It wasn’t long ago that we looked at each team in the All-Canadian Divison’s defense groups and ranked them one through seven. Now, we’re going to rank each team’s first line, and to do this we’ll be using the line combos from dailyfaceoff.com.
We’ll include some stats that’ll give you a little bit of analytical perspective from Natural Stat Trick. I wouldn’t read too too much into them though because, for a lot of these players, they haven’t played together much. So the sample sizes will be far too small to form a calculated judgment.
We’ll try to use three seasons of data at 5×5 with the categories set per 60.
Vancouver Canucks: Miller-Pettersson-Virtanen
WTF?! Where’s Boeser? The idea of what Jake Virtanen was supposed to develop into when he was drafted looks really nice on this line, but he’s a ghost of that projected player. Not saying he can’t get there, but at this point in his career, he’s not that power forward everybody was expecting.
Put Boeser on this line and you have a serious contender for the best line in the ACD (All-Canadian Division) but then you handicap the rest of the roster if you do that. Vancouver’s RW depth is shite.
The Fancies (2019-20):
TOI – 123:36
TOI/gm – 1:49
CF% – 58.94%
FF% – 60:48%
GF% – 75%
The Conclusion: This is a damned fine line when it comes to possession and goal-scoring, but they never play together… Maybe that will change this year?
Edmonton Oilers: RNH-McDavid-Puljujarvi
Maybe at some point, this is how the Oilers’ top line will look but I don’t know if it’ll be that way from the get-go. I do get a good laugh seeing this is how Daily Faceoff has Edmonton’s first line shaping up though seeing as it’s sure to piss off a lot of the Puljujarvi haters.
Anyway, I want to think that Jesse Puljujarvi will come out of the blocks like a man on a mission and blow everybody away but I don’t know that for sure. He’s had successful stints with both McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as his center in the past, mind you. I just think it’s only fair to look at this line’s RW and say that this is where the question mark lies until we know what we have in an older, healthier, better Pulju.
The Potential for this line to be the best of the bunch is high seeing how RNH and Connor can carry it on their own. Add an in-form Pulju to this line combo and there’s definitely an argument to be made that it’s the best one in the division. I mean, it’s really hard to argue against it seeing how it features Connor McDavid alone…
The Fancies (2016-18):
TOI – 31:45
TOI/gm – 0:16
CF% – 51:47%
FF% – 46.43%
GF% – 42.86%
The Conclusion: I warned of this at the beginning. These three players have only played 31 minutes together at 5×5 in 118 games from 2016-2018. Not exactly great seasons for the Oilers and a good portion of that had Puljujarvi on the 3rd line (or in the minors) and RNH playing 3C.
I suspect things would be different if these players lined up alongside each other now that the team is better and the players are older.
Calgary Flames: Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
This has been an awesome line for a long time now but it seems like things are starting to erode and it could use some freshening up. There was a time where you’d get on the edge of your seat each time Calgary entered the opposition’s zone but I think that has passed.
If the Flames moved Matthew Tkachuk up to this line on the LW, it would be a formidable line physically to go up against as all three players love the muck and grind. Not quite the Legion of Doom, but pretty close.
The Fancies (2018-20):
TOI – 1333:42
TOI/gm – 9:00
CF% – 53.52%
FF% – 52:10%
GF% – 55:38%
The Conclusion: And here we are at the other end of the spectrum. We’ve got a very clear idea of how much these three impact the game when played together. They are very very good. This is a solid NHL first line.
Winnipeg Jets: Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Of all the lines in this semi-hypothetical division, Winnipeg’s offers the most balance. Each player is as good on defense as he is on offense and if you want to play physical they can. If you want to play finesse, they can go that route too. All three players you could throw on both of your special teams units to boot but the ceiling isn’t as high as Edmonton’s or Toronto’s. The floor is high, however.
The Fancies (2018-20):
TOI – 1308:55
TOI/gm – 6:19
CF% – 51.02%
FF% – 51.93%
GF% – 50.85%
The Conclusion: Another pretty clear answer with this line. It’s not as good as Calgary’s but still excellent from a possession and goal-share perspective. In those six minutes of average ice-time/gm, the ice slants their way.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Toronto’s top line is all offense, all of the time. I don’t see a lick of defensive acumen amongst these three forwards and that’s probably part of the season the Leafs have failed to move past the first round of the playoffs for some time.
From an entertainment point-of-view, this is one of the most electrifying lines to watch (at least until Stuetzle gets promoted to Ottawa’s top-line) but I feel like it’s offense-heavy nature could be a weakness in some scenarios (like a 7-game elimination series).
Now, if you want to pad a lead or need a goal late in a game, you send this line out.
The Fancies (2018-20):
TOI – 421:16
TOI/gm – 2:37
CF% – 52.58%
FF% – 52.49%
GF% – 57.78%
The Conclusion: The eye-test matches the analytics. I swore that these guys played more together over the previous three seasons though. Now, would you take this line over Calgary’s from a numbers point-of-view?
Ottawa Senators: Tkachuk-Norris-Dadonov
I was fully expecting to see Colin White at center here or even Artem Anisimov, but instead, Daily Faceoff has a rookie not named Tim Stuetzle taking the role. Not too sure about that.
I love the wingers on this line. The skill from Dadonov and the power from Tkachuk is glorious but Josh Norris, as good as he might be, is not a first-line center in the NHL (is he even a 3rd line center?). That’s the one thing that this team is missing for now and it wouldn’t shock me if it was Stuetzle as soon as this year. In a perfect world, it would be as amazing in real life as it is in my imagination.
The Fancies (2019-20):
TOI – 29:30
TOI/gm – 9:53
CF% – 48:53%
FF% – 45%
GF% – 100%
The Conclusion: This one is impossible to do since Dadonov hasn’t played a minute for the Sens yet. So the best I could do was Norris with Tkachuk as they played three games together and averaged quite a bit of TOI on the same line. The good news is that they didn’t allow any goals while deployed but their fancies were pretty crap.
Montreal Canadiens: Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
When Tomas Tatar is on, he’s so damned good, but that’s the problem; you never really know when he’s going to be on. Whereas with Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher, you know what you’re getting every night. That said, you might not be getting a lot of offense per se. The effort will be there for 2/3 of this line consistently but it’s not a group that contains a lot of high-end offense in my opinion.
Tomas Tatar, you are the weakest link. It’s probably a good thing that the Habs have Tyler Toffoli and Jonathan Drouin as alternative options to Tatar.
Do you know who would look good on this line? Max Domi.
The Fancies (2018-20):
TOI – 1246:55
TOI/gm – 9:10
CF% – 61:35%
FF% – 60:49%
GF% – 62.30%
The Conclusion: Well, color me shocked. I did not expect this line to be the best of the bunch numbers-wise. It’s hard not to like those numbers, eh? Is Montreal on to something here?
BLH’s Rankings
- Edmonton
- Montreal
- Winnipeg
- Toronto
- Calgary
- Vancouver
- Ottawa
How do your rankings look? Let us know in the comments below!
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