NHL 23: Best Skill Players

NHL 23 brings to life a variety of engaging aspects of the game of hockey. Whether it’s the hit mechanics, the skating, the passing, or something else entirely, the gameplay in NHL 23 has improved significantly and you can feel that as you immerse yourself into the new game.

One facet of the gameplay that is arguably the most rewarding to perform, is deking. Nothing beats leaving your opponent in disarray or unbalanced with a nice deke. With so many smooth ways to elude defenders in NHL 23, it can be helpful to know which players are the best at deking, and we’re going to give you an idea of which stars fall in that category.

There’s a few reasons why it’s important to have a player that is actually good at deking before trying to do so. If you attempt to deke with someone who doesn’t have a high rating, you will be left giving away the puck or misplacing it, which defeats the purpose of deking.

To pull off the moves you want to execute, we’re going to go over the Top 10 best skill players in NHL 23 who come with the highest deking ratings in the game.

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NHL 23: Top 10 Skill Players

1. Cale Makar (97 Rating) – Avalanche
2. Connor McDavid (97 Rating) – Oilers
3. Nikita Kucherov (96 Rating) – Lightning
4. Artemi Panarin (96 Rating) – Rangers
5. Patrick Kane (96 Rating) – Blackhawks
6. Johnny Gaudreau (96 Rating) – Blue Jackets
7. David Pastrnak (95 Rating) – Bruins
8. Kirill Kaprizov (94 Rating) – Wild
9. Nathan MacKinnon (94 Rating) – Avalanche
10. Mitchell Marner (94 Rating) – Maple Leafs

What can’t Cale Makar do, is the real question. From being second in the game in speed to first in deking as a defender, is absolutely remarkable and a rare sighting for defenders period. It does come to no surprise though that both Kucherov and Kane are in the Top 5. Both remain to be two of the best deking artists in the NHL and you’ll see firsthand why when you hit the ice in NHL 23.

To grant you a better understanding of what has changed from game to game, we’re going to provide you a look at the Top 10 best skill players from NHL 22, which can be found in the next section.

NHL 22: Top 10 Skill Players

Here’s the full list of Top 10 skill players in NHL 22.

1. Patrick Kane (97 Rating) – Blackhawks
2. Connor McDavid (97 Rating) – Oilers
3. Nikita Kucherov (96 Rating) – Lightning
4. Artemi Panarin (96 Rating) – Rangers
5. David Pastrnak (95 Rating) – Bruins
6. Johnny Gaudreau (95 Rating) – Blue Jackets
7. Mitchell Marner (94 Rating) – Maple Leafs
8. Matthew Barzal (94 Rating) – Islanders
9. Kirill Kaprizov (93 Rating) – Wild
10. Nathan MacKinnon (93 Rating) – Avalanche

As you can see, Makar wasn’t even on the list last year, which magnifies his feat this season just that much more. Several players like McDavid, Kucherov, Panarin, Marner, and more kept the same ratings. While Kane highlights the biggest drop from the one spot to now the five spot.

NOW READ: How to deke in NHL 23.