Ranking The Top-15 Forwards In The Metropolitan Division For The 2024-25 season
Sid and Ovi gear up for the 20th chapter of their careers
Always controversial, always fun, here are who we’re projecting as the best forwards in the Metropolitan Division.
As a whole, the forward group this year isn’t very exciting. Jake Guentzel and Patrik Laine are gone from the division, and of course RIP Johnny Gaudreau. Overall there weren’t very many active teams adding a lot up front. Most of the best forwards in the division are on the older side. A few years ago this division was awash in high level talent, but times are changing.
HM: Martin Necas, Vincent Trocheck, Brock Nelson, Bryan Rust
15. Dylan Strome, Washington Capitals. Strome put up career-highs in goals (27) and points (67) in 2023-24. He’s scored 132 total points in his two years in DC, quite the changing of the guard from when Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov used to be the main options down the middle.
14. Bo Horvat, New York Islanders. Grabbing Horvat from Vancouver in a trade has worked out tremendously for NYI. It gives Mat Barzal a skilled center to play off of and a badly needed primary scoring option. Horvat is one of just 23 players who have scored 30+ goals in all of the last three seasons.
13. Chris Kreider, New York Rangers. What a mid-career surge it’s been for Kreider. Always a decent enough player, his career-high was 28 goals up until 2021-22. Kreider did what almost no one does at the age of 30 — he started scoring way more than in his 20’s (with goal totals of 52, 36 and 39 in the last three years). He’s up to third place all-time in career NYR goals, and 32 away from second place.
12. Timo Meier, New Jersey Devils. The first full year of Meier in NJ didn’t go the way anyone expected (only 52 points in 69 games and a team-worse dash 28 in +/-. Regardless on one’s feelings on that statistic, that’s not a good signal). A bounceback should be in order this season to get back towards the 35G+70P he averaged from 2021-23.
11. Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals. All eyes will be on Ovechkin this season as he chases one of Wayne Gretzky’s signature records of 894 goals. Ovechkin needs 41 to tie, 42 to pass. Friendly reminder Game No. 82 is Washington @ Pittsburgh (maybe get your tickets now, just in case!) Despite advancing age and decreasing goal totals lately (50 to 42 to 31), the NHL’s all-time leader in 40+ goal seasons will likely gain momentum as the season rolls along and he chugs towards history.
10. Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins. Malkin’s game is slowing down as he approaches the end of his career, but he still is able to flash from time to time. A strong finish to the end of last season should energize him to close in on 500 goals (498), 800 assists (798) and 1300 points (1296) early in the season, where he’ll become only the 20th forward in NHL history to put up 500G+800A in a career. Malkin is as active as ever, leading the league last season in takeaways (and also taking many a stick foul for two minute penalties along the way).
9. Travis Konecny, Philadelphia Flyers. 2023-24 marked career-highs for Konecny in goals (33) and points (68) and marked the second-straight season he cracked the 30G mark. Konecny kinda the 2024 version of a, well not a power forward, but one of the most effective “get your nose dirty” forwards. Only Leon Draisaitl, Brady Tkachuk and Konecny managed to have all of 65+ PIMs, 65+ points and 30+ goals last season.
8. Mat Barzal, New York Islanders. Barzal, at 27, is still chasing the 85-point season he put up as a rookie in 2017-18. Last season he was right there with 80 points, he’s definitely one of the division’s brightest playmakers and one of the few who can rack up 60ish assists in any given year. Barzal seems to get lost in the shuffle for Team Canada talk, which is a shame. He has enough skill to fit right in for anyone’s team.
7. Seth Jarvis, Carolina Hurricanes. 2023-24 was Jarvis’ breakout year, growing from the 39 and 40 points produced in his first two seasons into a 33G+34A front line player that demands to be noticed. Expect the 22-year old to continue his ascent in the coming years, this could and should be a season where he easily pushes for 40+ goals and a point/game. The sky looks like the limit and he’s definitely shown some proof of concept last year for why he can grow into being one of the league’s elite offensive forwards.
6. Jesper Bratt, New Jersey Devils. All Bratt does is put up numbers (229 points in 240 games over the last three seasons). Bratt enjoyed a great individual season last year of 83 points, 56 assists, 20 of them coming on the power play — all career-highs. He kinda feels like a forgotten star, or under-appreciated at least for the amount of numbers that he’s been producing lately.
5. Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils. One of the most well-rounded centers in the game, Hischier can play in any situation. He’s been a bit of a forgotten first overall pick since he doesn’t have the Hart trophy upside of some years, but he’s been scoring at about a point/game in the last two seasons, he’s very good on faceoffs (56.6% in 2023-24) and can do a little bit of everything to help a team win, as illustrated by being one of only 10 forwards last season with 55+ takeaways, 40+ hits and 40+ blocked shots.
4. Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devils. Hughes is 12th in the NHL in points/game over the last three seasons, but his issue is the number of games is much lower than it could be. He missed 20 more games in 2023-24. It’s a big year ahead for Hughes, he’s on the cover of the NHL’s video game and should get the chance to shine at the 4 Nations Tournament, while looking to lead the Devils back to the playoffs.
3. Sebastien Aho, Carolina Hurricanes. Love everything about Aho’s game. And how about this for consistency, in the last four non-shortened seasons he has scored: 38, 37, 36 and 36 goals. He added back the playmaking aspect by tying his career-high of 53 helpers. He’s been a quiet star but is so well-rounded and a big reason why Carolina is consistently good every year.
2. Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers. The ‘big 3’ of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov ran away with the scoring race and MVP talk last year, but let’s not discount that at age-32 Panarin just shattered his career best in goals (49, up from 32 in 2019-20) and points (120, up from 96 in 2021-22) and finished fourth in NHL scoring. The Bread Man keeps getting better with age. Already entering his sixth season with the Blueshirts, it’s hard to believe he only has two seasons remaining on the contract he signed in free agency.
1 . Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins. Panarin scored more points, but all around Crosby is still the class of the division. Last season Crosby won over 200 additional faceoffs than second place in the league as one example. Aside from McDavid or MacKinnon, no player is more important to a team and leaned on more than the Pens rely on Crosby. He put up the best age-36 season in NHL history (finishing 11th in goals and 12th in league scoring) and is primed to keep it rolling this year.