This week, we will look at each team in the Western Conference and see who had the fastest top speeds during the 2023-24 regular season. I will also look at what players hit 20 miles per hour the most per game.

These stats are available at Dobber's Frozen Tools here.

In looking at the NHL Edge stats, the skating speed is the most interesting one so far. If it is accurately tracked, it breaks down the above-average and below-average skaters in the NHL.

There is a stark contrast between forwards and defensemen so I will list them separately.

Average Top Speed in the NHL – Forwards: 22.03 MPH – Owen Tippett 24.21 (1st in NHL)

Average Top Speed in the NHL – Defense: 21.54 MPH – Luke Hughes 24.19 (1st in NHL)

NHL Average Times 20+ MPH/Game – Forwards: 1.3/game – Nathan MacKinnon 7.3/g (1st)

NHL Average Times 20+MPH/Game – Defense: 0.54/game – Cale Makar 2.19/g (1st)

It is difficult to determine if it is skating ability or work rate, so the combination of the two has to be the conclusion below. Great skaters are great skaters only if they are moving their feet.

One caveat is that we are only discussing skating speed. There might be a player who has great edges, acceleration or turning ability that aren't reflected here that would determine overall skating ability.

Anaheim Ducks – 15th in the NHL for forwards; 26th in the NHL for defense

Top Speed/Forward (TSF) – Frank Vatrano 23.49 MPH (23rd in NHL)

Top Speed/Defense (TSD) – Jackson LaCombe 23.0 MPH (25th)

20+ MPH/Game/Forwards (20+/g/F) – Max Jones 2.31/g (64th)

20+ MPH/Game/Defense (20+/g/D) – Cam Fowler/Olen Zellweger 0.69/g (74th)

Leo Carlsson was above average as he hit 20MPH+ 1.85 per game in the 55 games he played. He was followed closely by Troy Terry and Max Jones.

Below-average forwards were Ross Johnston and Jakob Silfverberg.

On defense, Cam Fowler and Olen Zellweger led while Jackson LaCombe and Pavel Mintyukov were also slightly above average. Radko Gudas, Gustav Lindstrom and William Lagesson were all below.

The Ducks should improve their team speed as they add Tristan Luneau and Olen Zellweger as regulars over the likes of Gustav Lindstrom and William Lagesson.

Arizona Coyotes (Utah) – 20th forwards; 24th defense

TSF – Logan Cooley 23.56 MPH (18th)

TSD – Juuso Valimaki 22.28 MPH (80th)

20+/g/F – Logan Cooley 2.18/g (81st)

20+/g/D – Michael Kesselring 1.06/g (27th)

Utah will be led by Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Josh Doan, Nick Bjugstad, Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz in the next year or two and all are fantastic skaters.

The only below-average forward skaters on the 2023-24 roster were Liam O'Brien, Lawson Crouse and Travis Boyd.

Skating speed was not a strength for the defense of the Coyotes in 2023-24 as Michael Kesselring was the best of the bunch with Juuso Valimaki and Sean Durzi next. Utah will look to upgrade in this department for 2024-25.

Calgary Flames – 30th forwards; 19th defense

TSF – Martin Pospisil 23.22 MPH (46th)

TSD – Mackenzie Weegar 23.61 MPH (3rd)

20+/g/F – Martin Pospisil 2.22/g (75th)

20+/g/D – Oliver Kylington 1.3/g (14th)

One never likes to use the term 'floater' to describe an NHL player but Andrei Kuzmenko hit 20 MPH just six times in 72 games split between Vancouver and Calgary. That was the lowest in the NHL for anyone who played more than 16 games.

Martin Pospisil is a combination of skating ability and hustle and will need to maintain his pace to stay in the NHL. Other very good forward skaters were Kevin Rooney, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman, Mikael Backlund, Andrew Mangiapane and Yegor Sharangovich.

This department is not a strength for Jonathan Huberdeau, Jakob Pelletier, Dryden Hunt, Kuzmenko or A.J. Greer.

Oliver Kylington, Rasmus Andersson, Nikita Okhotiuk and Mackenzie Weegar score well in the skating category, but the Flames would be wise to improve upon Dennis Gilbert, Brayden Pachal and Joel Hanley. The sample size is small for Ilya Solovyov (10 games), but he appears to struggle here as well.

