[Swayze11]

I was just curious as to what people thought a #1 centre actually is. I was trying to come up with a concrete definition but really struggled.

- Is it the top 30 centres in the league?
- Does defensive awareness matter?
- Does being over 50% in faceoffs matter?
- Does being a playoff team matter?

There are some teams that are stacked at centre, does that make their #2 centre a #1 center in the league?
- Malkin, J.Staal, Kesler, M.Richards, Krejci, Zetterberg, Couture, Pavelski.

Then there are questionable #1 centres who are #1 centres on their team, but does that classify them as a #1 centre?
- Stasny, Hodgson, Dubinsky, Plekanec, Zajac, Bozak, Little

Then I go to the question of having to be defensive aware in order to be classified as a #1. Where does that leave guys like:
- Backstrom, H.Sedin, Nugent-Hopkins, B.Richards, Spezza, Ribero.

Here is who I felt is my definition of a #1 centre:

26 total
Getzlaf Krejci Bergeron E.Staal J.Staal Toews Duchene Seguin Datsyuk Zetterberg Nugent-Hopkins Kopitar M.Richards Koivu Tavares B.Richards Spezza Giroux Lecavalier Ribero Crosby Malkin Thornton Backes Stamkos H.Sedin Kesler Backstrom
and here are my questionable ones:

13 total
Hodgson Stastny O'Reilly Dubinsky Plekanec Zajac Henrique Stepan Turris Couture Pavelski Bozak Little
I define a #1 center as a guy who would be the #1 centre on an average to above average team (lets say the 8th place team in each conference). Defensive awareness is part of this, but if they make up their defense for offense (Spezza, Backstrom, Nugent-Hopkins, etc.) then the defensive aspect does not carry as much weight. Faceoff's does not carry a lot of weight for me, it is a key part of playing centre, but I feel you can make up for that in other ways.