NHL 24 Top 5 Right Wingers Predictions

In what might be one of the hardest positions to predict, the right-wing spot in the National Hockey League is oozing full of elite talent. In the 2022-2023 NHL season, we saw 7 right wingers average over a point per game, with four of them eclipsing the 100 point mark. Shortening this list to only 5 is quite difficult, but here's who we think will crack the top 5 in NHL 24 for this position.

William Nylander is without a doubt an underrated player, both in the National Hockey League and on his own team. However, he gets some recognition in NHL 24 as we're predicting him to crack the top 5 after an impressive 22-23 season in which he put up 40 goals and 47 assists for 87 points in 82 games. He's also began to show he's a performer when the playoffs come, something the Maple Leafs have been arguably lacking. In the last 3 playoff runs for the Maple Leafs he's accumulated 25 points in 25 games, proving he can do it both in the regular season and the playoffs.

Maintaining his top 5 status from NHL 23, Mikko Rantanen finds himself in the #4 slot after a dominant season in which he put up 55 goals and 50 assists, for a total of 105 points over 82 games. Mikko has always been a top producer for the Colorado Avalanche, and continues to impress as he reached career highs in goals and points this past season. The only reason he's not higher up in the predictions is because of how dominant the other 3 players were this past season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are certainly spoiled in the right-wing position, as Mitch Marner is their 2nd player to grace the top 5. The 2022-2023 season was bountiful for Mitch, as he put up 99 points in 80 games, as well at 14 points in 11 playoff games. While these point totals may not be as high as what #4 ranked Mikko Rantanen put up, there are two factors that give Mitch the edge here. The first one being consistency, in the past two seasons he's put up 99 and 97 points respectively, compared to Rantanen's 105 and 92. Second,  those two points totals were in shorten seasons, as Mitch only played 80 and 72 games the last two seasons. If he were to play a full 82,  we'd easily expect him to crack 100+ points.

Are you kidding me? Nikita Kucherov enters in as the #2 ranked right-winger after a dominant 2022-2023 regular season in which he put up 113 points, 83 of them being assists. Kucherov is a dominant player who puts up impressive numbers in both the regular season and the playoffs, and while this last season saw the Lightning eliminated in round 1 to the Maple Leafs, he still has an impressive playoff pedigree as well as two Stanley Cups. While he easily could be #1, he's only bested by one other player, and we'll explain why below.

David Pastrnak ties Nikita Kucherov as our highest rated right-winger for our NHL 24 predictions after a career year which saw him hit career highs in goals (61), assists (52), and points (113). While he tied Kucherov on the point total, we're giving him the slight edge in ranking because of two main factors, goal scoring, and age. Pastrnak is a goal scorer, and while Kucherov puts up lots of points, when evenly matched on points we like the player who put more pucks in the back of the net. Pastrnak is also 3 years younger than Kucherov, and even though the Boston Bruins are predicted to have a bit of a downfall due to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci leaving, Pastrnak is still an elite player with more years of his prime left to play. As a result, he gets the edge for us.

You may notice that Matthew Tkachuk was left off the board on this vote. While he's listed as a right-winger on other sites, EA looks to be putting him as a left winger as per their recent tweet encouraging fans to vote on the top players for each position.