NHL's Fastest Players: How Elite Speed Helps Drive Superstar Performance

Anyone familiar with NHL hockey—whether a fan, coach, or player—knows that speed is essential to success.

There are plenty of immensely skilled hockey players who were never able to make an impact at the game’s highest level because they couldn’t keep up with its breakneck pace — and some with more ordinary abilities were able to carve out a niche due to their elite skating.

Over the course of NHL history just about everyone could agree on the value of top-end speed, but discussions about the fastest players and how their skating affected what they accomplished on the ice were highly anecdotal. 

For instance, any hockey fan in the 1990s would tell you that Pavel Bure could fly, but the degree to which he was faster than those around him, or whether there were other players who could reach a similar velocity was unclear.

That changed to some degree in 2023 when the NHL released player tracking data, able to give precise measurements on the speed of every player, going back to the 2021-22 season. 

This research examines the forwards and defensemen who managed the 10 highest top speed marks at their positions during the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 seasons to see how being one of the fastest players in the NHL affects individual production and on-ice impact.

There are a number of statistics that can be used to measure the performance of NHL players, but no firm consensus on which one best captures how much they contribute to their teams. 

As a result, the NHL’s fastest skaters will be evaluated on six different metrics here, three of which are based on individual production, and three of which measure how the players’ teams perform when they are on the ice in an effort to create a balanced picture of how players with elite speed make a mark on the game.

Individual Player Production Statistics

These metrics are all relatively simple ways to measure individual output. 

Although high-danger shots is a helpful statistic for forwards as it pertains to their ability to create excellent scoring opportunities, it doesn't have much utility for evaluating defenseman who take the vast majority of their shots further from the net so they are able to keep pucks in the offensive zone, and prevent counterattacks.

Hits can be a statistic that is more descriptive of a style of play rather than a metric that is determinative of effectiveness — particularly because they can only occur when the opposing team has the puck — but we found it to be worth investigating whether elite speed was being translated into hits in order to understand if it impacts the way that defenseman play. 

Additionally, players capable of the fastest speed bursts in the league hitting at a significantly above-average rate could have player safety implications. 

Here are definitions for the statistics featured below, primarily focused on individual production and sourced from NHL.com:

• Goals - A goal is awarded to the last player on the scoring team to touch the puck prior to the puck entering the net.
• Assists - An assist is awarded to the player or players (maximum of two) who touched the puck prior to the goal, provided no defender touches or possesses the puck in between.
• High-Danger Shots (Forwards) - Shots from the area within 29 feet of the center of the goal and bound on both sides by an imaginary line drawn from the faceoff dot to 2 feet outside the goalpost.
• Hits (Defensemen) - Intentionally initiated contact with the player possessing the puck that causes that player to lose possession of the puck. Loss of possession may or may not involve a turnover.

The metrics below reflect the performance of a player's team when they are on the ice during the game’s most common state (five-on-five). 

Although there is only so much influence an individual can have over the entire course of play at any moment, across a large sample of possession metrics data — like the ones below —  it provides a good sense of how well one player drives play, by creating scoring opportunities for his team and limiting scoring opportunities against them.

Possession numbers have become widely measures of NHL players’ overall effectiveness. There are important caveats for players on particularly ineffective teams, or those who play extremely defensive roles that have them constantly starting shifts in their own zone. 

That said, the statistics below* help determine a player's the all-around impact:

• Corsi -  Percentage of total shot attempts (goals, shots on net, misses and blocks) while that player is on the ice that are for that player's team.
• xGF% - Percentage of total expected goals while that player is on the ice that are for that player's team. 
• Goals For% -  Percentage of total goals while that player is on the ice that are for that player's team. 

*All possession metrics sourced from NaturalStatTrick.com.

Forwards

Player List:

• Denis Gurianov
• Alex Formenton
• Brendan Lemieux
• Connor McDavid
• Adrian Kempe
• Martin Necas
• Julien Gauthier
• Leon Draisaitl
• Nathan MacKinnon
• Brendan Perlini

Average Production of Cohort:

Individual Player Comparable: Dylan Strome (22 G, 26 A, 59 HD Shots — 48.28% Corsi/48.11% xGF%/52.87 GF%)

Takeaways: Some of the players on the list should not be surprising to NHL fans as Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon in particular are widely praised for the way they use their speed to create plays. The inclusion of Leon Draisaitl on this list means that this group of players contains three of the top seven forwards by points-per-game for the 2021-22 season.

