The NHL Network says there are currently six NHL centers who are better than Patrice Bergeron

Around these parts, Patrice Bergeron is the best everything. Center, forward, Quebecois, human being, you name it.

According to the NHL Network, however, Bergeron isn’t one of the top-5 centers in the National Hockey League.

The NHL Network released one of its always-interesting “Top 20 ______ Right Now” lists earlier this week, and there’s one guarantee when these lists come out: people are going to argue.

(Side note: This is probably why they make these lists, as they produce a lot of quote Tweets and arguing on the Internet. That’s my conspiracy theory.)

There are plenty of talented centers in the league right now, and while Bergeron may be on the back-9 of his career, is he really outside of the top-5?

Looking at this list, it’s kind of hard to argue:

1. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
2. Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
3. Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
4. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
6. Jack Eichel, Buffalo Sabres
7. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
8. Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
9. Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers
10. Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers

That’s...quite a bit of talent. Bergeron is good, but is there really anyone ahead of him that you think he could unseat?

It’s easy to point at a guy like Sidney Crosby and say he’s also on the back-9 of his career, but he also had 100 points two years ago and 47 in 41 games this season. He’s not exactly slowing down.

All of the other guys ahead of Bergeron are young, productive, and elite talents.

There’s no real shame in being listed behind any of them.

Additionally, the NHL Network also released a “Top 20 Wings Right Now” list a week or so ago; that list featured David Pastrnak at #2 and Brad Marchand at #6.

Your thoughts?