Ranking the 10 Best Sidekicks in the NHL

Everyone wants to be the front man.

Whether it’s grabbing the mic with a rock band, claiming the corner office in a law firm or scoring the goal that wins the Stanley Cup—the rewards are greatest where the spotlight is brightest.

But that doesn’t mean the No. 2 man is relegated to permanent anonymity.

Mick Jagger had his Keith Richards. Johnnie Cochran had his Robert Shapiro. And when it came to the Edmonton Oilers’ glory years in the mid-1980s, Wayne Gretzky most certainly had his Jari Kurri.

The soft-spoken Finn set a standard for sidekicks while playing wingman to No. 99, winning four championships and racking up 397 goals and 451 assists in eight Edmonton years, then joining Gretzky in Los Angeles for an unlikely run to the final in 1993.

Included on subsequent pages, here are our choices for the top 10 sidekicks in today’s NHL, complete with their own statistics and those of their would-be leading men.

Click through to see how many of our favorites made the cut.

10. Jordan Eberle (sidekick to Taylor Hall): Edmonton

The long-suffering fans in Alberta are hoping this duo can carry for a full season—and into the playoffs—what it showed in the abbreviated campaign of 2013.

The stylish Jordan Eberle (the 22nd overall pick in the 2008 draft) complemented the grittier Taylor Hall (who went No. 1 overall in 2010) to the tune of 32 goals and 87 points in the 48-game stretch.

Problem was, though their first-line right and left wingers placed 41st and ninth in the NHL scoring race, the Edmonton Oilers were left out in the postseason cold for the seventh straight season since the improbable run to the 2006 final.

9. Mikko Koivu (Zach Parise): Minnesota

Mikko Koivu, a Finnish-born center, had toiled for seven underappreciated years with the Minnesota Wild before the arrival of left winger Zach Parise, who signed a 13-year, $98 million deal before the start of the 2013 season.

The pair clicked for at least moderate success, with Koivu scoring 11 times and assisting on 26 others in 48 games, while Parise scored 18 times and compiled 20 assists. As a whole, the top-line unit did nudge the team needle a bit, moving the Wild from a shade under .500 in 2011-12 (35-36-2-9) to seven games over (26-19-1-2) and in the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

8. Pascal Dupuis (Sidney Crosby): Pittsburgh

The bitter taste left by a one-sided playoff loss to Boston takes some of the shine off the yeoman efforts by the Quebec-born Pascal Dupuis, who made the league as an undrafted free agent and has turned into one of its most dependable—if unsung—wingers.

In five full seasons with the Penguins, he’s never failed to reach double digits in goals, turned in a career-best plus-minus (plus-31) last year and continued to ride shotgun as leading man Sidney Crosby successfully returned from a prolonged bout with injuries in 2011-12. The two combined for 35 goals and 94 points and got Pittsburgh within one round of a third final slot since Dupuis arrived in 2008.

7. Henrik Sedin (Daniel Sedin): Vancouver

The only real debate when it comes to the Sedin brothers isn’t whether one of them deserves inclusion on the list, but rather which one is the front man and which one is the sidekick.

For these purposes, it’s centerman Henrik who gets auxiliary billing, thanks to his uncanny ability to set up brother Daniel, who was selected one slot ahead of him—second overall—in the 1999 draft. Henrik’s 34 assists and 11 goals were good for 20th in the NHL in scoring last season, while Daniel scored 12 times and assisted on 28 others.

Their best recent year together was prior to the long playoff run of 2010-11, when Henrik had 75 assists and Daniel netted 41 goals. They were particularly prolific on the power play that season, combining for 76 points with the man advantage.

6. Alexander Semin (Eric Staal): Carolina

That joyful noise you heard emanating from Raleigh, N.C., before the start of last season was likely the reaction of center Eric Staal when right winger Alexander Semin, a former first-round pick of the Washington Capitals, signed off on a one-year, $7 million free-agent deal.

The former second banana to Washington’s Alex Ovechkin was no less effective upon moving down the coast, putting up a point per night (13 goals, 33 assists in 44 games) while helping Staal climb to sixth in the league in scoring with 53 points in 48 games.

The duo appears set for the long-term after Semin inked an extension which will keep the 6’2”, 209-pounder in a Carolina Hurricanes sweater for five more years while paying him an additional $35 million.

5. Matt Moulson (John Tavares): N.Y. Islanders

Sure, a soon-to-be new hometown prompted a good deal of the excitement around the New York Islanders franchise—but it’s not all because of off-the-ice gains.

On the rink, the groundswell is just as attributable to the acumen of left winger Matt Moulson, a 29-year-old who’s blended well with the Islanders’ resident phenom, 22-year-old center John Tavares, and in 2013, helped the Isles end a five-year playoff hiatus that pre-dated both their arrivals.

Moulson and his celebrated linemate were 21st and 17th, respectively, on the league’s point chart in 2013, combining for 43 goals and 48 assists.

4. Corey Perry (Ryan Getzlaf): Anaheim

Corey Perry, an Ontario native, was born just six days later than and drafted only nine picks after Saskatchewan-bred linemate Ryan Getzlaf, and the uncanny bond has carried over to the ice—where the two have helped return the Anaheim Ducks to a prominence not seen since the 2007 Stanley Cup win.

A 50-goal scorer himself just two seasons ago, Perry, a right winger, scored 15 times in 44 games while posting a plus-nine rating for the Ducks, who went 30-12-3-3 before an early playoff exit. Getzlaf, meanwhile, wound up with five more points than his teammate from the center slot and was plus-14 in his own 44 games.

Like some of their contemporaries on the list, in terms of sidekick and front man, they’re essentially interchangeable.

The pair cashed in at the bargaining table to stay together in Anaheim, signing a pair of eight-year deals worth a combined $135 million.

3. Henrik Zetterberg (Pavel Datsyuk): Detroit

Henrik Zetterberg, a 32-year-old Swede, has become the latest in a long line of sublimely dominant players for a long successful Detroit Red Wings franchise. His skills have blended well with the flashier Pavel Datsyuk, a 35-year-old center who’s been a teammate for 10 seasons.

A plus-side player for nine of his 10 years in the league, Zetterberg topped out at 43 goals in 2007-08 and was good for 22 or more in four straight full seasons before netting 11 in 46 games last year. His linemate scored 15 times in 2013 and his 49 points were good enough for 10th in the league.

2. Martin St. Louis (Steven Stamkos): Tampa Bay

Big-name superstars come and go, but Martin St. Louis remains the biggest little man in Tampa Bay.

Now 38 years old, the speedy 5’9” right wing has been reborn with the arrival of sniper Steven Stamkos, who strung together years of 51, 45 and 60 goals before finishing second in the league last year with 29 in 48 games. St. Louis was the beneficiary of such a prolific scorer, compiling 17 goals and 43 assists of his own to claim the league’s overall point lead.

The start of the 2013-14 season will be the first for St. Louis without ex-top dog Vincent Lecavalier since 2000. The former Tampa Bay Lightning center signed a five-year deal with Philadelphia in the offseason.

1. Jonathan Toews (Patrick Kane): Chicago

Championships break a lot of ties.

The 25-year-old center was the third pick in the 2006 draft, a year before the Chicago Blackhawks selected right wing Patrick Kane with the first pick in 2007. All the pair has done since is win a pair of championships, the most recent coming in June after a six-game series with the Boston Bruins.

Toews was 13th in the league with 48 points in 47 games during the regular season and helped linemate Kane to 23 goals, 32 assists and 55 points, which was good for fifth-best in the NHL. Together, the pair has made Chicago the blueprint for building a successful team through high draft picks.