The 2023-24 All-Underrated Team

Credit: Filip Hronek (© Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports)

What does it mean to be underrated in hockey today?

Let’s take the players’ definition of underrated and toss it out the window, for starters. Sorry, but Selke and Lady Byng Trophy winner and Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov is not underrated. He’s very much “rated” for his all-around talents these days despite the fact the NHL Players’ Association poll gave him the underrated title last season.

To me, if you’re underrated, it means you’re doing something at a high level without often being acknowledged for it. It could be the result of (a) playing in the shadow of superstar talent(s); (b) excelling at the less glamorous aspects of the game; (c) playing in an obscure market; or some combination of the three.

With those criteria in mind, I present to you the 2023-24 Daily Faceoff All-Underrated Team.

ALL-UNDERRATED FIRST TEAM

Left wing: Jesper Bratt, New Jersey Devils

Bratt is playing more on the right side these days, but he’s played plenty of left wing in his career as well, so I’ll pseudo-cheat and place him here. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Bratt sits 34^th in league scoring, ahead of bigger names Brady Tkachuk, Clayton Keller, Alex DeBrincat and Sebastian Aho, among others. In 5-on-5 play over that span, among 490 forwards who have logged 500 or more minutes, Bratt sits 24^th in points per 60 minutes, ahead of names like Sidney Crosby and Leon Draisaitl (!), placing in the 95^th percentile. Yet Bratt, now in his seventh NHL season, has never sniffed a major individual award or even played in an All-Star Game. That should change this season with him posting some eye-popping numbers playing in New Jersey’s loaded top six, already with 14 points through eight games. Bratt does so many different things well offensively, from passing to shooting with accuracy.

Center: Noah Cates, Philadelphia Flyers

Am I gaming the system a bit including a sophomore NHLer on this list? Cates hasn’t been around long enough to be underrated, has he? Maybe, but it felt like everything to do with the Flyers carried an odor last year, to the point Cates’ tremendous rookie season was overlooked. He was legitimately Selke Trophy caliber as a shutdown specialist forward handling difficult matchups as a rookie. The Flyers have a +5 goal differential with him on the ice since the start of last season. Without Cates on the ice: -31. He has been a dominant play driver early this season. The only thing missing from his Selke profile is faceoff ability. He sits at a woeful 39.6 percent through 107 career games. Maybe teammate and former Selke Trophy winner Sean Couturier can run a little clinic?

Right wing: Sam Reinhart, Florida Panthers

Reinhart’s offense doesn’t really sneak up on anyone. He has scored between 22 and 31 goals in six consecutive seasons, and he’s buried eight in his first eight games this season. Hello, contract year. What makes Reinhart underrated: he has quietly matured into an elite defensive forward, something that hasn’t been acknowledged beyond a grand total of one fourth-place vote and two fifth-place votes for the Selke his entire career. Last season, Daily Faceoff’s own Scott Maxwell created alternate-universe NHL Award winners based on analytics, and Reinhart won the Selke on account of having the best goals above replacement of all NHL forwards. He can score, he can defend, and he’s usable anywhere in a team’s top nine.

Defense: Jake Walman, Detroit Red Wings

Remember how broken Moritz Seider appeared to be early last season when paired with the anchor known as Ben Chiarot? The turnaround was almost instantaneous when Walman joined up with Seider on Detroit’s top pair. They’ve been inseparable ever since. As a duo since the start of last season, the have a 51.42 percent expected goals rate at 5-on-5. No other Red Wings duo is better than 45 percent over that span. Walman over that period is also fifth among all NHL blueliners in goals per 60 and 11^th in shots blocked per 60 at 5-on-5. This guy can play.

Defense: Filip Hronek, Vancouver Canucks

On one hand, the Canucks rated Hronek highly enough to cash in a first-round pick (acquired from the Islanders weeks earlier) to land Hronek last winter. On the other hand, the Wings deemed him expendable in the middle of their rebuild, which points to Hronek not being properly rated. Not only does he quietly average 42 points per 82 games in his career to date, but his excellent two-way acumen as a puck mover has helped him form a dominant pair with Quinn Hughes early this season, with the Canucks amassing more than 56 percent of the scoring chances when the two of them are out there together. Hughes has endured a revolving door of partners early in his promising career, but it feels like he finally has a truly great fit on his right side with Hronek.

Goaltender: Alexandar Georgiev, Colorado Avalanche

Can we call a guy underrated when he finishes seventh in the Vezina Trophy vote? We can when he was far better than the seventh-best goalie last season. Georgiev tied for the league lead in wins with 40 and had five shutouts. He ranked fourth among all puck-stoppers in goals saved above average per 60 at 5-on-5. He graded out as a truly elite goaltender in what was his first season as a No. 1 or even a 1A; he started 62 games last season when his previous career high was 32. There’s a perception that the Avs only need a competent netminder to succeed because they have so many superstar skaters – see Kuemper, Darcy – but Georgiev has been one of the best goalies on the planet since Colorado acquired him.

All-UNDERRATED SECOND TEAM

LW: Chandler Stephenson, Golden Knights
C: Tommy Novak, Predators
RW: Jesper Fast, Hurricanes
D: John Marino, Devils
D: Mikey Anderson, Kings
G: Karel Vejmelka, Coyotes

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