October is nearly upon us which means that not only is the return of Vegas Golden Knights hockey close, but we are a day closer to getting our hands on NHL 20.
The hugely popular video game from EA Sports is released worldwide on Sep, 13 and it will give Vegas Golden Knights fans the opportunity to control their favorite team and lead them to glory in a vast array of game modes.
As is always the case around this time of year, player ratings have started to be revealed and there should be a full set for all 31 teams in the NHL released in the coming weeks. Ratings always spark great debate among fans and even players, as demonstrated by the all fuss surrounding the player ratings in Madden 20.
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So far we have learned that New Jersey Devils stud and No.1 overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft, Jack Hughes has been given a rating of 82 Overall, while the No.2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko was awarded a rating of 81 Overall. Perhaps interestingly, Hughes shares the same rating as last year’s first overall pick in Rasmus Dahlin, while both of those players were rated five points better than generational forwards Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews during their respective rookie years.
And we have started to see the more established stars in the NHL post their NHL 20 ratings on social media in recent days, including New York Rangers forward Mike Zibanejad (85 OVR), Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart (84 OVR), Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (90 OVR) and Minnesota Wild forward Mats Zuccarello (84 OVR).
Of course, as we saw following the release of Madden 20, player ratings equals hilarious reactions and that has been no different with NHL 20 with Columbus Blue Jackets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois revealing his thoughts on his rating via a hilarious The Office reference, as can be seen below.
Now, we haven’t seen any official ratings for Golden Knights players yet, although there are reported leaked ratings online suggesting that both forward Mark Stone and Marc-Andre Fleury are rated as 88 OVR. The same forum also states that Jonathan Marchessault is a 86 OVR and William Karlsson is a 85 OVR.
If those ratings prove to be true, then it wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that Stone and Fleury will be the highest-ranked Vegas Golden Knights players on NHL 20, which is pretty accurate given the importance of both players to the franchise and their overall body of work.
But, what about the rest of the roster? We have no idea who will boast the best OVR rating among the defensemen, while it will be interesting to see if the likes of Max Pacioretty and Reilly Smith get a bump in their ratings.
Based on their NHL 19 ratings and their real-life performances in 2018-19, we are going to try and guess the ratings for the rest of the Vegas Golden Knights roster. Let’s begin…