Very Sad News: The best in hockey [Ethan] has bein announced death by accident this morning on his way to……………………

If there’s something we love to do here at Bleacher Report, it’s rank things. Players, teams, jerseys, logos…you name it, we want to rank something No. 1 and contribute to as many arguments online and in sports bars as possible. That’s why today we’re going for the gusto–we’re ranking out the top 25 players in the NHL for this season.

“But Joe, how in the heck are you going to do that?! We’re barely a tenth of the way into the season!”

We’ve got a method to our madness, and that’s why the players’ established history will play a major role in how we do this. Just like your favorite players trying to get out of a slump, we’re going to do our best to not overthink this and go to the net.

The other thing we’re not going to do here is break it down by position and potentially leave out top-25 worthy players because they could be behind five other centers or defensemen or wingers.

These rankings are about being the best, period, and the ultimate say-so on this is whether you’d want this player on your team no matter what. If there was no salary cap, these are the 25 guys you’d be screaming at your team’s GM to add right away. Disagree with this? Meet us in the comments.

Hintz has gone from being a steady contributor in the middle of the lineup to a first-line force over the past couple of seasons (147 points with 74 goals the past two seasons combined), but his consistency and dominance up the middle have made him an irreplaceable fixture for the Stars.

24. Brayden Point, Center, Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning have been one of the most dominant teams in the NHL over the past five years, and a major reason they’ve been able to do that is the playmaking of Point. Since he entered the NHL during the 2016-2017 season, he’s put up nearly 500 points and helped lead Tampa Bay to two consecutive Stanley Cup victories and three straight Cup Finals.