The conclusion of the 2024-2025 NHL season means that we are halfway through the decade, and can now officially discuss who has been the best of the decade so far. With that in mind, me and a few colleagues decided to draft up the all-2020s NHL team. I originally was planning on doing only a single forward and defense line, but this ended up turning into a whole team. Thanks to Tommy Bennett for the help with constructing the roster.

FORWARDS

Leon Draisaistl – Connor McDavid – David Pastrnak
Nikita Kucherov – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Kirill Kaprizov – Auston Matthews – Mitchell Marner
Sidney Crosby – Alex Ovechkin – Brayden Point

HM: Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau

No surprise to see McDavid and Draisaitl on this list. The one-two punch for the Oilers have been absolutely dominant in the 2020s, with the duo recording a 100-plus season every single season of the decade so far.

Pastrnak also deserves to be on this list considering how dominant he has been scoring-wise for the Bruins. In fact, he has only one season with under 40 goals since the 2019-2020 season. Plus, he has recorded a 100-plus point season each year.

Yes, the Leafs do have a large mention, with both Matthews and Marner making the team. Despite the obvious lack of playoff success, both of them have been some of the best regular-season players in the league by far.

DEFENSE

Quinn Hughes – Cale Makar
Roman Josi – Victor Hedman
Jaccob Slavin – Adam Fox

HM: Miro Heiskanen

There was surprisingly a lot of debate with this one. Obviously, the top two defensemen were easy- Makar and Hughes have been some of the best NHL players in the 2020s outside of position entirely. Victor Hedman absolutely deserves to be on the second pairing purely because he won two Stanley Cups and has been one of the best veteran defensemen of the past half-decade. Plus, he did win a Conn Smythe in the bubble cup run (2020.) I chose Josi to be a bit higher over Slavin purely because he’s been one of the best defensemen every year since his initial win in the 2019-2020 season. Adam Fox rounds out the six all-2020s defensemen, with Miro Heiskanen getting the nod. I picked Fox over Heiskanen purely due to how consistent Fox has been offensively compared to Heiskanen, plus the Norris Trophy also puts him a bit higher. I’m sure this will change by the end of the 2020s, but for now, it’ll stand as is.

GOALTENDING

Andrei Vasilevskiy , Igor Shesterkin

HM: Connor Hellebuyck

Goaltending needed no debate at all. In the first half of the decade, Vasilevskiy has not only managed to be one of the most dominant netminders in the sport, but he has also been one of the best netminders in the league and won the Conn Smythe in 2021. Although Shesterkin and Hellebuyck don’t have the championship hardware that Vasy does, they still have been some of the best goaltenders in the game.