As a continuation of our series “Ten Tips for How to Become a Hockey Fan“, this article will profile the three best players from every National Hockey League team.
No matter which team you are a fan of, or plan on becoming a fan of, you will know three players right away that you should focus on while watching your club compete.
The NHL’s Best Players
When becoming a hockey fan, choosing a team to root for is important. You might even make your decision to support a team based on who its best players are. Every NHL team has star-caliber talent, and some rosters have more top-tier players than others.
But for the purpose of this article, we are going to take a look at what I believe to be the top three players from each roster to give newer fans a quick overview of the league’s elite competitors.
Anaheim Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks are a team in transition that hasn’t made the postseason since being swept by the San Jose Sharks in the first round in 2018. The best players on this Southern California team come from the front end, the blue line, and between the pipes.
The Ducks have since shed pieces of their old regime moving notable names like Corey Perry and Andrew Cogliano. But some big names still kick around an organization that is attempting to retool without a massive rebuild in order to get back to the playoffs sooner rather than later.
Anaheim has an elite starting goaltender in John Gibson who at 27 years of age is seen as one of the brightest spots on a bit of a shaky roster. Cam Fowler is the No. 1 man on the back end. Though plagued with injuries the 28-year-old is still looked at as a key part of the blueline for the Ducks.
Ryan Getzlaf has been a Duck his entire career starting in the 2005-06 season, winning the Stanley Cup in only his second year in the league. Getzlaf, at 35-years-old, has been the captain in Anaheim since 2010.
The all-star center has amassed 965 points in 1,053 NHL games and although he is on the back-nine of his career, Getzlaf is a key component of the leadership group in Anaheim and likely is a player the Ducks organization will want to keep around to mentor the next generation of young talent as the team looks ahead to the future.
Arizona Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes, much like the Anaheim Ducks, are a team in a bit of a transition. Alex Meruelo took ownership of the Coyotes in the summer of 2019, a regime change that gave Coyotes fans hope for the future. But the sudden departure of General Manager John Chayka and a penalty for combine scouting violations leave the ‘Yotes with an uncertain future.
A massive bright spot for the Arizona Coyotes during the 2019-20 season was the emergence of Darcy Kuemper as an elite goaltender. Kuemper posted a 2.22 GAA and .928 Sv% in 29 regular season starts. The 30-year-old netminder will likely stick around assuming he manages to continue performing at an elite level. Kuemper might also be used as trade bait by the new Coyotes management.
When Clayton Keller was drafted by the Coyotes 7th overall in 2016 he was expected to be a player that would help lead the next generation Coyotes players in Arizona. But with three full seasons in the National Hockey League, it is unclear if Keller will be known as one of the League’s elite, or just a really good player on a team that is desperate for top-tier talent.
The Coyotes made it clear they believe in Keller when they signed the winger to an eight-year 7.15 million dollar contract in September of 2019. Though with the GM who signed him no longer a part of the organization, it is unclear how Keller will be handled by Bill Armstrong’s management team in Arizona.
Another breakout player for the Coyotes during the 2019-20 season was Conor Garland. The second-year winger produced 22 goals and 39 points in 68 games for Arizona and appears to be another player the organization has high hopes for.
Taylor Hall would is certainly be considered one of the best players currently on the Arizona Coyotes’ roster. But with a new contract pending for the 28-year-old winger it is unclear if Hall plans to remain in the desert or if he will be on the move to a team that is built to with the Stanley Cup in the next couple of seasons.
Boston Bruins
There are few teams that have a distinguished top three best players the way the Boston Bruins do. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak have been known as not only the three top talents on the Boston Bruins, but also as three parts of one of the best lines in the National Hockey League.
Other notables like Charlie McAvoy, Torey Krug, David Krejci, and Tuukka Rask could all be in the conversation when discussing elite Bruins, but this so-called (to my disdain) “Perfection Line” contributes too much to the B’s roster on its own to be overlooked.
Pastrnak, Marchand, and Bergeron combined for 238 points during the 2019-20 campaign before the league was forced to cut the regular season short due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
While Bergeron at 35 and Marchand at 32 might certainly be at the backends of their careers, the duo has contributed so much to this Boston lineup over the last decade-plus that it would be impossible not to include them in the top three of even this current roster.
While Bergeron’s points per game might be starting to dip, Marchand with 87 points finished 6th in scoring in the entire league. And David Pastrnak with 48 goals (tying Alex Ovechkin for most in the league) finished 4th in scoring with 95 points. The Bruins will undoubtedly be looking for the 24-year-old right-winger to lead this Bruins’ team into the next decade.
Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres’ elite talent resides solely in Jack Eichel. The 2015 second overall pick is still well over a point per game player even on a roster that gives him very little support.
Great things were expected of Rasmus Dahlin as the first overall pick in 2018, and you could argue on a stronger roster the 20-year-old Swede might be developing a bit quicker. But even on a fumbling Buffalo team, Dahlin produced 40 points in 59 games (36 of which were assists). As far as potential star power goes, Dahlin is certainly the next closest thing to an elite player on this Sabres roster.
Finally, this third pick is a bit of a toss up, but I am going to slot Sam Reinhart in as the third best player on the Buffalo Sabres’s roster. Reinhart was one of only three Sabres to score 20 or more goals in the 2019-20 season and he has been a relatively consistent 20-goal scoring for the duration of his young NHL career.
Much of the controversy surrounding Reinhart can likely be attributed to the fact that his career numbers to this point suggest he was picked no earlier than the back half of the first round instead of second overall in 2014. But despite the high hopes for Reinhart, he has still managed to be a serviceable player for a Sabres team still struggling to find its identity.
Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames. Talk about a team with a lot of name recognition that has struggled to string together a long playoff run. When Calgary drafted Johnny Gaudreau in the 4th round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft few might have seen then the elite talent Gaudreau would become for the Flames.
But after three promising years at Boston College that culminated with a Hobey Baker Award for College Hockey’s best player in 2014, Gaudreau was ready to make his mark on the NHL. And despite current rumors surrounding Gaudreau’s future with the Flames, the 5’9″ winger has had no fewer than 60 points in each full season he has played in Calgary and he is undoubtedly one of the league’s best players.
Following Gaudreau are two players that are slightly newer to the Flames’ roster, one who was acquired through the 2016 NHL Entry Draft in Matthew Tkachuk, and the other through a 2018 trade with the Carolina Hurricanes in Elias Lindholm.
Tkachuk, whose father Keith was an iconic player in his own right, is a scrappy skilled winger who loves to get under his opponents’ skin. He led the Flames in both points and penalty minutes during the 2019-20 season, and much like Brad Marchand in Boston, is a player you love if he is on your team, but despise if he is playing against you.
Lindholm produced 132 points for the Flames in his first two seasons north of the border and, at 25-years-old, will likely be a building block of this franchise moving forward.
Carolina Hurricanes
The revival of Carolina Hurricanes the past two seasons from a team struggling to fill its arena to one with a packed barn and a loud and proud fanbase has been one of my personal favorite stories as a fan of the NHL.
Led on the front end by Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, the future is extremely bright for the ‘Canes. On the backend, Dougie Hamilton seems to finally have found a place to call home after bouncing around from Boston to Calgary and finally to Carolina in that trade for Elias Lindholm I mentioned above.
Look hard enough and you will find plenty of auxiliary pieces like Teuvo Teravainen and Martin Necas that keep this Carolina roster moving smooth, but the duo of Aho and Svechnikov creates an elite core of talent up front that opposing teams have to be aware of any time they are on the ice.
Jaccob Slavin is worth mentioning as Hamilton’s partner on the blueline, but Hamilton’s offensive upside gives him the edge over Slavin as a top three player on the Hurricanes roster.
Chicago Blackhawks
If you are already familiar with the NHL, and you have been a hockey fan over the last decade, then you will be more than familiar with a few of these names. As far as impact players go, you can’t talk about the Chicago Blackhawks without mentioning Patrick Kane. Kane has been a franchise player since being drafted first overall by the Blackhawks in 2007 and has gone on to win three Stanley Cups and amass over a thousand points for the club.
Right next to Kane throughout this iconic run has been Jonathan Toews. Toews has been the captain of the Blackhawks since 2008 and has been known as a leader for this franchise on and off the ice. With 815 points over his career and three Stanley Cups, Toews will undoubtedly go down as one of the best players in franchise history.
For the third player in this section, I have chosen someone that represents the new generation of Blackhawks. Dominik Kubalik has quickly become a fan favorite in Chicago, jumping into the league as a rookie at age 25.
Kubalik scored 30 goals for the Blackhawks in the abbreviated 2019-20 regular season and tacked on another eight points in the nine postseason games Chicago played in the Edmonton bubble. Kubalik also made the top three in voting for the Calder Trophy with Cale Makar (COL) and Quinn Hughes (VAN).
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche have done an incredible job of developing and trading for young talent that has had an immediate impact on turning this team into what appears to be a perennial Stanley Cup contender for years to come.
