This discussion always pops up every now and again. Who is the most underrated NHL player? And more often than not, the conclusion is a very good player that people are already aware of. For a long time, the “most underrated players” were Nicklas Backstrom, Ryan O’Reilly, and Aleksander Barkov, all of whom were/are instrumental to their teams’ success, and even wearing an A or C, respectively. This list looks to dive deeper than that.
Underrated NHL Players of the Cap Era
Dmitri Orlov
While Orlov is thought highly of, especially after being traded to the Boston Bruins, what most people don’t realize is how fantastic and consistent he has been for the Capitals for his entire career. He was frequently overshadowed by fellow defenceman John Carlson‘s point totals, but Orlov was that team’s true top defenceman.
Data and visuals from Evolving-Hockey
We can see just how incredible Orlov has been, even in recent years, from the chart above. He is great at both ends of the ice and is among the league’s top penalty killers during that time. He is such a versatile player and is among the best defencemen of the salary cap era and he doesn’t get the praise he deserves.
Scott Gomez
Gomez has been underrated looking back on his career because everyone focuses on who he was traded for. Gomez was still a great player, regardless of who he was traded for. He was a player that eclipsed 70 points frequently in his career. He generated offence consistently and took a high volume of shot attempts. While there may have been defensive shortcomings, Gomez is not looked back upon nearly as fondly as he should be because something happened that was out of his control.
Loui Eriksson
Today when you say the name Loui Eriksson, most just think of that anchor of a contract he signed in Vancouver. However, Loui Eriksson was actually a great player for the majority of his career. And even though he was nowhere near worth that contract, he still had some good seasons in Vancouver as well. Not being worth a contract and being bad are two very different things. At his best, Loui Eriksson was a threat to be accounted for at every spot on the ice and a weapon on the power play, generating offence at an incredible rate. At his very worst, he was just sub-replacement level. Again, not what you want or need out of a $6,000,000 player, but far from a poor player.
Lubomir Visnovsky
When doing research for this article, Visnovsky’s name showing up was quite a surprise. He’s not a player to show up on any lists, and no one talks about him anymore. While he had a couple of seasons north of 60 points, even when he wasn’t putting up the point totals he was an incredible player.
Even in Visnovsky’s last three years, he was an incredible player for a very up-and-down New York Islanders team during that time.
Jonas Hiller
The only goalie on the list, Hiller only played 9 seasons in the NHL but made quite an impact in that time. 
Data and visuals from Evolving-Hockey
Hiller had some truly spectacular seasons, specifically his 2010-11 year, shown above. While he wasn’t the type of goalie to receive award nominations, Hiller provided steady goaltending for years. Hiller ranks 23rd all-time in goalie GAR according to Evolving Hockey. Considering he only ever got Vezina consideration once, in 2012-13, where he finished only 9th in voting, Hiller truly seems to have been underrated for his whole career and afterwards.
These are five of the most underrated NHL players of the salary cap era.
Main Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
