Welcome back to the final edition of Lining Up for the season! This week to wrap up the column, we will take a look at some of our top "Lining Up" candidates of the season. Which players seemingly benefitted the most from consistent, quality line deployment?

Let's dive in and find out.

Brandon Hagel

This is one of the prototypical forwards who classify as the quintessential "Lining Up" player. Brandon Hagel has minimal time on the power play, seeing just over a 25% share of the time on the season and has seven power play points with one game to go. He has a 13.7% shooting percentage which is a normal range for a forward, although actually below his rate from the previous two seasons. Yet Hagel has 73 points in 81 games this season thanks largely to his role on a line with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. He has played on that line for 26.4% of his overall ice time at even strength and over 30% with just Kucherov. Having that level of exposure to a forward who went supernova this season has allowed Hagel to put forth his own career year simply by being on the ice for so many points.

With Hagel and Kucherov both locked in for multiple years, fantasy owners should be able to comfortably assume that Hagel will return to 70 points next season so long as he is playing on the top line with Kucherov and Point.

Gustav Nyquist

The trio of Ryan O'Reilly, Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyquist from Nashville is the second-best line combination at even strength this season. Unlike some of the top lines containing more top-tier fantasy options, this combination developed a strong rapport with one another, and the result has seen each player put up very strong seasons. As a unit, they outscored the opposition 52 to 31 and had a 53.6 CF% in almost 800 minutes of time on ice together. They managed to accomplish this while playing against the highest Quality of Competition on the team.

The whole line is worth noting, but the star "Lining Up" candidate here is Gustav Nyquist. He made his NHL debut all the way back in the 2011-2012 season with Detroit and 11 seasons later, he has now wrapped up a career-high 75 points in 81 games. Nyquist has spent 67.6% of his time at even strength with Ryan O'Reilly and Filip Forsberg and the trio were together consistently on the power play as well. Similarly to Hagel, all of his metrics, while slightly higher than previous seasons, are still within normal ranges for a forward (15 SH%, 1009 PDO, 70.1 IPP). There will likely be plenty of discussion around this season but no doubt much of his production should be attributed to the consistency of his deployment on this line at all strengths throughout the season.

Alexis Lafreniere

What is the top line at even strength this season that beat out Nashville? None other than Vincent Trocheck, Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere from New York. This line outshot opposition 57 to 39 and had a 58 CF% on the season in what was a dominant performance. On a side note, it's interesting to see that this line combination faced considerably weaker competition than the Forsberg line from Nashville and played almost 100 minutes more, yet they only scored five more goals at even strength.

The main focus here though and our "Lining Up" candidate, is Lafreniere who after the game last night, has posted a career 57 points in 82 games. After playing last season predominantly with Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, Lafreniere was elevated to a line with Trocheck and Panarin right out of the gate and never looked back, playing with this line combination for two-thirds of his time at even strength. Despite seeing near identical power play deployment this season to his career average, Lafreniere received a boost in overall ice time with an extra two minutes as a result of consistently playing on this line. He raised his shot total to nearly one additional shot per game and set his career point total. There are many factors involved with this breakout performance which will be discussed throughout the offseason, particularly him hitting his four-year breakout threshold, but playing the vast majority of his time with strong line mates is certainly a contributing factor this year.

Lucas Raymond

In just his third season in the league, Lucas Raymond has hit a career high 71 points in 81 games while playing primarily on a line with Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat. Half of his time at even strength has been with some combination of Larkin, Raymond or both. His previous two seasons saw him play alongside Larkin for significant periods of time, however the boost this year has been the addition of DeBrincat and getting the deployment has really helped to boost his totals, particularly recently as he has been on a point per game pace over the last 20 games in the fourth quarter. Whether it is a push to get Detroit into the playoffs or an indication of more to come next season as he enters his first full breakout threshold season, continued deployment should help to carry over this solid pace.

Jonathan Drouin

Lastly, and to a lesser extent than the rest of the players on this list, Jonathan Drouin went from playing with the likes of Josh Anderson and Mike Hoffman in Montreal to playing with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen for over 40% of his time at even strength this season. As a result, he has gone from a 0.52 point per game pace to 0.72, good for nearly 60 points over a full season. Drouin has also been playing on the top power play unit with Colorado's star forwards so if anything, his current output is underwhelming. Regardless, he has benefitted greatly this quality line deployment and fits the list of notable "Lining Up" candidates on the season.