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Top 100 NHLers 2025
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
FROM JAPAN TO THE HEARTLAND
DURING THE 1998 WINTER Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Yuki Miura was in attendance with his family at Aqua Wing Arena to watch his father, Takayuki Miura, play for the Japanese team. Yuki, however, has no recollection of it. The versatile Iowa Heartlanders center was a toddler when Takayuki, a defenseman, played in Nagano. He couldn’t have known that day would be the beginning of a journey that would lead to him becoming the first Japanese-born captain of an ECHL team. Japan is hardly a hockey hotbed. The national team’s highest finish in the Olympics was eighth at the 1960 Winter Games. They placed 13th when Takayuki played in Nagano. As a kid in Higashiyamato, a town on the outskirts of Tokyo, Miura lived within walking distance of a hockey rink. He participated in…
THE EIGHT GREATEST
IF YOU’VE NEVER ACTUALLY scored a goal in a real hockey game, we send our sincere condolences. Whether you’re holding your electrical-taped straight stick in the air at the Rosemarie Playground outdoor rink feeling like happiest person on Earth after scoring your first goal in Atom ‘B’ house league, or you’re doing a belly dive at the UBS Arena after your 895th in the best league in the world, there is no sensation that matches it. Cale Makar raises his eyebrows higher than his stick when he scores, but you can bet he’s feeling it. Cole Caufield, who reacts to every goal like it’s the last one he’ll ever get? Same for him. The day was June 12, 2008. The best players in the world and their families were assembled in…
TOP 100 NHL PLAYERS: 43-46
43 JACCOB SLAVIN POS: D AGE: 31 > If there was anyone who wasn’t aware of how good Lady Byng winner Slavin is, those questions were answered with his performance at the 4 Nations Face-Off, where he was Team USA’s best defenseman. Forget about being among the best defensive rearguards, he’s right near the top of the defenseman list, period. 44 ARTEMI PANARIN POS: LW AGE: 33 > Last season, Panarin was the best player on the best regular-season team in the NHL. This season was been much more of a struggle, but Panarin continued to produce. Usual linemates Alexis Lafreniere and Vincent Trocheck should be sending him gold-plated Christmas cards every year for the rest of their lives. 45 MORITZ SEIDER POS: D AGE: 24 > His offensive numbers drove his 2021-22 Calder Trophy win, but Seider…
GO NORTH, YOUNG MEN
IN RECENT YEARS, THE Yukon has produced some elite hockey talent for a northern territory with fewer than 50,000 people. In 2019, Dylan Cozens became the first player from the Yukon to be drafted in the first round when he was taken seventh overall by the Buffalo Sabres. And after putting up 129 points this year with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers, Gavin McKenna looks like a lock to go even higher when it’s his turn in 2026. McKenna’s ascension, in particular, made this the perfect time for the WHL to stage a pair of pre-season games in Whitehorse next fall. On Sept. 12-13, the Tigers will face off against the Kelowna Rockets, who are heading into a big year themselves as hosts of the 2026 Memorial Cup. Scott Kent, who serves in…
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