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Chicago Blackhawks ‘NHL 17’ player ratings

The Chicago Blackhawks are looking pretty good in real life, but there are more important matters to handle right now. Namely, “NHL 17” is now out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which means hockey fans are diving into the latest edition of EA Sports’ wacky physics simulator.

The Hawks should once again be fun to play with in the game, which I recently discussed here. If you want the summary: “NHL 17” is pretty good, but single player modes feel like they get the short straw a bit. Still, as someone who loves hockey, I’ll be playing the game a lot over the coming year.

With all of that in mind, here’s a look at the Blackhawks’ player ratings in “NHL 17,” as well as their potential ratings for franchise mode. There are definitely some ratings that I disagree with, which isn’t surprising considering EA reportedly uses just a single scout to determine those numbers. But if they want to still consider Brent Seabrook and Marian Hossa as two of the best players in the league, fine, I’ll take it.

It’s also worth noting that the developers are forced to wait to add rookies to the game until they’ve actually appeared in the NHL due to a quirk in their agreement with the NHLPA. So we’ll have to wait on ratings for Nick Schmaltz, Tyler Motte, Michal Kempny and more, which obviously makes this situation look a bit more dire than it’ll be soon.

Centers

Player Overall Potential Probability
Jonathan Toews 94 Elite Exact
Artem Anisimov 85 Top 6 F Exact
Mark McNeill 81 Top 9 F Medium
Andrew Desjardins 80 Bottom 6 F Exact
Marcus Kruger 80 Top 9 F Low
Dennis Rasmussen 80 Bottom 6 F Medium
Sam Carrick 77 Bottom 6 F Medium

Most of this makes sense, but I think you can already see where the rating system has trouble in bunching up lower-tier players. McNeill, Desjardins, Kruger and Rasmussen almost certainly should have wider variance than that. Kruger only gets 3.5 out of 5 stars on defense, which makes no damn sense. His puck skills are higher than his defense! You don’t need a professional scout to tell you that’s whack.

Left wingers

Player Overall Potential Probability
Artemi Panarin 86 Elite Medium
Brandon Mashinter 75 AHL Top 6 F Exact
Pierre-Cedric Labrie 73 AHL Top 6 F Exact
Kyle Baun 70 AHL Top 6 F Medium

Artemi Panarin!!! And uhhhhhhhhhhhh … yeah the developers really need to add those rookie forwards soon.

Right wingers

Player Overall Potential Probability
Patrick Kane 94 Franchise Exact
Marian Hossa 88 Top 6 F Exact
Jordin Tootoo 81 Bottom 6 F Exact
Richard Panik 80 Top 9 F Medium
Ryan Hartman 79 Top 9 F Medium
Vincent Hinostroza 76 Top 9 F Medium

Okay, so now I have another question. Why is Kane’s potential rated as “franchise” while Toews is rated as “elite” even though they’re both 94s? Seriously someone explain this stuff to me because it seems like nobody in EA really thought too hard about this. Also, I’m pretty sure Vincent Hinostroza is way better than Jordin Tootoo, but that’s just me.

Defensemen

Player Overall Potential Probability
Duncan Keith 94 Elite Exact
Brent Seabrook 90 Elite Exact
Niklas Hjalmarsson 88 Top 4 D Exact
Brian Campbell 84 Top 4 D Exact
Michal Rozsival 82 7th D Exact
Trevor van Riemsdyk 81 Top 6 D Medium
Ville Pokka 81 Top 4 D Medium
Erik Gustafsson 80 Top 6 D Low
Viktor Svedberg 78 7th D High

Brent Seabrook is considered significantly more valuable in trades than Keith even though the latter has a higher rating and a lower salary. Any explanation there? Why is Rozsival considered a 7th D with an 82 rating? I don’t mean to harp on this stuff, but, well, I kind of do. The Blackhawks’ defense should be very, very good in this game, though.

Goaltenders

Player Overall Potential Probability
Corey Crawford 90 Elite Exact
Scott Darling 80 Fringe Starter Exact
Mac Carruth 66 AHL Starter Medium

Corey Crawford: Elite. Take that, haters.

Talking Points