NHL 17 player ratings miss the mark, again

Breaking Down NHL 17’s top 50 players and who stands out as the biggest hits and misses when it comes to their rating.

For NHL 17, like previous installments of the EA Sports series, the player ratings are far from spot on. Don’t get me wrong, even a casual hockey fan could argue that EA’s NHL franchise is the best when it comes to sports gaming.

EA goes through extreme measures to capture the speed and intensity of hockey, as well as the minuscule nuances of today’s game and its players. It’s just that when one player is unquestionably better than another one in terms of stats, ability, achievements etc. and they are rated a lot lower it’s a bit silly.

As someone who covers the Blackhawks, two crimes against Chicago, and humanity, stood out to me with NHL 17’s top 50 rated players.

Corey Crawford – NHL 17 rank 45: Crawford finished the 2015–2016 season tied for fourth in save percentage with .924. He also tallied 35 wins and lead the league in shutouts (7). His goals against average was a less than stellar 2.37, but take into account it was a disappointing year for Chicago’s defense.

Seeing as how wins and goals against averages are considered more of a team stat when it comes to goaltenders, save percentage is the one to go by. Shutouts aren’t too easy to come by either, and the same can be said for an All-Star selection, two Stanley Cup rings and a 2016 World Cup roster spot.

Goalies ranked higher than Crawford who shouldn’t have been:

Pekka Rinne – No. 32 (.908 sv%, 34 wins, 2.48 GAA, 4 shutouts) — It was absurd enough that he made the All-Stars (in Nashville…) with the poor season he had, but to be ahead of Crawford in any kind of contest is straight foolishness. He beat him in virtually every goaltending stat imaginable.

Corey Schneider – No. 29 (.924 sv%, 27 wins, 2.15 GAA, 4 shutouts) — If you want to give Schneider the edge fine, he had a good season, but not 16 spots ahead.

Jonathan Quick – No. 16 (.918 sv%, 40 wins, 2.22 GAA, 5 shutouts) — He shouldn’t even be ahead of Schneider by last season’s numbers.

Another issue with goaltending ratings was Carey Price (No. 9) receiving the highest rating of any goalie and he played just 12 games during 2015–2016 season (.934 sv%, 10 wins, 2.06 GAA, 2 shutouts). He had a phenomenal start but come on, way too small a sample size.

EA’s NHL team might retort that they have their own stats for goalies. Ones like “reflexes,” “athletic” and “puck Control.” Which is fine, and of course gameplay is going to be different than the actual sport, but the hierarchy should be incredibly similar, no?

More issues:

There were some inconsistencies with forwards as well. The biggest being Hawks’ winger and Calder Trophy winner Artemi Panarin, who finished the season in the top 10 for points (77), didn’t even make the game’s top 50 players.

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos only notched 64 points last season and registered a +/- rating of +3, but sits at No. 8. Stamkos is rated higher than John Tavares (No. 13 70 points, +6), Vladimir Tarasenko (No. 11, 74 points, +7) and Anze Kopitar (No. 10, 74 points, +34).

Just like goaltending, the NHL franchise has their own stat/rating system for forwards with categories like “senses,” “physical” and “puck skills.”

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The defense wasn’t as big an abomination with Kings defenseman Drew Doughty deserving the top D spot at #4 overall.

The player ratings for NHL 17 and the franchise missed a little more than they hit once again, but you can bet EA did plenty to improve the gameplay, as they always do.