The top 5 NHL right wingers of 2025

Dec 30, 2025, 11:30 ESTUpdated: Dec 30, 2025, 09:07 EST

Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

With the final days of 2025 ahead, what better way to celebrate the calendar year than by highlighting some of the best performances we’ve witnessed in the past 365 days?

Over these last few days of the year, I’ll look at the best players at all five positions (goaltender, defense, right wing, left wing, and center) from 2025, which includes the January to April months of the 2024-25 season, the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the October to December months in the 2025-26 season, as well as some consideration from the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Today we’ll look at the right wingers. While the left wing position has plenty of talent, right wing is loaded, especially as more left wingers find their way over to the right side of the ice. But even with so much competition, you won’t find too many surprises in the top five.

First, a few honorable mentions:

Matt Boldy, Minnesota Wild – Boldy has taken steps in his game every season, and 2025 saw his biggest step yet. He carried the load for the Wild with Kaprizov injured for most of January to April, he was good at 4 Nations Face-Off, he was even better in the playoffs, and then his start to the 2025-26 season is on another level. Already with 25 goals and 47 points in 40 games, he is well on his way to putting up career bests again and will make an impact at the Olympics assuming he makes the team, which is highly likely.

Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals – If narratives played a larger role on where I ranked players on this list, Ovechkin would be in the top five. He was the story in 2025, as a return to form in the 2024-25 season saw him charge towards Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record, finally achieving the feat at the tail end of the season. He’s far from prime Ovechkin, but 42 goals and 79 points in 82 games is still impressive for a 40-year-old. Worth noting: he’s played a lot of left and right wing over the past year.

Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers – As far as Tkachuk’s play goes when he’s on the ice, he was one of the best this year. His 1.16 points per game was the eighth most in 2025, he was essential to a second-straight Stanley Cup win for the Panthers, and he became a face of the NHL with his performance at the 4 Nations Face-Off. The problem is he wasn’t on the ice a lot this year. Tkachuk played more games in the playoffs (23) than he did in the regular season (19) as injuries limited his playing time. He made the most of his playing time, but health is a huge advantage which the five players who made the top five have over him. Brad Marchand was another Panther considered due to his performance in the playoffs and so far in 2025-26, but his January to April was forgettable enough to drop him out of contention.

5. Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche/Carolina Hurricanes/Dallas Stars

Regular Season: 82 GP, 26 G, 62 A, 88P
Playoffs: 18 GP, 9 G, 13 A, 22 P

I already mentioned Ovechkin’s goal chase as one of the top stories of the year, so Rantanen’s trade year can’t even hold the honor of top stories among right wingers, never mind the NHL, but he was still in the headlines. Despite spending almost 10 years with the Avalanche prior to 2025, he didn’t even last a month in 2025 before he was dealt in a notable three-team blockbuster to the Hurricanes. Another 13 games later, and he wanted out, so he was on the move again to Dallas. That alone made for an interesting year for Rantanen, but that wasn’t all.

Rantanen was a much better fit with the Stars, producing 22 points in 20 games to close out the regular season and gelling with the team’s other top players. But Rantanen’s true introduction to Dallas was in the playoffs. Matched up against his former Avs teammates, he put on a Game 7 spectacle with a third-period hat trick to complete a comeback and advance the Stars. His playoff run as a whole was spectacular with nine goals and 22 points in 18 games, the most among any player who didn’t make the Stanley Cup Final, and his strong play has continued into this season with 54 points in 38 games. His struggles in Carolina and defensive issues drop him a little bit compared to the four players ahead of him, but he was spectacular regardless.

4. Sam Reinhart, Florida Panthers

Regular Season: 79 GP, 38 G, 40 A, 78 P
Playoffs: 21 GP, 11 G, 12 A, 23 P

Reinhart set the bar high in 2024, capping off a 56-goal calendar year with a Stanley Cup, but he did his absolute best to live up to it in 2025. The end to his 2024-25 season wasn’t a high-profile one with 15 goals and 33 points in 40 games, but the Panthers’ struggles as a whole down the stretch played a role in Reinhart’s step back. He still made up for it with his stellar defensive play, as he established himself as one of the best two-way wingers in the game and finished second in Selke voting… behind his own teammate in Aleksander Barkov. Along with that, he had four assists in four games in 4 Nations as Canada won the tournament.

