The best forward lines of all-time

[BigBadBruins7708]

it's a beautiful thing when two superstars find their perfect third guy. gretzky and kurri found tikkanen. the sedins found alex burrows.

would have loved to see hull and oates find their third guy. i hope pettersson and boeser find their guy...

there's an alternate dimension somewhere where Neely-Oates-Juneau got to play together for more than 45 games

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Seattle's line of Frank Foyston between Jack Walker and Bernie Morris seemed to be the prototype of a line with a classic blend of complementary skills: versatile, playmaking center with a tenacious forechecking winger on one side and pure sniper on the other. Like an early version of Trottier, Bossy & Gillies. Maybe there were earlier examples of this type of combo?

 

[BobbyAwe]

Simmer - Dionne - Taylor

 

[VanIslander]

The greatest line in the NHL for back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1936 and 1937 was HHOFer Marty Barry's Wings line with fellow HHOFer Herbie Lewis and retired Detroit jersey #6 Larry Aurie.

 

[decma]

Propp-Poulin-Kerr deserves a mention as one of the best lines of the mid 80s.

 

[spiny norman]

From the WHA Jets:

Hull-Nilsson-Hedberg

 

[MadLuke]

Exactly! How can the OP have forgotten the famous Punch Line and the great Rocket Richard...

End of the message:

I also thought about e.g. G-A-G line, French Connection, Punch line, Kraut line, Winnipeg Jets’ Hot Line (or at least some line with Bobby Hull),

 

[Perfect_Drug]

1987 Team Canada

Doug Gilmour - Wayne Gretzky - Mario Lemieux

(Gilmour alternated with Propp, Hawerchuck, and Tochett)

1st PP was
Mark Messier - Wayne Gretzky - Mario Lemieux

 

[Talisman]

How about Stevens-Lemieux-Tocchet-line in season1992-93!!.. of course Tocchet was in pittsburgh past season buti dont remember did they played together in 1992 stanley cup run!!. As for internationally 80s the best second line was Kamensky-Bykov-Khomutov but of course they were over shadowed by KLM-line.

 

[VanIslander]

Arguably at one point...

Lehtinen - Koivu - Selanne

 

[VMBM]

I would also suggest the Legion of Doom line for the Flyers....for a few years, the LeClair-Lindros-Renberg line was unstoppable.

Actually I was supposed to mention them, but forgot. Unfortunately I didn't see them much, but gotta love that nickname.

I'll add the Punch Line. Off the top of my head it's the only line, that lasted for an extended period at the very least, with three Hart winners. Richard and Lach each won the trophy while playing on the line.

Sold!

I thought that the Original Six era was probably underrepresented on the list. So I added that as the 10th line.

 

[Peter25]

Some missing lines:
Yakushev-Shadrin-Shalimov (Spartak Moscow)
Kamensky-Bykov-Khomutov (CSKA Moscow)
Varnakov-Kovin-Skvortsov (Torpedo Gorky)
Kapustin-Zhluktov-Balderis (CSKA Moscow)

 

[Bluesguru]

What was Roenick’s big line in Chicago? Did he have Steve Thomas on the line? Michael Goulet was past his prime in Chicago so if he was on that line then I say forget it.

 

[HuGort]

Actually I liked the Big M/Coco/Road Runner line for 1973 as good as any Habs line. They all could fly and each scored close to 100 points that season. Canadiens dominated the regular season, I think only 10 losses all year. Into the playoffs also. Outside of the '76 Canadiens; I think that was the strongest Canadien team I have seen.

 

[Mandar]

Interesting fact: the GAG line was the first line to have all 3 forwards score 40 in the same season (71-72)

 

[Krewe]

Kucherov's line would be up there too if the 2nd winger was better

If only we’d gotten panarin

 

[Krewe]

I don’t have the expertise to debate it, but I think it’s a bit odd almost no one has mentioned any lines from the last 20 years. Idk if it’s scoring being down or players not getting being HOF yet but still.

 

[crobro]

For about two years maybe Three,The west coast Express was the best line in hockey

1year with Andrew Cassells as the centre and Two years with Brendan Morrison.

If that line had a true playmaking Elite Centre it would have dominated that era

Bertuzzi Naslund were both top 5 in scoring for a few years.

The best line of the dead puck era,with The Forsberg line in Colorado a real close second

 

[wetcoast]

Denis Tremblay's skating held him back.

Denis Tremblay (b.1961) Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Prospect of a federal government job was attractive.

He was very much a passenger compared to Spin-o-rama Savard and Cyr who had an excellent shot.

 

[wetcoast]

I don’t have the expertise to debate it, but I think it’s a bit odd almost no one has mentioned any lines from the last 20 years. Idk if it’s scoring being down or players not getting being HOF yet but still.

The current Bergeron, Marchand and Pasta line would fair very well all time.

 

[WingsFan95]

It's Lemieux-Francis-Jagr because I think at that time Lemieux was better overall than most versions of Gretzky and Jagr with Francis was a better support than I'll argue Gretzky ever had on a line.

 

[VanIslander]

... it’s a bit odd almost no one has mentioned any lines from the last 20 years. Idk if it’s scoring being down or players not getting being HOF yet but still.

