NHL Skill Players

SI Staff | Jan 28, 2008

NHL Skill Players /

NHL Skill Players

Fastest skater: Matthew Lombardi (Calgary Flames)

The game is full of men with rocket fuel coursing through their veins, and thighs the size of oaks, but none can match the sheer breakneck acceleration of the Calgary speedster.

Best moves: Nikolai Zherdev (Columbus Blue Jackets)

Finally playing with a purpose, Zherdev has emerged as the NHL's master of creative whimsy, and the game's premier undresser of defenders. The anti-Orr, he relishes in embarrassing opponents with an unmatched arsenal of feints.

Hardest shot: Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins)

You don't have to be a physics major --or New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist -- to comprehend the brute force that powers hockey's most feared rocket launcher. Chara is simply bigger, stronger and uses a longer stick than anyone in the game.

Most accurate shot: Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)

Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images

The difference between a guy who scores 30 goals and one who scores 60? It's all in the placement, no matter where you get the puck or how long you have to release it. Ovechkin instinctively finds holes where others hit the crest.

Best vision: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)

Crosby sets himself apart from the crowd with the uncanny ability to not only keep track of his teammates at top speed but also discern exactly when and where a defensive seam will appear that frees them to make a play.

Best hockey sense: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)

When scouts were tailing a young Sid, it was his preternatural understanding of how the game was developing around him -- and what would happen next -- that earned him comparisons to The Great One.

Best in traffic: Rick Nash (Columbus Blue Jackets)

A power forward by trade, Nash's first option is to power his way through the tight spots. But as last week's Goal Of The Year showed, he's just as capable of dancing his way through the other team.

Best leader: Nick Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings)

When you've earned the respect of every man in the room, your volume knob doesn't need to go to 11. Lidstrom sets the emotional tempo of hockey's best team in a manner reminiscent of Jean Beliveau.

Best shotblocker: Greg Zanon (Nashville Predators)

Like Craig Ludwig before him, this unheralded blueliner has perfected the timing -- and pain management -- required to truly master hockey's ultimate act of self-sacrifice.

Hardest Hitter: Garnet Exelby (Atlanta Thrashers)

There are bigger and meaner men hunting for unwary victims than the 6-1, 215 Exelby, but none can maximize the hurt that he brings with his impeccable timing and explosive force.

Published Jan 28, 2008

SI STAFF