It is no surprise that Montreal Canadiens' Nick Suzuki is in the Top 10 of the NHL Network's list of the Top 20 centers right now in the NHL for the 2026-27 season. However, what was surprising was that he was only ninth, especially after coming off a season where he had 101 points and won the Selke Trophy.
There are certainly some excellent players currently in the league at the position, and it warranted a look to see who might have been ahead of him. Connor McDavid was number one, Nathan MacKinnon was second, and Macklin Celebrini was number three after his breakout season.
After that is when the debate really begins with Aleksander Barkov, at number five, who missed the entire last season due to injury. Sidney Crosby is one of the all-time greats, but at this point in his career, it is tough to argue that he is better than Suzuki. However, the biggest surprise was Auston Matthews one spot ahead of Nick Suzuki.
If these rankings are supposed to reflect the best players right now, then it is not much of a debate between Auston Matthews and Nick Suzuki. For the Canadiens center, he is coming off a season with a career high in points, but even going back two seasons has averaged 1.15 points per game.
For Matthews, he has been over a point-per-game player and is within range of Suzuki at 1.03. However, the difference is that Suzuki has not missed a game during that stretch, while Matthews has missed 37 games.
Nick Suzuki owns one clear advantage over Auston Matthews that doesn't really even make it a debate
The best ability a player can have is availability, and that is something that Suzuki has that is almost unmatched in the NHL. Nick Suzuki is currently second in the league in most consecutive games played at 537 while Matthews has never played a full 82-game season.
In terms of the resume for the entire career, Matthews certainly has more achievements as he has led the league in scoring three times, has had two seasons with 100 or more points, and won the Hart Trophy once.
However, none of those achievements have happened in the past two seasons, and it raises the question of whether Matthews is better than Suzuki right now. It is hard to make that case, as Suzuki is a player on the rise while Matthews has seen his production dip.
On top of that, Suzuki and the Canadiens accomplished something that Matthews has yet to, and that is reach the Eastern Conference Final.
When talking about these two players, the argument for Matthews usually begins with "He is one of the best centers, when healthy." However, for Suzuki, the argument starts with "He was one of the best players last season." If that is how the beginning of the case for each player starts, it isn't a debate about who is the better player right now.
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