Montreal Canadiens NHL 18 ratings

The full list of ratings for your 2017-18 Montreal Canadiens.

EA Sports’ latest edition of their annual game, NHL 18, was released on Friday and the Montreal Canadiens are actually treated very well by the company.

The team itself has an overall of 91. Only two teams have overalls higher than that - the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers. The team overalls are pretty close together with the lowest team at 88 and six teams tied with Montreal at 91.

The ratings are also tailored lower than usual. The highest rating in the game is 93, and only 14 players have ratings of 90 or above, so keep that in mind when looking at the ratings of the Habs.

We will be showing every member of the Canadiens organization that is in the game. NCAA players and players in leagues that are not in the game are not represented. That’s why you will see Joni Ikonen and Joonas Nattinen, but not Ryan Poehling or Jakub Jerabek.

Centres

PlayerRatingPotentialProbability
Alex Galchenyuk83EliteLow
Tomas Plekanec81Top 6Exact
Phillip Danault80Top 9Medium
Andreas Martinsen77Bottom 6Exact
Torrey Mitchell76Bottom 6Exact
Charles Hudon77Top 6Low
Peter Holland76Bottom 6Medium
Byron Froese72AHL Top 6Medium
Joonas Nattinen72AHL Top 6Medium
Lukas Vejdemo66Top 9Medium
Daniel Audette63AHL Top 6High
Markus Eisenschmid61AHL Top 6Medium
Will Bitten60Top 9Medium
Joni Ikonen60Top 9Medium
Michael Pezzetta56Bottom 6Medium

The game still has Alex Galchenyuk as a C and Jonathan Drouin at wing, but the newest roster update has the lines updated to have Drouin at centre and Galchenyuk on the wing. I doubt throughout the season that their actual primary position will change, though.

Left Wings

PlayerRatingPotentialProbability
Max Pacioretty87EliteExact
Jonathan Drouin84EliteMedium
Paul Byron79Top 9Exact
Artturi Lehkonen78Top 6Medium
Daniel Carr74Bottom 6Medium
Jacob de la Rose72Top 9Low
Max Friberg71AHL Top 6Medium

I know of a few people who will think Lehkonen is too low, but he was actually in the mid-70s up until the last roster update last year, so he still gets a bit of a bump for his strong playoff run. The ratings to Pacioretty and Drouin seem low (like Galchenyuk above) until you realize that EA Sports lowered ratings across the board so they are well above average at their current numbers.

Right Wings

PlayerRatingPotentialProbability
Brendan Gallagher82Top 6Medium
Andrew Shaw79Top 9Medium
Ales Hemsky78Top 9Exact
Chris Terry76Bottom 6Exact
Michael McCarron75Top 9Medium
Nikita Scherbak72Top 6Medium
Jeremy Gregoire64AHL Top 6Low
Martin Reway62AHL Top 6High
Jeremiah Addison61Bottom 6Medium
Antoine Waked60AHL Top 6Medium

A lot to take in here. You could say that McCarron and Scherbak are low, but the game tends not to rate young players too highly. Martin Reway’s rating is untouched from a year ago.

Defence

PlayerRatingPotentialProbability
Shea Weber89EliteExact
Karl Alzner83Top 4Exact
Jeff Petry82Top 4Exact
Jordie Benn80Top 6Exact
David Schlemko80Top 6Exact
Mark Streit79Top 6Exact
Brandon Davidson78Top 6Medium
Eric Gelinas777th DMedium
Joe Morrow77Top 6Medium
Zach Redmond767th DExact
Matt Taormina737th DExact
Brett Lernout68AHL Top 2Low
Tom Parisi66AHL Top 2Medium
Noah Juulsen65Top 4Medium
Cale Fleury61Top 4Low
Simon Bourque607th DMedium
Victor Mete59Top 6Low
Jarret Tyszka58Top 6Low
Josh Brook567th DMedium
Scott Walford567th DMedium

So many defencemen. I know Marc Bergevin says you can’t have too many defencemen, but he didn’t have to fill this sheet in. Alzner ahead of Petry will definitely be a topic of contention, and the game seems to agree that the Canadiens have a glut of guys who could play some NHL minutes.

The game seems very high on Cale Fleury and less so on Josh Brook but the CHL ratings are very inconsistent.

Goaltenders

PlayerRatingPotentialProbability
Carey Price92FranchiseExact
Al Montoya81StarterExact
Charlie Lindgren71AHL StarterHigh
Zach Fucale70StarterMedium
Michael McNiven62Fringe StarterMedium

I would argue that Lindgren and McNiven are too low, while Montoya is probably a touch high. Fucale is about right but the potentials here are a little all over the place. Price is the best goaltender in the game with his rating.

So there you have it. We’ll have more on NHL 18 this week, including a review with some simulations that will surely generate some discussion.

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