NHL Style Rankings: Best of the Best from The 2022-23 Regular Season

NHL awards are always a hot topic as we transition from the regular season to the playoffs. You've got your standards like the Hart Trophy for the player most valuable to his team, the Vezina for the best goalie, and the Jack Adams for the best coach.

But with the way the league is trending with increased skill and speed, some of us are starting to wonder if the powers that be should add some more trophies into the mix. How about something for the best offensive forward on top of the traditional Norris? Maybe we need a Hart runner-up until Connor McDavid retires.

My new award proposal? The Subban Trophy for best personal style, awarded at the end of each regular season to the player who looked hockey culture in the face and put the best top hat on it, wasn't afraid to take a risk or two and overall displayed the most consistently fresh pre-game 'fits.

But how do we begin to quantify that?

Oh, don't you worry. The Official Bleacher Report NHL Style Rankings has a system.

As we did last year for our inaugural Style Rankings season, we compiled every player to make the 2022-23 rankings, and we created a point system based on where they landed each week. Ten points were awarded to the No. 1-styled player and one to the 10th for every edition of the style power rankings.

As you'll see thanks to The Athletic's Shayna Goldman who provided her model, the data reflects a few different ways players arrived in the overall Top 10. Some consistently racked up mid-range rankings, while others' No. 1 hits were so good that the misses that kept them off the charts some weeks cleaned out in the wash.

In the end, it turned out getting to No. 2, or should we say the second round, was enough for one player to win it all for the first time. Could this be a playoff premonition?

We won't get ahead of ourselves, here. Let's just review the 10 best-dressed players of the 2022-23 NHL season.

Matt Duchene has made quite a few stops in his NHL career, but you could tell how excited the guitar-playing, music-loving center was to land in Nashville. He had a few looks showcasing the Nashville yee-haw flair without being too gaudy this season, and his appearances at No. 2, No. 7, and No. 8 were enough to land him No. 10 overall this season.

Tage Thompson had a monster breakout season on the ice, and with it followed a little bit of swag. It's always great to see a player grow into a sense of style while he's crushing the actual game, so we have to give Thompson are unofficial Most Improved award on and off the ice. It's especially impressive when you consider he's six-foot-six. Shout out to his tailor.

Who else could come back from months of IR and slay so hard week after week? Anthony Duclair cashing in on the No. 8 overall spot after spending so many weeks ineligible shows two things: No. 1, how strong his fashion sense really is, and No. 2, how much everyone else in the league needs to step it up.

Duclair had two appearances at No. 6 and one at No. 2, which begins to show you how much a Top 3 rankings matters. Which, again, is because so few players reach that feat.

We have to hand it to the Red Wings: With the help of their amazing broadcasters Carley Johnston and Daniella Bruce, every time we nudged Detroit to show more pictures, they delivered. And every time they showed more, they showed Mo could be the next NHL-style icon.

But just like his game on the ice, we see the potential and we need to have to have a little more patience. We can do it.

Nikita Zadorov is everything I love about covering style and personality in the NHL, let me make that clear. I've become a huge fan of his after listening to the interview he's done regarding the topic this season. Maybe you'll remember this one, where he called me out for having "no taste."

First of all, we need more back-and-forth like this in the NHL. So much of the time, it's players pretending they didn't see the media or that they don't care, and I get it because so often these things are blown out of proportion. But Z, I appreciate your sense of humor and honesty.

The analytics now show you ended up No. 6 overall this season, double-breasted suits and all. Maybe neither of us has taste.

Linus Ullmark always had potential, whether that was in net or with his suit game. He finally got the opportunity to showcase both this season with the Bruins. With the help of the one and only Gentlemen's Playbook, every one of Ullmark's look felt like a special occasion but not too much at the same time. The man loves a three-piece suit, and a three-piece suit loves him right back.

Even if K'Andre Miller didn't end up in the Top 3 like many of us thought he would, he did a great job developing his own personal style this season. He focused on fabric, texture, and fitting while keeping it all relatively simple. Something tells me the best is yet to come on this Rangers playoff run.

Folks, I'm just as shocked as you are, but our reigning style king has fallen from No. 1 to No. 3 in the second season of the style rankings. A few things were at play, here.

1. David Pastrňák still hold the most No. 1 rankings this season with three, so some could still consider him the style king and I'd agree.

But… 2. He went into social media hiding for a bit, something of a Taylor Swift Reputation Era if you will, while he was finalizing the most important contract of his career. And it ended up being the most expensive contract in Boston Bruins history. On top of that…

3. He somehow never wavered on the ice. He's had a career season in so many aspects, including hitting the 60-goal mark, the only Bruin to ever do so other than Phil Esposito in a single season.

I'd say still cracking Top 3 overall best dressed of 2022-23 is impressive.

Patrik Laine only had one No. 1 ranking, but each of his six style rankings appearances this season were top four. Whether it was the highlighter yellow sneakers, the holographic backpack, the Celine bucket hats to match his luxury cars, or the outfits that made us all wonder if he would get fined for wearing what appeared to be streetwear, Laine always moved the needle.

He ended up with 50 points, just two more than Pastrňák, to achieve the No. 2 overall spot.

I was genuinely shocked to see William Nylander at the top of this list. I mean, I knew he'd be top three, but I thought Pastrňák had enough No. 1 appearances or Laine was consistent enough for that one-two punch.

Puck don't lie, our trusty Style Rankings Model does not lie, and apparently, WIlly Styles cannot tell a fib, either.

Nylander tied Pastrňák for most Style Rankings appearances in general with seven, but Nylander apparently put together better mid-range 'fits than Pastrňák. We have to hand it to the Maple Leafs' social media team for finally giving us the Nylander-style content we've begged for years because clearly, it paid off. Something about his ability to blend the old (a three-piece suit) with something interesting (an unusual color) and some modern (his sneaker collection) was a formula he stuck to and it worked.

Throughout the season, Nylander appeared at No. 9, No. 4 twice, No. 2 three times, and No. 1 once. Do you see what happens when a Maple Leaf makes it to No. 2?

This is how we came up with our final rankings. Agree or disagree, feel free to send your thoughts in the comments section of the app or on the various B/R Open Ice social channels.