Each summer, NHL Network releases its list of the top 20 players at each position (top 10 for goalies). This year, Utah Mammoth captain Clayton Keller came in as the No. 17 winger in the league.
As elite as that is, he dropped two spots from last year’s ranking, which had him at No. 15. This is his second time filling the 17 hole, as that’s where he was on the 2024 list as well.
The drop comes after an 88-point campaign, the second-best of Keller’s career. He also allowed just 65 goals against — by far the fewest since he began playing first-line minutes in the NHL.
Only five wingers outscored him last season, and the only ones with lower-scoring line mates were ranked No. 2 and 3: David Pastrňák and Kirill Kaprizov.
That’s all before mentioning Keller’s status as an Olympic gold medalist, which he earned this season, as well as his success in captaining the Mammoth to their first-ever playoff berth (and the first playoff appearance of the group’s current rebuild, dating back to the Arizona Coyotes years).
This begs the question: Is Clayton Keller underrated?
What type of player is Clayton Keller?
Among the 615 forwards who played in the NHL last season, centers included, Keller finished in the 98th percentile in both assists and points. His goal total was a bit lower: the 89th percentile.
Offensively, he can do a little bit of everything.
He often sets his teammates up for tap-in goals, sometimes with impossible passes; He can beat a goalie clean with a wrist shot or a one-timer; When the lights of 3-on-3 overtime shine bright, he kicks it up a gear — hence the “Clayton Clutch” nickname that he has developed.
On the defensive side, Keller is capable but not particularly elite.
He doesn’t kill penalties and his defensive-zone deployment was below the league average. That said, no team wants its top offensive players spending more time defending than they have to. The Mammoth have defensive specialists like Kevin Stenlund to fill those roles instead.
Keller can also be overlooked at times for his size. He’s listed at 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, though those numbers are usually inflated for smaller guys. He doesn’t play an overly physical game, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t play with heart.
“I like his drive, I like his passion, I like how much he cares for his teammates,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny in a March 2025 interview. “I like the fact he wants to be a difference maker. I like the fact he wants to be better at everything — not just offensively, (but) defensively, physically, battles, everything.”
Who passed Clayton Keller in this year’s rankings?
Matt Boldy, Minnesota Wild
This year’s biggest riser was Matt Boldy. He placed 19th in 2025 and soared all the way to sixth place in 2026.
Boldy will always be remembered for opening the scoring for Team USA in the Olympic gold medal game, and a 42-goal, 85-point season is nothing to scoff at, but a lot of guys behind him scored a lot more than that.
Jason Robertson, Dallas Stars
Bill Guerin shocked the hockey world twice in the last year and a half: first by leaving Jason Robertson off Team USA’s 4 Nations Face-Off roster and again by excluding him from the Olympic team.
Robertson is the highest-scoring American — at any position — from 2022-23 to now (second on that list, by the way, is Keller). He was highly sought-after on the trade market this summer as his contract saga with the Dallas Stars drew out weeks longer than either party would have liked.
Last year, NHL Network named Robertson the 16th-best winger in the league. This year, he jumped up to seventh place.
Cole Caufield, Montreal Canadiens
After cracking the 50-goal mark for the first time in his relatively young career, Cole Caufield made his NHL Network Top 20 list debut. He earned the ninth spot in a season where he, too, was snubbed from the American roster.
Martin Nečas, Colorado Avalanche
A popular opinion among hockey fans is that Martin Nečas is a “Nathan MacKinnon merchant.”
While it’s true that Nečas shared a little more than 90% of his playing time this season with MacKinnon, those critics fail to recall how Nečas led the NHL in scoring at various points before he was even traded to the Colorado Avalanche. That was with the Carolina Hurricanes — a team that famously doesn’t have a superstar.
A lot of guys have played on MacKinnon’s wing, and not many of them have put up 100 points in a season. Nečas has.
Nečas came in at No. 15 on NHL Network’s list after not appearing on it last summer.
Which other Mammoth players could make positional lists?
Karel Vejmelka
The only goalie who won more games than Karel Vejmelka last season was two-time Vezina Trophy winner and 2021 playoff MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Of course, Vejmelka’s 64 games played were by far the most of any goalie in the league — nobody else got out of the 50s. The Mammoth found that they couldn’t rely on Vítek Vaněček, so they used Vejmelka as much as possible.
If he places on NHL Network’s top-10 list, it will most likely be in a low spot, but he’s absolutely in the conversation. Another big season this year could cement his spot as a top goalie in the world.
The goalie list will drop at 5 p.m. MT on Aug. 16.
Mikhail Sergachev
After finishing 18th in last year’s defensemen ranking, it’s not unlikely that Mikhail Sergachev makes the list again this summer.
The 28-year-old bested his 2024-25 offensive output this year, coming within five points of his career high. He also improved slightly on the number of goals he allowed, although he did play an average of almost a minute per game less this season.
Sergachev plays on the first power play and penalty kill minutes. Up a goal or down a goal, the coaching staff trusts him to be on the ice. He drags his team into the fight emotionally, earning the nickname “Bullychev” for his alter-ego, which arises in the most heated moments.
The defensemen list will drop at 5 p.m. MT on Sunday.
Next year
Dylan Guenther didn’t make the top wingers list this summer, though his production was in the same range as Brady Tkachuk, Cutter Gauthier and Lucas Raymond, the final three names on the list. It’s only a matter of time until he’s a perennial top-20 winger on NHL Network’s list.
Logan Cooley won’t likely be on the centers list, which comes out at 5 p.m. MT on Aug. 23, but had his season been unmarred by injury, he may have been able to prove himself enough to make it. Like Guenther, he’s not far off from making regular appearances on the list.
