NHL Network places Nathan MacKinnon second among the league’s centers, behind Connor McDavid

The NHL Network has begun rolling out its position rankings for the 2026-27 season, and the center category set an early benchmark. Nathan MacKinnon was named the second-best center in the league “right now,” positioned just behind Connor McDavid as the top player at the position. The ranking is part of the network’s broader series that evaluates elite talent across the NHL ahead of the new campaign.

MacKinnon’s placement indicates a clear narrative the NHL Network is leaning into: a tier of centers defined by playmaking paired with high-end finishing and matchup control. By listing McDavid first and MacKinnon second, the network is effectively drawing a line between the very top echelon at center and the rest of the position group entering 2026-27. For fans, it also creates a simple storyline to watch over the next season, with MacKinnon framed as the closest challenger to the league’s most dominant figure at center.

The timing matters. These position rankings are being used as a season preview, the kind of offseason frame that becomes a reference point once games begin. When a player is labeled second among all centers, the expectation becomes less about whether he is elite, and more about whether he can push past the player placed ahead of him, both in individual production and in the team impact that tends to separate top-tier regular seasons from postseason runs.

The series does not stop at centers. The NHL Network’s ranking rollout also included other position lists in the same stretch, giving the preview a broader shape across the roster. On the previous set of reveals, Martin Necas was ranked 15th among the league’s wings “right now.” In a separate release, Cale Makar was ranked first among defensemen. Taken together, the center reveal fits into a larger, network-wide argument about where it believes the NHL’s most valuable players currently sit by position.

For MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche, the ranking is likely to be read as both validation and motivation. MacKinnon, as a star center, typically carries a heavy share of offensive creation, and a second-place placement suggests the NHL Network views him as firmly in the league’s upper tier. Still, the list is a snapshot, and rankings cannot capture everything a season will demand, including how teams evolve with their line combinations, how matchups are managed, and how much defensive responsibility a player is asked to carry game-to-game.

What to watch next is how these preseason positional frames meet the realities of the 2026-27 schedule. If Colorado’s offense continues to rely on MacKinnon in the most critical stretches, it will test whether the “No. 2 behind McDavid” label remains static or starts to compress into a closer fight for the top spot. For the league overall, the Necas and Makar placements also foreshadow that the NHL Network is prioritizing impact stars across lines and roles, setting up an offseason-to-regular-season storyline that could influence how the public and media talk about player value as the year unfolds.