Johnson & Johnson (J&J) remains the leading orthopedics company, and will likely continue to be a leader in the space in the years ahead, according to EvaluateMedTech, a market intelligence firm. J&J's orthopedic product sales are on track to hit $11.3 billion by 2020, which would give it nearly a quarter of the total market share in 2020.

Zimmer's pending merger with Biomet for $13.4 billion would give it the strength to knock Stryker down to the third rung, the report predicts. By 2020, the new entity is forecasted to bring in $9.5 billion in revenue, giving it 20.8% of the market.

Although Medtronic has a chance at becoming the biggest medical device company overall by 2020 according to the report, its growth in orthopedics will remain cool as the report explains: "Of the top 20 companies, Medtronic is forecast to have the lowest growth rate, with sales expected to grow by just 1% per year (CAGR) between 2013 and 2020 owing to its struggling [Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMP)] business." Indeed, Medtronic's BMP business has been a headache for the company of late. In May, it announced it was settling 950 claims related to its Infuse bone graft products for $22 million.

Assuming the Zimmer/Biomet deal passes regulatory muster, Medtronic would trail Stryker to have the fourth largest orthopedics business, even with its sluggish growth in this sector.

Here is the recap of the top 10 orthopedic firms in 2020, based on EvaluateMedTech's predictions, which count Zimmer and Biomet as separate companies:

Here is an image showing the top five firms along with their market share:

Image from EvaluateMedtech

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