Stronso

Underrated and overrated
It's time for my annual top 10 lists of underrated and overrated NHL players. The underrated guys on this list are all useful players with good sets of skills, making valuable contributions to their teams while still flying under the "star" radar.



The overrated list features players whose value is overstated, most often by the media and the team's fans. Neither one of these lists is meant to be exclusive, and the players are listed here in no particular order. Have fun agreeing and disagreeing with the names on both lists.



Underrated



1. Mike Knuble, Boston: Knuble is an interesting player. He spent two undistinguished years with both the Red Wings and Rangers, before coming to Boston in March 2000. He spent the better part of two years as a spare part, but then just blossomed last season, netting 30 goals, exactly twice his previous season high. He's a big man and takes some of the pressure off Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov. At 30, it looks like he'll perform at this level for the next three or four years.



2. Steve Reinprecht, Calgary: Reinprecht is coming off two excellent years in Colorado, but will be hard-pressed to be as productive on a team of lesser talents like the Flames. Still, he's sound defensively and will chip in with the odd goal here and there. He's a good second-line center.



3. Stu Barnes, Dallas: I've been singing this guy's praises for years now, and now that he's finally on a good team, he'll make an impact. He's a little guy with a big heart who comes to play every night, and he has a flair for scoring dramatic, timely goals.



4. Jaroslav Modry, Los Angeles: I didn't think much of Modry when he broke in with the Devils in 1993; too many holes in his game. After a terrible year in Ottawa, he was dealt to the Kings and promptly spent four seasons up and down between L.A. and Long Beach. Then, he started getting power play minutes and slowly turned into a blueline threat. He's never hurt and leads the team in shots and power play minutes, so he's making a contribution. He is not, however, a gifted defensive player.



5. Wade Redden, Ottawa: The best defenseman in the league who is not generally regarded as a superstar. He has great leadership abilities and logs a lot of ice time on a very talented team. He's good for between 30-45 points a year, and has had plus-minus marks of plus-22, plus-22 and plus-23 over the past three seasons. Here's the best part: Redden is still just 26 years old, so he's going to get better.



6. Brad Richards, Tampa Bay: Nikolai Khabibulin, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis get all the press in Tampa, but Richards is making a similar contribution to the team's success. His three seasons in the NHL have been so similar to each other that it's downright eerie. He'll get his 20+ goals and 70 points, and he's a power play stud.



7. Brent Sopel, Vancouver: Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund are the big story in Vancouver, with minor press forays into the enigma that is the Sedin twins, but it's the underrated defensive corps that makes this team so hard to beat, especially considering they don't have the best goaltending in the league. Sopel has a heavy shot from the point, and has put together two excellent seasons in a row.



8. Paul Mara, Phoenix: It's difficult to understand why the Lightning dealt Mara away, other than the fact that they were seduced by the iffy notion that Khabibulin was one of the best goaltenders in the league (on some nights this is true, but he's also one of the least consistent netminders in the league). Mara just turned 24 and is coming off two excellent seasons for a team that has struggled. He's big guy, and he's getting 22 minutes a night on the ice. Watch him closely; he could develop rapidly into an outstanding player.



9. Marc Denis, Columbus: The one-time heir apparent to Patrick Roy in Colorado has settled in nicely with the Blue Jackets. He played in an astounding 77 games last season, and while he led the league with 41 losses, he also racked up 27 wins for a poor team. At 26, he's still below the age at which most goaltenders have their best seasons, and if he gets some help, he could be a good one.



10. Marek Zidlicky, Nashville: Watch this guy; he has a great shot and seems to have natural instincts on the ice. He'll get loads of playing time with this team, and should develop into a solid player for the Preds.



Overrated



1. Sandis Ozolinsh, Anaheim: The poster boy for what not to do with the puck in your own end, Ozolinsh has blinded hockey people for years with his dazzling array of offensive skills, but he's a liability of the first order. He's a career minus-16 playing on some good teams, and he gets a lot of points to boot. You do the math.



2. Brendan Shanahan, Detroit: Shanahan is quickly losing what little speed he once had, and now goes long stretches without scoring. And if he's not scoring, he's not helping the team, because his peripheral skills are awful.



3. Evgeni Nabokov, San Jose: It's hard to fathom what the Sharks saw in Nabokov in the first place. He's had two good seasons, but he's not the type of goalie who can carry a bad team, and the Sharks are a bad team right now.



4. Eric Daze, Chicago: Daze is perpetually injured these days, which is a bad sign for a 28-year-old forward with a lot of hard miles on him, playing for a bad team. He's only ever had one 70-point season, with his next highest point total being 57. For your leading scorer, that's not a lot of production. Plus, like Shanahan, he doesn't do anything else particularly well.



5. Keith Primeau, Philadelphia: Primeau is an average player. Over the last two seasons, he's averaged 47 points, hardly impressive production. What's more, he's terrible in big games. Over the past three seasons, when the team really needed their captain in the playoffs, he's had one goal and four assists in 22 games. Hardly awe-inspiring.



6. Bobby Holik, New York Rangers: Holik looks like a shadow of his former self these days. Hailed as some kind of savior when he defected to the Blueshirts prior to last season, he struggled and seemed to have the spirit sucked right out of him by the hockey soap opera that is the Rangers. Another slow start this season is starting to establish a downward arc to Holik's career.



7. Keith Tkachuk, St. Louis: For all of Tkachuk's hubris, he still does a lot of stupid things that hurt his team. His 139 penalty minutes last year was his highest total in five seasons, and while he's in the penalty box, the Blues not only have to kill the penalty, but they have to play without arguably their best offensive weapon. He's never won anything in his career, and that sort of tag starts to follow a guy around after 13 years in the league.



8. Jaromir Jagr, Washington: Do I even have to explain my thinking on this one? Contrary to popular belief, I don't think the problem in this case is the team, I think it's the player. Jagr looks like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world than on the ice.



9. Janne Niinimaa, New York Islanders: Niinimaa is just not as talented as the Islanders' press and fans would have you believe. He gets beaten wide a lot, and makes some, er, interesting choices with the puck in his own zone. Don't you think Mike Milbury would rather have Eric Brewer, Bryan McCabe, Bryan Berard, Wade Redden and all those other defensemen he dealt away, rather than Niinimaa?



10. The Sedin Twins, Vancouver: I don't know if it's fair to call them overrated, because I think most hockey people feel now that they will never live up to their original hype, but they are both very average. They're both 30-point-a-season players and neither does one thing particularly well. Think of how dominant Vancouver would be right now if the Sedin twins were living up to their advance notices.

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