NHL Network has come out with their annual rankings of best centres and Tim Stutzle, the Ottawa Senators’ highest-paid player, has fallen on this year’s list.Â
That’s nothing earth-shattering, given Stutzle’s big drop-off in production last season, going from 90 points to 70. Most of that decline came from a reduction in goal scoring, dipping from 39 goals to 18. After that 90-point season, Stutzle was ranked 15th a year ago, so it wouldn’t have been a total shock if they took him off the list completely.
Nagging injuries were part of Stutzle’s drop-off. He says he suffered a wrist injury in the fourth game of the season that bothered him for most of the year. He also dinged up his shoulder on a hit by Florida’s Niko Mikkola on April 5th, causing him to miss the final six games of the season.
“I’m gonna try and seek some other opinions in Germany and try to get it better,” Stutzle said back in April. “I haven’t been feeling great for a year in some things. It’s gonna be all good after the summer and gonna be ready to go for next year.”
Additionally, as we sift through possible explanations, Stutzle looked like a frustrated young player some nights. The losses and the amount of times he got knocked around seemed to weigh on him as another long season dragged on. Learning to level out his emotions will be important for him.
The Network is treating Stutzle’s dip in production as an outlier, fully expecting a return to form this season. The young German has only slipped two spots, slotting in at 17th in the rankings.
Here’s the full list:
NHL Network’s Top 20 Centers (Change +/-)
20. Nico Hischier (New Jersey Devils) -6
19. Mika Zibanejad (New York Rangers) -7
18. Robert Thomas (St. Louis Blues) New
17. Tim Stutzle (Ottawa Senators) -2
16. Nick Suzuki (Montreal Canadiens) New
15. Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings) +4
14. Roope Hintz (Dallas Stars) -1
13. Connor Bedard (Chicago Blackhawks) New
12. Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes) +4
11. J.T. Miller (Vancouver Canucks) New
10. Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks) —
9. Jack Hughes (New Jersey Devils) -3
8. Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights) —
7. Brayden Point (Tampa Bay Lightning) —
6. Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) +1
5. Aleksander Barkov (Florida Panthers) +4
4. Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers) -1
3. Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) +1
2. Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) —
1. Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers) —
NHL Network’s Mike Johnson says he expects the offence to bounce back but there’s one thing that could really move Stutzle up in the rankings.
“What will let him climb this list and help the Ottawa Senators is to start playing better without the puck,” Johnson said. “If he does that with the kind of talent he has, 17 will be the low mark that he’ll be on this list going forward.”