Williams - Kopitar - Brown

That line was fantastic together, finishing 1st 2nd and 3rd in Kings scoring during the regular season of their first of two Stanley Cup championship seasons. The team was playoff bound for 5 straight years with that line together. Highly underappreciated. Arguably the best line of the decade and one of the best of the last quarter century in terms of a trio (not duo with part-term third) of a sustained complete line of great chemistry. Size, grit, skill, defensive, playmaking, clutch scoring. It was a model line (well, almost - it lacked a great finisher - all three were 20-goal scorers together in 2012 - but in the playoffs Justin was consistently clutch).

 

[Vilica]

I don’t have the expertise to debate it, but I think it’s a bit odd almost no one has mentioned any lines from the last 20 years. Idk if it’s scoring being down or players not getting being HOF yet but still.

Looking at results from naturalstattrick (which restricts looking at forward lines to 3 seasons, and obviously only has this data from 07-08 on), the Bergeron-Marchand-Pastrnak line over the past 3 years at 5v5 is 1500 minutes, a 60% Corsi for, 81/57 GF/GA (58%), 55% high danger chances percentage on basically a 100 PDO. Looks like 60% offensive zone faceoffs too.

The Caps line of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin during their 3 year peak of 07-08 through 09-10 is a bit skewed because when they didn't start a game together, they were a line when Washington was trailing. Still, they had 650 minutes together at 5v5, rocking a 60% Corsi for, 55/19 GF/GA (74%), 58% high danger chances for on a PDO of 106. The on-ice shooting percentage for them was 12.8% - kinda ridiculous. Their offensive zone faceoff percentage was 66%.

Ovechkin and Backstrom without Semin during that period had 2040 minutes together, a CF% of 58, a 113/78 GF/GA (59%), 54% HDCF percentage on a 101 PDO with 58% offensive zone faceoff percentage. So they had slightly worse attempts and chances, but Semin really juiced their actual goals for - their GF/60 rate is a massive 5.07 compared to 3.32 with just Ovechkin and Backstrom.

Of other recent lines, you have the Getzlaf-Perry-Ryan trio in Anaheim, and over their peak seasons from 08-09 through 10-11, they had 1544 minutes of 5v5, 51% Corsi for, 90/52 GF/GA (63%), 53% HDCF percentage on a 104 PDO. Offensive zone faceoff percentage down quite a bit from the other two lines, at 53%.

The Sedins+Burrows line in Vancouver from 09-10 through 11-12 had 2080 minutes together, a 58% CF, 132/59 GF/GA (69%), 60% HDCF on a 105 PDO, with a massive 75% offensive zone faceoff percentage. Vigneault just never started them in the D-zone - their offensive zone and neutral zone faceoffs per 60 are in line with the Bergeron line, they're just missing 10 D-zone faceoffs per 60 that the whole Bergeron line is taking.

Beyond that, I think it has more to do with coaches tending to keep a duo together and mix up the 3rd person. Looking at Tampa, Kucherov+Stamkos have over 1800 minutes together over the last 3 years, but only 42 minutes with Point as well. Crosby has great numbers with Guentzel, but different third wheels, and same with McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins.

For what it is worth, from 07-08 through 09-10, Crosby and Malkin had 880 minutes together as a duo 5v5, with a 51% CF, 68/41 GF/GA (62%), 58% HDCF percentage on a 104 PDO, with 58% offensive zone faceoffs. Looking at their other 3 year samples more recently results is less than 300 minute sample sizes. That GF/60 rate is 4.64, which is in the same ballpark as the Caps line, with a similar boost over Crosby's 3.18 GF without Malkin and Malkin's 2.84 GF without Crosby.

I'm naturally pre-disposed to think the Caps line is the best post-lockout line, but looking at the underlying numbers seems to justify that moniker.

Edit: a quick gander at Kopitar-Brown-Williams from 11-12 through 13-14 has a 62% CF, 52/32 GF/GA (62%), 62% HDCF and a 100 PDO, with 55% offensive zone faceoffs.

 

[Talisman]

Some missing lines:
Yakushev-Shadrin-Shalimov (Spartak Moscow)
Kamensky-Bykov-Khomutov (CSKA Moscow)
Varnakov-Kovin-Skvortsov (Torpedo Gorky)
Kapustin-Zhluktov-Balderis (CSKA Moscow)

Svetlov-Semenov-Yashin (Dynamo)
Kapustin-Shepelev-Shalimov(Spartak)

 

[VMBM]

Svetlov-Semenov-Yashin (Dynamo)
Kapustin-Shepelev-Shalimov(Spartak)

Beat me to the punch. I've always been more impressed (eye test) by that Spartak line than by Kapustin-Zhluktov-Balderis, for example.

Some other Soviet lines not mentioned yet:

A. Golikov-V. Golikov-Makarov (late 1970s/early 1980s, national team)
Firsov-Polupanov-Vikulov (sometimes with Maltsev at center on the national team)
Alexandrov-Almetov-Loktev
B. Mayorov-Starshinov-Y. Mayorov
Bobrov-Shuvalov-Babich