Led on the front end by Nathan MacKinnon, the Avalanche offense has been at times of being one-dimensional. With MacKinnon and linemate Mikko Rantanen responsible for much of Colorado’s scoring in recent history, GM Joe Sakic bolstered the Avs’ lineup with additions such as Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky which gave the team the depth it needed to fall just one game short of a trip to the Western Conference Finals.
On the back end for the Avalanche is rookie Cale Makar. A Hobey Baker Award Winner and the Hockey East Player of the Year during the 2018-19 season at the UMass-Amherst, Makar made a seamless transition into the NHL with 50 points in 57 games for Colorado in his rookie year. Makar is quickly proving his worth as a franchise player in Colorado for years to come.
Columbus Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets were all but written off following the conclusion of the 2018-19 season when star players Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Matt Duchene all left the team in free agency. But with a handful of their best players now with new franchises, the next level of Columbus players began to emerge.
Beginning with the breakout of Pierre-Luc Dubois, and culminating in a goaltending performance of the decade from Joonas Korpisalo, Blue Jackets fans have a lot more to be hopeful for now than they did heading into the 2019-20 season.
Losing in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning isn’t exactly how Blue Jackets fans would have liked their team’s season to end, but there are many positives to be drawn from a team that is better constructed than many previously believed.
It is no secret that Seth Jones and Zach Werenski are one of the best defensive tandems in the league, and with new-found scoring on the front end, this Blue Jackets team might just be a couple of pieces away from becoming a true Stanley Cup contender.
Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars are yet another team with a skillful mix of young and veteran players. Tyler Seguin has been a star (no pun intended) in Dallas since being traded from Boston in 2013. Seguin has had no fewer than 70 points in every season with Dallas leading up to the 2019-20 campaign where he recorded just 50 points in 69 games.
Jamie Benn has been a Star his entire career after being drafted 129th overall by the club back in 2007. Known as a power forward, Benn is not the same flashy scorer you might see in Seguin. He is certainly no stranger to the penalty box either, and often leads by example even if that means dropping the gloves from time to time. Benn was named captain of the Stars in 2013, and has been a consistent 25-35 goal scorer over his 11-season career.
As far as defense is concerned, Miro Heiskanen has begun to emerge as one of the League’s best young defensemen. Reliable on the backend, Heiskanen has also been producing at over a point-per-game pace during the 2020 postseason and is a massive reason why his team advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. Look for Heiskanen to continue to draw the attention of the hockey world as he develops into one of the greats of this next generation of NHLers.
Detroit Red Wings
You could say 2020 isn’t exactly the most exciting time to be a fan of the Detroit Red Wings. But this Original Six franchise does have a few pieces that are worth talking about even after a historically bad 17-49-5 2019-20 season.
Dylan Larkin is undeniably the best player on this Detroit roster. He produces points on a team that struggles for scoring and is a key building block for a franchise looking to expedite the rebuilding process. Many fans and media members who follow the Red Wings closely expect Larkin will be named the franchise’s next captain leading into the 2020-21 season.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha round out the best players for the Detroit Red Wings. Bertuzzi had just five fewer points than Larkin this past season, and while Mantha produced only 38 points, he did so in just 43 games, making him nearly a point-per-game player on a team that was, at the end of the day, pretty damn bad.
Edmonton Oilers
Anyone who knows anything about the Edmonton Oilers will tell you that Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are the franchise’s two best players. The issue with the Oilers is that it is not terribly clear who comes after that.
On a team with mediocre goaltending and a defensive lineup that leaves you wanting more, you really have to look to the forwards to have hope in this Edmonton team. After Draisaitl and McDavid’s 110 and 97 respective points, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins rounds out the Oilers’ top-three scorers with 61 points during the 2019-20 season.
Though a significant drop off from Draisaitl and McDavid, 61 points is still eight more than Detroit’s No. 1 scorer Dylan Larkin. Most of the controversy surrounding Nugent Hopkins stems from the fact that he was selected first overall in 2011. And while players selected after him in the 2011 draft, Gabriel Landeskog (COL), Jonathan Huberdeau (FLA), Mark Scheifele (WPG), and Dougie Hamilton (CAR) to name a few, have gone on to have successful NHL careers, RNH has struggled.
Of course Edmonton has been a franchise that has struggled to find sustained success for decades now even with the world’s best player in McDavid. So Nugent-Hopkins can hardly shoulder all the blame. But if this team had either an elite defenseman or goaltender, I wouldn’t necessarily be putting Nugent-Hopkins on my list of top three Oilers.
Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers have been clawing tooth and nail for any sort of sustained postseason success for decades. For years the franchise lacked a true star player that you could see leading a team to a Stanley Cup. But those days are over now that Aleksander Barkov has emerged as one the the NHL’s best all-around forwards.
Barkov was drafted second overall by the Panthers in 2013 and was named captain of the club in September 2018. Along with Jonathan Huberdeau as one of the League’s top playmakers, this Florida team is the best it has been in years.
Now with elite goaltending in Sergei Bobrovsky, if this team can find a way to bring all of its pieces together (which likely includes some pretty significant changes on the defensive side of things) they have the potential to at least make regular appearances in the postseason.
Though Bobrovsky had a very much average first season in Florida, the defensemen in front of him did him no favors. With Dale Tallon out and Bill Zito in as General Manager, the Panthers, who scored the sixth-most goals in the 2019-20 season but also allowed the fifth-most against, will need to find a way to address their defensive struggles in order to be taken seriously as a playoff contender.
Los Angeles Kings
The LA Kings are another franchise that is smack-dab in the middle of a rebuild. Long-time names like Tyler Toffoli and Alec Martinez are now with new teams, but the King’s captain and best player, Anze Kopitar, remains.
Kopitar has 950 points in 1,073 games with the Kings and has won the Frank J. Selke Trophy for the NHL’s best two-way forward twice. On defense, Drew Doughty still leads the way on a team in transition. Doughty has won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the League’s best defenseman once in his 11-year NHL career.
On a team that is still ushering in its next wave of top-end talent (which includes the second-overall pick in the 2020 draft) Alex Iafallo is the next young forward in line for recognition on this Kings roster. With 107 points in 227 games over three pro seasons Iafallo isn’t a star-caliber player, but one that provides scoring depth on a team that is reaching to produce goals wherever they can be found.
Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild have been known over the past several years as a team caught in the limbo of mediocrity. Not bad enough to warrant a high draft pick, but not good enough to piece together a postseason run of substance, the arrival of Bill Guerin in the State of Hockey might involve a big shake-up for the Wild.
Ryan Suter still produces points from the blue line, with 40 assists and 48 points in the 2019-20 season. Kevin Fiala seemed to find his footing in his first full season with the Wild after being traded from Nashville, producing a team-high 54 points in 64 games.
With Eric Staal now on his way to Buffalo, Zach Parise slides into the top three best players on the Minnesota Wild. Parise led the team with 25 goals in the 2019-20 season, and while the 36-year-old winger is far past the prime of his career, he has still found a way to find the back of the net on a Wild team that often struggles to find scoring.
Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen to this Wild team in recent years is the signing of KHL star Kirill Kaprizov. Kaprizov was drafted 135th overall by the Wild in 2015, but the club was only just recently able to entice the 23-year-old into signing an entry-level contract that will make him a member of the Wild at the start of the 2020-21 season. Kaprizov has led the KHL in scoring the last two seasons and will be a welcome addition to a roster that needs a bit of help finding the back of the net.
Montreal Canadiens
The 2020 “bubble” postseason was big for the Montreal Canadiens in a couple of ways. First and foremost few expected the Habs to eliminate the high-caliber Pittsburgh Penguins in four games in the play-in round.
The second point of interest, and a huge reason why the Canadiens nearly pushed the Philadelphia Flyers to a game seven in the first round, was the play of new acquisition Nick Suzuki. Suzuki had three goals and two assists in six games against the Flyers, giving Habs fans hope that he will continue to emerge as a young scoring leader for a Canadiens team that has struggled with generating sustained offense while going through a rebuild on-the-fly.
If there is one player anyone should know on the Canadiens its Carey Price. Despite lackluster regular season numbers Price put forth a 1.78 goals against average and .936 save percentage in Montreal’s 10 postseason games with two shutouts as well. Price is paid like an elite goaltender and when he is needed most he produces like one. In front of a solid team Price is still very much a goaltender that can lead a team to a Stanley Cup.
I can’t mention the Montreal Canadien’s postseason performance without talking about Shea Weber. The 35-year-old veteran has been plagued by injury in recent seasons, but his three-goal, two-assist postseason performance, paired with his notorious physical presence, showed me he is still a player that can perform on the big stage. Not to mention he scored 15 goals during the regular season and was a plus-eight on a Canadiens team that gave up the eighth-most regular-season goals.
Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators have taken a pretty hefty step backwards since advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017. A team that was once a reasonably formidable playoff contender is now at a point where it is beginning to question the players at the core of its roster.
Roman Josi led the way with 65 points for the Preds during the 2019-20 regular season. And as spectacular as Josi has played it isn’t exactly a good sign to see a defenseman leading his team in points, by a nearly 20 point margin might I add.
The 2020 Norris Trophy winner, Josi is perhaps the only player on this Nashville team that is free from criticism after now multiple seasons of lackluster performance. The Predators’ once-formidable first line of Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen, and Victor Arvidsson has lost quite a bit of its magic. Forsberg pulled in 21 goals and 48 points in his own right, but for a first-line winger, you expect a bit more.
Jusse Saros has begun transitioning into the starting goaltender role, and perhaps one bright spot for this Nashville roster is that it hasn’t had to face significant issues in net in quite some time, moving relatively smoothly from Pekka Rinne to Saros.
Saros posted a .914 save percentage and 2.70 goals-against average in the 2019-20 season. These numbers alone don’t turn heads, but in front of a more dependable lineup, Saros should have little issue continuing to be a reliable starting netminder.
New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils are another team firmly in the middle of a rebuild. The Devils’ best players likely haven’t emerged as such yet. After moving Blake Coleman to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline, Kyle Palmieri remained as really the only Devil from the former generation that is still scoring goals. Palmieri netted 25 pucks for a Devils team that finished 25th in scoring in the 2019-20 season.
There is no denying Jack Hughes had a disappointing rookie season with the New Jersey Devils, scoring only 21 points in 61 games. But taking a step back, throwing a then 18-year-old player into the NHL on a team that is struggling to find its identity isn’t exactly a recipe for success.
I still have full faith that Hughes will be a prominent player in the NHL as he continues to develop. And with his brother Quinn making headlines in Vancouver, it should inspire hope in Devils fans that a little more time is all the middle Hughes brother needs to become a star for this New Jersey team.
Rounding out my top three best players for the New Jersey Devils is Nico Hischier. The 21-year-old center inked a $50.75 million dollar 7-year contract with the Devils last October, a sign from management that it believes in Hischier’s ability to be a top player for the Devils for seasons to come. Hischier has 135 points in 209 NHL games and the former first overall pick will now be expected to help lead the Devils into playoff contention.
New York Islanders
There are few teams that have more balanced front-end scoring than the New York Islanders. Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson led the way in the 2019-20 regular season with 60 and 54 points respectively. Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, and Jordan Eberle followed in short order with 43, 43, and 40 points.
But what sets Bailey ahead of Lee and Eberle is his recent playoff production. Bailey led the Islanders in the 2020 postseason with 2 goals and 18 assists for 20 points.
This Islanders team isn’t exactly known for playing an exciting brand of hockey but managed to get the job done, advancing to within two wins of the Stanley Cup Final. Credit Barry Trotz in directing the only team that participated in the play-in round that also advanced to the final four.
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers landed the biggest free agent on the market heading into the the 2019-20 season. It was heavily rumored for months heading into the summer of 2019 that Artemi Panarin would be on the move, leaving the Columbus Blue Jackets where he had spent the last two seasons.
Panarin jumped into the Blueshirts’ lineup and the payoff was immediate. The Russian winger scored 32 goals and a whopping 95 points in New York to lead the next-highest Rangers scorer, Mika Zibanejad, by 20 points.
Zibanejad in his own right scored a career-high 41 goals in 57 games and was the Yin to Panarin’s Yang for the duration of the season. The duo combined for nearly a third of the Rangers’ goals during the 2019-20 season, shedding a bright light of positivity on what fans in New York hope will be a quick rebuild.
Rounding out my top-three best players for the New York Rangers is Adam Fox. Quite honestly, I struggled not listing a goaltender in this slot considering the drama currently going on in the Rangers’ crease. But with Igor Shesterkin relatively unproven at the NHL level, and Henrik Lundqvist likley on the way out, I decided against it.
In 2019, Fox was a finalist for the Hobey Baker award in his third and final year at Harvard. In his first season with the Rangers, Fox produced 42 points and recorded a plus/minus of 22. He led all Rangers defensemen in points by a wide margin and will be an important building block for a Rangers franchise that is setting its sights back on Stanley Cup contention.
Ottawa Senators
The Ottawa Senators are a team in the middle of a rebuild, and with two picks in the top five (No. 3 & No. 5), this roster could look very different heading into the 2020-21 season. The best players on this roster start with Brady Tkachuk and really ends with Connor Brown and Thomas Chabot.
