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NHL teams often put their best forwards on the same line in the hope they will perform well together. While all three might mesh well together, sometimes two of them will develop better chemistry because of their respective skills.
Several of the players on this list, such as the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, have been playing together for several seasons. Some, such as the Vegas Golden Knights’ Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, are sidelined by injuries but remain among the league’s most talented linemates.
Fans of the Florida Panthers might wonder why Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau aren’t on this list, while Toronto Maple Leafs followers will note the absence of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. They were linemates in the past, but they aren’t skating together this season. Should that change, they would obviously belong here.
Here’s our ranking of the 10 best forward duos in this NHL this season. As always, you can express your views in the comments section below.
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Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
There hasn’t been much to cheer about for the Chicago Blackhawks so far this season. They’re off to their worst start in years. Meanwhile, the franchise is reeling from the fallout from an independent investigation into sexual assault allegations by former player Kyle Beach against former video coach Bradley Aldrich in 2010.
The play of wingers Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane has been among the few bright spots. Linemates only since last season, they’ve formed a dangerous scoring duo. They were the Hawks’ leading scorers last season with Kane at 66 points and DeBrincat with 56. Kane is their points leader this season with 15, while DeBrincat has a team-leading eight goals.
Kane is among the greatest players in Blackhawks history, sitting third all-time with 409 goals, 694 assists and 1,103 points. Since his rookie campaign in 2007-08, he’s third among all NHL skaters in total points. A winner of multiple individual awards, he also helped the Blackhawks win three Stanley Cups. Turning 33 on Nov. 19, he’s showing no sign of his age.
DeBrincat, 23, made an instant splash with the Blackhawks since his rookie campaign in 2017-18. He’s reached or exceeded 45 points in each of his previous four NHL campaigns, including a career-best 41 goals and 76 points in 2018-19 and finishing with 56 points in 52 games during last season’s pandemic-shortened schedule.
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A growing force in the Eastern Conference, the Carolina Hurricanes finished third overall in 2020-21 and sit among the league leaders through the early going of this season. Young forwards Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov have played a crucial role in the Hurricanes’ improvement over the past four seasons.
Aho quickly established himself as a skillful center with a 49-point rookie campaign in 2016-17 on what was then a rebuilding Hurricanes club. The 24-year-old has averaged a point per game since 2018-19 with 220 total points as the Hurricanes’ leading scorer.
Svechnikov, 21, also had a promising NHL debut, tallying 20 goals and 37 points in 2018-19. While he’s had to smooth out the rough edges of his game, the 6’2”, 195-pound left winger has tremendous potential to become an elite goal scorer. His 66 totals goals since his rookie season are second-most among the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes two young stars are blossoming into superstars. While at times Svechnikov has been taken off the top line, the big goal-scoring winger has an undeniable offensive chemistry with the slick playmaker Aho. Given their youth and skills, it shouldn’t be long before they up higher on this listing in the coming years.
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Charles Krupa/Associated Press
Left winger Max Pacioretty and right wing Mark Stone were established NHL stars before joining the Vegas Golden Knights. The duo became linemates after the Golden Knights acquired Stone from the Ottawa Senators late in the 2018-19 season. It didn’t take long for this duo to click, becoming their new club’s top forwards.
Pacioretty, 32, has been an established goal scorer since his 2011-12 breakout performance with the Montreal Canadiens. He sits third among left wingers over the past 11 seasons, with 286 goals and fifth with 559 points. Since his first full season alongside Stone in 2019-20, he’s totaled 58 goals and 120 points with the Golden Knights.
Stone is more of a setup man and two-way winger. He’s enjoyed back-to-back 60-plus-point seasons alongside Pacioretty in 2019-20 and 2020-21 despite those schedules being shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This duo might not have the gaudy offensive numbers of others on this list, but there’s no denying their value to the Golden Knights. Injuries have limited Pacioretty and Stone to a handful of games this season, leaving their club struggling to adjust to their absence.
