Part VI in a Series
The average goal scored in the NHL last season was fired from 22.3 feet away – a number that on paper probably seems further than you might imagine with players hacking and whacking in rebounds from just outside the blue paint.
And that number checks out when you do a deeper dive on the very best Net-Front Scorers in the game, the latest in our Daily Faceoff Archetype Rankings project.
Take a gander at their average shot distances, below, and you’ll see that each one of them blasts an average shot less than 30 feet away from the cage. They are not Corsi Champions who fling the puck on goal from anywhere. They aren’t snipers. These guys are greasy and dirty, the battlers who go to the ‘hard’ areas and every other hockey cliche you can conjure as they clean up the garbage.
For the purposes of this player classification category, we defined Net-Front Scorers as players who possess superior hand-eye coordination, and along with toughness, an edge and hockey sense, camp out in the dirty areas to tip and re-direct pucks and create chaos. (As a reminder: each player in the league could only be placed into one bucket, and some of the best net-front scorers may fall into the more exclusive Franchise category and thus are not listed below.)
With that definition serving as our guiding light, and the help of five anonymous NHL front office executives, here are Daily Faceoff’s Top 20 projected Net-Front Scorers for the 2022-23 season, with their league-wide rank from last season in these categories:
| Rank | Player | Pos | Age | Team | Goals | Deflections | Inner Slot | Avg. Shot Dist |
| 1 | Chris Kreider | LW | 31 | NYR | 52 | 5 | 3 | 24.2 |
| 2 | John Tavares | C | 32 | TOR | 27 | 1 | 1 | 22.5 |
| 3 | Joe Pavelski | RW | 38 | DAL | 27 | 3 | 15 | 26.1 |
| 4 | Sam Reinhart | C | 26 | FLA | 33 | 17 | 25 | 23.6 |
| 5 | Anders Lee | LW | 32 | NYI | 28 | 13 | 18 | 23.1 |
| 6 | Pierre-Luc Dubois | C | 24 | WPG | 28 | 16 | 12 | 22.4 |
| 7 | Andrew Mangiapane | LW | 26 | CGY | 35 | 41 | 27 | 25 |
| 8 | Tyler Bertuzzi | LW | 27 | DET | 30 | 31 | 17 | 24.3 |
| 9 | Bryan Rust | RW | 30 | PIT | 24 | 45 | 6 | 26.3 |
| 10 | Michael Bunting | LW | 27 | TOR | 23 | 20 | 9 | 21.3 |
| 11 | Bo Horvat | C | 27 | VAN | 31 | 43 | 60 | 28.2 |
| 12 | James van Riemsdyk | LW | 33 | PHI | 24 | 35 | 43 | 22.9 |
| 13 | Alex Killorn | LW | 33 | TBL | 25 | 79 | 55 | 21.7 |
| 14 | Boone Jenner | C | 29 | CBJ | 23 | 14 | 23 | 28.3 |
| 15 | Joel Eriksson Ek | C | 25 | MIN | 26 | 60 | 14 | 27.5 |
| 16 | Logan Couture | C | 33 | SJS | 23 | 23 | 62 | 29.2 |
| 17 | Corey Perry | RW | 37 | TBL | 19 | 164 | 59 | 20.5 |
| 18 | Brendan Gallagher | RW | 30 | MTL | 7 | 2 | 16 | 26 |
| 19 | Alex Iafallo | LW | 28 | LAK | 17 | 8 | 67 | 28.9 |
| 20 | Patrick Hornqvist | RW | 35 | FLA | 11 | 55 | 37 | 25 |
LEGEND
Deflections: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in re-directions of a previous shot attempt.
Inner Slot: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in shot attempts from the inner slot, which is defined as the area between the trapezoid marks and the hashmarks of the faceoff circle.
Avg. Shot Dist: Distance in feet of the player’s average shot attempt in 2021-22, courtesy of MoneyPuck.com.
Under Consideration (in alphabetical order): Viktor Arvidsson, Filip Forsberg, Mason Marchment, TJ Oshie, Jeff Skinner, Reilly Smith, Vincent Trocheck.
On first glance, it may be a bit of a surprise that Kreider – who is also an elite transporter of the puck – did not fit better into the Power Forward archetype. But re-watch all 52 of his goals from last season and it’s clear that so many of them are scored on the doorstep. His rankings in deflections and inner-slot shots are also among the super elite, making him a clear choice as the top net-front scorer today.
Interestingly, John Tavares was the top ranked player in both deflections and inner-slot shots, but he doesn’t have the sheer number of goals to be ahead of Kreider on the list, who scored nearly double as many goals last year. Tavares likely began his career as a Power Forwardgrew into a Franchise player, evolved into a Clutch player, and has now devolved into a Net-Front scorer. There is nothing wrong with that, but he is also clearly the most expensive player in this category relative to cap hit.
Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry has experienced a similar career arc and remains incredibly effective (relative to price) given his change in role. Perry had the lowest average shot distance among the group at just 20.5 feet, even though he was the worst ranked player in deflections. Other players, such as Bo Horvat, have also evolved into this classification category. Horvat’s emergence as a net-front power play force last season earned him the designation. And some, such as Brendan Gallagher, are elite tippers and inner-slot producers, but have lost the goal scoring touch. The thought is Gallagher, now fully healthy for the first time in a long time, will have the chance to rebound this season.
Daily Faceoff Archetype Rankings Series
Part I: Explainer / Franchise Players
Part II: Clutch
Part III: Distributors
Part IV: Shooter
Part V: Power Forward
Part VI: Net-Front Scorer
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Up Next: Puck Moving Defenseman
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