NHL players have spoken and the results are in. Here who they’ve picked as the best – and the worst – National Hockey League referees in a new poll from The Athletic.

Best Referee

  • Wes McCauley – 53.0% (70 votes)
  • Kelly Sutherland – 18.2% (24 votes)
  • Justin St. Pierre – 5.3% (7 votes)
  • Kyle Rehman – 4.5% (6 votes)
  • Garrett Rank – 3.0% (4 votes)
  • Other vote-getters included:
    • 2 votes: Jean Hebert, Pierre Lambert, T.J. Luxmore, Chris Rooney, Chris Schlenker
    • 1 vote: Francis Charron, Gord Dwyer, Ghislain Hebert, Dan Kelly, Frederick L’Ecuyer, Jonny Murray, Dan O’Rourke, Kevin Pollock, Jordan Samuels-Thomas, Francois St. Laurent, and Corey Syvret

No surprise here to see McCauley and Sutherland in the top two spots by quite a margin.  They’re terrific communicators and pretty well known by both players and fans.  Sometimes, being recognized is more impactful in these polls than just doing your job. 

“He’ll talk to you if you get a penalty,” one player said of McCauley, The Athletic reported.  “He’ll tell you what you did wrong. He’s not one of those selfish guys who will try to take over a game. He’s one of the honest guys.”

Players also commented that they didn’t always know the officials’ names. It’s worth noting that two players selected linesmen – Jonny Murray and Dan Kelly – as their favorite refs.  Safe to say it likely wasn’t Michael Bunting with that pick.   

 

Worst Referee

  • Justin St. Pierre – 29.4% (27 votes)
  • Steve Kozari – 13.0% (12 votes)
  • Wes McCauley – 7.6% (7 votes)
  • Garrett Rank – 6.5% (6 votes)
  • Trevor Hanson – 5.4% (5 votes)
  • Chris Lee – 5.4% (5 votes)
  • Other vote-getters:
    • 3 votes: Francis Charron, Jonny Murray, Chris Rooney, Corey Syvret
    • 2 votes: Cody Beach, Jake Brenk, Furman South, Kelly Sutherland
    • 1 vote: Eric Furlatt, Beau Halkidis, Ghislain Hebert, Marc Joannette, Don Koharski, Frederick L’Ecuyer, T.J. Luxmore, Michael Markovic, Carter Sandlak, and Chris Schlenker

Man, do NHL players hold a grudge.  Justin St. Pierre is out with a long-term injury; he hasn’t worked a game all season. Referee Marc Joannette retired last season and Don Koharski hung up his skates back in 2009. 

Once again, linesman Jonny Murray makes the list.  Not sure what he did here… 

It’s interesting to see the overlap in ‘best’ and ‘worst’ lists. Twelve names showed up on both, which might just indicate that these are some of the more memorable refs — good or bad. 

A number of the ‘worst’ vote recipients are younger officials, some in their first few seasons as full-time refs while others are splitting time between the AHL and NHL.  I suppose that’s somewhat to be expected, as they continue to grow and improve both in the way they call the games and in their relationships with the players. 

 

Most Neutral – or Anonymous – Referees

We’re going to add this category, based on the guys who were left off both lists.  Maybe they’re non-controversial, maybe they call it right down the middle, or maybe they’re just not that memorable — at least by name.  Here’s who missed the cut for best or worst NHL referee:

  • Brandon Blandina
  • Tom Chmielewski
  • Mitch Dunning
  • Peter MacDougall
  • Jon McIsaac
  • Kendrick Nicholson
  • Brandon Schrader
  • Graham Skilliter

 

The full list of responses are in The Athletic’s original post, along with some additional thoughts from the players surveyed.

The Athletic also asked players about their peers – best and worst, overrated and underrated, cities, and jerseys. Check out the full article over at The Athletic.