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):

Teams Top Six Wingers Goals/Points/Games Total Goals Total Points Games PPG Total Cap Hit Pittsburgh Neal 61/117/120 179 395 510 0.77 $14,600,000 Kunitz 48/113/134 Dupuis 45/97/134 Jokinen 25/68/122 Boston Eriksson 38/100/134 163 379 508 0.75 $20,750,000 Lucic 33/88/127 Marchand 46/91/121 Iginla 46/100/126 Chicago Kane 46/121/129 149 365 471 0.77 $23,775,000 Hossa 46/108/121 Sharp 39/89/102 Bickell 18/47/119 New Jersey Elias 40/114/129 146 364 491 0.74 $17,850,000 Jagr 35/89/118 Clowe 20/64/116 Ryder 51/97/128 Winnipeg Wheeler 36/105/128 161 354 497 0.71 $18,250,000 Kane 47/90/122 Ladd 46/96/130 Setogouchi 32/63/117 Toronto Kessel 57/134/130 167 345 431 0.8 $20,150,000 JVR 29/56/91 Lupul 36/85/82 Clarkson 45/70/128 Edmonton Hall 43/103/106 143 339 444 0.76 $20,812,500 Eberle 50/113/126 Perron 31/67/105 Hemsky 19/56/107 Capitals Ovechkin 70/121/126 151 337 485 0.69 $17,705,129 Johansson 20/68/114 Johansson RFA Brouwer 37/66/129 Erat 24/82/116 Dallas Benn 28/96/112 124 336 459 0.73 $17,500,000 Whitney 35/106/114 Cole 44/74/129 Peverley 17/60/104 Colorado Tanguay 24/76/104 115 330 460 0.72 $16,075,000 O'Reilly 24/75/110 Parenteau 36/110/128 Landeskog 31/69/118 Flyers Hartnell 45/78/114 163 325 488 0.67 $13,875,000 Simmonds 43/81/127 Voracek 40/95/126 Read 35/71/121 Detroit Zetterberg 33/117/128 131 324 497 0.65 $17,337,878 Alfredsson 37/85/122 Franzen 43/87/118 Abdelkader 18/35/129 Tampa Bay St. Louis 42/134/125 110 310 384 0.81 $15,500,000 Purcell 35/101/129 Malone 26/56/92 Killorn 7/19/38 Minnesota Parise 49/107/130 136 302 414 0.73 $20,518,462 Heatley 35/74/118 Pominville 44/107/129 Coyle 8/14/37 NYR Nash 51/101/126 144 300 467 0.64 $15,625,000 Callahan 45/85/121 Hagelin 24/62/112 Pouliot 24/52/108 San Jose Marleau 47/95/130 136 288 489 0.59 $18,660,000 Burns 20/57/111 Torres 22/44/118 Pavelski 47/92/130 Calgary Cammalleri 33/73/110 132 284 448 0.63 $15,050,000 Hudler 35/77/123 Stempniak 23/60/108 Glencross 41/74/107 Carolina Semin 34/98/121 119 283 433 0.65 $19,075,000 Tlutsy 40/74/127 Ruutu 22/43/99 Skinner 23/68/86 Vancouver Sedin 42/107/119 131 282 449 0.63 $16,200,000 Burrows 41/76/127 Booth 17/33/74 Hansen 26/66/129 Ottawa Ryan 42/87/128 134 280 470 0.6 $13,500,000 Michalek 39/74/100 MacArthur 28/63/113 Greening 25/56/129 NYI Moulson 51/113/129 132 277 459 0.6 $10,933,333 Bouchard 17/42/80 Okposo 28/69/127 Grabner 36/53/123 Kings Brown 40/83/128 135 270 442 0.61 $12,585,227 Williams 33/92/130 Carter 47/67/103 Frattin 15/28/81 Columbus Gaborik 53/103/129 123 269 449 0.6 $21,600,000 Umberger 28/58/125 Dubinsky 12/54/106 Horton 30/54/89 Phoenix Vrbata 47/90/111 123 265 486 0.55 $10,800,000 Doan 35/77/127 Boedker RFA Boedker 18/50/130 Korpikowski 23/48/118 Montreal Pacioretty 48/104/123 117 257 409 0.63 $16,833,333 Briere 22/65/104 Gionta 22/41/79 Bourque 25/47/103 Buffalo Vanek 46/102/116 107 246 416 0.59 $18,455,357 Stafford 26/48/126 Leino 10/31/79 Ennis 25/65/95 Florida Fleischman 39/96/130 103 244 386 0.63 $15,094,167 Versteeg 25/58/81 Kopecky 25/59/127 Huberdeau 14/31/48 Nashville Stalberg 31/66/126 102 225 435 0.52 $11,250,000 Hornqvist 31/57/100 Wilson 22/54/93 Smith 18/48/116 St. Louis Steen 23/55/83 90 214 358 0.6 $12,854,167 Oshie 26/74/110 Stewart 33/66/127 Tarasenko 8/19/38 Anaheim Perry 52/96/124 85 174 330 0.53 $12,991,667 Palmieri 14/28/60 Silfverberg 10/19/48 Penner 9/31/98

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.