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Nick Wass/Associated Press
The Calgary Flames have had their issues in recent seasons, going from the top team in the Western Conference in 2018-19 to missing the playoffs last season, enduring two coaching changes in the process. Through it all, they have relied on left winger Johnny Gaudreau and center Elias Lindholm to power their offense.
Gaudreau, 28, has been the Flames’ leading scorer since his 2014-15 rookie campaign. With 508 total points, he’s also third among all NHL left wingers. He’s had his difficulties over the past two seasons, with his production falling off from his career-best 99-point performance in 2018-19.
Acquired by the Flames from the Carolina Hurricanes in 2018, Lindholm quickly established himself as their top center, tallying a career-high 78 points in 2018-19. The 26-year-old also saw his production dip over the previous two seasons but still sits second to Gaudreau in total points (193) since the 2018-19 campaign.
Gaudreau and Lindholm are thriving under head coach Darryl Sutter, with both averaging a point per game. Whether they remain together beyond this season depends on whether the Flames can sign Gaudreau to a contract extension before he’s eligible for unrestricted free agent status in July.
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The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning relied on a deep roster of talent to win their consecutive championships. In addition to having an elite goaltender in Andrei Vasilevskiy, a top defenseman in Victor Hedman and a lethal goalscorer in Steven Stamkos, they also possess one of the league’s best offensive duos in winger Nikita Kucherov and center Brayden Point.
Winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy, Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award in 2018-19, Kucherov is one of the league’s most explosive scoring stars. Since his breakout in 2014-15, he’s second among all right wingers with 213 goals and 533 points despite missing all of last season and most of this campaign because of injuries. He also led all scorers in each of the past two postseasons.
Point, meanwhile, has been among the Lightning’s leading scorers since his sophomore season in 2017-18, sitting third in total points with 280. He’s also steadily improved his two-way play and finished second to Kucherov among playoff scorers in each of the past two seasons. The 25-year-old has taken over from Stamkos as the Lightning’s first-line center.
When healthy, Kucherov forms a lethal one-two punch with Point. However, his recent history of lower-body injuries could break up that duo if he struggles to regain his dominant form once healthy.
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Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby has played with a number of wingers throughout his long career. Few, however, have worked as well alongside the Penguins captain as Jake Guentzel. This combination has played a significant role in their club regularly finishing among the top teams in the Eastern Conference over the past five seasons.
This duo first became linemates during the 2016-17 campaign, and since 2018-19 they have formed one of the league’s best one-two scoring punches. Only injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic have limited their playing time together in recent seasons.
Crosby is the greatest player of his generation and among the all-time best. A multiple award winner, he has led the Penguins to four Stanley Cup Finals and three championships. Now in his 17th NHL season, the 34-year-old center sits second in total points since 2005-06 with 1,325 but leads in points-per-game percentage with 1.27.
The 27-year-old Guentzel enjoyed a breakout performance in 2018-19 with 40 goals and 76 points in 82 games. A broken leg limited him to 20 goals and 43 points in 39 games the following season, but he scored at better than a point-per-game pace (57 in 56 games) during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign. He’s seventh with a 0.86 point percentage among left wingers with at least 100 games played since 2016-17.
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The Washington Capitals have consistently been among the NHL’s top teams since 2007-08, winning the Stanley Cup in 2018 and finishing atop their division 10 times. Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are the key factors behind much of that long-term success. Their chemistry and friendship account for their many years of success as a scoring duo.
Backstrom has spent most of his career centering Ovechkin on the Capitals first line. At times he’s been shifted down to second-line duty in favor of Evgeny Kuznetsov, but the latter’s inconsistent play during the previous two seasons resulted in Backstrom being reunited with Ovechkin.