Although there is plenty of star power here, this group of 10 provides the first hint we’ll see that maximum speed does not guarantee stardom. This cohort also includes the likes of Brendan Perlini, who played almost as many games in the lower-tier American Hockey League (18) as in the NHL (23) in 2021-22, and Brendan Lemieux — a veteran enforcer who produced more than seven times as many penalty minutes (97) as points (13).

The average production of the group closely resembles that of Dylan Strome, who was best characterized as a second-line center at that point in his career. 

One notable trend is that the individual statistics of the speedster group are more remarkable than their on-ice numbers. 

While elite speed can be used to retrieve and transition the puck in a way that could help a team maintain offensive pressure, its most likely application is an individual effort that leads to goals, strong scoring opportunities, or a situation where the defense collapses — opening the door for a pass that could result in a goal/assist. 

Player List:

• Ryan Merkley
• Devon Toews
• Cale Makar
• Nick Leddy
• Bowen Byram
• Christian Jaros
• Haydn Fleury
• Oliver Kylington
• Victor Hedman
• Brandon Montour

Average Production of Cohort:

Individual Player Comparable: Brady Skjei (9 G, 30 A,  95 Hits — 55.08% Corsi/52.60% xGF%/59.02 GF%)

Takeaways: This group of players and numbers generally fit the conventional wisdom about speedy defensemen. The hit total is unremarkable, but offensive output and possession metrics are strong.

Most of these players would be described as ‘puck-moving’ defensemen, and a number of them had important roles on their team’s respective power-play units. 

Hockey fans may have a mental image of defensemen creating their offense with slapshots from the point, but that method of creating opportunities is on the way out. In the modern game, blueliners are more likely to register points by jumping into the rush, bringing the puck down from the point for a wrist shot, or surprising opponents with off-puck movement to get open at dangerous areas on the ice. Having elite speed improves a defensemen’s ability to do all of these things.

The individual player whose season most resembles our group of 10’s average is Skjei, who had top-four defenseman usage in 2021-22 (21:09 of ice time/game). Prior to the 2024-25 season Skjei signed a seven-year $49 million contract with the 37th-highest average annual salary ($7 million) among NHL defenseman.

As is the case with Strome, our comparable is a highly-regarded and valuable player, but not a superstar.

Forwards

Player List:

• Ryan Poehling
• Brayden Point
• Connor McDavid
• Jason Dickinson
• Nathan MacKinnon
• Jordan Martinook
• Jack Eichel
• Mathew Barzal
• Noah Gregor
• Andreas Athanasiou

Average Production of Cohort:

Individual Player Comparable: Viktor Arvidsson (26 G, 33 A, 56 HD Shots — 52.76% Corsi/53.34% xGF%/51.25 GF%)

Takeaways: Outside of McDavid and MacKinnon, who appear on this list in every season—we have eight new players, but relatively similar results.

Once again, the individual production is outstanding while the on-ice metrics are solidly above-average, but don’t stand out quite as much. The average production creeps up a little bit for this season, but among the star players there are still those who don’t stand out from the pack.

Gregor, for instance, was a free agent following this season and did not receive widespread interest around the league, ultimately having to settle for a professional tryout contract. Poehling earned only fourth-line usage with the Pittsburgh Penguins (11:46 ice time/game), and didn’t distinguish himself in any offensive category.

Even so, this is probably the strongest cohort of any of the six included in this study. The quintet of McDavid, MacKinnon, Mathew Barzal, Jack Eichel, and Brayden Point have combined for 3,431 points in 3090 NHL games. Based on the strength of that group, the average hewed closer to first-line production with Arvidsson’s 59-point season.

Despite half of this group being composed of players of that caliber, the possession metrics remained relatively similar to 2021-22.

Player List:

• Martin Fehervary
• Kaiden Guhle
• Noah Hanifin
• Bowen Byram
• Cale Makar
• Ben Chairot
• Erik Gudbranson
• Jake Sanderson
• Sean Durzi
• Vladislav Gavrikov

Average Production of Cohort:

Individual Player Comparable: J.J. Moser (8 G, 22 A,  80 Hits — 44.01% Corsi/44.73% xGF%/44.86 GF%)

Takeaways: Although the forward group’s production from 2021-22 to 2022-23 is relatively stable, there is a significant amount of movement on the defense side.

The group of players from 2021-22 fell in line with the expectation that the NHL’s fastest defensemen would be offense-oriented, not notably physical, and significant drivers of positive possession metrics. This group defies that expectation.

Included within the 10 fastest defensemen of 2022-23 are precisely the type of players who you wouldn’t expect to see here—large, defensive specialists with minimal offensive ambition and unimpressive career possession numbers. 

