Connor McDavid tops NHL 26 as the game’s highest-rated centre… again

It should surprise no one reading this that Connor McDavid is once again the top-rated centre in EA Sports’ NHL video game series. What might surprise you is that this marks his eighth straight year in the top spot — and the ninth straight year he’s been listed among the best, dating back to the crown he shared with Sidney Crosby in NHL 18.

McDavid’s 97 overall rating in NHL 26 also makes him the highest-rated player in the game for the second year in a row. And even after a season that some (not me) might call “human” by his standards — No. 97 registered 100 points in 67 games while dealing with injuries — he still cooked in the playoffs with 33 points in 22 games. EA clearly noticed.

How the rest of the list shakes out

Right behind McDavid is Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Edmonton’s handsome king Leon Draisaitl, who both carry 96 overall ratings. Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov also joins that elite group after catching up from last year’s solo second-place finish by MacKinnon.

Here’s how the rest of the top 10 centres line up:

• Aleksander Barkov – 95 OVR (Fresh off back-to-back Cups with Florida)
• Sidney Crosby, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews – 94 OVR
• Jack Hughes – 93 OVR
• Brayden Point – 92 OVR
• Mark Scheifele – 91 OVR

EA notes that others might share the same overall as Scheifele but didn’t make the official Top 10 list despite having the same rating. If you’re a hockey video game fan, you’ll have to wait and see how that shakes out when full rosters drop. I guess EA Sports must have felt bad about all those “no airport” jokes and wanted to throw Winnipeg a bone. Just me? Possibly.

What this means (and doesn’t mean)

While EA Sports ratings aren’t the final word on player value by any stretch of the imagination, they do carry weight. EA factors ratings into in-game performance, sim results, and trade logic in Franchise Mode, so being the best player in the league is meaningful for the game play. More importantly, these ratings reflect what EA’s scouting group thinks about league-wide talent tiers heading into a new season, and what’s wild about that is that they’re usually not far off.

McDavid’s 97 speaks for itself, but there’s added pressure this year as we enter the final season of his current deal before we end up in extension land. While the rankings hit the Internet this morning, the NHL 26 cover isn’t announced yet, but if EA wants to sell copies in Alberta, they’d be wise to slap No. 97 on there one more time. Maybe a collage of when Connor looks his most handsome? I’d buy that.

When can you play?

NHL 26 drops on September 12, 2025 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. No last-gen version this year — and no PC version either — so if you want to see McDavid dominate the digital world like he does the real one, you’ll need to be on current generation. What does that mean for you? I’m not really sure because all I can tell you is that this game will work on my PS5, so that’s a big win for Baggedmilk.

In the meantime, we’ll be waiting and watching closely to see how the full Oilers roster gets rated, because you know I’ll be firing up Franchise Mode and making sure the Cup finally comes back to Edmonton even if that means I have to do it myself.