Given we have been without NHL action for some time now, and it isn't entirely clear when we will have games to reference again, it seems appropriate to take a look at a few of our more hidden stats and reports. This week I wanted to dive into power plays a bit. Not necessarily the formations, or even too much into the players that excel on the power play. Just that I really wanted to get to opportunities.

Of course, with this topic like so many others I wanted to start with Big Board. When exported and organized we get a great summary of the top scorers in the league. In this view we are looking at it sorted by power-play points.

Name	Age	Team	Pos	SOG	GP	G	A	PTS	PPP
LEON DRAISAITL	24	EDM	C	218	71	43	67	110	44
CONNOR MCDAVID	23	EDM	C	212	64	34	63	97	43
DAVID PASTRNAK	23	BOS	R	279	70	48	47	95	38
NATHAN MACKINNON	24	COL	C	318	69	35	58	93	31
JONATHAN HUBERDEAU	26	FLA	L	152	69	23	55	78	29
BRAD MARCHAND	31	BOS	L	185	70	28	59	87	28
TOREY KRUG	29	BOS	D	144	61	9	40	49	28
MIKA ZIBANEJAD	27	NYR	C	208	57	41	34	75	27
JACK EICHEL	23	BUF	C	227	68	36	42	78	27
DAVID PERRON	31	STL	L	166	71	25	35	60	27
JOHN CARLSON	30	WSH	D	189	69	15	60	75	26
AUSTON MATTHEWS	22	TOR	C	290	70	47	33	80	25
NIKITA KUCHEROV	26	T.B	R	210	68	33	52	85	25
J.T. MILLER	27	VAN	C	165	69	27	45	72	25
QUINN HUGHES	20	VAN	D	126	68	8	45	53	25
NEAL PIONK	24	WPG	D	177	71	6	39	45	25
ARTEMI PANARIN	28	NYR	L	209	69	32	63	95	24
ELIAS PETTERSSON	21	VAN	C	162	68	27	39	66	24
EVGENI MALKIN	33	PIT	C	171	55	25	49	74	24
RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS	27	EDM	C	172	65	22	39	61	24

There is a lot here we already know. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid feasted on the power play and that Boston unit was lethal. I wanted to pause for a moment though and draw our attention to one additional feature – the team each individual is playing for.

If we sort by team, we can look at the number of players each team has in the top 20.

Team	# of Top 20 Players
EDM	3
BOS	3
VAN	3
NYR	2
COL	1
FLA	1
BUF	1
STL	1
WSH	1
TOR	1
T.B	1
WPG	1
PIT	1

There are a couple of surprises here. I mean we understand Edmonton and Boston (see comment above) but Vancouver? The Rangers? What do they have that Toronto doesn’t?

There are a ton of factors that go into a player's ranking here (player skill, time on the first unit, luck, etc.), but one thing we don't talk a lot about is team opportunities. We have to assume that a team who gets a lot of power-play chances is much more likely to have players who are putting up higher power-play numbers. Just look at the chart below – look at the difference in total time.

Rank	Team	GP	Opponent Penalty Minutes
1	Boston	70	736
2	New York	70	717
3	Colorado	70	703
4	Tampa Bay	70	690
5	San Jose	70	661
27	Dallas	69	510
28	Montreal	71	474
29	Buffalo	69	473
30	Toronto	70	472
31	Columbus	70	465

This table shows the teams with the top opponent penalty minutes and the worst. The top five average 701 total penalty minutes from their opponents and the bottom five averaged 479. That is a huge difference. We are talking 232 minutes of power-play opportunity here. Maybe this can help us answer our question. The Rangers rank second in power-play minute opportunities, but Toronto ranks 30th with a difference of 245 potential minutes.

So the big question is: Do teams that have more potential minutes on the power-play have more players in the top 20? I think the answer is a resounding …maybe?

