It’s not easy being a hockey hipster. Sometimes it can be rather exhausting keeping your finger on the pulse of the hockey world, accurately gauging the appreciation level of certain players and teams. It’s a dynamic process, and it’s constantly fluctuating. For instance, Clarke MacArthur would’ve most definitely been atop this list prior to the season, but casual hockey fans should be aware of his prowess at this point (on-pace for nearly 30 goals and 60-plus points, playing on Ottawa’s top line). So he’s not included below, but it has nothing to do with my appreciation for him. You could lump Justin Williams into the same boat, amongst others. They’re just too mainstream at this point.

In no particular order, here’s your All-Hipster Team forwards through the ~50-game mark of the 2013-14 NHL season. Defensemen and goalies will run on Saturday


FORWARDS

Mikael Backlund, Calgary Flames: As an observer from a distance, it’s to see the Calgary Flames commit to tanking this season, after years of being in the least-desirable position imaginable for a professional franchise — not good enough to make the playoffs or make any sort of serious run, but not bad enough to get a valuable pick in the entry draft. Usually a good strategy for blowing it all up is to get rid of spare, older parts, returning either draft picks or prospects that’ll at least in theory be able to be of use once you’re ready to compete. But there’s a fine line there that needs to be walked, because you never want to go full Edmonton Oilers; you still need talent in place to guide the young players you’re bringing in, so that the whole operation doesn’t become one prolonged tire fire.

The Flames seem cognizant of that, as they’ve re-signed Matt Stajan for a few years, and will probably wind up bringing a guy like Lee Stempniak back as well. Another player that they’d be wise to keep on their roster is Backlund, who is a prototypical example of a “post-hype sleeper.” The Flames took him in the 1st round back in 2004, and I’d wager that the casual fan over there is pretty disappointed with the Backlund Era as a whole. From a counting stats standpoint, he peaked back in 2010-11 with a measly 10 goals and 25 points ... so why is he on this list?

Something that’ll quickly become apparent on the list is the importance of a player's ability to hang from a two-way perspective, driving play against tougher competition and providing things other than goals and assists. Those are important, no doubt, but the former is something that’ll (theoretically) translate into the latter if it’s sustained over time.

Lost in the shuffle of everything that has happened in Calgary this season — the Brian Burke hiring, the line brawl in Vancouver, all those losses — is that Backlund is in the midst of a pretty nice little campaign as the team’s top center. He is playing the toughest competition the opposing team has to offer (0.986 Corsi Rel QoC), he starts only 45.5 percent of his shifts on the offensive zone, and still, he’s managing an impressive 11.5 Corsi Rel (which granted, is boosted by the incompetence of most of his teammates, but is still second best on the team behind Michael Cammalleri’s 14.8). He also has a plus-5 penalty differential, which is something that’s often taken for granted, but remains very important.

Backlund's name has been floated around in trade rumors quite frequently over the past couple of seasons. He’s a player that has been somewhat slow to develop, but ultimately one that’s turning into a keeper for the Flames. If I were a GM of another team, I would be calling Burke on a daily basis, offering a (less useful) bigger player for Backlund. If he can be had for less than he’s actually worth, that trend will continue as long as he’s skating with players who suppress his counting stats. It's $1.5 million well spent.

Zemgus Girgensons, Buffalo Sabres: Life is full of regrets, and one of those for yours truly is not having asked for a Girgensons jersey with a big ol’ C on the front of it for Christmas this year. The problem with waiting until next Christmas is that Girgensons could come out guns a-blazin’ to start the 2014-15 campaign, leaving me with something of a moral dilemma. This reminds me of that time I strongly contemplated getting myself a Ryan Kesler jersey the summer before he scored 40 goals and single-handedly win his team a playoff round. I would’ve carried around the receipt with me every time I wore the jersey in public, to prove the people that I had bought in on the player before he had actually blown up. These are the sorts of things I think about/deal with on a daily basis.

Aside from having quite possibly the best name in the business (all aboard the Zemgus Train!), he’s also actually wildly underrated at the moment. He’s currently tied for the third-best penalty differential in the league (a whopping plus-12), and has the best underlying numbers out of any Sabres regular (a 6.2 Corsi Relative while not being sheltered in the slightest). All of that is despite being thrown in as bad a situation as possible (playing down the middle, as a rookie, on the Buffalo Sabres), he has managed to wade his way through the stink relatively unscathed.

I’ve come to terms with my lack of rationality about Girgensons. Now let’s just hope that I can get my hands on that jersey before you.

Mika Zibanejad, Ottawa Senators: Travis Yost — an Ottawa Senators blogger, most notably known for run-ins with Ukranian hackers, and producing fine work — has been all-in on Zibanejad since Day 1. He wrote this prior to Zibanejad being cut out of camp. In hindsight it’s kind of inexplicable that the Senators sent Zibanejad, probably one of their best few forwards, down to the AHL for the first three weeks of the season in favor of J.G. Pageau or Stephane De Costa, but they did.

