Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Elite = top 10 at your position.
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I disagree with this only because it sets an arbitrary number that suggests there are 10 elite players at every position in the NHL at any given time, and that’s really not true. Elite means a cut above, it means exceptional. At LW (for example) there’s maybe a few (3-5) during any given season that are a cut above, and then another tier, and then a slow drop off.
Elite has a definition, and I don’t see any reason to go beyond the definition of the word when evaluating hockey players. But it also makes it harder to define where a player ranks long term when so few sit at that level consistently.
All that said, it never really matters at the end of the day. A player might have an elite season or three elite seasons in a row, but that doesn’t mean if you acquire that player that’ll they’ll have an elite season for your team. The vast majority of players come in and out of the conversation every 2-3 years. And even most players we would comfortably define as “elite” are so in their prime, and maybe weren’t early in their career, and won’t be near the end.