Living in the 21st century boasts its share of advantages, but one often flies under the radar: the ability to update sports video game rosters. Sure, we love our smartphones and medical breakthroughs, but when the Blue Jackets trade for Matt Duchene Kyle Turris a big name, you’re gonna want him on your NHL 18 roster. They also update player ratings throughout the season, which gives us fans something else to argue about.
NHL 18 dropped its latest rating update on November 30, featuring six Blue Jackets—all who improved. Columbus finds itself in heady company, with Vegas also receiving six player boosts. Only St. Louis saw more players improve (seven), and even they had one player’s ratings drop. Operation Sports (who does yeoman’s work on stuff like this) put together the full list, available here.
Here’s how the Jackets fared:
CBJ NHL 18 Ratings – Nov. 30
| Player | Previous Rating | New Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Sergei Bobrovsky | 89 | 91 |
| Zach Werenski | 85 | 86 |
| Seth Jones | 84 | 85 |
| Pierre-Luc Dubois | 76 | 78 |
| Markus Nutivaara | 77 | 78 |
| Markus Hannikainen | 70 | 75 |
A few arguments here, along with some minor puzzlement.
Sergei Bobrovsky
Bob improves to 91 overall rating, making him the second-highest rated goalie in the game behind Carey Price’s 92. To reference with other players, Patrick Kane, Drew Doughty and Nikita Kucherov also boast overall ratings of 91. Not bad, Bob.
Zach Werenski
Zach Werenski moves up one point from 85 to 86, which still feels too low to this totally impartial observer. Relatively, however, NHL rarely gives defensemen ratings close to 90. Werenski finds himself equal with Rasmus Ristolainen, John Klingberg, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and John Carlson. He’s in his second season, so he may need more time to prove himself to the Electronic Arts developers…but it feels like it won’t be long until his rating stands among the game’s elite.
Seth Jones
Seth Jones also moves up a tick, from 84 to 85. Same deal as Werenski: he should probably be higher, but it’s probably not off by an order of magnitude. Other 85ers include Niklas Hjalmarsson, T.J. Brodie, Justin Faulk, Brent Seabrook, Oscar Klefbom, Aaron Ekblad and Jake Muzzin. Seth Jones is absolutely better than some of those guys, but bees are dying at a historic rate and California’s on fire, so there are probably bigger things to worry about. Like Werenski, Jones’s time will come.
Pierre-Luc Dubois
PLD makes a two-point jump from 76 to 78. Sure, why not. He’s also listed as a LW in this update, something that should change considering how he’s revitalized the Jackets’ top line from the middle (though the game does have him centering the French Bread/PBJ line on the ice). Dubois’s peers at 78? Guys like Riley Nash, Michael Ferland, Lee Stempniak, Tyson Jost, Ryan Callahan, Scottie Upshall and Cal Clutterbuck. It’s his first season, it’s his first season, it’s his first season…nowhere to go but up.
Markus Nutivaara
Nutivaara increases to a 78, up one point. See above for comparable players. This is fine.
Markus Hannikainen
Receiving one of the biggest rating jumps of anybody in the entire league, Hannikainen moves up five entire points from 70 to 75. Only Chicago’s Alex DeBrincat improved by that much. Hannikainen was rated too low to start, so this sort of makes sense, but it’s still odd to see EA Sports single out a guy who’s scored four points in 14 games and averages 8:24 a night. More power to him, though.
That’s it for this ratings update. The next one will likely come in late December or early 2018, hopefully finding more Jackets needing another round of boosts.