Top Five NHL Teams With the Best Top-Six Forward Groups Entering 2023-24

Crafting a perfect top-six forward group greatly boosts goal-scoring and puck possession. Adam Proteau ranks five NHL teams he thinks crafted their top two lines the best.

As we get close to the beginning of the NHL’s 2023-24 regular season, a popular debate for some hockey fans and media is the question of which teams have the best top-six group of forwards. 

After a summer of roster moves, the top five teams of top six forwards have come into focus. Here are this writer’s picks (in reverse order) for the five teams with the best high-end forwards:

Honorable Mentions: Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars 

Top six group: Brady Tkachuk (LW), Tim Stutzle (C), Claude Giroux (RW), Vladimir Tarasenko (LW), Josh Norris (C), Drake Batherson (RW)

The Sens added Tarasenko to an already-potent top-six forward group this summer, making them one of the NHL’s most dangerous teams with the puck. They’ll also hopefully have a full season with excellent young center Norris, who appeared in only eight games this past season due to injury. And they have some of the most dynamic top-end talents in Tkachuk, Stutzle and Batherson, as well as a proven elite contributor in senior member Giroux.

Ottawa also has an improved defense corps and goaltending tandem, but make no mistake – their forwards will be the main drivers of their success in 2023-24. They’re a team on the rise, and their fan base has much to look forward to this year.

Top six group: Rickard Rakell (LW), Sidney Crosby (C), Jake Guentzel (RW), Reilly Smith (LW), Evgeni Malkin (C), Bryan Rust (RW)

The Penguins are the oldest team on this list, and they got older this summer with the trade for Smith and star blueliner Erik Karlsson. But that doesn’t make them any less of a threat – in fact, they’re now even more powerful up front, an area in which they already had world-class talents Crosby and Malkin giving them a Grade-A punch down the middle. Guentzel is currently injured, but when he returns to action, the Pens will have imposing depth on the wings as well.

Time is ticking away on Pittsburgh’s competitive window, but Penguins GM Kyle Dubas knows which players are buttering his bread, and it’s not the Pens’ goalies or defensemen doing so. If they stay healthy, Pittsburgh’s top six forwards almost assuredly will rack up points, and the team will rack up wins in the highly competitive Metropolitan Division.

Top six group: Jesper Bratt (LW), Jack Hughes (C), Tyler Toffoli (RW), Timo Meier (LW), Nico Hischier (C), Dawson Mercer (RW)

The Devils have one of the younger rosters in the NHL today, and that includes their top-six forward group, led by 22-year-old Hughes, 24-year-old Hischier, 21-year-old Mercer, 25-year-old Bratt and 26-year-old Meier. The 31-year-old Toffoli is the senior member of their top-six forwards, but he had an impressive 34-goal, 73-point performance on a Calgary Flames team last season that doesn’t have nearly as many weapons on offense as New Jersey does.

The Devils’ top six have speed and skill to spare, and they’re one of the key reasons why so many pundits have pegged New Jersey as one of the biggest Stanley Cup threats on the planet. Hughes, in particular, is a special player, but with this kind of depth, he doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting. That should keep him relaxed and focused all season long, and his team will be the chief beneficiary of the wealth of talent built by GM Tom Fitzgerald.

Top six group: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (LW), Connor McDavid (C), Zach Hyman (RW), Evander Kane (LW), Leon Draisaitl (C), Connor Brown (RW)

What can you say about a team that employs the best player on earth in McDavid and one of the top five forwards in the NHL in Draisaitl? Edmonton’s top-six forward unit has almost no equal, with highly skilled competitors in Nugent-Hopkins – who is coming off a career year on offense – the rugged Hyman and Kane, and new UFA acquisition Brown, an underrated two-way forward who should thrive as a second-line, two-way winger.

The Oilers need big seasons from their defensemen and goaltenders, but if they are to go on a deep post-season run, it will be because their top six forwards are the chief needle-movers for the organization. They can do it, which is why Edmonton is a popular Cup pick this season.

Top six group: Tyler Bertuzzi (LW), Auston Matthews (C), Mitch Marner (RW), Matthew Knies (LW), John Tavares (C), William Nylander (RW)

The Maple Leafs may not use the above six forwards on their top two lines – coach Sheldon Keefe has experimented at training camp with Nylander as a center and Tavares on the wing – but Toronto’s depth in terms of their six best forwards is outstanding. 

Matthews, Marner and Nylander are all in their prime. Tavares is one of the most reliable point-per-game NHLers alive today, and Bertuzzi is a greasy menace who’ll almost certainly excel as the top-line left winger alongside Matthews and Marner.

The only wild card here is Knies, the 20-year-old rookie winger who will get an extended look on the second or first line at left wing. But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that Knies struggles. His replacement in the top two lines would likely be UFA acquisition Max Domi, who will probably enjoy a career resurgence playing with the likes of Tavares and Nylander. 

The Leafs have astonishing upper-tier talent up front, and their overall depth is why we’ve picked them as the best top-six forwards group in the NHL.