Summer Talent Tiers: Wingers

Travis Yost

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Our multi-series Talent Tiers continues this week, with our attention turned to the wing position.

Click through for our deep dives on the goaltending and defensive depth charts posted earlier in the month. Now, it’s time to analyze the wingers, with thoughts for all 32 teams below.

Anaheim Ducks (T4) - Cutter Gauthier and Troy Terry will draw the eyes, but Anaheim did a nice job ensuring there’s veteran support behind them. Frank Vatrano, Alex Killorn, Chris Kreider, and Mikael Granlund (who can play centre or on the wing) have combined to play in nearly 3,400 games – and counting.

Boston Bruins (T2) - It’s easy to run out of superlatives to describe the dominance of David Pastrnak, so I’ll try something short and to the point: no player in the league has scored more regular-season goals than Pasta’s 151 over the past three years, six ahead of the wondrous Leon Draisaitl.

Buffalo Sabres (T4) - Colour me concerned this team can adequately replace the loss of J.J. Peterka, who I anticipate will have a monster year with Utah. What this organization needs now is a breakout season from Jack Quinn, the former eighth-overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Quinn has put together two decent scoring seasons (37 points in 2022-23, and 39 points last year) and solidified his NHL role, but the Sabres are banking on Quinn developing into a bona fide top-six forward.

Calgary Flames (T5) - Jon Huberdeau calmed a lot of nerves with his 28-goal rebound season in 2024-25, mirroring production of forwards like Vegas’ Jack Eichel and Nashville’s Steven Stamkos. Now focus can shift to a broader problem: only Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri (35 goals) produced like top-six calibre skaters last year. More offence is sorely needed.

Carolina Hurricanes (T2) - Nikolaj Ehlers is one of the league’s most dynamic attackers and there’s a big reason why Carolina bid aggressively for him this summer: he has proven he can produce in any scenario. Two seasons ago, he doubled up the opposition (30 to14 in even-strength goal differential) with Mark Scheifele. Last year, he did the same damage with Vlad Namestnikov (and Cole Perfetti). Now in Carolina, he’ll run the attack with names like Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, and Seth Jarvis. There’s good reason to believe the scoring continues.

Chicago Blackhawks (T4) - It's rare you see journeymen depth forwards have breakout seasons at the age of 29, but that's what the Chicago Blackhawks witnessed a year ago with Ryan Donato. Donato's 31-goal season seemingly came out of nowhere, and he parlayed it into a fresh four-year contract extension.

Colorado Avalanche (T3) – I’m intrigued to see if Gabriel Landeskog can be the same player he was before his multi-year rehabilitation from a knee injury. Whatever the case, his return to the ice remains a remarkable accomplishment.

Columbus Blue Jackets (T5) - It’s a shallow group, but Kirill Marchenko has emerged as one of the league’s better attackers from the wing. He has 54 goals in the past two seasons, comparable to skaters like Vegas’ Mitch Marner and Utah’s Peterka.

Dallas Stars (T2) - One of the highlights of last season was Mikko Rantanen’s scorching postseason run, with 22 points in 18 games. If Dallas gets the 104-point Rantanen we saw in Colorado back in 2023-24, this group is going to be a nightmare to deal with.

Detroit Red Wings (T3) - Lucas Raymond is a top 50 goal scorer over the past two seasons, one goal shy of a player the calibre of Vegas’ Eichel and his 59 goals. With Raymond producing like this on an $8-million per year contract at the age of 23, it has the chance to chance to age as gracefully as any contract in the league.

Edmonton Oilers (T3) - The Andrew Mangiapane signing was sorely needed and filled a critical role in their middle six. Not only is he a regular point producer, here’s something else to consider: he’s never finished a season with a negative on-ice goal differential at even strength.

Florida Panthers (T1) - This is as close to The Avengers as you can get – a freakish collection of ultra-talented two-way players who dominate games with physicality and effectiveness. The trio of Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell, and Brad Marchand was an unstoppable force during their march to the title last season, stifling the neutral zone against the league’s best forwards with relative ease. I see no reason why we won’t see a repeat of the same in 2025-26, though Matthew Tkachuk’s health is still up in the air.

