Nick Suzuki Is TSN’s 25th Best Player Preseason Rankings

Suzuki has continuously improved offensively every year that he has been in the NHL, and everyone is starting to wonder what his absolute peak as a player is. After putting up above a point per game for the first time in his career when he put up 30 goals and 89 points in 82 games during the 2024-25 season, it seems like the Habs captain finally has the respect he deserves from major hockey media outlets.

A few days ago, NHL Network named him as their 28th-best player in the league. It will be interesting to see if Suzuki can continue to move his way up the players’ rankings across the league throughout this upcoming season. With how he continues to improve as well as the team around him improving itself, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all that Suzuki becomes an even better 2-way player as well as surpasses his 89 points career high from last season. 

This can especially be the case if Suzuki manages to stay healthy and plays every game for the Habs for the 7th consecutive season since entering the league. As it stands, only Brent Burns has a longer Ironman streak than the Habs captain (Ryan Suter has more, too, but he’s currently unsigned heading into the regular season, so that streak looks to be ending). While, it doesn’t say anything about his importance on the ice for the Canadiens, the fact that Suzuki has been available every single game for the last 6 years, including playoffs it definitely does help in his overall ranking in terms of players. 

For example, earlier in the summer, when Suzuki was ranked above Jack Hughes in terms of centres in the NHL. Availability seemed like a huge factor in why Suzuki was 10th vs. Hughes being 11th on their list. There’s no denying that Hughes has more skill and, when healthy, is more dominant than Suzuki, but the fact that he’s often hurt is a flaw that was taken into account.

This factor probably can be taken for a few of the players he was ranked ahead of on TSN’s top 50 list as well, but his game and skills are definitely worthy of being on their list. It can actually be argued that even before his 89-point season, he was worthy of a spot between 41 and 50 last year. The only issue was that he was playing on a bottom-5 team in the NHL, so his 77-point season during the 2023-24 season wasn’t noticed as much. However, this past year, he was the main reason the Habs even got to the playoffs as he turned on another switch. Suzuki could no longer be ignored by the hockey world. 

His post-Four Nations Tournament performance virtually penciled him in on Team Canada for the upcoming Olympics. We will see if he makes the team, but most experts see him on there. At the end of the day, Suzuki is gearing up for another big season with the Habs, and he is very well deserving of being the 25th-best player in the NHL. 

Do you think that Suzuki will improve on his 89-point output from last year?