But the playoffs was where we saw Reinhart step up his game. The one lag in his game in 2024 was his lack of production in the playoffs (10 goals and 16 points in 24 games), but that was not the case this year, as he had 11 goals and 23 points in 21 games. He also stepped it up when it mattered with seven goals and 10 points in the final four games of the Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers, highlighted by becoming the first player since 1957 to score four goals in a Cup-clinching game. As the Panthers played out the rest of 2025 without Barkov or Tkachuk, Reinhart has stepped up with 21 goals and 42 points in 38 games to keep them in the playoff race.

3. Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning

Regular Season: 80 GP, 37 G, 79 A, 116 P, Art Ross Trophy
Playoffs: 5 GP, 0 G, 4 A, 4 P

It’s only fitting Kucherov finds himself in third on this list. For the second season in a row, Kucherov captured the Art Ross Trophy, and yet he felt like an afterthought for the Hart Trophy. After finishing second in voting last year to Nathan MacKinnon, Kucherov finished third behind Connor Hellebuyck and Leon Draisaitl this year despite a five-point lead in the scoring race. He’s one of the most-productive players in the league and was second in scoring in 2025 with 116 points in 80 games.

However, there are some growing concerns with Kucherov which I can’t overlook. I won’t address his defensive issues because he’s never expected to excel defensively, and he makes up for it with his scoring. The biggest concern is his performance in the playoffs in the last three seasons, where the Lightning have struggled to advance past the first round. He’s still played well, but not at the level we expect from Kucherov, particularly in 2025 when he had just four assists in five games. 17 points in 16 playoff games in the last three years isn’t horrible, but he only has one goal in that stretch, and it was in the first game of Tampa’s 2023 first-round series against the Maple Leafs. He’s since gone 15 games without a goal.

Kucherov’s won two Stanley Cups already, so this means nothing in the grand scheme of his career. But I’ve punished Mitch Marner in the past for similar performances, so it’s only fair the Russian gets a similar treatment, especially when you expect much more from him. Ultimately, it’s a three-horse race at the top, so the slightest weaknesses make the biggest difference here.

2. Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs/Vegas Golden Knights

Regular Season: 80 GP, 23 G, 68 A, 91 P
Playoffs: 13 GP, 2 G, 11 A, 13 P

Speaking of Marner, he was another right winger who was one of the biggest stories in the league. Except in his case, it wasn’t for blockbuster trades, a historic Game 7 performance or his chase to make history. In fact, it was the opposite. Another poor showing in the playoffs from the Leafs required a scapegoat, and with Marner’s contract up and his desire to move on, he was the sacrifice. The end result was a departure to Vegas, and while the Maple Leafs have imploded in his absence, he’s fit right in.

Like a lot of Marner’s success in his NHL career, his performance in the regular season gives him his high placement. His 91 points in 80 games wasn’t the best performance among right wingers (in fact, it was the worst of the top three), but he always makes up for it with his defensive game. Even with his reputation as a poor playoff performer, he had the best showing of the top three with 13 points in 13 games (just ignore that he only had two goals, or only had three assists in the seven games outside of Games 1, 2 and 3). The only thing that could have hurt his chance of making the top five was how he’s started to play center for Vegas, which could have ruined his RW eligibility. Otherwise, he’s one of the best in the league at the position, and the Golden Knights appreciate his play when Toronto often didn’t.

1. David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins

Regular Season: 78 GP, 45 G, 65 A, 110 P
Playoffs: N/A

I guess the easiest way to not have your placement on this list ruined by a poor playoff performance is to not play in the playoffs at all. All jokes aside, Pastrnak playing for a bad Bruins team could have hurt his chances, but it’s Pastrnak’s performance amidst the fall from grace in Boston which earns him top recognition for 2025. His game could have slipped as Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and the rest of the Bruins’ old guard left the team, but Pastrnak has made the Bruins his own and shown he thrives as the driving force.

Pastrnak had an excellent end to the 2024-25 season with 69 points in 43 games, helped by chemistry with Morgan Geekie. Pastrnak’s 41 points in 35 games so far this season look pedestrian by comparison, but injuries have slightly disrupted his year. The fact that he’s kept the Bruins in the playoff race this long might make him worthy of Hart-Trophy consideration, especially if the team can find a way to make the dance. To add to how impressive his year was, his role as the only elite forward on the team means he consistently faces the other teams’ top shutdown units, and he still puts up the points he does without a first-line center next to him. Kucherov had Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel this year and Marner had Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel, but Pastrnak is doing it all on his own in Boston, and that’s ultimately what earned him the No. 1 spot.