Deen’s Daily: NHL 25 Ratings; Old Friend in Buffalo; Blackhawks Reunite

The NHL 25 ratings were released by EA Sports earlier this week, and as expected, several of the Avalanche’s stars were at the top of the list.

Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon doesn’t have the highest rating in the game. But that’s okay, he’s right where he should be — second only to Connor McDavid. The Edmonton Oilers superstar is rated 97, one better than MacKinnon’s 96. Hart Trophy third-place finalist Nikita Kucherov is one of seven men with a 95 rating, tied for third-highest.

In fact, another one of them is Avalanche superstar defenseman Cale Makar, who also holds the title of highest-ranked player.

He’s a defenseman in a video game (as he should be). The others are Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, and Artemi Panarin.

Mikko Rantanen wasn’t far behind, coming in 12th place with 93 overall points.

As expected, Colorado is among the highest-rated teams in the video game, but the overall standings drop off after the aforementioned three-headed monster. Next up is Devon Toews (89 overall), followed by a tie between Valeri Nichushkin and Casey Mittelstadt with 86 overall each.

Putting aside the suspension and NHLPA Assistance Program stuff, I think it’s ridiculous that Nichushkin is ranked this low. Given the fact that he’s one of the best two-way forwards in the game, I’d argue he should be in the 90s. I truly believe a healthy (physically and mentally) Nichushkin is one of the top 10 wingers in the world. And I’d even argue to rank him higher than that.

He won’t reach that mark this year, but if Nichushkin plays 80+ games for this team, I’d bet he’ll easily produce 45 goals and 45 assists as a 60-foot-10 two-way machine.

Anyway, back to the ratings. Josh Manson, Gabriel Landeskog, Alexandar Georgiev and Samuel Girard are next with an 85 overall rating, followed by Ross Colton and Jonathan Drouin with an 84 rating. That’s all the names in Colorado’s top 300. Where does Artturi Lehkonen stand on this list?

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Around the NHL

Buffalo Hockey Now: There will always be a special place in my heart for the members of the 2022 Stanley Cup Championship team. So, I will try to add these guys to this section of my Daily whenever I get the chance. Yesterday it was JT Compher, today it was Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Jason Moser in Buffalo, the Sabres’ new fourth line and Beck Malenstyn, Sam Lafferty and Aube-Kubel will face other teams.

Aube-Kubel was a joy to deal with and a key part of the Avs’ Cup run. I often wonder why he wasn’t brought back that offseason. It made sense to see Andre Burakovsky, Darcy Kuemper and Nazem Kadri leave because of the dollars and playing time they had on the open market. But Aube-Kubel eventually signed a one-year, $1 million contract with Toronto. Surely the Avalanche could have done that instead of relying on guys like Anton Blidh and Lukas Sedlak, right?

Detroit Hockey Now: The Red Wings have a long history of signing former Blackhawks greats. In my lifetime, the signing of Chris Chelios was a major coup for Hockeytown. After trading for goaltender Alex DeBrincat last summer and later adding future Hall-of-Famer Patrick Kane, the Red Wings signed another former Blackhawk this offseason.

He’s not a full-on superstar or “Blackhawks great” by any means. But defenseman Erik Gustafsson (AKA Gabriel Landeskog’s best friend) has chemistry with the other two from their time in Chicago. Here’s what one of our besties at the NHN Network, Bob Duff, wrote about: The Red Wings are hoping to rekindle the chemistry that the trio of DeBrincat, Kane and Gustafsson established on the power play six years ago.

San Jose Hockey Now: Exciting times are coming for the San Jose Sharks. They likely won’t be making the playoffs this year or next, but Will Smith and this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick Macklyn Celebrini will certainly breathe new life into the organization in 2024-25. Celebrini receives high praise from Stanley Cup-winning coach Bruce CassidHe is a name that made him look like Sidney Crosby in his first preseason game.