The top 5 NHL left wingers of 2024
With the final days of 2024 ahead, I figured what better way to celebrate then by highlighting some of the best performances that we’ve witnessed in the calendar year.
Over these last few days of the year, I’ll look at the best players at all five positions (goaltender, defense, right wing, left wing, and center) from 2024, which includes the January to April months of the 2023-24 season, the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the October to December months in the 2024-25 season.
Today, we’ll be looking at left wingers. This year’s list differs significantly from last year’s edition, mostly due to some of last year’s entries having down years, several cuts having great years, and a couple top players moving positions. Regardless, there’s still a lot of talent on this list, and there were several contests for specific spots.
Let’s look at a few honourable mentions before kicking off the countdown:
Hounourable mentions
Kyle Connor – Connor found himself in a three-way fight for the final spot, and while he had better production than the other two in the regular season in 2024, it was only by a marginal difference, and wasn’t enough to make up for his poor defensive game. Regardless, he has 80 points in 75 games, and was a point-per-game during the Winnipeg Jets‘ disappointing five-game stint in the playoffs, so it’s still an excellent calendar year for him.
Clayton Keller – Keller was the other winger who nearly missed out, and while he was also excellent last season, he fell out of favour for not standing out amongst the three in what I using to make my decisions for the close fights. He was a tad behind Connor in terms of regular season production per game (81 points in 77 games), was the only one of the three to not play in the playoffs, and wasn’t as good defensively as the winger that eventually won (Keller only had a +0.14 5v5 expected goals against per 60 relative (xGA/60 Rel) to his teammates). Still, it was an excellent year for Keller, and he’s played a massive role in a Utah season that might get him some more playoff action.
Brady Tkachuk – Speaking of players playing on resurging teams in 2024-25, Tkachuk has been one of the few consistencies on an Ottawa Senators team that has been nothing but inconsistent prior to this season. This year was no different, with 37 goals and 81 points in 83 games, and has really picked it up this season with 16 goals and 34 points in 33 games as the Sens have remained in the playoff push so far this season. On top of that, he boasts an excellent two-way game with a +9.89% 5v5 expected goal share relative to his teammates that ranks second among all forwards with 1,000 regular season minutes in 2024, and is first among left wingers.
5. Filip Forsberg
Regular Season: 80GP, 39G, 43A, 82P
Playoffs: 6GP, 2G, 4A, 6P
It was, in fact, Forsberg who was the mystery winger that beat out Connor and Keller for the final spot on the list. All three players were very close in production in the regular season, and Connor and Forsberg both scored at a point-per-game pace in their first round playoff exits, but it was Forsberg being the best defensively of the three that secured him fifth place.
It’s not that Forsberg is phenomenal defensively. In 2024, he had just a +0.04% 5v5 xGA/60 Rel, which means the Nashville Predators allowed slightly more chances with him on the ice than off. And while you could say that his defensive results would be worse if he didn’t play as much as he did with Ryan O’Reilly, both players actually see worse results away from each other, so they compliment each other very well.
But of course, it’s Forsberg’s offense that saw him be a contender for the list to begin with. He had a career year in 2023-24, which included a whopping 30 goals and 53 points in just 45 points from January to April, with those 30 goals ranking second among left wingers in that span. Even as the Predators struggle to start the 2023-24, Forsberg has still been solid with 9 goals and 29 points in 35 games, and is one of the few reasons they remain in games this season. And he also set the Preds’ franchise record for goals, so all in all, it’s been a great year for him.
4. Jake Guentzel
Regular Season: 64GP, 33G, 39A, 72P
Playoffs: 11GP, 4G, 5A, 9P
Guentzel was well-travelled in 2024. While his stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins included a lengthy injury, he still managed 6 goals and 12 points in 15 games in 2024 with them. However, it was his total 2023-24 season with Pittsburgh (that saw him put up 22 goals and 52 points in 50 games) that made him the big fish at the trade deadline, and what saw him get dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes. With the Canes, Guentzel was even better, exploding for 8 goals and 25 points in just 17 games, and while his 9 points in 11 playoff games was slightly underwhelming, he was still the top free agent in the offseason.
It was the Tampa Bay Lightning that eventually got him by acquiring his rights for a third-round pick. Since then, he’s been the perfect replacement for the recently departed Steven Stamkos, with 19 goals and 35 points on that top line with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. Overall, he finished the year with a total of 37 goals and 81 points in 75 games in 2024, and was the third most-productive winger in the regular season, and looks like he’ll be in a position to do so for a long time in Tampa.
