The Top 5 NHL right wingers of 2023
With the final days of 2023 ahead, I figured, what better way to celebrate some of the best performances that we’ve witnessed in the calendar year? Over these last five days of the year, I’ll look at the best players at all five positions (goaltender, defense, right wing, left wing, and center) from 2023, which includes the January to April months of the 2022-23 season, the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the start so far in the 2023-24 season.
Today, we’re looking at the best right wingers of the year, a position that is a lot deeper than its lefty counterpart, and it shows by the fact that only one player swapped onto the list, and that’s because he changed positions after being our top left winger last year. It leads to some unfortunate snubs, but that’s what makes these lists fun.
Let’s look at a few honorable mentions before kicking off the countdown:
Honorable Mentions
Jonathan Marchessault
I mean, I couldn’t not include the Conn Smythe Trophy winner on this list. With only 57 points in 78 games during the regular season, Marchessault hasn’t had the overall year that other players on this list have, but he stepped up when it mattered with 13 goals and 25 points in 22 games to capture Vegas’ first Stanley Cup. Not bad for an expansion draft pick.
William Nylander
Nylander might be the biggest snub on any of the five lists this year. He broke out for his first 40-goal, 40-assist season in 2022-23, and then somehow got even better and is arguably the league’s most consistent player in 2023-24, with 17 and 13-game point streaks so far this season, and only three games without a point all year (all coming consecutively too). If he was a left winger, he’d probably crack the top three, but it just goes to show how deep this position is.
Mark Stone
The second Golden Knight to make the honorable mentions, Stone lands here for similar reasons to Marchessault. He’s not as offensively inclined as the other players on this list, but he’s still hovered around a point-per-game since joining Vegas, and he’s a shoe-in as a Selke finalist when he isn’t hurt, which he hasn’t been this season (*knocks on wood*). And also like Marchessault, Stone stepped up in the playoffs to secure the Cup for his team, particularly in that Cup-clinching game where he had a hat trick.
5. Matthew Tkachuk
Regular Season: 28G, 64A, 92P, 80GP
Playoffs: 11G, 13A, 24P, 20GP
Hey, we got him in the right position this year! Unfortunately for Matthew Tkachuk, this position change puts him into a right wing pool that is significantly deep, and his struggles this season just put him slightly behind the rest of what is an elite top five. He’s somehow managed only five goals through 35 games this season, and his 26 points overall is more akin to the earlier time in his career with the Flames. It’s still really good, just not what we’ve come to expect from him.
Of course, we weren’t going to deny Tkachuk a spot on this list just because of some bad luck/lingering injuries after what he did to start the year. In the final 45 games of the Panthers 2022-23 regular season, he had 23 goals, 43 assists and 66 points, and the Panthers needed every single one of them to squeeze into the final wild card spot after a slow start to the season, which made him a Hart Trophy finalist. Then come playoff time, he was the biggest reason on the Panthers not named Sergei Bobrovsky for their upsets over the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes, and likely a major factor as to why it wasn’t closer in the Cup Final was because Tkachuk was so hurt he needed help putting on his uniform. Luckily for him, the Panthers have been really good even with him struggling, so once he gets back into top form, Florida is going to be a tough out again.
4. Mitch Marner
Regular Season: 30G, 65A, 95P, 76GP
Playoffs: 3G, 11A, 14P, 11GP
It goes to show the high expectations Mitch Marner has set for himself when just getting 95 points on the year feels like a down year for him. In his defense, he’s never actually hit the 100-point mark in a season, but he’s so good that it feels like he should every year. He’s consistently had at least a 90-95 point pace since the 2018-19 season, and while he’s more known for his playmaking ability, it’s the fact that he’s finally added a scoring touch to that offensive game that’s taken it to another level.
I’ve always made the comparison that Marner is like Patrick Kane, if Patrick Kane knew how to play defense, and Marner continues to live up to that reputation as a Selke finalist for the first time this year, although his defense has slipped a bit this season. And for everyone saying Kane is a bold comparison offensively, Kane had 518 points in his first 540 games played. Marner? 592. Yes, the Leafs still don’t have the playoff success that you’d hope for from a talented squad, but even in their two-round appearance this year, Marner had 14 points in 11 games. Hopefully we can see this Maple Leafs squad go on a deep run to really find out what these talented forwards like Marner are capable of in big moments, because so far, uh, it’s not good.
3. Mikko Rantanen
Regular Season: 49G, 55A, 104P, 83GP
Playoffs: 7G, 3A, 10P, 7GP
2022 saw Mikko Rantanen take his game to another level and start to become a 100-point level scorer, and over the course of the 2022-23 season he even managed to hit the 50-goal plateau for the first time in his career. Perhaps most importantly, he did so on a Colorado Avalanche team that really needed it that season, considering that they lost a lot of depth after their 2022 Cup win and dealt with a ton of injuries all season. He became the team’s MVP when they needed him, proving that he’s elite in his own right when everyone thought he may have played a bit of second fiddle to Nathan MacKinnon.
Rantanen’s pace has slowed down a tad in the 2023-24 season, but he also hasn’t needed to be nearly as elite this season, with the only key player that they’ve lost to injury for a significant amount of time this season being Artturi Lehkonen (albeit Gabriel Landeskog is out for the year). Their depth isn’t great beyond their top line, so that will be a concern for the Avs down the road if they can’t find a solution before the deadline, but rest assured, Rantanen will do about as much as he can to keep them alive.
2. David Pastrnak
Regular Season: 56G, 52A, 108P, 79GP
Playoffs: 5G, 0A, 5P, 7GP
Every time the hockey world prepares to tap-dance on the graves of the Bruins, David Pastrnak kicks them out of the cemetery. With Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci gone, many thought that the Bruins would struggle with no center depth, but while they haven’t been the unstoppable regular season team they were in 2022-23, Pastrnak continues to show just how important he is to the Bruins.
Pastrnak was one of just three wingers in 2023 to finish with 100 points or more, and he was the only one of the three to not play 82 games. He hit the 60-goal mark for the first time in his career, and while it’s now the third time a player has hit that mark in the last two years, it doesn’t mean it’s not impressive. Even in the playoffs, he still did his best with five goals in seven games despite the early exit for the Bruins. And then this season, he continues to show his importance to Boston by taking the mantle with Bergeron gone as the best player on the team. He’s the main reason why the Bruins haven’t really felt the damage of losing their top two centers yet, because he can elevate whoever he’s with to the level of a top-line center.
1. Nikita Kucherov
Regular Season: 41G, 77A, 118P, 82GP
Playoffs: 1G, 5A, 6P, 6GP
In the year of 2023, only Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon have more points than Nikita Kucherov. He had already returned to form last season with one of the quietest 110+ point seasons I’ve seen in a while, but he’s taken it to a completely different level in 2023-24, almost hitting the 25-goal mark before the end of the year, and taking an early lead in the scoring race before MacKinnon’s recent streak has allowed him to catch up to Kucherov.
Kucherov’s play has been vital to the Tampa Bay Lightning this year, as they were already starting to struggle in 2022-23 and then in 2023-24, he’s been carrying a large portion of their season with his performance. It’s the reason why he’s been a strong candidate for the Hart Trophy in the early going this year. Sure, a large reason for that is because McDavid left the door open with his slow start, but Kucherov has beaten McDavid in that race on merit before, so who’s to say he’s not capable of doing it again.
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