Left wing is where the NHL keeps its goal scorers. Five different left wingers hit 40 goals last season, more than any other position produced, and the top of this list is stacked with players whose job description is essentially “shoot the puck and don’t miss.”
What makes ranking them tricky is that the position also holds some of the most valuable non-scorers in hockey — players who win games with volume, physicality and two-way work that never shows up in a highlight package. Here, The Hockey Beast lists the ten best left wings in the NHL heading into 2026-27.
Best left wingers in the NHL
10: Brandon Hagel, Tampa Bay Lightning
Hagel set a career high with 36 goals last season, his second straight year above 30, and added a 4 Nations title and an Olympic silver with Canada along the way. Not bad for a sixth-round pick who was traded away by Chicago four years ago.
9: Clayton Keller, Utah Mammoth
Keller led Utah with 88 points and a career-best 62 assists, then won Olympic gold with Team USA. The franchise’s first captain has been a point-per-game player for five straight seasons, one of only 19 skaters in the league to clear 400 points in that span.
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8: Cutter Gauthier, Anaheim Ducks
Gauthier’s 41 goals dragged Anaheim into the playoffs for the first time since 2018, and made him just the fourth player in Ducks history to score 40 in a season — joining Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya and Corey Perry. He then led the team in postseason scoring. Year two as a full-time NHLer went well.
7: Artemi Panarin, Los Angeles Kings
Panarin turns 35 next month and just put up 84 points across a season split between New York and Los Angeles. He’s now the third European in NHL history to record 40 or more assists in 11 consecutive seasons, joining Jaromir Jagr and Peter Stastny. He also reunites this year with the coach he scored a career-high 120 points under.
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6: Jake Guentzel, Tampa Bay Lightning
Guentzel set a career high with 88 points at age 31, in his second season with Tampa Bay, and scored his 300th NHL goal in March. Across two years with the Lightning he’s produced 168 points in 161 games — the rare big free-agent-style acquisition that has actually looked like a bargain.
5: Brady Tkachuk, Florida Panthers
Tkachuk’s offseason trade to Florida ended five years as Ottawa’s captain and put him on a line with his brother, which they’d just done for Team USA’s first Olympic men’s hockey gold since 1980. He generates more shots per 60 minutes than any forward in hockey, and 59 points in 60 games last season understates how much he changes a game.
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4: Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers
Surgery kept Tkachuk out until January, and he still put up 34 points in 31 games before winning Olympic gold. The year before, he came back from injury to tie for the Panthers lead in playoff scoring during their second straight Stanley Cup run. Availability is the only question here; nothing else is.
3: Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets
Connor put up 92 points and 39 goals while playing all 82 games for a second straight season, and he’s now five goals from passing Ilya Kovalchuk for second in franchise history. Since 2017-18 he’s scored 321 goals in 675 games, which is a level of consistency almost nobody at this position matches.
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2: Jason Robertson, Dallas Stars
Robertson led Dallas with 96 points and tied for the team lead with 45 goals in a contract year, then signed a one-year, $12 million deal to avoid arbitration. He’s the first player in Stars or North Stars history with four consecutive 80-point seasons other than Mike Modano, and he leads all American-born players with 444 career points.
1: Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild
Kaprizov scored 45 goals last season, his fourth 40-goal campaign, and he’s the only player in Wild history with more than one. He owns the franchise records for points per game, goals per game and overtime goals, and last season he passed Marian Gaborik for the most goals in team history since Minnesota entered the league. His league-best 1.24 points per game among left wings is why the Wild handed him $136 million.
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