You could toss Anthony Duclair in the top three as well, and he did have a decent 40-point season in Ottawa, but a player who has played on five teams over a six-year career is sometimes hard to trust, and only the future will tell if this season really is the start of something great for Duclair.
Out of any of the names here, Brady Tkachuk is the only one I see as emerging as a true stud player in this lineup. His brother Matt is a star in Calgary, and his father had an extensive NHL career as well. Brady led Sens scoring with 21 goals and 44 points on what, at the end of the day, was a pretty bad Senators team.
With two high picks in this year’s draft, this Senators roster could look very different very soon, but for now, this is who you can expect to see producing for a team still quite a ways away from competing for a Stanley Cup.
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers made waves in the hockey world with their performance in the Eastern Conference bubble. The Flyers won all three of their round-robin games against the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Washington Capitals. Philadelphia dispatched a pesky Montreal Canadiens team in six games before falling to the New York Islanders in seven.
Carter Hart had a .926 save percentage, a 2.23 goals against average with two shutouts in 14 postseason games for the Flyers. The 22-year-old Philadelphia netminder has really shown recent signs that he will develop into the elite goaltender the Flyers need him to be. And while the Flyers’ Cinderella story was cut abruptly short, this playoff experience will likely prove invaluable to younger players like Hart.
Kevin Hayes stepped up in a big way for the Flyers in the 2020 postseason. Hayes led the Flyers scoring with four goals and nine assists in 16 games, and what stood out to me throughout this run for Hayes was his elite playmaking abilities that led to some truly stunning goals.
Rounding out the Flyers’ top three best players is Travis Konecny. Now I’ll start by saying that Konecny had an underwhelming postseason. For a nearly point-per-game player that led the Flyers in scoring during the regular season, Konecny was only able to muster up seven assists over 16 playoff games.
Critics of Konecny have argued that if he had been the same player in the playoffs that the team saw during the regular season, it might have been enough to propel Philadelphia into an Eastern Conference meetup with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
All of that said, players like Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, which you would traditionally see in the top-three on Flyers teams of the past, really haven’t moved the needle for me as of late.
Konecny’s poor postseason performance could be an argument for slotting him out for one of the two veteran names above, but if we take into account the fact that Konecny, at 23 years of age, is still on the way up as far as his skill trajectory is concerned, while Giroux and Voracek are on the way down, I feel more than comfortable with this top-three ranking.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Unlike the Philadelphia Flyers, the household names fans are used to associating with this Penguins franchise are still very much top-three players in this lineup. Evgeni Malkin led Pittsburgh in scoring during the 2019-20 season with 74 points in just 55 games. Sidney Crosby was also more than a point-per-game player with 47 points in 41 games.
An extremely disappointing and brief stint in the Toronto bubble that ended in a four-game elimination at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens leaves the Penguins management searching for answers. When three of your top four point producers are over the age of 30, and you are in “win now” mode to try and squeeze the last few good years out of them, things get a bit tricky.
Jake Guentzel was the third-highest point-producing player for this Pens team during the 2019-20 season after Crosby and Malkin. Guentzel is one of the few players on the Penguins’ roster that symbolizes what the next era of hockey might look like in Pittsburgh. And with 40 goals in the 2018-19 season and 20 in less than half as many games the following year, Guentzel will likely be a key component of this Penguins’ roster for seasons to come.
San Jose Sharks
Life sometimes comes at you fast, and few teams know that better than the San Jose Sharks. After finding themselves two wins short of a Stanley Cup Final appearance during the 2018-19 playoffs, the Sharks weren’t even able to put together a winning record in a 2019-20 season that put the Sharks among the seven NHL teams that did not qualify for the League’s return-to-play plan.
Logan Couture and Evander Kane lead the way for the Sharks on the front end. Couture, San Jose’s captain, is perhaps one of the more under-appreciated two-way forwards in the League. Kane, on the other hand, is a goal scorer that brings quite a bit of grit and attitude to the Sharks lineup.
While I have never personally been a huge fan of Erik Karlsson, largely because I believe defensemen should actually be able to defend for their team, it is undeniable that Karlsson is still a significant point-producing asset for any team from the blue line. Karlsson tallied 34 assists for 40 points in 56 games for San Jose. And at age 30, the Swedish superstar should still have a few more impactful years ahead of him in the Bay Area, though his injury history might be a reason for concern in that department.