Los Angeles Kings (T1) - The strength of this lineup is at the wing position, and it starts with Adrian Kempe. His on-ice dominance over the past three seasons is among the league’s elite. Los Angeles has been +1.1 goals per 60 minutes played with Kempe on the ice since the 2022-23 regular season, a number identical to that of Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.

Minnesota Wild (T1) — When Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek are in the lineup, the Wild are just a different animal to deal with. Both missed significant time last season and it showed in the standings, but consider the on-ice dominance for each over the past three seasons: Kaprizov (+39) and Eriksson Ek’ (+30) staggering on-ice dominance at even strength has been accomplished on a Minnesota team that is eight goals under water over the same timeframe.

Montreal Canadiens (T3) - This grade may be looking ahead a bit, but I am anticipating furious production from Ivan Demidov in his first NHL season. Demidov saw a handful of games late last season and looked every bit the playmaker he was billed as after a dominant year one with KHL St. Petersburg. Despite playing in the KHL at just 19 years old, Demidov led the team in scoring with 49 points.

Nashville Predators (T4) - Nashville sorely needs a bounce-back season from 35-year-old Jonathan Marchessault, in the second season of a five-year deal. Marchessault was brought in to bring in productive veteran experience to create depth beyond Filip Forsberg, but year one was not encouraging. Amidst Nashville’s broader downturn, Marchessault scored just 21 goals – half the number he produced his final year in Vegas, and, on a per-game basis, his slowest rate of production in a decade.

New Jersey Devils (T3) - Jesper Bratt has produced four straight 70+ point seasons and hit a new all-time high (88 points) in the 2024-25 campaign on a base of 67 assists. Bratt’s established himself as a first line-calibre playmaker for years now and his 67 helpers last year put him inside of the top five leaguewide, sandwiched between McDavid and Eichel. Impressive company, to state the obvious!

New York Islanders (T4) - Keep an eye out for Maxim Shabanov, a 24-year-old Russian winger anticipated to draw into the Islanders lineup this season. The small, agile playmaker was a production factory in his final season with the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk, scoring 67 points in 65 games.

New York Rangers (T4) - In terms of known quantities on Broadway, there’s Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere, and then there’s just about everyone else. The Rangers are betting on several promising, albeit inexperienced options filling out the rest of the top nine, with Will Cuylle, Adam Edstrom, Brett Berard and Gabe Perreault chief among them. Even with two full seasons under Cuylle’s belt, this is a group that’s going to have some learning moments: the four skaters have just a combined 269 games played.

Ottawa Senators (T3) - Similar to the defence, Ottawa positions itself respectably on the depth chart at wing because there are no notable areas of concern. Brady Tkachuk will grab every headline and deservedly so, but it’s hard to find a weakness on any of the presumptive four lines the Senators are set to deploy this year. That said, there’s no doubt the Senators are hoping for a bit more from trade-deadline acquisition Fabian Zetterlund. He was a flashy scorer in the San Jose system but ended up with just two goals in 26 games in year one with Ottawa. If Zetterlund wants to play inside of the top nine, the production needs to come fast and furious out of camp.

Philadelphia Flyers (T4) - It’s hard to think of a player I’m more excited to watch this season than Matvei Michkov, who, despite Philadelphia’s on-ice futility last season, looked every bit the elite first-line scorer he was billed as when taken seventh overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. Michkov found immediate success playing with Sean Couturier in his rookie season, the duo outscoring teams 39 to 36 (+3) in their minutes last year. Add his 63 points as a 20-year-old NHL forward, and you see why Flyers fans are foaming at the mouth. Beyond Michkov, this is a wing group with upside potential.

Pittsburgh Penguins (T4) - Admittedly, veteran trade targets like Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell are holding this grade up a fair bit, but the trade rumours will likely continue as the Penguins eyeball a broader organizational rebuild. Rakell is signed through the 2027-28 season and Pittsburgh is a much better team with him on the ice than not, but a cost-controlled top-six forward could snag a bit of a fortune if moved in-season or at the trade deadline. Notably, Rakell is coming off a 35-goal, 35-assist season in a down year for Pittsburgh – both of those numbers, by the way, were career highs.

