Time to reveal the regular season Top 20 in Even Strength Total Rating* (ESTR), including this season’s overall top player at even strength. And the winner is…Daniel Sedin! Yep, you heard right. Not potential Hart Trophy Winner Henrik Sedin (who had more games played to accumulate more points), but the (rightly) more acclaimed twin brother Daniel Sedin. You’ll note that out of the players in the MVP discussion, Alex Ovechkin comes in tops, then Henrik, with Sidney Crosby not too far behind (+0.92). My early choice of Marian Gaborik made the top 20 at ES as well…and we know how valuable he was on the power play as well.
| Rank | Name | Pos | Team | ESOR | ESDR | ESTR | ESTOI |
| 1 | Daniel Sedin | LW | VAN | +1.89 | -0.18 | +1.71 | 956 |
| 2 | Mark Fistric | D | DAL | +0.33 | +1.29 | +1.62 | 949 |
| 3 | Alex Ovechkin | LW | WSH | +1.11 | +0.43 | +1.54 | 1187 |
| 4 | Steve Downie | RW | TBL | +1.11 | +0.34 | +1.46 | 927 |
| 5 | Jeff Schultz | D | WSH | +0.89 | +0.56 | +1.45 | 1228 |
| 6 | Cody Franson | D | NSH | +0.71 | +0.70 | +1.42 | 740 |
| 7 | Scott Parse | RW | LAK | +1.09 | +0.27 | +1.37 | 616 |
| 8 | Alexandre Burrows | LW | VAN | +1.17 | +0.18 | +1.35 | 852 |
| 9 | Wojtek Wolski | LW | PHX | +0.79 | +0.50 | +1.29 | 1199 |
| 10 | Henrik Sedin | C | VAN | +1.52 | -0.24 | +1.28 | 1262 |
| 11 | Marian Gaborik | RW | NYR | +0.98 | +0.27 | +1.25 | 1262 |
| 12 | Christian Ehrhoff | D | VAN | +0.73 | +0.51 | +1.24 | 1395 |
| 13 | Eric Fehr | RW | WSH | +0.87 | +0.31 | +1.18 | 727 |
| 14 | Andrei Markov | D | MTL | +0.94 | +0.24 | +1.18 | 797 |
| 15 | Brandon Prust | C | NYR | +0.53 | +0.60 | +1.14 | 509 |
| 16 | Patric Hornqvist | RW | NSH | +0.61 | +0.53 | +1.13 | 1024 |
| 17 | Marian Hossa | RW | CHI | +0.71 | +0.42 | +1.12 | 833 |
| 18 | Miroslav Satan | RW | BOS | +0.66 | +0.47 | +1.12 | 527 |
| 19 | Nik Antropov | C | ATL | +1.16 | -0.07 | +1.08 | 1087 |
| 20 | Manny Malhotra | C | SJS | +0.42 | +0.65 | +1.07 | 862 |
*ESTR measures each player’s contributions on offense (ESOR) and defense (ESDR) per 60 minutes of Even Strength Time On Ice (ESTOI), compared to an average NHL skater. Only players with a minimum of 500 minutes ESTOI included above.
And remind me again…Why did Colorado trade Wolski?