Chicago Blackhawks – 22nd forwards; 21st defense

TSF – Philipp Kurashev 23.06 MPH (63rd)

TSD – Seth Jones 23.18 MPH (14th)

20+/g/F – Andreas Athanasiou 2.61/g (40th)

20+/g/D – Seth Jones 0.93/g (39th)

Most people will instantly ask how Connor Bedard fares in the skating department and the answer is just fine. Andreas Athanasiou, Philipp Kurashev, Landon Slaggert, Lukas Reichel and Taylor Hall are all slightly quicker, but Bedard does things with the puck at a speed that all of them can't.

The stragglers in the forwards were Zach Sanford, Mackenzie Entwistle, Tyler Johnson, Joey Anderson, Ryan Donato and Nick Foligno.

Chicago is led by Seth Jones in almost every category as well as skating. The Blackhawks have some good young skaters with Wyatt Kaiser, Kevin Korchinski and Alex Vlasic all becoming regulars in the NHL.

They will probably move on from the slower players like Jaycob Megna, Louis Crevier, Jarred Tinordi, Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Murphy.

Colorado Avalanche – 1st forwards; 1st defense

TSF – Nathan MacKinnon 24.05 MPH (4th)

TSD – Samuel Girard 23.43 MPH (8th)

20+/g/F – Nathan MacKinnon 7.3/g (1st)

20+/g/D – Cale Makar 2.19/g (1st)

Colorado is built on speed, but it didn't help them get past the Dallas Stars in the second round of the playoffs. It was interesting as Dallas had the fourth-ranked skating defense in the NHL. There was much more to the loss than just that, but it didn't hurt the Stars ability to maintain Colorado's forwards.

MacKinnon is in a category with very few others in the league, but he is joined by fellow speedsters, Miles Wood, Ross Colton, Logan O'Connor and surprisingly Valeri Nichushkin – who is up there for such a big guy.

The Avalanche went somewhat against their roster makeup and added Casey Mittelstadt who is an average skater at best.

Colorado was loaded on the backend with Cale Makar, Samuel Girard, Sean Walker, Devon Toews, Sam Malinski and Josh Manson all possessing elite to above-average skating abilities.

Jack Johnson was the lone wolf in the opposite direction.

Dallas Stars – 17th forwards; 4th defense

TSF – Roope Hintz 23.59 MPH (16th)

TSD – Miro Heiskanen 23.36 MPH (9th)

20+/g/F – Roope Hintz 4.49/g (4th)

20+/g/D – Miro Heiskanen 1.32/g (11th)

Dallas is a testament to not overvaluing skating in the forwards as other than Roope Hintz, Evgeni Dadonov, Matt Duchene, Ty Dellandrea, Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven and Sam Steel all of their other forwards are not the most fleet of-foot.

At the bottom end of the lower group are Joe Pavelski, Mason Marchment, Jamie Benn and Jason Robertson.

Dallas is led on the back end by two fantastic skaters, Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley. Nils Lundkvist is almost up with them as well but has other holes in his game which prevent him from being a regular so far. Chris Tanev is a fine skater as well.

Esa Lindell, Ryan Suter and Jani Hakanpaa should be the three defenders any opposing forwards look to exploit, but easier said than done. Dallas has faced the quickest team in Colorado and perhaps the next-fastest team in Edmonton and even though they lost to the Oilers in six games, they fared well against their forwards.

Edmonton Oilers – 3rd forwards; 3rd defense

TSF – Connor McDavid 24.19 MPH (2nd)

TSD – Vincent Desharnais 22.91 MPH (29th)

20+/g/F – Connor McDavid 5.14/g (2nd)

20+/g/D – Darnell Nurse 1.09/g (22nd)

Connor McDavid is by far the best skater on the Oilers, if not the league. Not far behind him is Ryan McLeod, but what McDavid can do with the puck is second to none and leaves fans wanting more from McLeod on a nightly basis.

For a big guy, Leon Draisaitl is an excellent skater and is a step down from McDavid and McLeod but a step up from anyone else in the forwards.

The next group includes Dylan Holloway, Connor Brown, Evander Kane, Zach Hyman and Warren Foegele, who are all above average.

Corey Perry might very well be in the bottom five in the NHL at this stage of his career.

On defense, Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard are a step above Brett Kulak, Cody Ceci, Mattias Ekholm and Philip Broberg in the skating department but all are above average.

Vincent Desharnais is at the bottom of this category for the Oilers but he gets around the ice well enough.  I have to think that Desharnais was pushed by a teammate to get to 22.91 MPH as it was the only time in 78 games he broke 22 MPH.