Team	# of Top 20 Players	Rank in PP Minutes
EDM	3	21
BOS	3	1
VAN	3	7
NYR	2	2
COL	1	3
FLA	1	15
BUF	1	29
STL	1	23
WSH	1	8
TOR	1	30
T.B	1	4
WPG	1	12
PIT	1	20

Only five teams have more than one player in the top 20. Four of them are in the top ten for total minutes, so that correlation seems pretty strong. Edmonton is the lone exception, ranked 21st. They might just be an exception to the rule here, though, as McDavid and Draisaitl were just so good this year. The rest of the teams have only one player, and in many cases, it is a player of prodigious skill that is clearly making up for a deficit in team opportunity.

The two other oddballs are Colorado and Tampa. Colorado ranks very highly in total time, but only Nathan MacKinnon ranks in the top 20. One potential explanation here is that Colorado dealt with some major injuries so guys like Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen who might otherwise be on this list played fewer games. That leaves Tampa as an odd man out, they have a ton of star power, and a lot of opportunity, but still didn't manage more than one player on the list.

It is clearly not a direct correlation between team totals and player point totals, and some of those reasons have been pointed out already. We have the efficiency of a power-play to consider, how the units are given time, injuries, etc. But I don't think we can escape the fact that some teams end up with a lot more opportunity than others. I mean, Columbus' top power-play producer is ranked 101st in power-play points (combination of low opportunity and poor power-play?)

So that brings us to the question of how do teams end up on the power-play? Well at some point an opposing player needs to do something illegal. A team system might be one answer for encouraging opponents to do so, but an individual players' style and skill is definitely another. We have some evidence that drawing penalties is a repeatable skill for skaters, and wouldn't you know it, Frozen Tools has a report for that. It is called Drawn Penalties. The table below shows the top 10 for 2019-20.

Name	Team	GP	Shifts	Penalties Drawn
BRADY TKACHUK	OTT	71	1775	47
BRAD MARCHAND	BOS	70	1568	44
GARNET HATHAWAY	WSH	66	967	35
JACK EICHEL	BUF	68	1596	35
ANTHONY CIRELLI	T.B	68	1599	34
MATTHEW TKACHUK	CGY	69	1499	34
BRENDAN LEMIEUX	NYR	59	1023	32
ELIAS PETTERSSON	VAN	68	1585	31
TOM WILSON	WSH	68	1514	30
NIKOLAJ EHLERS	WPG	71	1519	30

It is an interesting mix of skill players and agitators.

We can also sort by number of shifts per penalty (or put another way, how many shifts does a player need to take in order to draw a penalty) – here is that top ten (with minimum game number of 30).

Name	Team	GP	Shifts	Penalties Drawn	Shifts / Penalties Drawn
GARNET HATHAWAY	WSH	66	967	35	27.6
ROSS JOHNSTON	NYI	32	362	12	30.2
BRENDAN LEMIEUX	NYR	59	1023	32	32
BRAD MARCHAND	BOS	70	1568	44	35.6
BRADY TKACHUK	OTT	71	1775	47	37.8
MILES WOOD	N.J	68	1169	30	39
NAZEM KADRI	COL	51	1041	24	43.4
MATTHEW TKACHUK	CGY	69	1499	34	44.1
TYSON JOST	COL	67	1089	24	45.4
JACK EICHEL	BUF	68	1596	35	45.6

Here we definitely have a few skill players, but most of this list have a bit of edge to their game.

So how does all of his impact their fantasy value? Well at the end of the day most leagues don't count penalties drawn as a stat, so the direct impact is not high. A player's ability to draw penalties can definitely have an impact on their team's total power-play time, though, and that can have an impact on scorers who rely on power-play production.

At the end of the day there isn't much you can do, but it is certainly something to consider around trade/free agent deadline days as players are moving between teams. If you are holding a bunch of power-play guys on a team that just shipped off its two best penalty drawers, that might be good to know. Does it mean those guys will suddenly tank? Not necessarily, but as I often say in this column, opportunity is everything.

That is all for this week. Thanks for reading. Stay safe out there.

Want more tool talk? Check out these recent Frozen Tool Forensics Posts.

Frozen Tools Forensics: Useful features on our Frozen Tools

Frozen Tools Forensics: Playoffs Part II – Unlikely Heroes

Frozen Tools Forensics: The Plan to Play