On a related note, they started the year in a major funk, unable to control possession worth a lick. Some people had them as a trendy pick to make a dent in the East, maybe even representing it in the Stanley Cup Final. There was certainly a lot more going on with them early in the year than just the absence of D.J. Z-Bad; Craig Anderson couldn’t stop a beach ball, the team had one top-four defenseman on its roster, and Jason Spezza fell off of a proverbial cliff. Zibanejad, though, could've added something.

Back on Dec. 6th, Yost wrote the following:

The first question I’m sure I’ll get: “Who is better, Mika Zibanejad or Clarke MacArthur?” Zibanejad has the better raw numbers, but he’s also played much easier competition to-date. These things are sort of important. I think the easy (albeit cop-out) answer to this is, “They’re both good. Damn good.” Gun to my head, I’ll take MacArthur.

The fact that it’s even a discussion speaks volumes about how good a player Zibanejad is (look how favorably he compares to some of the other big names youngsters out there). And considering that he may have fallen off people’s radars following his demotion, his inclusion is justified despite his standing in the prospect world as recently as two years ago.

Brandon Saad, Chicago Blackhawks: I probably spent more time debating whether or not to include Saad than any other player. On one hand, he plays on the Chicago Blackhawks (the league’s premiere team), and he finished third in Calder Trophy voting last season, so most people are probably aware of his prowess. But on the other hand, I still don’t think that the casual fan quite appreciates how good he is/will be very soon, which is kind of the point of this whole thing. Plus it’s my list, so I make the rules. And I want Brandon Saad on it!

He spent an overwhelmingly majority of his rookie campaign being the third wheel on the Jonathan Toews/Marian Hossa line, which is a spot that Patrick Sharp has taken back now that he’s healthy. If you were expecting his numbers to take a dip due to the less favorable circumstances (and the sophomore shmoshmore fhloshmoresdhsdomore slump), you would’ve been wrong, because they’re pretty much where they were last year. He’s still a positive possession player, despite moving from Toews/Hossa to Patrick Kane/Andrew Shaw (and some Michal Handzus/Bruan Bickell).

It'd be nice to see him handle some tougher minutes, but the Blackhawks basically always have the puck, and it’s hard to fault him for something like this because we don’t know whether he’d be able to do it if asked). More importantly, I’d like to see him increase his shots/60 rate, which currently hovers are a more than pedestrian 6.75/60. But that’s nitpicking, because every time I watch the Blackhawks play I’m blown away by how dangerous Saad looks. It’s hard to appropriately describe it, but he’s one of those guys that looks like he’s always up to snuff. I think he’s going to wind up being a special, special player.

Tyler Bozak, Toronto Maple Leafs: … Just kidding.

Sean Bergenheim, Florida Panthers: You know who doesn’t need to increase his shot rate? Bergenheim, who’s 12th in the league amongst players with more than 300 minutes of action (10.78/60). That’s been something of a calling card of his over the course of his career. His best season as an NHLer came back in 2011-12 — remember that time the Panthers went to the playoffs and stuff? — when he scored 17 goals in 62 games, and was in the top-10 in shots/60. Unfortunately the most important stat re: Bergenheim is that “62 games” one, because he has much missed significant time with injuries in all but two seasons since being a first-rounder back in 2002. Following that career year, he got hurt overseas during the lockout and missed the following 18 months.

He’s finally back out on the ice now for the Panthers, and has been a big part of one of the hottest lines in the entire league, “The Killer Bs”. In this 230 or so 5v5 minutes that Bergenheim, Barkov, and Boyes have shared the ice, the Florida Panthers have controlled ~56 percent of all shot attempts. It’s a pretty fascinating combination if you think about it; a top prospect, a veteran guy who no one was really buying into this past summer despite his awesome production next to a star (to be fair, he was probably more of a cap casualty than anything else), and a guy who can never stay healthy.

If they keep playing like they have, Bergenheim could conceivably be a 25-goal scorer (which is much more impressive than you may think in today’s NHL), but unfortunately as has always been the case with Bergenheim, the question is far more about health than skill. That concern is particularly prevalent with him as he approaches the age of 30, and Peter Horachek feeds him a higher volume of minutes than he has ever had at any point of his career.

Nathan Gerbe, Carolina Hurricanes: I started compiling this list a few days ago, and Gerbe was on it. And then he did his best to speed up the inevitable. That specific play was a nice little bit of vindication, but the fact of the matter is that Gerbe has been a godsend for the Carolina Hurricanes as they’ve been battled Alex Semin’s injuries, Eric Staal and Jiri Tlusty’s regression to the mean, and Kirk Muller’s inexplicable hatred of Jeff Skinner for most of the season.

If you’ll recall. Gerbe was a player that the Buffalo Sabres bought out this past summer — because they have so much talent and deploying Nathan Gerbe as well would’ve just been unfair and mean to the rest of the league — and one that kicked around without a job for a while, before the Canes finally offered him a two-way contract. There were at least a handful of other teams that would’ve done well to snatch him up on the cheap ($550,000 are you kidding me?).