Los Angeles Kings – 11th forwards; 25th defense

TSF – Quinton Byfield 23.76 MPH (10th)

TSD – Andreas Englund 23.23 MPH (12th)

20+/g/F – Adrian Kempe 3.29/g (14th)

20+/g/D – Jordan Spence 0.61/g (88th)

Adrian Kempe, Alex Turcotte and Quinton Byfield are in a class by themselves on the Kings while Alex Laferriere, Trevor Moore, Carl Grundstrom and Pierre-Luc Dubois are next in line.

Arthur Kaliyev is perhaps the weakest skater who is a regular as a Kings' forward.

Viktor Arvidsson who I would expect at the top of most skating lists, was only average as he was still recovering from his long-term injury. Could he be better in this category if healthy next year?

Matt Roy, Jordan Spence, Drew Doughty and Vladislav Gavrikov are all just slightly above average.

Jacob Moverare, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Drew Doughty don't hit over 20 MPH very often but Doughty tops the team at getting above 18 MPH on a nightly basis.

Minnesota Wild – 32nd forwards; 15th defense

TSF – Matt Boldy 23.24 MPH (43rd)

TSD – Zach Bogosian 23.96 MPH (2nd)

20+/g/F – Marcus Johansson 2.27/g (68th)

20+/g/D – Zach Bogosian 1.06/g (29th)

Unless there is a glitch in the Matrix, I never realized how good a skater Zach Bogosian was. He topped the Wild in top speed and led the defense in times hitting 20 MPH/g. He was closely followed by Declan Chisholm, Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon.

Jon Merrill, Daemon Hunt, Alex Goligoski and Dakota Mermis were well below average.

I assumed before looking at the stats, that Kirill Kaprizov would be near the leaders of the Wild forwards, but he is only slightly above average in getting above 20 MPH. Kaprizov is amongst the leaders on the Wild in getting over 18 MPH. Marcus Johansson is the best skater by a longshot, but it looks like Marat Khusnutdinov and Liam Ohgren could improve this category for Minnesota once they are regulars.

It appears that skating is an issue for Adam Beckman (11 NHL games) in a limited sample size, to go along with Marcus Foligno, Mason Shaw (recovering from ACL surgery), Mats Zuccarello, Jacob Lucchini, Vinni Lettieri and Ryan Hartman.

Nashville Predators – 27th forwards; 6th defense

TSF – Cole Smith 22.88 MPH (106th)

TSD – Ryan McDonagh 22.66 MPH (47th)

20+/g/F – Cole Smith 1.91/g (111th)

20+/g/D – Spencer Stastney 2.1/g (3rd)

The forwards on Nashville were not a speedy bunch, with just Cole Smith, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Tommy Novak and Anthony Beauvillier being above average. If Egor Afanasyev can become a regular he will improve this category for them.

The bottom dwellers were Ryan O'Reilly, Mark Jankowski, Luke Evangelista, Philip Tomasino and Jason Zucker.

Spencer Stastney has a sample size of 20 games, but he showed as the best skating defender on the Predators by a wide margin.

He is followed by Marc Del Gaizo, Jeremy Lauzon, Alexandre Carrier, Ryan McDonagh and Roman Josi.

Josi is a player who fits under my original caveat. He has great edges, acceleration and turning ability and is undoubtedly a very good skater, but in the speed department, he is just slightly above average at top speeds but is very good at playing with pace (18 MPH+).

The three slowest skaters on the backend were Dante Fabbro, Luke Schenn and Tyson Barrie.

San Jose Sharks – 29th forwards; 12th defense

TSF – Justin Bailey 23.53 MPH (22nd)

TSD – Jan Rutta 23.15 MPH (15th)

20+/g/F – Justin Bailey 2.07/g (89th)

20+/g/D – Calen Addison 0.92/g (40th)

The fourth line on most teams is supposed to bring energy and hustle and it helps if the forwards have the speed to get in on the forecheck. Jack Studnicka and Justin Bailey led the Sharks on the speed front.

Fabian Zetterlund, William Eklund and Nico Sturm followed them.

Ryan Carpenter, Luke Kunin, Mikael Granlund, Klim Kostin, Givani Smith, Kevin Labanc and Mike Hoffman brought up the rear.

Calen Addison, Jacob MacDonald, Mario Ferraro, Ty Emberson and Jan Rutta were a good skating bunch on defense, while Kyle Burroughs, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Henry Thrun were all below average.

