During my interview with Scott Gordon, the Leafs assistant coach said something that caught my attention when he noted: “This year our top six is [made up of] guys who have had pretty good track records of scoring goals.”

The injury to Joffrey Lupul for the majority of the shortened season really put the lineup out of whack. As Grabovski played a shutdown role, the Leafs second scoring line was basically MacArthur-Kadri-Frattin for quite some time until Lupul returned and the line turned into Lupul-Kadri-Kulemin, a unit which no doubt did some serious damage.

This summer the Leafs threw big money at David Clarkson to round out the top six forwards while adding some jam to the group, and it’s pretty safe to say the Leafs top six wingers will be Kessel, JVR, Lupul and Clarkson to start the season.

I thought it was interesting of the Leafs to allocate so much cap space to the wings and for Gordon to then bring up their track record with us at MLHS. With that, I wanted to see how the Leafs stacked up against teams across the league. Here are the results based on the 2011-12 and 2013 seasons (max GP/player within these parameters is 130):

TeamsTop Six WingersGoals/Points/GamesTotal GoalsTotal PointsGamesPPGTotal Cap Hit
PittsburghNeal61/117/1201793955100.77$14,600,000
Kunitz48/113/134
Dupuis45/97/134
Jokinen25/68/122
BostonEriksson38/100/1341633795080.75$20,750,000
Lucic33/88/127
Marchand46/91/121
Iginla46/100/126
ChicagoKane46/121/1291493654710.77$23,775,000
Hossa46/108/121
Sharp39/89/102
Bickell18/47/119
New JerseyElias40/114/1291463644910.74$17,850,000
Jagr35/89/118
Clowe20/64/116
Ryder51/97/128
WinnipegWheeler36/105/1281613544970.71$18,250,000
Kane47/90/122
Ladd46/96/130
Setogouchi32/63/117
TorontoKessel57/134/1301673454310.8$20,150,000
JVR29/56/91
Lupul36/85/82
Clarkson45/70/128
EdmontonHall43/103/1061433394440.76$20,812,500
Eberle50/113/126
Perron31/67/105
Hemsky19/56/107
CapitalsOvechkin70/121/1261513374850.69$17,705,129
Johansson20/68/114Johansson RFA
Brouwer37/66/129
Erat24/82/116
DallasBenn28/96/1121243364590.73$17,500,000
Whitney35/106/114
Cole44/74/129
Peverley17/60/104
ColoradoTanguay24/76/1041153304600.72$16,075,000
O'Reilly24/75/110
Parenteau36/110/128
Landeskog31/69/118
FlyersHartnell45/78/1141633254880.67$13,875,000
Simmonds43/81/127
Voracek40/95/126
Read35/71/121
DetroitZetterberg33/117/1281313244970.65$17,337,878
Alfredsson37/85/122
Franzen43/87/118
Abdelkader18/35/129
Tampa BaySt. Louis42/134/1251103103840.81$15,500,000
Purcell35/101/129
Malone26/56/92
Killorn7/19/38
MinnesotaParise49/107/1301363024140.73$20,518,462
Heatley35/74/118
Pominville44/107/129
Coyle8/14/37
NYRNash51/101/1261443004670.64$15,625,000
Callahan45/85/121
Hagelin24/62/112
Pouliot24/52/108
San JoseMarleau47/95/1301362884890.59$18,660,000
Burns20/57/111
Torres22/44/118
Pavelski47/92/130
CalgaryCammalleri33/73/1101322844480.63$15,050,000
Hudler35/77/123
Stempniak23/60/108
Glencross41/74/107
CarolinaSemin34/98/1211192834330.65$19,075,000
Tlutsy40/74/127
Ruutu22/43/99
Skinner23/68/86
VancouverSedin42/107/1191312824490.63$16,200,000
Burrows41/76/127
Booth17/33/74
Hansen26/66/129
OttawaRyan42/87/1281342804700.6$13,500,000
Michalek39/74/100
MacArthur28/63/113
Greening25/56/129
NYIMoulson51/113/1291322774590.6$10,933,333
Bouchard17/42/80
Okposo28/69/127
Grabner36/53/123
KingsBrown40/83/1281352704420.61$12,585,227
Williams33/92/130
Carter47/67/103
Frattin15/28/81
ColumbusGaborik53/103/1291232694490.6$21,600,000
Umberger28/58/125
Dubinsky12/54/106
Horton30/54/89
PhoenixVrbata47/90/1111232654860.55$10,800,000
Doan35/77/127Boedker RFA
Boedker18/50/130
Korpikowski23/48/118
MontrealPacioretty48/104/1231172574090.63$16,833,333
Briere22/65/104
Gionta22/41/79
Bourque25/47/103
BuffaloVanek46/102/1161072464160.59$18,455,357
Stafford26/48/126
Leino10/31/79
Ennis25/65/95
FloridaFleischman39/96/1301032443860.63$15,094,167
Versteeg25/58/81
Kopecky25/59/127
Huberdeau14/31/48
NashvilleStalberg31/66/1261022254350.52$11,250,000
Hornqvist31/57/100
Wilson22/54/93
Smith18/48/116
St. LouisSteen23/55/83902143580.6$12,854,167
Oshie26/74/110
Stewart33/66/127
Tarasenko8/19/38
AnaheimPerry52/96/124851743300.53$12,991,667
Palmieri14/28/60
Silfverberg10/19/48
Penner9/31/98