San Jose Sharks (T5) - Last year’s rebuilding Sharks were outscored just 71 to 65 (-6) with William Eklund on the ice. With his line shelved they were outscored 164-to-96 (-68). San Jose is still coming out of this painful rebuild and still have holes across most of their lineup, but the top line featuring Eklund (typically with Macklin Celebrini and Tyler Toffoli) is going to cause problems for teams.

Seattle Kraken (T3) - Dallas’ loss may well be Seattle’s gain when it comes to Mason Marchment. The hulking veteran winger tied a career-high in goals (22) in just 62 games last year for the Stars, but a mega-investment in Rantanen forced Jim Nill to explore cap flexibility. Marchment’s contract expires this year, but at just a $4.5-million cap hit, he’ll either easily out produce that salary in a contract year for Seattle or become one of the more intriguing targets at next season’s trade deadline.

St. Louis Blues (T3) - Blue-chip prospect Jimmy Snuggerud’s days of dominating the NCAA ranks are officially over. The Blues are hoping the electric shot he’s put on display for years will next torture NHL-calibre goaltenders. Snuggerud did get a taste of NHL action late last year, with eight points in 14 games. I’ll be curious to see who Jim Montgomery pairs him with to start the year – in the 2024-25 playoffs, it was a lot of Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich.

Tampa Bay Lightning (T1) - Yanni Gourde’s return to the Tampa Bay lineup after four seasons with the Seattle Kraken will be near the top of my watch list. Gourde has only eclipsed the 20-goal mark once since the 2018-19 regular season and scored just one goal in 25 games with the Lightning to close out last season. But with Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel, and Oliver Bjorkstrand anticipated to carry much of the scoring, Tampa Bay can play a patient game and hope Gourde again finds his niche inside of the middle six.

Toronto Maple Leafs (T2) - The $96-million question: Can Toronto replace the loss of Marner in the lineup, the same Marner who tallied 102 points just last season? The emergence and elevation of Matthew Knies should help, but this is going to need to be production-by-committee once you get past the team’s presumptive top line.

Utah Mammoth (T2) - I think there should be meaningful pressure to deliver a playoff contender as soon as this season in Salt Lake City and the top end of their forward group is a key reason why. Not only did this team win their minutes at 5-on-5 last year, they also went and added skill this summer, highlighted by the acquisition of Peterka. For those who like advanced, all-encompassing measures like Goals Above Replacement, Peterka looks like a major diamond in the rough. Peterka (+15.1 goals above a replacement-level skater) finished inside of the top 50 league-wide last season, just ahead of New Jersey’s Jack Hughes and Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston.

Vancouver Canucks (T3) - Evander Kane may be 34 years old but the goal scoring hasn’t slowed down just yet. After missing the entirety of last year’s regular season, Kane scored 12 points in 21 playoff games, and he did it without the luxury of playing with McDavid or Draisaitl. I think it’s a reasonable low-risk gambit – Kane’s $5.1-million contract expires at the end of the season.

Vegas Golden Knights (T1) - Marner seems a surefire bet to explode in his first season with the Golden Knights, and right now it’s just a question of what Bruce Cassidy believes is the best mix of this forward group. But the real wing story may concern Mark Stone. The healthy version of him is still one of the best two-way forwards in the league, but this is a player who has missed more than 200 games in the past four years, and his absence in the Vegas lineup is always palpable.

Washington Capitals (T4) - It feels sacrilege to rank a winger group headed by the all-time goal scorer so low, but there is not a lot of pop behind Alex Ovechkin in Washington. With the record in hand, I’m curious to see how Ovechkin performs in the final year of his contract. In his record-breaking age-39 season, he still managed to score a staggering 44 goals.

Winnipeg Jets (T2) - Losing a player the quality of Ehlers could cripple other teams, but the Jets have the top-end skill and requisite depth competency behind their big guns to still thrive. It starts with Kyle Connor, whose 154 goals in the past four seasons are 13th league-wide – just three shy of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (157).

That concludes our wing position review. Stay tuned next week for the centres.

Data via Natural Stat Trick, NHL.com, Evolving Hockey, Hockey Reference, PuckPedia