The next Malkin: Who will go down as this generation’s most underrated player?
This week has been all about celebrating Pittsburgh Penguins legends Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, with Crosby collecting his 1,600th point and Malkin notching his 500th goal after reaching 800 assists and 1,300 points last week. The Crosby discourse is usually about whether to rank him as a top-five player ever. The Malkin discourse typically focuses on how underrated he is, infamously left off the NHL’s top 100 player list in 2017 after he’d already won a Hart Trophy, two Art Ross Trophies, Calder Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy and multiple Stanley Cups.
If Malkin is his generation’s most underrated player: who will take his torch someday? Which current UNDER-30 NHLer will we look back on years from now as the most underrated of his era?
Over to you, Roundtable.
MATT LARKIN: It’s nearly impossible to find a Malkin comparable since he has been recognized with lots of individual awards. But I think we’ll look back on Mikko Rantanen someday and say, “He finished his career with how many points?” Among players with 500 or more games, Rantanen sits 34th all-time in points per game, sandwiched between Brett Hull and Alex Ovechkin. The number will come down as Rantanen ages, but the neutral-at-best scoring climate in which he’s played offsets that. Only four NHL players have more points than Rantanen over the past five seasons. In Colorado, he has played in the shadow of all-timers Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, but Rantanen should finish with 500 goals and 1,100 points at minimum.
PAUL PIDUTTI: For me, Boston’s David Pastrnak is already oozing underrated vibes. Regarded as one of the league’s better snipers, the charismatic winger is so much more. Through his age-27 season, his achievements are quietly stunning: a Rocket Richard Trophy at 23 years old; a 61-goal season when he was Hart Trophy runner-up; four 40-goal seasons; three top-five finishes in points. Among active players, only Auston Matthews and Alex Ovechkin have outsniped Pastrnak on a per-game basis. While he’s still seeking a Cup ring, he’s scored at a 36-goal pace in 90 post-season games. In short, he’s a historically significant talent and producer who has yet to be regarded that way. On the defense-first Bruins, it’s Pastrnak that’s driven the bus as a finisher. This ‘Pasta’ is already well beyond a slow boil… he’s “al dente” and will one day be ready to serve in the Hall of Fame. Let’s hope the appreciation eventually catches up to his electric play.
STEVEN ELLIS: Oh boy. This is one of the most difficult ones. I’m going with Dylan Larkin. He’ll never get the same star power that some of his peers have received, but he has managed to register at least 60 points five times in his career thus far. And he has done it in one of the least competitive eras the Detroit Red Wings have participated in over the past 30 years. He’s so quick, smart and dangerous, and I just wonder what numbers he could have put up had he been taken one spot earlier by the Dallas Stars back in 2014. At 28, he still has plenty of years to go, and, hopefully, the club can become competitive again with Larkin leading the charge.
MATT LARKIN: He’ll never be underrated in my household. Never forget that we, the Larkins, own the fastest skater record.
ANTHONY DI MARCO: I’m going a little off the board with a defenseman and picking Miro Heiskanen. Coming out of an era that features future HOF defenders like Victor Hedman, Roman Josi and Erik Karlsson, we’ve entered a new generation of flashy rearguards who ooze offensive talent like Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar. Coupled with guys like Adam Fox and Charlie McAvoy, Heiskanen is consistently forgotten – he has never ONCE been a finalist for the Norris Trophy. A smooth skater who can play both sides and has really ratcheted up his offensive production the last two years, Heiskanen averaged north of 25 mins per game between 2019-20 and 2023-24 – fourth among defensemen during that time. He may not be a forward, but Heiskanen will be remembered as this generation’s most underrated player.
SCOTT MAXWELL: Well, Anthony actually alluded to my pick, as I’m going to go with Charlie McAvoy. Much like Heiskanen, he gets lost in the discussion of best defensemen among this new age of elite defenders, as everyone gets caught up in the flashiness of Makar and Hughes’ play, and then when the conversation shifts to two-way defensemen, it feels like Fox is the only one brought up on a consistent basis. Another similarity McAvoy has with Heiskanen is that he also hasn’t been a finalist for the Norris, and has only finished in the top five in voting twice despite leading all defensemen in goals above expected since his first full season in 2017-18. What hurts his reputation is the fact that he’s never put up high point totals (his career high is 56) and the Bruins have also yet to go on a deep playoff run since Zdeno Chara’s departure saw McAvoy take the mantle as their best defenseman, which is often how two-way defenseman seem to cement their legacy amongst the mainstream hockey fans. At only 26, McAvoy has plenty of time to really establish himself as one of the best in the league, but until then, he continues to be underappreciated, at least compared to Makar, Hughes, Fox and even Heiskanen.
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