I have to admit, I quit on the EA NHL franchise a couple of years ago for a number of reasons, including the fact that their player ratings and progression made no sense and were not worth dealing with. I'm always interested in the GM component, and in my mind if you have to put in 100 hours to complete a season for a one-point-overall uptick (after an 82-0 season) then you might as well just get the demo.
Anyway, just got a hold of the Jets player ratings, and much like the rest of the game there’s some wacky attribute action that matters way too much to overall ratings…
| Player | Pos | Overall | Potential |
| Dustin Byfuglien | D | 87 | C |
| Andrew Ladd | LW | 85 | C |
| Nik Antropov | C | 85 | C |
| Tobias Enstrom | D | 84 | C |
| Zach Bogosian | D | 83 | B |
| Bryan Little | RW | 83 | B- |
| Evander Kane | LW | 83 | B- |
| Blake Wheeler | RW | 83 | C |
| Alexander Burmistrov | C | 82 | B |
| Ron Hainsey | D | 82 | C |
| Johnny Oduya | D | 82 | C |
| Mark Stuart | D | 82 | C |
| Chris Thorburn | RW | 80 | C |
| Jim Slater | C | 79 | C |
| Tanner Glass | LW | 79 | C |
| Patrice Cormier | C | 78 | B- |
| Randy Jones | D | 78 | C |
| Tim Stapleton | C | 77 | C |
| Ben Maxwell | C | 75 | C |
| Ondrej Pavelec | G | 84 | B |
| Chris Mason | G | 80 | C- |
- Rob Schremp, Freddy Meyer, and Rick Rypien were also on the list (at 82, 78, and 79 respectively).
- The team ratings are 78 for offense, 91 for defence, and 77 for goaltending. You know, just in case the ratings above were making too much sense for you.
- Chris Thorburn is an 80? Out of 100? Well I guess, if Rob Schremp is an 82…but EA has always had a love affair with him. I think Schremp’s been an 82 for about five years now. Must have a lot of “Poise.”
- The “Potential” measure is hopelessly arbitrary and reductive, so it’s hardly worth haggling over, but Evander Kane having less potential than Bogo and Pavelec is just loopy.
- EA’s also had a long-standing love affair with Mark Stuart.
- Ones that I think they got right: Andrew Ladd, Ondrej Pavelec, Ron Hainsey, Bryan Little, Blake Wheeler, Tim Stapleton, and probably Tanner Glass. Even if their attributes don’t agree with me, I think the overall’s not far off.
- Ones that I think they got wrong (those I haven’t already specified): Too high – Nik Antropov, Dustin Byfuglien, Patrice Cormier (he isn’t there yet, but that might be his peak), Alexander Burmistrov (see Cormier, Patrice), Zach Bogosian (see Cormier, Patrice), maybe Johnny Oduya, Ben Maxwell, and Jim Slater…Too low – Tobias Enstrom, Randy Jones, and Chris Mason
- Our forward lines according to these ratings and positioning (listed LW,C,RW): 1st – Ladd, Antropov, Little, 2nd – Kane, Burmistrov, Wheeler, 3rd – Glass, Slater, Thorburn, 4th – Cormier, Maxwell, Stapleton
- Our defensive pairings according to these ratings: 1st – Byfuglien, Enstrom, 2nd – Bogosian, Hainsey, 3rd – Oduya, Stuart
- Good thing this isn’t real.
