Top Five NHL Forward Groups Entering 2025-26
The NHL’s off-season continues to unfold, and by mid-July, most teams made their key roster moves. That brings us to the question of what teams are best at each position – forward, defense and goal.
We began the process by breaking down the five best teams on defense. Now, we’re switching focus to analyze the five best teams at forward. The criteria for this list include top-level primary scoring, impressive secondary scoring, a dose of defense-minded and role forwards, and overall cohesion.
With that said, here are our choices with new roster additions in italics.
1. Florida Panthers
Forwards: Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand, Eetu Luostarinen, A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich
When you’re back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, and you manage to retain all your important forwards, you deserve to be at the top of this list. The Panthers did exactly that, re-signing veteran center Sam Bennett and left winger Brad Marchand to team-friendly deals this summer.
The Panthers have elite two-way skill in the form of Barkov and Reinhart, grit and clutch play from Tkachuk, Bennett and Marchand, and speed and tenacity with the rest of their group of forwards. Florida has repeatedly demonstrated that, when the games matter most, their forwards will be hard on the forecheck, determined in front of their opponent’s net and successful at undermining the other team’s defense. Nine of their forwards had at least 15 points in the 23 games it took them to win the Cup. For reference, the Oilers had three with at least 15 and seven with at least 10 in 22 games.
They’ve won two straight Cups for good reason, and they’re the cream of the crop when it comes to the league’s best collection of forwards.
2. Tampa Bay Lightning
Forwards: Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde, Nick Paul, Zemgus Girgensons, Cage…