St. Louis Blues
After winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history, the St. Louis Blues found their 2019-20 season cut abruptly short in a six-game series loss at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks. General Manager Doug Armstrong is going to have his work cut out for him this offseason as it appears that contract extension talks with Blues’ captain and UFA Alex Pietrangelo have begun to sour.
The Blues still have a solid roster that includes players like Ryan O’Reilly, the 2019 Conn Smythe winner, Brayden Schenn, and Colton Parayko.
To be clear, if Pietrangelo’s future in St. Louis was certain, he would certainly be included among the Blues’ top-three. But it isn’t, so he’s not.
I might have tossed David Perron into the top-three if the 2019-20 season didn’t feel like an abnormality for a player that has only scored 20 goals twice in the last six years of his career. Meanwhile, Schenn is routinely a 50-70 point player for the Blues. Even though he does seem to score in spurts, he is still a core part of this lineup.
After Pietrangelo, Parayko is the next-most trusted part of the Blues’ blueline. The 27-year-old logs an average of 23 minutes per game for St. Louis, and pending Pietrangelo’s potential departure, Parayko’s role on this team might become just that more significant.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning were easily the most difficult team to select just three players from to highlight for the purpose of this article. There is not a team in the National Hockey League that is as well-rounded and intimidating as the Lightning. From high-powered scoring to shutdown defense and goaltending this team has it all.
Nikita Kucherov is as dominant a scorer as any in the NHL. The Russian winger posted 33 goals and 52 assists for Tampa during the regular season and has 26 points in 20 postseason games as the Lightning head into game two of the Cup Final against the Dallas Stars.
Brayden Point, at 24 years old, is the best young player in this Tampa lineup and is deserving of a top-three spot on this team. Point has one fewer point (no pun intended) than Kucherov this postseason in two fewer games played. He produced 64 points in 66 games for Tampa in the regular season.
It is impossible to not include 2018 Norris Trophy winner and 2020 finalist Victor Hedman in the top-three best players for this franchise. Hedman is not only a shutdown defenseman on the back end, he is also responsible for nine postseason goals for the Lightning these playoffs. Hedman is a whopping plus 17 in 20 games for Tampa this postseason which leads all players.
Understandably, some folks may question my decision to leave Tampa’s captain Steven Stamkos out of the top-three selection. While Stamkos was over a point-per-game player in the regular season, and has been a bonafide star on this roster for years, his injury history gives me pause.
Stamkos hasn’t been able to participate in the 2020 postseason at all after sustaining a leg injury in workouts during the League’s return-to-play preseason. Stamkos recovered from core muscle surgery in early March and would have been otherwise ready to participate if it had not been for the new injury.
There are rumors that Stamkos might make it back in time to participate in the Cup Final but because other star players like Point have stepped up in Stamkos’ absence, I have left him out of Tampa Bay’s top-three best players ranking.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Well, ranking the top three best players on the Toronto Maple Leafs is easy. It’s figuring out how to construct the rest of the lineup that has given Leafs management headaches.
John Tavares signed a seven-year $77 million contract with the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2018, a move that took the hockey world by storm. The former New York Islanders captain has produced 148 points in his two seasons in Toronto making him just over a point-per-game player in that time.
Auston Matthews led that way in scoring for the Leafs during the 2019-20 season with 47 goals and 80 points. In a time when Leafs management is taking a good hard look at changes that need to be made to this club up and down the roster, Matthews is seen as one of the maybe two untouchable pieces in this lineup. A star player in nearly every aspect, though some have questioned the maturity of the 23-year-old center, I’d expect Matthews to stick around in Toronto for years to come.
Finally, Mitch Marner rounds out the top-three best players for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Second in scoring for the Leafs in the 2019-20 season with 67 points in 59 games, Marner is now getting paid to be a top-tier player for this Toronto franchise and so far he is producing like one.
Barring any blockbuster moves, the core of this Leafs team will likely return next season despite its dismal postseason performance. But as the hockey world has seen with the Tampa Bay Lightning, sometimes when you have a strong core group, a few tweaks to the supporting cast is enough to massively alter playoff success. All eyes are on Toronto, as usual.
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks certainly turned some heads in the 2020 postseason, advancing to one win from a birth in the Western Conference Final. I have been high on this young Canucks roster for some time now, and I still expect Vancouver to be one of the best franchises in this next decade.
Led by Elias Pettersson on the front end and Quinn Hughes on the back, credit goes to the Canucks scouting crew for finding two foundational building blocks for their franchise outside of the top-four picks in both the 2017 and 2018 NHL Entry Drafts.