Two names stand out:

• Chiarot -  Ben Chiarot is 6-foot-3, 224 pounds and has never exceeded 26 points in a season during his 12 years in the NHL. He has a career Corsi of 48.1%.
• Gudbranson - Erik Gudbranson is 6-foot-5, 222 pounds and hasn’t topped six goals or 26 points during his 14 years in the NHL. He has a career Corsi of 47.9%.

Since Gudbranson debuted in 2011-12 there have been 282 players with at least NHL games played. He ranks 280th in points per game (0.17) while Chiarot sits at 251st (0.24).

This goes to show that elite speed doesn’t necessarily manifest in the type of play style that would seem likely on the surface. This cohort looks like an outlier, but it’s valuable in the way that its results challenge existing assumptions about speedy defensemen.

Forwards

Player List:

• Owen Tippett
• Connor McDavid
• Brayden Point
• Nathan MacKinnon
• Valeri Nichushkin
• Rasmus Kupari
• Miles Wood
• Ryan McLeod
• Brandon Tanev
• Quinton Byfield

Average Production of Cohort:

Individual Player Comparable: Alex Tuch (22 G, 37 A, 57 HD Shots — 50.72% Corsi/48.15% xGF%/54.55 GF%)

Takeaways: Once again we get almost entirely fresh players with the exception of McDavid, MacKinnon, and Point, for 2022-23. At the same time, the results are in line with the previous season as the goal total matches 2021-22 and the assist number is closely in line with 2022-23.

Only one player on the list—Kupari, who didn’t score a single goal—wasn’t a meaningful contributor to his club, although the absence of Eichel and Barzal does diminish the list's star quality.

What stands out most here is the significant increase in possession numbers, with eight of the ten players exceeding 50% in all three metrics. This can partly be attributed to the teams represented by this group, as half of the players (McDavid, McLeod, MacKinnon, Nichushkin, and Wood) come from the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche—two of the top teams in the Western Conference.

The individual player comparison, Tuch, was a first-line player who led the below-average Buffalo Sabres in points.

Player List:

• Luke Hughes
• Zach Bogosian
• MacKenzie Weegar
• Nick Leddy
• Brock Faber
• Zach Werenski
• Braden Schneider
• Samuel Girard
• Miro Heiskanen
• Cale Makar

Average Production of Cohort:

Individual Player Comparable: Sean Durzi (9 G, 32 A, 44 Hits — 51.17% Corsi/50.94% xGF%/49.14 GF%)

Takeaways: The results here resemble the 2021-22 findings, which supported initial assumptions about fast defensemen, showing slightly more physicality and a bit less impact on possession.

Interestingly, the comparable player (Durzi), is a player from the 2022-23 list, but Makar is the only blueliner who appeared in both cohorts. 

There is also one standout in the Gudbranson-Chiarot mold here in Bogosian, who is 6-foot-3 and 231 pounds and has never topped 30 points in a season or 20 at any point since 2015-16. 

It’s possible that some of these bigger players look slower than they are to the naked eye because of their longer strides, or the fact they are likely to deploy their speed in more subtle defensive contexts, which makes it less noticeable.

In the years to come we are sure to gain a greater understanding of how NHL tracking data correlates with on-ice success, but looking at 60 seasons from the league’s fastest players yields a few very interesting findings.

• If you are one of the league’s fastest players it makes you far likelier to be a superstar: The only players who appear in the top-10 for top speed in each of 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 are McDavid, MacKinnon, and Makar — all of whom would be described as top-five skaters in the NHL by most analysts. One of the only other players to appear multiple times (Point) ranked third in the NHL in goals (97) between 2022-23 and 2023-24. A large percentage of the 60 seasons that make up this data were authored by stars.
• But elite speed is no guarantee of stardom: The players examined here also include quite a few who existed in limited roles and had unsuccessful seasons. There is far more to hockey than straight-line velocity and having a significant speed edge against your opponents is not enough to ensure a player will manage even average production.
• Top speed is volatile: Not only are McDavid, MacKinnon, and Makar the only ones to place on the top-10 maximum speed leaderboards in three straight seasons, there are only three others who managed it twice (Point, Leddy, and Byram). 
• Speed isn’t always intuitive: There aren’t just players with middling overall resumes that can move, there are also players who most wouldn’t suspect prior to the existence of this data, like oversized, defensively-oriented blueliners.
• The Colorado Avalanche might be onto something: Out of the 60 players’ seasons we looked at from 2021-22 to 2023-24, 12 of them were produced by Avalanche players (20%). During that three-year span, the Avalanche ranked third in the NHL in regular-season points (335) and won the 2021-22 Stanley Cup.