Flyers captain Claude Giroux just keeps finding himself on lists these days.
Top hockey Dads, top hockey heartthrobs, top NHL wingers, and now: Top 50 NHL players right now.
That’s right, the NHL Network’s list game has been strong this summer and they’ve got Giroux sitting at No. 32 in their latest rankings of their top NHL players right now. Again that’s right now and not in the past or the future, so not bad considering the Flyers’ captain has been one of the most productive point producers since entering the league in 2008-09 with the seventh-most points (762) during that span.
The exercise features NHL Network’s Jamison Coyle, nine-year NHL veteran Brian Lawton and guy who scored two goals in a Winter Classic against the Flyers ranking the players as they stand currently with heavy emphasis on the 2018-19 season. That was one in which Giroux turned in 85 points in 82 games for the Flyers, a year after registering his first 30-goal campaign in his age-30 season.
Mike Rupp singled the change to wing as credit for Giroux’s recent surge, saying “I love the adjustment [that] players make in their career, because Claude Giroux has been one of the best players our game has seen over the last 10-plus years. When you look at him, he’s had to make a little bit of an adjustment – the team does – they move him to wing. …Now you’ve got this guy racking up points once again for the Philadelphia Flyers.”
Giroux finds himself among some pretty good company, one slot below Columbus’ Seth Jones and one spot ahead of Dallas’ Ben Bishop. He’s also several spots ahead of the Caps’ Nicklas Backstrom, one of the only six men to have more points than Giroux since he entered the league. Also of note behind Giroux are some dynamic young talents like Vladimir Tarasenko of the Stanley Cup champion Blues, former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall of the Devils, and a handful of stalwarts on defense like Drew Doughty, John Carlson, and Roman Josi.
While Giroux is (likely) the second to last player to be ranked —we all know Carter Hart should be No. 1 on this thing— tune in to get the top 30 players with 30-21 airing on September 15th and 7:30pm; 20-11 on September 22nd at 4pm, and 10-1 on September 29th at 6pm.
Checkout NHL.com/TopPlayers for more, and use the hashtag #NHLTopPlayers on NHL Network’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages to discuss each countdown episode because who doesn’t love arguing about these lists, right?
