Ramblings – Early PP Observations for Each Team (Oct 18)

Dobber

2021-10-18

I hope you enjoyed the Fantasy Guide this year. Tons of updates once again, and I put through the last one on Saturday. That's a wrap for another year! Grab it here if you have a late draft.

For my francophone readers who prefer to read their gold in their native tongue, we have a translated version of the Guide and the updates are not even a day behind – often within a couple of hours. You can order your French version here and please share with any of your francophone pals.

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Those who bought the Guide, knew about my dark horse goaltender early in training camp. And Karel Vejmelka performed very well in his debut on Saturday. I hope some of you were able to take advantage of the early tip!

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BREAKING: Nikita Kucherov’s injury Saturday looks to be serious and he may have surgery. Nothing official yet, but this could be a long-term thing. Keep an eye out for Kucherov news today. This is per Erik Erlendsson. But if Kucherov is out, the door swings back open for Ondrej Palat owners!

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Just a couple of games into the regular season and at this point what I look at are the PP data and any opportunities therein. This isn't the time where the PP units are finalized, but those first couple of games you do get a bit of insight as to how the coach feels about his players and their potential roles. Mason McTavish getting on the first unit for Anaheim at the expense of Max Comtois, for example. Normally we don't see a rookie get thrown out there like that, so this tells me that McTavish isn't getting eased in – Dallas Eakins wants him to be a key part of the offense this year. To me, it lowers the likelihood that he gets sent down after he plays nine games.

Just little things like that, I use to form some early opinions. Here are some other observations:

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The Coyotes are rolling four forwards and a defenseman, and Shayne Gostisbehere is the the defenseman. That means Jakob Chychrun is not. He gets the leftovers.

Just one game, but Matt Grzelcyk was off the power play altogether, in favor of Charlie McAvoy and Mike Reilly. Since Boston also uses four forwards and one defenseman, Grzelcyk's production potential has plummeted.

Zemgus Girgensons is getting solid PP time, knocking Vinnie Hinostroza out of the mix. Hinostroza was on that unit in preseason.

Juuso Valimaki hasn't been used on the PP at all. Calgary is another 4-1 team (forwards-defensemen) and Rasmus Andersson has been the main guy so far.

Tony DeAngelo has been out there for 83.7% of Carolina's available PP time. Rod Brind'Amour is all in with him, so we probably should be, too. That's over five minutes of PP ice time per game so far. It also doesn't leave much for Jaccob Slavin, Ethan Bear and Brett Pesce.

Seth Jones usually gets about 55% of his team's available PP time. In three games so far he is at 85.4%. A career high for PPPts is in the works – take that to the bank.

I didn't want to get into Colorado too much because Nathan MacKinnon is back any day now and he hasn't played yet. But so far it's interesting to see Jared Bednar look to J.T. Compher over Nazem Kadri.

Not a lot PP data to go on with Columbus, but they're another 4-1 team and of course Zach Werenski gets first dibs. Also as expected – Adam Boqvist gets the leftovers. Jake Bean gets nothing. So far, Boone Jenner is the fourth forward over the likes of Jack Roslovic, Gustav Nyquist, Cole Sillinger or Max Domi.

In Sunday's game, Jacob Peterson got onto the first PP unit over the likes of Roope Hintz and Alex Radulov. The rookie has nothing to show for it yet, not even a SOG, so I wouldn't expect this scenario to last. However, it tells me that Peterson is considered a potential top-sixer in the future and I never would have thought that beforehand. Peterson is a placeholder for the injured Jason Robertson, but just the fact that the coach is looking at him for these types of minutes speaks to his future role.

In Detroit, I figured that Nick Leddy would get the most PP time among the rearguards. The logic being that I don't feel he offers much in other areas. He's also a left shot, whereas Filip Hronek and Moritz Seider are righties. I then guessed that Hronek would be a close second, because he is a top all-around NHL defenseman and proven point producer. Seider would be third, as they ease him into NHL action, even though he will likely be the top defenseman on the team within two or three years. But the fact is – Seider is getting thrown right out there. He is leading the entire team in PP ice time (3:41 per game so far), with Hronek next (2:55). Leddy is actually third at 1:55 among Detroit D. To me, this says that Jeff Blashill is ignoring the hockey politics and putting out the best players for the job. I'm a lot more bullish about Seider for this season based on this early information.

In Edmonton, Zach Hyman is seeing more PP time than he's ever had in his life. Early on, he's been getting 65.0% of available PP time almost always with you-know-who. He has just one point so far, but it was on the power play. Funny enough, even though he lined up with Connor McDavid a lot at even strength during preseason, he's been on the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins line since the season began.

With Florida, so far Anthony Duclair, Anton Lundell, Gustav Forsling and Mackenzie Weegar are completely out of the PP mix. Joel Quenneville is leaning on a specific five (Aaron Ekblad, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett). They have yet to score on the PP, so things could change, but for now those are your five and to be honest I think that's how it will stay – barring injury. This won't hurt Weegar any, as he wasn't getting PP time last year either. And Carter Verhaeghe is seeing about the same PP time now as he did then, via the second unit. But Anton Lundell owners should probably not expect much help with his production in terms of PPPts.

Vladimir Tkachev is not playing with Anze Kopitar at even strength, but he has a firm grip on a key power-play spot. The five on the PP have seen 76.3% of available PP time – Drew Doughty, Viktor Arvidsson and Dustin Brown being the other three. Tkachev has two PPPts already.

Marcus Foligno is getting power-play time. Words that haven't been spoken in six or seven years. But he's already seen 4:36 in those first two games. He hasn't produced there yet, but he does have two points already (even strength) and is coming off the most productive season of his career.

