You Are The Worse Coach I Ever Met’Star Player Disparaging The Detroit Red Wings Head Coach Derek Lalonde….

There’s a new No. 1 winger in the NHL, according to our panel of 10 players and 10 executives.

Meanwhile, one of the greatest players of all time has seen his support finally dry up.

Welcome to the next set of results from the 2024 NHL Positional Rankings, a unique way to determine the best of the best. Some surveys ask players for their rankings. Others poll executives. The NHL Positional Rankings combine both opinions into one definitive ranking that blends on-ice savvy with boardroom thinking.

For this list we’ve combined left and right wingers into one category — a crowded field that should be kept in mind when considering “snubs.” We adhere to the NHL definitions of a player’s position for the purposes of this ranking.

Here’s how it worked: Surveys were conducted over the past month. Respondents were asked to rank their current top 10 players at center, winger, defenseman and goaltender based on a predetermined list of the top 30-40 players at each position. Players ranked on each ballot were given a numerical score — No. 1 earned 10 points, No. 2 got 9 points and so on.

Ten NHL players were surveyed — four from the Eastern Conference, six from the Western Conference. They range from NHL award nominees to veteran role players. To balance that perspective, we surveyed 10 people from the hockey operations departments of NHL teams — six from the East, four from the West — including two coaches and three general managers.

Combined, their insights led to rankings that go behind fan conjecture and media narratives to reveal the best of the best according to those inside the NHL.

Stats are collected from sites such as Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Reference and Evolving Hockey.

It has been a steady climb to the top of these rankings for Kucherov. He was third in 2021. He was second last season. Now, the Lightning star hits the top of the charts during another MVP-worthy campaign.

Through 55 games, Kucherov led the NHL with 94 points, tallying 36 goals and 58 assists. He scored 40 of those points on the power play, including 12 goals. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Kucherov is third in points per game (1.50), just a fraction behind Nathan MacKinnon for second (1.51).

“He’s just brilliant,” head coach Jon Cooper told the Tampa Bay Times. “His mind for the game, there are guys that think it better than others. He thinks better than everybody. And then when you mix in his compete level, you’ve got a pretty darn good player.”

Kucherov won his only Hart Trophy in 2018-19, along with the NHLPA player of the year award and the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s top point scorer. He’s at the same points-per-game pace (4.7) this season; could he duplicate the hardware haul, too?

Kucherov appeared on every ballot cast and was first overall on 15 of the 20 ballots. Nine of the 10 players we surveyed had him first. One Western Conference forward had him second.

Kucherov’s ascent than anything deficient in Pastrnak’s game. He’s having one of his finest seasons.

The man they call “Pasta” has 34 goals in 55 games along with 45 assists. He had 113 points last season to establish a career best. He’s slightly ahead of that pace on a points per 60 minutes basis for Boston.

He’s an offensive engine who isn’t reliant on a center to get his game going. Pastrnak has led the league in both power-play goals and even-strength goals during his 10-year NHL career. The last two seasons have seen him up his shot output under head coach Jim Montgomery, leading the NHL with 407 shots on goal in 2022-23.

Pastrnak was the second-place choice on nine ballots and the first choice for one general manager. He and Kucherov were the only two wingers to appear on every ballot.

“I think Kucherov first and Pastrnak right behind him is an entirely defensible choice for top two wingers,” one NHL executive concluded.

After a disappointing postseason by his standards, Panarin vowed to return in 2023-24 with renewed focus. That’s manifested in an outstanding offensive season for the Rangers, with 71 points in 54 games. That includes 31 goals, just one tally off his career high.

He’s a brilliant playmaker, especially on the power play. Since 2021-22, only three forwards have more assists than Panarin (177): Connor McDavid, Kucherov and MacKinnon.

The Rangers winger appeared on 18 of 20 ballots, having been left off by one general manager and an Eastern Conference executive. He was second overall on four ballots: One general manager and three players.

“I thought he had taken a step back in the past,” one NHL executive said, before citing Panarin’s improved 5-on-5 scoring numbers for the Rangers this season.

It’s not that Rantanen needed a signature season. He was already a top-5 winger in the eyes of our panelists last season. But his 105-point campaign for the Avalanche in 2022-23, which included a career-best 55 goals, certainly drew a few more voters to his cause, as he moved up a spot in this year’s ranking.

That season also recast Rantanen as someone who could put a team on his back when necessary. MacKinnon missed 11 games, Cale Makar missed 22 games and Gabriel Landeskog missed the season. Rantanen played all 82 games and finished sixth in the Hart Trophy voting.

This season, he scored 70 points in his first 55 games, including 29 goals. Some of his on-ice metrics have gone a little wonky, especially in shot-attempt share relative to his teammates. His individual shot attempts per game at 5-on-5 are down by around two year-over-year. But those are analytic quibbles in the wake of an MVP-worthy season. Rantanen is clearly among the NHL’s best wingers.

Or in the case of one voter — a Western Conference veteran player — simply the best winger, as he had him first overall ahead of Kucherov.

Rantanen was third on three ballots — two Eastern Conference executives and another Western Conference player. Curiously, he was left off of five ballots.