A dynamic scorer and playmaker, Pettersson packs a lot of power into his lean 176 lb frame. Hughes, also a lanky 170 lb defenseman, was a finalist for the 2020 Calder Trophy with 45 assists and 53 points in his abbreviated 68-game rookie season. In only 17 career postseason games, Hughes has already given the hockey world a taste of what it can expect from him in the years ahead.
Rounding out the top-three best players for the Vancouver Canucks is the team’s captain, Bo Horvat. Horvat padded a 53-point regular season with a ten-goal performance in the postseason, which includes the beautiful finish above in OT against the Blues in the first round.
Honorable mention goes to J.T. Miller for what was an incredible, yet abnormal, season. The 27-year-old scored 72 points for the Canucks in his first season with the team. A franchise-high, I am not ready to pencil J.T. Miller in as a perennial point-per-game player, but if Miller continues to produce at a similar pace for this Canucks team, it can be only a positive for a franchise poised to do great things in the upcoming seasons.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights were my favorite to come out of the West this season before goal-scoring dried up against Vancouver and then the Dallas Stars.
Mark Stone, who at a glance might look about six years older than his 28 years of age, has been the player Vegas was looking for and then some when they inked the former Ottawa Senator to an eight-year contract worth an AAV of $9.5 million. In his first season with Vegas, Stone was just about a point-per-game player with 63 points in 65 games. In 20 postseason games, Stone was second in points on the Vegas roster to only Shea Theodore.
Shea Theodore has finally emerged as the player the Golden Knights were hoping he would be when they acquired the 25-year-old defenseman from the Anaheim Ducks during the franchise’s expansion draft. Theodore produced 19 points in 20 games in the postseason for Vegas, and was a great story for a team that felt it was eliminated from Stanley Cup contention prematurely.
With the caveat that I am still not sure what the Golden Knights’ goaltending will look like heading into the 2020-21 season, I have decided to include Reilly Smith in the top-three best players for the Vegas Golden Knights. Smith, a player not widely talked about around the league, produced 27 goals for the Golden Knights in the abbreviated 2019-20 season. Smith continued his production into the postseason, finishing third in scoring behind Theodore and Stone.
Because Vegas has such a well-rounded lineup they don’t have to rely on scoring from just a few elite players. This is a team that really does win by committee and Smith is an important cog in that machine. Expect Vegas management to only tinker with this roster in the offseason and run a similar Golden Knights team into the 2020-21 season.
Washington Capitals
When you think Washington Capitals the first name that comes to mind, as it should be, is Alex Ovechkin. Ovi scored 48 goals in the 2019-20 season which tied him with David Pastrnak in Boston for most in the league. The 35-year-old Russian really doesn’t need much introduction, and all indications are showing that he still has a few elite seasons left in him before we start hearing about his inevitable retirement.
John Carlson produced at an unheard of point-per-game pace for the Washington Capitals from the backend during the 2019-20 campaign. With 60 assists and 75 points, Carlson led all Capitals players in points while also maintaining a plus/minus of 12. Carlson was a finalist for the Norris Trophy this season with Roman Josi and Victor Hedman and is the favorite to win the award.
Nicklas Backstrom has been Ovechkin’s right-hand man for well over a decade in Washington, and he is still one of the top-producing players on this Capitals roster. Backstrom tallied 54 points in 61 games during the 2019-20 season. At age 32, Backstrom is proving he is still the play-making center that has made him a popular name around the NHL.
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets are a franchise that looked as though they were going to be a regular Stanley Cup contender a few seasons ago. But untimely injuries and the loss of Dustin Byfuglien has put this franchise in an interesting place.
Led on the front end by Mark Scheifele and Kyle Conner, this Jets roster doesn’t necessarily have a scoring problem. But with a shaky backend, this Jets team needs Scheifele and Connor to continue to be the point-per-game players they were during the regular season.
In net, Connor Hellebuyck had a season that awarded him a Vezina Trophy as the League’s best goaltender. With a goals-against-average of 2.57 and save percentage of .922, Hellebuyck’s performance in Winnipeg has been at elite at best, yet the middle of the pack at its worst.
Future success for this team will be dictated by the consistency of play from Hellebuyck in net, what moves GM Kevin Cheveldayoff continues to make on the blue line, and the health of Mark Scheifele who is recovering from a scary injury suffered just 5:29 into Game 1 of the team’s play-in matchup with the Calgary Flames.
This article has been updated from its original form to include the results of NHL awards.
Interested in reading more? Head over to our blog section!
Follow The Puck Review on social media below!
