Nick Suzuki has already answered the biggest question that followed him into Montreal: yes, he can handle center in the NHL. Now the Canadiens captain is dealing with a different kind of debate - whether the NHL Network gave him enough credit.
On Sunday night, Suzuki came in at No. 9 on the network’s ranking of the league’s top centers. That slot feels a little light after the season he just put together. Suzuki led the Canadiens in scoring with 29-72-101, finished with a team-best plus-37, and won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward.
That Selke win put Suzuki in rare company. At 27, he became only the third player in NHL history to capture the award while also topping 100 points, joining Hall of Famers Sergei Fedorov and Doug Gilmour.
Fedorov won the Selke with the Detroit Red Wings in 1994 with 120 points, then again in 1996 with 107. Gilmour took it with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1993 after piling up 127 points.
The players who finished ahead of Suzuki in the NHL Network’s top 10 were, in order: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Macklin Celebrini, Leon Draisaitl, Aleksander Barkov, Jack Eichel, Sidney Crosby and Auston Matthews. Jack Hughes rounded out the list at No. 10.
The network’s own E.J. Hradek made clear he would have had Suzuki higher.
“He's higher on my list,” Hradek said Sunday night when the top-10 list of centres was released. “The captain of the Montreal Canadiens and he's led that team slowly up the ranks, where they go to the conference final last year.
Plays in every meaningful situation in the game. Up a goal, down a goal, power play, penalty-killing.
He really does everything. Just a terrific, terrific player in all aspects and helps set the table for this really good and talented young Canadiens team that I think has got even better days ahead.”
That kind of praise fits the arc of Suzuki’s career in Montreal. When Marc Bergevin acquired him eight years ago from the Vegas Golden Knights in the Max Pacioretty trade, there were doubts about whether he’d be a center at the NHL level at all. Suzuki had spent the previous junior season with the Owen Sound Attack in the OHL, playing both center and wing and putting up 42-58-100 in 64 games after being selected 13th overall by Vegas in the 2017 NHL Draft.
Suzuki made it clear at the time that he believed the position fit him. “I grew up playing centre my whole life,” Suzuki said during a conference call after the trade, which sent Max Pacioretty to Las Vegas in exchange for Suzuki, Tomas Tatar and a second-round pick at the 2019 NHL Draft that was later dealt to the Los Angeles Kings.
“I only played wing the last couple of years. I'm comfortable with both and it will just be up to the coaches.
“I've always wanted to prove that I can play centre,” the 5-foot-11 Suzuki added. “I know a lot of teams are looking for bigger centres, but I think I can still play the centre position well.
I think it doesn't really matter how tall you are or how big you are. I think I play in the D-zone well as a centre.
It's the most comfortable position for me.”
Seven NHL seasons later, the argument over whether he belongs in the middle is long over. Suzuki has played 537 straight games, never missing one in his NHL career. That’s the second-longest active streak in the league, trailing only Colorado defenseman Brent Burns, who has played 1,007 in a row.
For all the star names above him in the ranking, Suzuki has built a case that’s hard to ignore: production, two-way impact and the kind of durability teams love. The NHL Network put him ninth. That may not be where everyone would place him.
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