseason All-Star since 2019. If we’re doing a “most famous” or “most legendary” list, then absolutely, Crosby is right near the top. But as far as the best players in the league for a game you’re playing right now, his time has passed.
Bottom line: You could make a similar argument for Alexander Ovechkin — great player, still good, no longer in the conversation to be the best.
Nikita Kucherov won the Art Ross scoring trophy in both of the last two seasons. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
Nikita Kucherov
The case for: He’s won each of the last two scoring titles and is on his way to another productive season. Mix in a Hart, two Lindsays and two Cups, and he’s certainly got the resume. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, only MacKinnon has more points, and it’s close. (Kucherov is just seven points back.)
The case against: His offensive numbers are excellent, but he’s a one-way winger who doesn’t do much in his own end. And at 32, his numbers so far this year have declined a little. He’s great right now, but we’ve probably already seen his peak, and you wouldn’t necessarily take it over what MacKinnon or McDavid can do today.
Bottom line: This is our best candidate yet.
Rasmus Dahlin
The case for: He’s the best player on the Sabres and they’re the best team in the league, so you do the math. At 25, Dahlin is right in his prime and may be the best offensive defenseman in the conference right now. And unlike other players on our list, he’s not purely a one-way guy. It took a few years, as is often the case with defensemen, but Dahlin has emerged as a worthy No. 1 pick.
The case against: You could run a survey that was exclusively Sabres fans, Team Sweden coaches and Dahlin’s immediate family, and you still might not find anyone who thinks he’s as good as Hughes or Makar. That doesn’t mean he can’t be in the running for the East’s top player, but if he is, it just kind of proves our larger point.
Bottom line: He’d go higher than you think if the entire league were redrafted today, but “best” seems to be a bit much.
Let’s stay on the blue line for a bit.
Moritz Seider
The case for: While he hasn’t won a Norris like Makar and Hughes, Seider may be the closest comparison the East has to offer. He’s having a great season for a first-place team, and at just 24 years old, still has plenty of room to grow. As Dom pointed out in 16 stats, Seider is arguably having the best season of any defenseman in the league right now.
The case against: Not only has he never won a Norris, but he’s never so much as received a vote. We can argue about where Seider would fit in among other young Eastern blueliners such as Jake Sanderson or even past Norris winner Adam Fox, but he’s not in the Hughes/Makar class yet, or even all that close.
Bottom line: Seider’s trajectory might be pointing in this direction, but for right now, this one feels a little early.
And speaking of young defensemen …
Matthew Schaefer
The case for: He’s obviously nowhere near the best player right now. But we did mention Celebrini, Carlsson and Bedard as further evidence of the West’s domination, so we should probably flag the one kid in the East who’s right there with them. This year’s No. 1 pick might even have his sights on Makar and Hughes in another year or two.
The case against: He’s 18. We can pump the brakes just a little bit.
Bottom line: For now, he’s got to stay with Celebrini and friends at the kiddie table. But check back in a few years.
With back-to-back-to-back 100-point seasons under his belt, David Pastrnak’s ability to produce is impressive. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
David Pastrnak
The case for: He’s one of the game’s greatest goal scorers, with both a Rocket Richard and a 61-goal season on his resume (in different years). With three straight 100-point seasons, he’s emerged as one of the league’s most consistent offensive threats and is one of the few guys whose production seems immune to his own team’s performance. When the Bruins were smashing the all-time points record, Pastrnak was unstoppable. When they were nearly finishing dead last, he was unstoppable then, too.
One last stat: Since 2020-21, Pastrnak is fifth in league scoring, and all four guys ahead of him are, you guessed it, Western Conference stars.
The case against: Much like Kucherov, you could argue Pastrnak doesn’t have the sort of two-way game you’d like to see in a conversation about an era’s very best players. And in recent years, he’s been merely good in the playoffs, not quite great.
Bottom line: He’s absolutely in the running.
Igor Shesterkin
The case for: Goalies are people too, or at least that’s what Jesse Granger keeps trying to convince me. They can even win MVP awards. There’s no reason that they shouldn’t be in the conversation for “best player,” and if they are, the search starts with the 2022 Vezina winner, who’s also the highest-paid goaltender in NHL history.
The case against: Shesterkin’s been pretty good on an otherwise mediocre Rangers team, but he’s not exactly having a career year. Still, if you’re looking for a proven track record mixed with solid results this year, Shesterkin probably nudges past worthy names such as Andrei Vasilevskiy and Ilya Sorokin as the East’s best option.
Bottom line: Goalies can absolutely be the league’s best players, as Dominik Hasek proved for most of the ’90s. None of the top stars of today is Hasek, though.
Back to the forwards for our final candidate …
Jack Hughes
The case for: When he’s healthy, the 2019 No. 1 pick is one of the league’s best young centers. His 43-goal, 99-point season in 2022-23 came when he was just 21 years old, so it feels like the floor of what he could do in a full season in his prime.
The case against: He hasn’t been healthy this year, and while the restaurant thing was a fluke injury, he’s been hurt often enough that it’s a part of his story we can’t just hand-wave away. And while he’s been very good for long stretches of his young career, he’s looked like a guy who could settle in just below the true Hart Trophy/Art Ross tier of offensive talents.
Bottom line: Plus, we probably don’t want to anoint him as the best player in the East when we all know he’s signing with the Wild in 2030 to play with his brother.
So, is anyone in the Eastern Conference a better player right now than Quinn Hughes? And do any of them deserve to be ranked in the top five of the league?
I’m honestly not sure we found anyone, at least with Barkov hurt. Kucherov and Pastrnak are at least in the conversation, and maybe Hughes gets there once he can stay healthy for a big chunk of a season. Beyond that, I don’t think the case is all that strong for any of the names on our list. And while we left off some decent players who’ll get the “I can’t believe you didn’t at least mention …” treatment in the comments, I don’t think any of them would move the needle much on the overall premise.
So yeah, it appears that the Eastern conference is just bad not as top-heavy as the West these days, at least in terms of elite talent. We can chalk that up as a weird temporary outlier situation that won’t last long, but for now, I do think it’s kind of weird.