3. Brandon Hagel
Regular Season: 76GP, 32G, 52A, 84P
Playoffs: 5GP, 3G, 2A, 5P
It goes to show how well the Lightning have retooled on the fly (or just how top heavy they are) that they have three wingers that cracked the top five for both lists (that’s a spoiler for the right wingers list, but come on, you knew Nikita Kucherov was going to be on there). However, everyone knows what to expect from Kucherov, and everyone also had some idea as to how Guentzel would perform with Tampa. It’s Hagel’s play since joining the team in 2022 that has probably caught more people by surprise.
Hagel played more like a middle-six power forward with the Chicago Blackhawks and during the end of the 2021-22 season with the Lightning, along with the ensuing playoff run. But with each passing season in Tampa, he’s steadily improved. 64 points in 2022-23, 75 in 2023-24, and through 32 games of 2024-25, he has 39. In the calendar year of 2024, he has 35 goals and 89 points in 81 games between the regular season and the playoffs, and has developed into one of the best two-way forwards in the league.
It was his defensive game that secured him a spot on the podium for me. His -0.2 5v5 xGA/60 Rel is 16th among the 136 forwards that played at least 1,000 minutes in the regular season in 2024, and in case you thought that was because he was propped up by two-way phenom Anthony Cirelli on his line, Cirelli is only one place higher at -0.21. It’s that combo of Hagel and Cirelli that’s also been a big part of Tampa’s resurgence, as four of their five best line combinations in terms of 5v5 expected goal share with at least 15 minutes together have included those two, whether it’s Kucherov, Connor Geekie, Nick Paul or Gage Gonclaves beside them. It’s a big reason why both players, but especially Hagel, were selected to Team Canada for the 4 Nations Face-Off in just a couple months.
2. Artemi Panarin
Regular Season: 79GP, 41G, 66A, 107P
Playoffs: 16GP, 5G, 10A, 15P
It’s hard to remember a time where Panarin wasn’t considered a top-five left winger in the game. Ever since his dynamic rookie season that earned him a Calder Trophy (over Connor McDavid, no less), Panarin has been one of the league’s most prolific playmakers, whether it’s been with the Blackhawks, the Columbus Blue Jackets or the New York Rangers. He was even a finalist for the Hart Trophy in 2019-20. And just when you thought his game couldn’t get any better, he added another layer to his game in the past year.
Panarin has always been one of the league’s best playmakers, but was never really an elite goal-scorer. Prior to the 2024-25 season, his highest goal total in a season was only 32, and he’d only hit the 30 goal mark three times (although he also scored at a 33-goal pace in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season), largely because he would opt to pass the puck instead of shooting it. But the 2024-25 finally saw him elevate his shot totals, and as a result, the goals came pouring in. He scored 49 goals, and that didn’t come at the expense of his assists either, as he finished with 71, the second-highest in his career.
Even during the Rangers’ slow start to the 2024-25 season, Panarin still has 15 goals and 37 points in 32 games (although 24 of those points came in the first 16 games before the team’s struggles). Top that off with a run to the Eastern Conference Finals that saw him score at nearly a point-per-game pace, and it was a 2024 to remember for Panarin outside of winning a Stanley Cup. He probably would have been a bigger candidate for the Hart Trophy this year if not for how many players were in the race. And it also probably would have secured him first on this list if not for the performance of one other player.
1. Kirill Kaprizov
Regular Season: 75GP, 56G, 56A, 112P
Playoffs: N/A
Only one player has scored as many goals as Kaprizov’s 56 in the regular season in 2024: Sam Reinhart. And well, technically Reinhart scored more goals in 2024 as a whole because he had 10 in the playoffs while Kaprizov didn’t play in the playoffs. But Reinhart isn’t a left winger, so that doesn’t matter here.
Kaprizov missed out on the top five last year after putting up numbers that were just a bit more pedestrian than what we’ve grown to expect from the dynamic Russian. But he came back with a vengeance in the 2024 portion of the 2023-24 season, and put up an insane 33 goals and 62 points in 41 games, a 1.51 point-per-game pace that was fourth in the league in that span. That was probably the best you could expect from him there too, because the three ahead of him were the Hart Trophy finalists in McDavid, Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon.
Kaprizov carried that momentum into 2024-25 season, with 23 goals and 50 points in 34 games, which ties him with Kucherov for fourth in points, and fifth in points-per-game. It’s been vital to the Minnesota Wild‘s success so far this season, as he’s contributed to 48.08% of their goals this year on route to a surprising 21-10-4 start. Not only that, but it’s made him a frontrunner for the Hart Trophy this season, and it’s been well deserved. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, but right now Kaprizov has been playing like one of the best players in the league, or at least the best left winger.