Gerbe has flourished in Carolina playing next to Jordan Staal, as the two have controlled 54.1 percent of all shot attempts, and 60.9 percent of all goals together at 5v5. All while facing the opposition’s best. He’s a great story, being one of a handful of particularly small-in-stature players that is succeeding at the NHL level despite being overlooked by many due to his size. It’s because of that, that he’s a player that’s fun to root for. Well, that, and plays like the one he pulled off on Wednesday.

Antoine Roussel, Dallas Stars: Roussel is the prototypical ‘you love him if he’s on your team, but absolutely despise him if he’s not’ player. He’s basically a refined version of Max Lapierre, in almost every single way (including the fact that he’s actually French… like, from France, the country.). I’m honestly kind of surprised he hasn’t come out to address a road crowd during an intermission, cutting a wrestling-style heel promo in which he forgets which city he’s in, then trashes the crowd’s favorite football team.

He’s annoying as hell; he runs his mouth, and he seems to take a great amount of satisfaction in getting under his opposition’s skin. Probably because he’s good at it. The fact that he has just the right amount of skills to make you pay if you devote your energy towards thinking about him, and chasing after him, only heightens his powers. He starts very few shifts in the offensive zone, but often ends up there by the end of his shift, moving the needle for his team in the positive direction.

I’d like to think that we’ll live in a world one day where Roussel-types have replaced Kevin Westgarth/Colton Orr-types, where all 18 skaters in the lineup can play hockey without being a liability to their team. I feel like we’re headed there, slowly but surely. The Stars shouldn't be in any sort of hurry to see that happen though; they’re currently reaping the rewards of being one of a handful of teams to dress him rather than your typical goon. It would behoove the 29 other teams in the league to take note, here.

Tyler Toffoli, Los Angeles:  Let’s let Robert P., the head honcho at a fine Los Angeles Kings blog (Jewels From the Crown) take the floor.

It’s not enough to say a player has been struggling just because he hasn’t scored a goal in 10 or so games. It is better to dig deeper. And when we dig deeper, all of the underlying evidence points to the fact that Tyler Toffoli has played very well since being called up and the Kings are a weaker team without him in the line-up.

Robert P. is right on the money; the way the Kings have handled Toffoli this year has been rather perplexing. Despite looking quite adept in last season’s playoff run, the Kings ultimately chose to send Toffoli back down to the AHL for some seasoning to start the year. Seems odd that a team that’s 22nd in the league in goals/game would send down one of their best bets to light the lamp. Toffoli has scored 50-plus goals in the OHL on two different occasions, and has 39 goals in 72 career games at the AHL level. He didn’t get very much ice time in his time up at the NHL level this year, yet he still managed to put up 17 points in 33 games while being a possession beast. He struggled in the final little stretch before being sent back down, but as Robert notes:

Looking at goal scoring over a short stretch of games can give you a false impression of a player because shooting percentage numbers can get really out of whack in small samples. It’s better to look at how many goals we’d expect a player to score based on his shot rates and use reasonable estimates in shooting percentage over the long haul, rather than focus in on a short term slump or hot streak. It gives us a big picture view of the situation and lessens the chance that we’d get fooled by short-term randomness, thereby giving us more realistic expectations of a player.”

Hopefully, we’ll see a Brown-Kopitar-Williams, Carter-Richards-Toffoli top-6 come playoff time for the Kings. Thankfully (or maybe unthankfully for the rest of the Pacific Division?) the Kings have atoned for their error, and have called him back up. Look out.

The Tampa Bay Lightning (Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn): If I could pack my bags and move to Tampa Bay to cover the Lightning full-time for the next 8-10 years. I’d be on the first flight out of town. That’s how passionately I feel about this team, which has been assembled to perfection by Steve Yzerman and his staff. I’m not sure how much credit to give Yzerman himself for it, how much credit to give his scouting department, and how much credit to give flat-out luck, so I’ll just lump them together.

Martin St. Louis is truly a marvel, but he’s not the undersized forward I want to take this time to give some love to — instead, it’s Tyler Johnson, who is listed at 5'9 (meaning that he’s actually probably closer to 5'7 or so). He doesn’t crack this list of shortest players in the NHL, but if I were constructing my own personal favorites it would read something like:

1. Martin St. Louis 	2. Tyler Johnson 	3. Brendan Gallagher 	4. Mats Zuccarello 	5. Nathan Gerbe

Johnson has 23 points in 34 games since stepping in as the team’s top center once Stamkos got hurt, and has the sort of underlying data to his name that would lead me to believe that the aforementioned production is both legit and sustainable. He, St.Louis, and Ondrej Palat (another find by the Lightning) have formed a very successful top unit in Tampa Bay. The three of them control ~55 percent of all shot attempts at 5v5 when together, and 70 percent of all goals. Those are bonafide top line numbers, from a trio that wouldn’t have necessarily struck you as a dangerous combination 2 months ago.

Meanwhile, Alex Killorn has been largely successful on a 2nd line with Valtteri Filppula/Teddy Purcell, and Radko Gudas, well, he’s just awesome. We'll get to him tomorrow, with the defensemen.

Dimitri Filipovic is the managing editor of Canucks Army, a Sporting News partner. Follow on on Twitter: @DimFilipovic.