Five players who missed out on last year’s list highlight the next crop of talent featured in our Sportsnet Insiders’ ranking of the top 50 players in the NHL.
Before the new season begins, we’re revisiting the age-old question of who ranks as the best in the game, of who’s earned a spot in the league’s upper echelon, proving to be the class of this era of dynamic speed and creativity the league’s found itself in.
To get a sense of an answer, we asked contributors from across the network to rank their top 50 players in the league at this moment. The rules were simple. First, each list had to incorporate all skill-sets and all positions into one 50-player list. Second, the rankings had to be forward-looking — contributors couldn’t factor in legacy or past performance, only how each player is expected to perform in the coming season.
Our full Top 50 ranking was built from these lists submitted by Insiders across the network. For each Insider list, players were assigned points based on how high they finished in that particular ranking — the higher they ranked on a particular Insider’s list, the more points they accrued. Each player’s position on our overall ranking is a result of how many total points they collected across all of our Insiders’ lists.
With that, here is Sportsnet’s ranking of the top 50 players in the NHL, continuing with Nos. 40-31.
50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1
Last Year: No. 30
Heading into 2025-26, Hagel’s stock was sky high. The hard-nosed winger was coming off a dominant 35-goal, 90-point campaign in Tampa Bay — career bests on both fronts — and had established himself as one of the most effective 5-on-5 players in the league, amassing the fifth-most even-strength points league-wide. But last season was more a mixed bag, as Hagel potted a career-high 36 goals but saw his total production dip to 74 points while navigating some injury issues. The Bolts will hope for a return to full health, and full impact, from the Team Canada winger in 2026-27.
Last Year: Unranked
It was a resurgent 2025-26 for Sorokin, who didn’t make it into the Insiders’ top 50 last time out. Last season saw the veteran netminder post a .906 save percentage and a 2.68 goals-against average, leading the league with seven shutouts and pacing his contemporaries with a high-danger save percentage of .864, too. That performance earned the 31-year-old the second Vezina Trophy nomination of his career — he finished second in voting behind Andrei Vasilevskiy. As the Isles look to claw their way back to the post-season, another quality year from the veteran will be crucial.
Last Year: No. 36
Like a few other members of the 2025-26 Jets, last season wound up both a step forward individually and a step backwards for the organization. One year after winning the 2025 Presidents’ Trophy, the Jets tumbled to seventh in their division, missing the post-season for the first time in four seasons. Scheifele, though, came up with the most productive campaign of his career, piecing together his first century season with 36 goals and 103 points — good for fifth in the Art Ross race. What 2026-27 brings for Winnipeg remains to be seen, but their veteran pivot has proven he should be able to produce regardless.
Last Year: Unranked
It was much the same situation for defender Moritz Seider, who jumps to No. 37 on this year’s list after going unranked last time out. While 2025-26 saw the Red Wings finish sixth in the Atlantic and extend their post-season drought to a decade, Seider managed a career year from the back end. The 2019 sixth-overall pick collected a career-best 60 points in his fifth campaign in Detroit, while averaging more than 25 minutes of ice per night — third-most in the league, behind only Quinn Hughes and Zach Werenski. Earning the first Norris votes of his career last season, Seider’s future remains bright, despite the growing tumult around him.
Last Year: Unranked
Through four years in the big leagues, Johnston has come up with four straight seasons of growth and progress. After a sterling few seasons that put the centreman on the map as one of the brightest young stars in the league, 2025-26 saw Johnston go full supernova. The 23-year-old amassed 45 goals and 86 points for Dallas — the first of those sums finishing tied for fourth-most league-wide — and led the league with 27 power-play tallies. Still only 23, with four seasons left on the five-year, $42-million ($8.4 million AAV) deal he inked in 2025, the pivot figures to be a crucial piece of the Stars’ Cup dreams for years to come.
Last Year: No. 27
That all-world campaign in 2021-22 — in which Shesterkin won the Vezina and finished as a Hart Trophy finalist, too — seems a distant memory at this point. Still, after a disappointing 2024-25, the veteran goaltender took steps toward a return to form last season, posting a .912 save percentage, a 2.50 goals-against average, and earning Vezina votes for the fourth time in his career. The fate of the Rangers still seems up in the air given all the turnover the club’s waded through in recent years, but any hopes of a return to the post-season, let alone the top of the East, will require a more convincing return to Shesterkin’s best.
Last Year: No. 39
If the Senators faithful are looking for reasons not to sweat the departure of their ex-captain, Sanderson is no doubt near the top of the list. The phenom continues to take steps towards the league’s blue-line elite, and built on that progress with another quality campaign in 2025-26. After a career-best effort in 2024-25, Sanderson came up with 54 points in 67 games last season — a 66-point pace over a full 82-game campaign — in a year disrupted by injuries. Still only 24 years old, and a candidate to take over the captaincy from the departed Brady Tkachuk, the young Sens rearguard figures to be in the Norris conversation once again next season.
Last Year: Unranked
The young Ducks pivot was the talk of the off-season for a stretch there, after news broke that he’d put pen to paper on a five-year, $90-million ($18 million AAV) offer sheet — eventually matched by Anaheim — that briefly made him the highest-paid player in the game. The 21-year-old has no doubt made his potential clear through three big-league seasons, but the pressure is about to ramp up significantly as he heads into the first year of a contract so hefty it changed the complexion of the market league-wide. All eyes will be on whether the young centre can navigate those expectations and live up to the new price tag as he begins this next chapter.
Last Year: Unranked
It’s been clear since his first appearances in the big leagues that Caufield is a special talent. But last season saw the young sniper showcase the full weight of his potential, potting a career-best 51 goals and 88 points for the young, upstart Canadiens. The 25-year-old finished just two goals shy of his first Rocket Richard Trophy. He also proved he’s world-class at fluttering the twine when it’s needed most, pacing the rest of the league in overtime goals (five) and game-winning goals (12). It’s no surprise — over the past three seasons, no one’s amassed more game winners than Caufield’s 27. Now, the Habs head into 2026-27 flirting with contender status, due in no small part to the evolution of their star winger.
Last Year: No. 32
The second member of the Senators among this crop of NHL elites, Stutzle is no doubt the other talisman upon whose shoulders the Sens’ fate rests. It took only a handful of seasons for the young centreman to show the league just how dominant he can be, Stutzle putting together a breakout 90-point effort back in 2022-23 as a 21-year-old. Then came two disappointing seasons, and a dip in production, until last year. The 2025-26 campaign saw the 24-year-old flourish once more, collecting 34 goals and 83 points for the Sens. With a new potential linemate in William Eklund, and a different look to the club’s attack with Tkachuk moving on, another season of progress and production from Stutzle will be essential.
Check back Wednesday for Nos. 30-21.
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