Since his NHL debut in 2007-08, Backstrom’s netted 980 career points in 1,011 games, with most of that production coming as Ovechkin’s linemate. He’s third during that period in total points among NHL centers behind Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Currently sidelined by a hip injury, the 33-year-old Backstrom could be reunited with his long-time linemate later this season.
Ovechkin, meanwhile, continued his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record (894) on Friday by surpassing Brett Hull to take possession of fourth place with 742. A good chunk of those goals were set up by Backstrom—in April, J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington reported the center had set up 292 of Ovechkin’s goals in the regular season and playoffs combined.
A nine-time winner of the Maurice Richard Trophy, the Capitals captain is one of the greatest scorers of all time and remains the heartbeat of the team’s offense.
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A potent first line has been crucial to the Colorado Avalanche’s place among the NHL’s top teams over the previous two seasons. Center Nathan MacKinnon, right winger Mikko Rantanen and left wing Gabriel Landeskog led the Avs last season to their first Presidents’ Trophy in 20 years in 2020-21.
Landeskog is the gritty scoring complement to MacKinnon and Rantanen, tallying at least 20 goals and 40 points in eight of the past 10 seasons. His linemates are gifted point producers who have established a strong offensive rapport. Since 2017-18, MacKinnon (364 points) and Rantanen (286) are the Avalanche’s leading scorers.
Winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy in 2013-14 and the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 2018-19, MacKinnon is among the NHL’s top offensive stars. The 26-year-old possesses an impressive array of all-around offensive abilities. With three straight 90-plus point performances from 2017-18 to 2019-20, he sits third in total points among all skaters during that period.
Rantanen’s star might not shine as brightly as MacKinnon’s, but the 6’4″, 215-pound right winger is a splendid skater with outstanding playmaking skills. He’s tallied 84-plus points twice over the past four seasons with a 1.12 point-per-game percentage.
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One of the NHL’s best top lines belongs to the Boston Bruins. Center Patrice Bergeron and wingers Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak provide an elite scoring punch few teams can match. While the 36-year-old Bergeron remains among the league’s top two-way forwards, Marchand and Pastrnak provide most of the offense on this line.
Considered for years as a pesky second-line forward, Marchand blossomed into a scoring star after being moved to the Bruins first line on a full-time basis in 2016-17. Since then, he leads all NHL left wingers in total points (445), sitting third among all skaters in that category.
That same period saw Pastrnak blossom into one of the league’s top goal scorers, sitting fifth in total goals with 179 to lead all right wingers in that department. In 2019-20, he shared the Maurice Richard Trophy with the Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin when both finished the season with 48 goals.
At 25, Pastrnak is in the prime of his playing career. The 33-year-old Marchand is still producing at a high rate despite being at an age when production typically begins to decline. They will continue to drive the Bruins offense for the foreseeable future.
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No one should be shocked seeing the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid and Leon Draitsaitl atop this list. While the Oilers have at times separated this duo to spread around their offense, they work too well together to keep apart for long. They are unquestionably the best one-two punch in the NHL today.
Most teams would consider themselves blessed to have one superstar of the caliber of McDavid or Draitsaitl on their roster. To have two as linemates is a rare gift for any club in today’s NHL given the constraints of the salary cap. Since 2018-19, they have dominated the league in total points—McDavid has 345 and Draisaitl is just behind with 330.
McDavid, 24, is the leading superstar in the game today. Since his NHL debut in 2015-16, he leads all players with 601 total points. He won the Hart Trophy for the second time last season and the Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award for the third time. He makes dazzling offensive plays at high speed that few in the league can match.
The 26-year-old Draisaitl is no passenger on McDavid’s line. He emerged from his captain’s shadow as a superstar in his own right in 2018-19. That year, the talented German forward took home Hart and Art Ross Trophies and the Lindsay Award. Draisaitl is jockeying with McDavid for the lead in this season’s NHL scoring race.
Stats (as of Nov. 14, 2021) via NHL.com with additional info via Hockey Reference.
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