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

NHL 25 ratings were released by EA Sports earlier this week and as expected, several of the Avalanche’s stars are near 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 exactly where he should be — all by himself in second place behind Connor McDavid. The Edmonton Oilers superstar has a 97 rating, which is one better than MacKinnon’s 96. The third finalist for the Hart Trophy, Nikita Kucherov, is among seven others tied for the third-highest rating at 95.

In fact, another one of those is Avalanche superstar defenseman Cale Makar, who holds the crown as the highest-rated defenseman in the video game (as he should). The others are Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak and Artemi Panarin.

Mikko Rantanen is not too far behind, tied for 12th highest with a 93 overall.

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

Putting the suspension and NHLPA Assistance Program stuff aside, I think it’s outrageous to have Nichushkin that low. I’d argue he belongs in the 90s given the fact that he’s among the best two-way forwards in the game. I truly believe a healthy (physically and mentally) Nichushkin is a top-10 winger in the world. And I might even argue to rank him higher than that.

He’s not going to reach the mark this year, but if a prime Nichushkin ever plays 80-plus games on this team, I bet he’d crack 45 goals and 45 assists, easily, while being a 200-foot, two-way machine.

But anyway, back to the ratings. Josh Manson, Gabriel Landeskog, Alexandar Georgiev and Samuel Girard are up next at 85 overall, followed by Ross Colton and Jonathan Drouin at 84. Those are all the names Colorado has among the top 300. I wonder where Artturi Lehkonen is on this list?

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Around The NHL

Buffalo Hockey Now: I’ll always have a special place in my heart for members of the 2022 Stanley Cup Championship team. So, I’ll try to plug those guys into this part of my Daily whenever I get a chance. Yesterday was J.T. Compher, today it’s Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Jason Moser out in Buffalo wrote about the Sabres’ new fourth line, and how Beck Malenstyn, Sam Lafferty and Aube-Kubel match up against other teams.

Aube-Kubel was a delightful guy to cover and a key piece 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 walk because of the dollars and term they were worth on the open market. But Aube-Kubel ended up signing a one-year, $1 million contract with Toronto. Surely the Avalanche could’ve made that work instead of relying on guys like Anton Blidh and Lukas Sedlak, right?

Detroit Hockey Now: The Red Wings have a long history of acquiring former Blackhawks greats. In my lifetime, the Chris Chelios acquisition was quite the hit for Hockeytown. After trading for goal-scorer Alex DeBrincat last summer, and later adding future Hall-of-Famer Patrick Kane, the Red Wings added another former Blackhawk this offseason.

He’s not quite a superstar or a “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. One of our best here at the NHN Network, Bob Duff, wrote about how the Red Wings are hoping to rekindle the chemistry that the trio of DeBrincat, Kane and Gustafsson had on the power play six years ago. 

San Jose Hockey Now: Exciting times are ahead for the San Jose Sharks. They probably won’t contend for the playoffs this year, or even next year for that matter. But Will Smith and this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick Macklyn Celebrini are certainly going to inject new life into the organization in 2024-25. Celebrini was on the receiving end of high praise from Stanley Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy, who compared him to Sidney Crosby after his preseason debut.