The best players from the 2022-23 season will be identified in this article. There are two ways to use Stapled To The Bench statistics to define “best players”, and they will both be used. Productivity Rating (PR) will show which players had the best 2021 season, while Value Rating (VR) will show which players had the most value after the 2021 season.
Both PR and VR ratings place players in one of six categories. From best to worst, the categories are Elite, Star, First5, Regular, Fringe, CallUp. This article will focus on the elites in the league.
Productivity Rating – PR-Elite – Best Seasons
The PR-Score calculation is sensitive to goals. Since league scoring was up this season, the number of players in higher categories has gone up.
To clear up something that might be confusing, the list of PR-Elite players was not meant to be a “top 20 players” list. It is a list of all players in the PR-Elite category, and there just happen to be 20. Had Brayden Point (T.B) and Sidney Crosby (PIT) each scored one more goal and added one more assist, there would have been 22 PR-Elite players.
Usually, the quibble with a list like this isn’t who is on it, but with who isn’t on it. As just noted, Point and Crosby were very close to the PR-Elite category. Sergachev (T.B), Hischier (N.J), Kucherov (T.B) and Burns (CAR) were quite close as well. Had Matthews (TOR) not missed eight games, he would have been PR-Elite. Had Cale Makar only missed 10 games instead of 22, he would have been PR-Elite.
There is some team-level clustering of elites: Colorado has three PR-Elites, Edmonton has three, and the long-eliminated-from-the-playoffs Vancouver Canucks have three. The Canucks prove that you need more than top-end talent to be a successful team.
Dallas, the New York Rangers and Ottawa each have two PR-Elites. Ottawa has both the youngest PR-Elite (Stutzle) and the oldest (Giroux).
Boston, the best team in the league since Howie Morenz was playing, had only one PR-Elite player (David Pastrnak). They also have two PR-Star players and six PR-First5 players, giving them nine players who are “first five” or better.
Value Rating – VR-Elite – Best Players
The scoring orgy impact on VR will take a little more time before there is a noticeable increase in VR-Elite players. If the scoring next season is like the scoring this season, there will be close to twenty VR-Elite players in 2023-24.
There is team-level clustering here, as well: two Oilers, two Maple Leafs, four Avalanches. I may not have mentioned it before, but depth of talent helps make a successful team.
For more information regarding PR and or VR please see: