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Which NHL team has the worst group of forwards?

August 31, 2017, 11:08 AM ET [168 Comments]
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Factoring in star power, emerging talent, and depth, we discuss which team has the worst forward core in the NHL.

Todd Cordell

The Vancouver Canucks.

They finished 29th in goals last season and the only established forward they added this summer is power play specialist Sam Gagner, who I think will regress next season.

Many of the Canucks' best forwards -- Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, and Loui Eriksson, among others -- are past their primes and declining by the year, which certainly doesn't help things.

Bo Horvat is solid, Sven Baertschi has shown flashes, and Brock Boeser has the potential to be really good, but there isn't a lot to like up front right now.

Honorable mention goes to the Vegas Golden Knights. They don't have a ton of talent but I'm really high on Vadim Shipachev and I think James Neal and Reilly Smith will bounce back enough to keep their offense out of the basement.

Adam French

I think this is a debate between the Canucks and Golden Knights, except that this season the Canucks will be introducing some of their younger players while Vegas ices veterans. So the Golden Knights it is!

There are some pretty poor forward groups, but some at least have some semblance of star power or excitement.

Detroit has Zetterberg still very much a top end player and guys like Tatar, Mantha and Larkin to look forward to.

NJD have Hall who is always fun to watch, even if nothing comes of it. Johansson and Henrique are good players. They also have Hischier to get excited about and there's hope for Zacha.

Hurricanes have Skinner who is a darn great player when healthy. Aho and some young forwards also looking good. Staal is still there. Williams is a nice veteran add. Certainly not the best group, but not the worst.

Arizona is going to ice a young interesting forward core. Whether they win games or not is up for debate, but they should be entertaining.

Colorado has too much talent to suck this much again...right?

Just some examples.

The Golden Knights have a very unspectacular group of...NHL caliber players.

2016/2017 Performance

Jonathan Marchessault 75gp 30g 21a 51p
David Perron 82gp 18g 28a 46p
James Neal 70gp 23g 18a 41p
Reilly Smith 80gp 15g 22a 37p
Erik Haula 72gp 15g 11a 26p
William Karlsson 81gp 6g 19a 25p
Oscar Lindberg 65gp 8g 12a 20p
Cody Eakin 60gp 3g 9a 12p
William Carrier 41gp 5g 3a 8p
Pierre-Édouard Bellemare 82gp 4g 4a 8p

Vadim Shipachyov KHL
Teemu Pulkkinen AHL
Tomas Nosek AHL

So they have one player over 30 goals and 50 points. He's a 26 year old who did it out of nowhere and could be a one off.

A former 30 goal man in Neal who could potentially do it again. However all of his best years have been with top quality centremen. Which begs the question is a 30 year old NHL rookie that centreman? Huge question mark.

Nothing really stands out to me. They have the worst forward group and will likely (for good reason) ice none of their strong prospects this season.

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