The NHL Network’s annual ranking of the top players by position landed this week with the usual mix of acclaim and outrage. Rankings like these rarely satisfy every fan base, and this year’s list has already sparked heated debate across the league. One of the loudest points of contention centers on a player who produced at an elite level last season yet was nowhere to be found among the league’s top defensemen.
Darren Raddysh, the 30-year-old right-shot defenseman, delivered one of the more surprising breakout campaigns in recent memory. In 73 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he recorded 22 goals and 70 points—production that placed him among the highest-scoring blueliners in the NHL. It was a late-blooming explosion that transformed him into a primary offensive driver and power-play quarterback for a playoff team. Despite those numbers and the expanded responsibility he absorbed, Raddysh did not appear on the NHL Network’s list. That omission has not gone unnoticed.
On a recent episode of the Toronto Sports Rush podcast, longtime NHL analyst Pierre McGuire delivered a pointed defense of the newly acquired Maple Leaf. McGuire argued that Raddysh’s relative lack of national recognition stems less from performance than from visibility.
“Darren Raddysh didn’t grow his brand on people because a lot of people didn’t watch Tampa play,” McGuire said. “They didn’t see the power-play presence. They didn’t see the puck-moving presence. And basically, they didn’t know he was that big a name. Well, he is that big a name. And what people don’t talk about enough is how much slack he picked up in Tampa last year when Victor Hedman wasn’t playing.”
McGuire noted that there were significant stretches of the season in which Hedman was unavailable, yet the veteran remains ranked among the top 20 defensemen—sitting at No. 18 on the list—while Raddysh is absent. “That’s not a slight on Victor, by the way, who’s a very good friend and somebody I respect a lot,” McGuire added. “But Darren Raddysh should be on that top 20 list. There’s no question in my mind.”
The comparison carries weight. Raddysh not only outproduced Hedman last season but also stepped into a larger role when the franchise cornerstone was sidelined. He quarterbacked the Lightning’s power play and generated offense at a rate few expected from a player who had previously flown under the radar. Even if some evaluators prefer the two-way impact of teammate J.J. Moser, Raddysh’s raw scoring and situational importance for a postseason club make a strong case for inclusion.
The list itself appears weighted toward projected upside and name recognition rather than pure recent results. Matthew Schaefer, for instance, lands as high as seventh among defensemen after a single rookie season—an aggressive placement that underscores how differently the panel values trajectory versus established production. Raddysh’s 70-point campaign, by contrast, has been treated as something closer to an outlier than a new baseline.
Whether that assessment holds will be tested in Toronto. Raddysh arrives as a key piece of the Maple Leafs’ blue line, expected to shoulder significant minutes and power-play responsibilities. If he can replicate anything close to last season’s output while elevating a team still chasing consistent playoff success, the national conversation around him will change. Recognition often lags production; McGuire’s forceful endorsement suggests the lag may already be overdue.
For now, the debate continues. Rankings will come and go. Production, and the eyes that actually watched it, leave a clearer record.