NHL Position Rankings for the 2022-23 Season: Right Wings (2024)

When you think of guys who hawk goals on the right wing,chances are your mind goes to some of the most dynamic goal scorers and players who could pile up points.Jaromír Jágr, Gordie Howe, Brett Hull, Teemu Selänne: They are just some of the names on the all-time list, and you could win any bar argument over who is the best among them. To make it on the right side of the ice, you must score goals, be able to set up your teammates at will or both.

Thankfully, the current-day NHL is teeming with incredibleright wingers.

Search through the past 10 years of Stanley Cup champions andrunners-up, and you'll find at least one right wing who played a key role. You'll also find a few of those guys in our rankings of the top 10 rights wings in the NHL.

We'll be doing this the way we've already approaches rankings for goalies,defensem*n,and leftwings. The field is deep and loaded, which will assuredly cause consternation among the masses. We know your favorite player is great at that position, one of the best in the world in fact. We may have just picked out a few more ahead of him.

Just like we did with left wings, we're using NHL.com'sdesignation of who is a right wing. The league knows best even though sometimes we think we knowbetter, so if you disagree with that, please send word to Gary Bettman about it.

Who's No. 1? You'll see…but make sure to voice your opinionsin the comments because we could be here for hours arguing about it.

William Nylander has piled up points in Toronto about as highas the number of trade rumors about him over the years.

In six-plus seasons, Nylander has 343 points over 439 games. He's a fast and agile skater who has a knack for winding up in the right place on the ice to pop goals or just be in the correct position to set up his linemates.

Early on in his career, he was a fixture on a line with Auston Matthews, but inthe past three seasons, he's been mostly with John Tavares or Alex Kerfoot aftervirtually switching spots with Mitchell Marner. It hasn’t slowed down Nylander’sability to load up on points.

Since making the switch to playing with Tavares during the2019-20 season, Nylander went on to post his best goal-scoring season in 2021-22with 34. Heck, he had 31 in 2019-20 while splitting time between Matthews andTavares, but Nylander turned up his playmaking game last season with career highs in assists (46) and points (80). He's an outstanding player and a solidwinger. Who knows, maybe he'll be agreat center too.

Throughout his career, Blake Wheeler has been a guywho has flown under the radar.

Blame that on playing for Atlanta/Winnipeg ifyou want to (it's probably fair to do that anyhow), but Wheeler hasconsistently been a top scorer since he made his debut withBoston.

Since his first season in 2008-09, Wheeler ranks 11thin scoring with 867 points. What's more remarkable is he's never had a 30-goalseason. His career high came in 2013-14 when he potted 28. Despitebeing a right winger, Wheeler has been an exceptional assist man for the Jets,particularly in 2017-18 and 2018-19, when he had 91 points ineach campaign with 68 and 71 assists in those seasons, respectively.

Building an entire career out of being so consistent inscoring is what Wheeler has done. He’s scored 0.77 points per game or better in each year since 2011-12 and scored at a 0.92 points-per-game clip in each ofthe past three seasons. It’s the kind of production you can set your clock byand a big reason why he's been the leader in Winnipeg for so long.

There are a handful of scorers whose blazing shot lives upto the hype and then some. Vladimir Tarasenko's laser-beam wrist shots andbooming slap shots fit the bill.

In Tarasenko's first seven seasons, he popped 211 goals in497 games (0.42 per contest). He scored 33 or more in five straightcampaigns, topping out with 40 in 2015-16. His shot and his agility made himprolific at scoring. But things took a terrible turn thanks to shoulderproblems.

Tarasenko has had three shoulder surgeries since April 2018, which held him to 34 games over the last two seasons. Some thought he wouldn’t havehis best weapon available to him ever again.

Tarasenko asked for a trade out ofSt. Louis in the summer of 2021 because of the way the team handled his surgeries in 2018 and 2019, according to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. But the Blues didn't budge.

In 2021-22, Tarasenko came back in a big way with 34 goals and career highs in assists(48) and points (82). At 30 years old, he gives the Blues ability to break out their goal-scoring wizard with the howitzerof a shot.

You've heard the story by now about Alex DeBrincat, theplayer everyone passed on in the first round of the 2016 NHL draft whom the Chicago Blackhawks happily selected with their first pick that year at 39thoverall in the second round.

Since then, all DeBrincat has done is haunted every teamthat selected someone else. Of the players taken in that draft, DeBrincat isthird in goals behind Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, and he's fourth inpoints behind those two and Matthew Tkachuk.

Twice in his five NHL seasons, DeBrincat has scored 41 goals(2018-19 and 2021-22), and he had more than 70 points in both of thoseseasons as well. In 368 games, he's scored 160 goals (0.43 per contest) andbeen nearly a point-per-game player (0.83).

What makes it more remarkable is that the reason many teamspassed on him is why he’s had so much success. At 5’7” and 165 pounds, DeBrincat isnot the typical size for a big-scoring winger. Taking a page out of JohnnyGaudreau's and Martin St. Louis' playbooks has served him well, and the OttawaSenators hope that continues with them this season.

Playing in Vegas has become a high-stress situation quickly,but Mark Stone makes the game look so easy on both ends of the ice that it feels likehome cooking.

Stone has scored 20-plus goals and 60 points in seven of the last eight seasons, and he had 33 during the 2018-19 campaign when he wastraded from Ottawa to Vegas. A back injury held Stone to 37 games in 2021-22, andperhaps it’s not a coincidence the Golden Knights missed out on the playoffsfor the first time in his absence.

Stone's offensive consistency is matched by his strength asa defender. He's very good at taking the puck away, and he's a positivepossession player at five-on-five (53.6 percent Corsi For). And since his regular-season debut in 2012-13, he has a 57 on-ice goals for percentage. Of players since then with 500 or more games played, he's 17th among all skaters and sixth among right wings. A good offense makes for a gooddefense, but good defending helps enhance it.

Although Patrick Kane may be getting older, he's still adangerous offensive threat from the right wing.

Kane’s career points per game of 1.07 are outstanding, butwhat's more impressive is he's far exceeded that rate over the past fourseasons. At 33 years old in 2021-22, Kane had 92 points on what was a relatively poor Blackhawks team. Kane’s goal-scoring in the past has oftenovershadowed how good of a playmaker he is. While the goal-scoring haslightened up a little, his assist rates are as good as they’ve ever been.

Kane is up to 1,180 points in his career, fourth-best amongUnited States-born players, and Jeremy Roenick is next on the countdown with 36 pointsmore than him. Kane will be 34 in November, and his contract is up after this season, whichusually means a big campaign is ahead for most players.

Whether he finishes it inChicago or not, Kane will ultimately be gunning for Mike Modano's spot as theall-time leading American scorer at 1,374. Since four of his top-five scoring seasons have come in the past seven campaigns, it would be hard to deny he can pass Modano in thenot-too distant future.

Some might think we have bias toward theToronto Maple Leafs with a second right winger from their roster in thecountdown.

But seriously, folks.

Many times, big scorers in the NHL areguys with big bodies, but Mitchell Marner (6'0", 181 lbs) proves that you don’t need to be amuscle mountain to pile up the points.

Through six seasons, Marner has been outstanding as aplaymaker, and last year, he turned into a more dangerous goal scorer with acareer high of 35. In 427 games, he's put up 455 points (1.07 per contest), andhis points-per-game rates have improved nearly every season. Twice he's had 90-pluspoint campaigns (94 in 2018-19; 97 in 2021-22), and he's had between 60 and 70points in each of the other four.

It would be easy enough to say Marner has Auston Matthews tothank for all that, but they’ve only been linemates for the past three seasons.Before that, Marner had a rotating crew of pivots between John Tavares, PatrickMarleau, Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri, and the offense flowed consistently and continually. That's not only the sign of an outstanding player but also an indication he's on a loaded offensive team.

But Marner isn't just along for theride; he helps the Leafs offense roll on.

Being elite and reliable are two things any NHL team wouldlove to have out of all its players, but only so many can do it. MikkoRantanen is one of them.

In 408 career games, Rantanen has 408 points, 165 of thembeing goals. The nearly 26-year-old from Finland has made his name by being athreat to score or as a setup man. If left to himself, he'll make teams pay onhis own, but in concert with his linemates (usually Nathan MacKinnon andGabriel Landeskog), he has plenty of fire power with him in the rink.

What really stands out is the opposing team rarely has the puck when Rantanen is on theice.

For the past six seasons (we'llexclude the nine games he played in 2015-16), his five-on-five Corsi For percentageis 53.8. In 52 games in 2020-21, he had an astounding 63.4 CF% and an expected-goal rate of 10.3 at five-on-five. He's a fancy stat darling, and he puts up the regularstats to keep all parties happy, nerdy and otherwise.

If you've ever been to Boston, you know the Bruins' home iceis close to Boston's North End, where Italian food is plentiful, but it's at thearena where Pasta is best.

Ever since David Pastrnak ascended to the top line in 2016-17,he's been a lights-out goal scorer, firing them home at a rate of 0.52 percontest. His point scoring has also beenoutstanding with 1.09 per game in those six seasons.

Twice Pastrnak has been a 40-goal scorer. He had acareer-high 48 in 70 games in 2019-2020, and had that season not been shortenedby the coronavirus pandemic, 50 goals would've nearly been certain.

Lining up with PatriceBergeron and Brad Marchand will make most players look good, but he helps lift them up as well. That trio has been one of the NHL's bestscoring lines for years for a good reason, and Pastrnak is the goal hawk ofthe group. With this season being a contract yearfor 26-year-old Pastrnak, the 50-goal barrier might be in play again to reallyjuice up his next deal.

If there's one reason to knock on Nikita Kucherov, it's thatinjuries have rudely interrupted the past few seasons. Thankfully, he was able to return for the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, am Iright?

Kucherov is dynamite on the ice. Not only is he anoutstanding and consistent goal scorer (0.44 per game for his career), buthe's also an incredible setup man. Sometimes teams will crowd the space of big goal scorers and make it harder forthem to bury shots, but Kucherov uses that to his advantage to feed guys likeBrayden Point and Steven Stamkos.

Consistency is where Kucherov really gets it done. For hiscareer, he's averaged 1.10 points per game. It also helps to be a player who canmake opponents pay dearly for taking a penalty. In eight seasons, he's scored 67power-play goals, and if teams are going to allow him the room to bury a shot,he will. He has a career shooting percentage of 15.

He’s also a bit sneaky inshootouts. Finding different ways to give goalies fits should be commended.