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Note: Not every team has a clear cut group of top six wingers. If I wasn’t sure about who to fill out the group with, the general rule of thumb I went by was taking the next highest scoring winger on the team; to me, that best indicates the fire power a team has. For example, with Pittsburgh I’m betting Beau Bennett eventually claims the final top six winger spot, but going into camp that spot is up for grabs between a bunch of players such as Bennett, Matt D’Agostini and Jussi Jokinen (yes, I realize he played mainly center in Pittsburgh, but he can do both). I wrote in Jokinen since he was the highest scorer. Even for the teams where I’m fairly confident about the composition of their top six wingers — like Yakupov in Edmonton over Hemsky — I stuck with the guy who has more points to better represent the scoring prowess of teams across the league.

Quick thoughts:

– First thought: If the Bolland line is the excellent shutdown unit the Leafs seem to think it can be, the Leafs should win enough games. They have good goaltending and can clearly score, so they should be in good shape if they have those two things and an excellent shutdown line to complement them. That seems to be the plan.

– The Leafs’ 0.80 PPG ranks them second to only Tampa Bay’s 0.81 in scoring by top 6 wingers. Their $20,150,000 allocated to their top 6 wingers is sixth most league wide. Their 167 goals stand second to only Pittsburgh.

– Would be nice if Lupul could stay healthy. He’s missed 48 of the last 130 games.

– Kessel is unbelievable. If you didn’t catch this stat, he is tied with Martin St. Louis for the most points by a winger over the last two years.

– You can see why the Ducks want Teemu Selanne back.

– New Jersey probably surprised quite a few people with their ranking. Their top six is old, but they still know how to score. The Devils have a strong one-two punch down the middle with Zajac and Henrique, plus they have Schneider now. I believe they will be better than people think.

– Winnipeg’s problem is goaltending, but most people have known this for a while.

– For one reason or another, I thought Ottawa would be higher. Ryan is a big name, MacArthur is a decent scorer and Michalek has been good when healthy, but who the final top six winger will be is unknown. Michalek hasn’t been able to stay healthy either which has hurt them.

– Not that it’s all the current GM’s fault, but Columbus sure spends a lot of money on subpar(?) production from their top six wingers.

– Even though the top three teams on this chart are elite, I don’t necessarily believe there is a strong correlation between having a high scoring group of wingers and winning. That said, it’s nice to see those teams rank well because the Leafs are clearly putting their eggs in this basket.

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