The season is finally in sight – less than two months from today, actually – but before the real pucks start dropping, EA's NHL 19 will drop for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
We've still got three-plus weeks until the latest 'Chel is released (September 14) but we do know where a couple of Blue Jackets players are ranked in this year's edition, thanks to the developer listing the top 50 players in the game. Artemi Panarin (36th in the game, 88 overall) and Sergei Bobrovsky (11th, 91 overall) lead the way for the Blue Jackets.
Here are their ratings, in full.
Meanwhile, Seth Jones tweeted out his rating – seemingly just missing out on the top 50 despite finishing fourth in this year's Norris Trophy voting.
Hey guys! What do you think of my #NHL19Ratings ?? @EASPORTSNHL pic.twitter.com/g29KKxyjyK
— Seth Jones (@seth_jones3) August 22, 2018
So, knowing the rankings of the three highest-ranked Blue Jackets in the game, let's take a stab at what the rest of the lineup will look like. It's important to note that the game overhauled its ratings system last year, bumping down most player ratings to make star players stand out more – so if some of these seem low (particularly in the mid/low 80's), it doesn't necessarily mean the players are being undervalued.
With that said, here's the official 1OB prediction.
| Left Wing | Center | Right Wing | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artemi Panarin | 88 | Pierre-Luc Dubois | 82 | Cam Atkinson | 84 |
| Nick Foligno | 82 | Alexander Wennberg | 82 | Oliver Bjorkstrand | 80 |
| Boone Jenner | 81 | Riley Nash | 81 | Josh Anderson | 80 |
| Sonny Milano | 78 | Brandon Dubinsky | 79 | Anthony Duclair | 79 |
| Left D | Right D | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Zach Werenski | 86 | Seth Jones | 87 |
| Markus Nutivaara | 81 | David Savard | 83 |
| Ryan Murray | 82 | Dean Kukan | 76 |
| Sergei Bobrovsky | 91 |
| Joonas Korpisalo | 80 |
