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NHL 23 Top 10 Left Wings revealed: Did Alex Ovechkin get snubbed?

By Frank Mueller

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 13: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates against the Florida Panthers in Game Six of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Capital One Arena on May 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 13: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates against the Florida Panthers in Game Six of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Capital One Arena on May 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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NHL 23 is going to be jammed pack with new features and mechanics and it really has the community talking about this year’s game. With less than a month to go, EA Sports has started to reveal the player ratings in this year’s game.

Player ratings are such a big deal in the sports video game industry because it not only represents which players are some of the best in the world, but it also gives us a good sense as to which players are going to be best to play with in the actual video game.

For example, if you take a look at how EA Sports treats their Madden 99 Club, they take it very seriously. They reward their 99 Club Members with a special box of goods and make a big deal with their announcements of it.

While the NHL video game franchise doesn’t partake in the 99 Club, they do participate in rating reveals and that is slowly what has begun taking place over on their Twitter. EA Sports has started revealing top ten ratings for various player positions in the game starting with both the right wing and left wing players.

Last month, I started predicting which five left wingers in the NHL would be the five highest overall in NHL 23. While I did a pretty good job at predicting the five players who would be in the top five, the order of the rankings may really come as a surprise to a lot of people.

My NHL 23 top five left winger predictions from last month

  1. Alex Ovechkin: (93 Overall)
  2. Jonathan Huberdeau: (91 Overall)
  3. Artemi Panarin: (91 Overall)
  4. Brad Marchand: (90 Overall)
  5. Matthew Tkachuk: (90 Overall)
  • Honorable Mention: Kirill Kaprizov: (90 Overall)

Official NHL 23 top ten left winger ratings

  1. Jonathan Huberdeau: (92 Overall)
  2. Artemi Panarin: (92 Overall)
  3. Alex Ovechkin: (92 Overall)
  4. Brad Marchand: (91 Overall)
  5. Kirill Kaprizov: (91 Overall)
  6. Johnny Gaudreau: (90 Overall)
  7. Matthew Tkachuk: (90 Overall)
  8. Kyle Connor: (90 Overall)
  9. Gabriel Landeskog: (89 Overall)
  10. Filip Forsberg: (89 Overall)

I think one of the biggest shocks this year is that Alex Ovechkin is not the top rated overall left winger in NHL 23. In fact, Alex Ovechkin is not even number two, but rather the third highest ranked left winger in the game. While Ovechkin is still tied for the highest overall at a 92 overall with Huberdeau and Panarin, they get the tie breaker due to other various individual stats.

I think a lot of gamers in the NHL community thought Alex Ovechkin would have been in that top spot, but we are truly moving into a new era and generation in the NHL. Both Jonathan Huberdeau (30 goals, 85 assists) and Johnny Gaudreau (40 goals, 75 assists) lead all left wingers in points with both of them having 115 points. The only difference was that Johnny Gaudreau had ten more goals and Huberdeau had 10 more assists. The funny thing to come out of the whole situation is that they were both traded for one another this past offseason and now play for each other’s former teams. With that being said, it comes as no surprise that Gaudreau is a 90 overall player and cracked the top ten list.

Jonathan Huberdeau, Artemi Panarin, and Alex Ovechkin are not only some of the best left wings in the NHL, but they are some of the best overall players in the NHL. Not only do these guys pick up a ton of points throughout the year, but they also have the ability to make everyone around them better as well. That is why you see these three players tied with a 92 overall. Jonathan Huberdeau and Artemi Panarin are also a lot younger than Ovechkin which also gives them the slight edge as well.

However, at the end of the day we all know what Alex Ovechkin is capable of as he is going to walk straight into the Hall of Fame at the end of his career. Three tremendous athletes atop of this list.

One of the other nice surprises to this list is seeing Kirill Kaprizov not only crack the top ten but make it into the top five with a 91 overall. Last year was only Kapriozv’s second year in the NHL and he managed to go off the charts with 108 points (47 goals, 61 assists). Given how young Kirill Kaprizov is, I included him as an honorable mention with my predictions. Even though he scored 108 points, I didn’t know if EA Sports would grant him top five status just based off of not having a ton of experience in the NHL. He was for sure a top ten left winger coming into NHL 23, but EA Sports decided that top five sounded even better.

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As far as everyone else who made the top ten left winger list, I think EA Sports got it right with the correct ten players. There is a ton of talent at the left wing position and I know that making this list doesn’t come easily. However, the great part is that as a player of NHL 23, you will be able to use all of these players and really get an opportunity to see how good these athletes really are. NHL 23 is less than a month away from being released and EA Sports still has a handful of player ratings that they plan on releasing this week.

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