Sporsnet has recently undertaken a project where they rank the top 100 players in the league for 2018/2019. This is obvious clickbait, though I don’t mean it in the negative sense. It’s the chance to have a pointless yet fun debate about hockey, and honestly, that’s basically what August is for.
The list for ranks 100 - 51 is here, and some Leafs make the list. We figured it’d be good to discuss them, as well as where we would have put them. It’s worth noting that while we will disagree with this list, ranking players consistently and smartly is a pretty much impossible task for humans (which is part of the utility of GAR models as a systemic ranker).