Where Do Kings Kempe & Fiala Rank Among the League’s Best?

Anytime someone puts together a list ranking the best players in the NHL it’s going to cause some controversy.

And that’s exactly what’s happened with NHL.com’s recent ranking of the league’s top 20 wingers. To the disappointment, and in some cases anger, of Los Angeles Kings fans, neither Adrian Kempe nor Kevin Fiala made the list.

Of course, these lists have to be taken with a grain of salt and don’t really mean anything. But, it’s a good entry point into an interesting conversation. Are Kempe and Fiala top-20 wingers in the league? Or are Kings fans just looking at this through Los Angeles tinted lenses?

Using a combination of stats and my gut, I’m going to try and answer that question.

The Case for Kevin Fiala:

The first stat I’ll use for both players is Evolving-Hockey.com’s goals and wins above replacement. They aren’t perfect stats by any means, but they usually give a strong indication of where a player is helping, or hurting, their team.

Fiala doesn’t show up great in these stats. He’s seventh amongst Kings forwards in wins above replacement and well outside the top 50 league-wide. While sitting first on the Kings and 39th in the league for even-strength offense.

Of course, he’s better than these numbers show but it does point out a flaw in Fiala’s game.

His awful defense.

He’s the worst forward defensively amongst Kings forwards according to Evolving-Hockey’s metrics but almost a full point and only Arthur Kaliyev comes close to him in this category.

And the eye test backs this up, Fiala was terrible defensively last year.

Looking at some of his other stats, Fiala’s game begins to improve.

His 1.04 points-per-game places him 29th among forwards and 15th among wingers. While his playmaking micro stats show him as one of the best playmakers in the league.

His points per-60 minutes place him 15th amongst forwards and eighth amongst wingers.

Taking into account his raw numbers and his very impressive playmaking metrics, I’d consider Fiala in the 12-10 range offensively. He’s still below the big-time superstars like David Pastrnak, Matthew Tkachuk, Nikita Kucherov and Jason Robertson, but he’s in the tier just below those guys.

And if we were just looking at offensive ability, there’s no question Fiala would be a top-20 winger, but we aren’t. Being defensively solid is less important for wingers, but it also can’t be ignored.

This is where it’s really difficult to determine if Fiala is a top-20 winger. Does being a top-12 offensive winger make up for his defensive issues and keep him in the top 20 overall?

The Verdict, Yes:

I went back and forth on this for a while and eventually put the stats down and went with my gut. I watched all 82 games of Kings hockey last season and caught 43 of them live.

In those games, I can’t think of 10 wingers, let alone 20, who looked better than Fiala. Frankly, I’d struggle to think of 20 players who were better than Fiala, let alone wingers.

He’s so dynamic and so dominant when he gets going that he can’t be ignored. When Fiala was on, he was routinely the best player on the ice for either team. And he was on more than he was off last season.

The Case for Kempe:

Starting with Evolving-Hockey.com’s metrics again, Kempe actually shows up better here than Fiala.

He shows up as a fairly complete player here, posting positive results on both sides of the puck and on both special team’s units, finishing with 1.5 wins above replacement.

But, Kempe’s case is really encapsulated by this tweet from BigHeadHockey