Seattle Kraken – 26th forwards; 13th defense

TSF – Brandon Tanev 23.8 MPH (9th)

TSD – Will Borgen 23.12 MPH (19th)

20+/g/F – Brandon Tanev 2.29/g (66th)

20+/g/D – Will Borgen 0.68/g (79th)

Brandon Tanev is the quickest forward but Yanni Gourde is the most consistent skater. Matty Beniers, Andre Burakovsky, Tye Kartye and Jared McCann are all above average.

Shane Wright has a small sample size of eight games in 2023-24 but has shown very good skating stats.

Tomas Tatar, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Jaden Schwartz were on the slower side.

On defense, Vince Dunn, Justin Schultz, Will Borgen and Ryker Evans were the better skaters while Brian Dumoulin was at the rear.

St. Louis Blues – 16th forwards; 5th defense

TSF – Kasperi Kapanen 23.37 MPH (34th)

TSD – Nick Leddy 23.58 MPH (4th)

20+/g/F – Alexey Toropchenko 2.91/g (28th)

20+/g/D – Colton Parayko 1.66/g (7th)

The Blues are led by Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Kasperi Kapanen, with Robert Thomas being consistent but lacking top-end speed.

Sammy Blais, Kevin Hayes and Oskar Sundqvist won't be winning any fastest-skater awards.

Colton Parayko was in a class by himself in St. Louis with Justin Faulk, Torey Krug and Nick Leddy a step below.

Tyler Tucker, Marco Scandella and Scott Perunovich don't score well here. I was a little surprised by Perunovich having not watched him that often, but just assumed a smaller, offensive defender would be a very good skater.

Vancouver Canucks – 25th forwards; 20th defense

TSF – Sam Lafferty 23.36 MPH (35th)

TSD – Nikita Zadorov 23.15 MPH (16th)

20+/g/F – Sam Lafferty 2.59/g (41st)

20+/g/D – Quinn Hughes 1.45/g (9th)

According to the stats, Sam Lafferty was the best forward skater on the Canucks, followed by Elias Lindholm, Vasily Podkolzin, Conor Garland and J.T. Miller.

Pius Suter was at the bottom, just below Brock Boeser and Dakota Joshua.

The only surprise on defense was that Nikita Zadorov clocked the fastest speed ahead of Quinn Hughes, who was by far the best skater on this team. Zadorov lacked the consistency of Filip Hronek, who was below Hughes.

At the bottom were Ian Cole, Noah Juulsen, Carson Soucy and Mark Friedman.

Vegas Golden Knights – 19th forwards; 30th defense

TSF – Jack Eichel 23.21 MPH (49th)

TSD – Shea Theodore 22.8 MPH (34th)

20+/g/F – Jack Eichel 3.44/g (11th)

20+/g/D – Noah Hanifin 0.94/g (36th)

No one else on the roster was close to Jack Eichel in terms of top-end speed and consistency. Behind him in the forwards were Chandler Stephenson, William Karlsson and Paul Cotter.

Mark Stone is near the bottom in the NHL but surprisingly not much better was Jonathan Marchessault. It doesn't look like Brendan Brisson or Grigori Denisenko are rockets but both have limited sample sizes.

Noah Hanifin was slightly ahead of Shea Theodore as the best defensive skater in Vegas while Brayden McNabb won the slowest Golden Knight award just ahead of Nicolas Hague.

Winnipeg Jets – 13th forwards; 32nd defense

TSF – Rasmus Kupari 23.95 MPH (6th)

TSD – Nate Schmidt 23.1 MPH (21st)

20+/g/F – Rasmus Kupari 3.07/g (19th)

20+/g/D – Josh Morrissey 0.58/g (94th)

The Jets have some flyers led by Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry, Nikolaj Ehlers, Rasmus Kupari and Sean Monahan (it's good to see him skating well once again). The best is yet to come in the next year or two, as Brad Lambert can fly.

Cole Perfetti lacked the consistency of moving his feet and led the bottom of the pile, just below Alex Iafallo, Gabriel Vilardi and Tyler Toffoli.

The Jets have a big defense and give up some mobility on the whole. Josh Morrissey is the best of the group, followed by Colin Miller.

After those two, there is a bit of a dip to the likes of Dylan DeMelo, Logan Stanley, Brenden Dillon and Neal Pionk. Nate Schmidt can move well but is below the league average in moving his feet.

After writing this, it would be pretty interesting to go through the playoff stats, but I imagine without even looking that the average would go up for both forwards and defenders.

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Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.