The Habs haven't scored a PPG yet after three games. And so far the distribution has been split among eight players fairly evenly, with Chris Wideman possibly a ninth although he sees about 20 seconds less each game on average than the other eight. Wideman quarterbacks the second unit. So far.

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With Ryan Ellis having been moved, Mattias Ekholm has only seen about a 20-second bump in his PPTOI. Nashville is a team that rolls out two PP units, but the second unit has also seen a bit of Alexandre Carrier. Dante Fabbro is not yet getting a sniff. Ditto Philippe Myers.

Very little PP data on New Jersey with just the one game and all of two power plays. But they have two defined units, with Janne Kuokkanen, Yegor Sharangovich and Dawson Mercer on the second unit. Lindy Ruff also prefers using Pavel Zacha and Jesper Bratt over Tomas Tatar. The latter is on the second PP unit.

For the Islanders, Barry Trotz is using Noah Dobson over Ryan Pulock. I thought it would be Pulock. But Pulock was used there last season in the first half and wasn't really effective. One other interesting thing is that Anthony Beauvillier has played 6:29 of PP time while Anders Lee is at 4:24. The coach has noticed that Beauvillier ended last season and into the playoffs on fire and he's giving him the chance to build on that.

Adam Fox leads the entire NHL in total PP time with 15:30 over three games. Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad also have over 15 minutes, and Ryan Strome would be there too had he not been sidelined (COVID) for the last game. Jacob Trouba and Nils Lundqvist run the second unit PP, while K'Andre Miller isn't getting a sniff.

Here's the interesting observation for Ottawa – Tyler Ennis is on the top power-play unit. What's more – he's very productive so far, with two PPPts and a PP IPP of 100. Why couldn't he do this when he had a look on Connor McDavid's line?

In Philadelphia, Alain Vigneault has so far elected to go with James van Riemsdyk on the top unit over Cam Atkinson or Joel Farabee, who are on the second unit. No surprise that Keith Yandle quarterbacks the first unit in a 4-1 setup, while Ryan Ellis and Ivan Provorov run the second unit in a 3-2 setup.

The Penguins are going to get Sidney Crosby back soon and that will likely push Evan Rodrigues out of the PP picture. But so far Rodrigues has played 9:03 on the power play without a point. Meanwhile, Danton Heinen and Kasperi Kapanen have contributed PPPts and will likely hold their jobs on the second unit.

For some reason the Sharks are giving Nick Bonino first-unit power-play time. At least in the one game they've played so far. But it's their second unit that's been more productive – a unit that features William Eklund, Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl. San Jose has two power-play goals so far, and the unheralded rookie on the team – Jasper Weatherby – was in on both of them. He's a 6-4, 223-pound power forward who turned pro after his Junior year with the University of North Dakota. And don't see a lot of upside in Weatherby, but his size, work ethic, and the way he's being used make him pretty appealing in multi-cat leagues. He has just one Hit so far, but this year if he plays the full season he's probably good to reach 100. He's also decent on faceoffs.

Ryan Donato has been on the top PP unit for Seattle, over Joonas Donskoi and Alex Wennberg. He'll need to produce something soon, as Yanni Gourde is going to knock him out of there. Gourde is ahead of schedule returning from shoulder surgery, and may not be that far off.

For St. Louis there are no surprises in their one game of action. The PP units break down as you would expect – including the fact that Justin Faulk runs the second unit, while Colton Parayko doesn't get much more than a sniff.

As expected, the return of Nikita Kucherov has ousted Ondrej Palat from the top PP unit. Last season, Palat had 20 PPPts, which was easily a career high for him. He also averaged 3:13 per game, also a career high. In three games this season he averages 1:07 PPTOI. UPDATE: See note at top re: Kucherov injury.

Rasmus Sandin has been running the second PP unit for Toronto over Jake Muzzin. He's been pretty effective too, producing a PP assist already. Jason Spezza has been a very effective stand-in for Auston Matthews, as he has two points and five shots on goal with the man advantage.

Conor Garland – not on the top PP unit for the Canucks! Instead, it's Alex Chiasson. Since Chiasson has two PPPts and five SOG with the man advantage, this situation is not likely to change anytime soon. For some reason Justin Dowling is on the second unit over Vasily Podkolzin. Very odd decision there. But it speaks to my above note about easing rookies in. Coaches do that often. Chiasson is of course the placeholder for Brock Boeser while the latter is out and Dowling is the placeholder for Chiasson on the second unit.

Vegas, a team that has yet to convert a PPG, will have their units messed up for a little while now that Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone are out (Pacioretty is out six weeks, while they are strangely mum about Stone – I'm worried that the news won't be good when/if we hear about it later Monday). But it is good to see Nolan Patrick getting second-unit PP time. The rookie Peyton Krebs is not getting any PP time as of yet.

Alex Ovechkin was out there for 99.4% of Washington's available PP time over two games. A whopping 13:29. Anthony Mantha has been the fifth member of that top unit, at the expense of Tom Wilson and Hendrix Lapierre, who are on the second unit. The emergence of Lapierre has pushed Daniel Sprong/Conor Sheary right out of the PP conversation.

Rather than use a 4-1 system that includes Nik Ehlers, the Jets went with a 3-2 during the game that Mark Scheifele was serving his suspension. And Nate Schmidt was the second D – not Josh Morrissey. With Scheifele back, he bumped Schmidt to the second PP unit, and that one became a 3-2 system while the top unit switched to 4-1.

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I hope this rundown helped. I made a move based on this research – dropping Grzelcyk. I'll look to stream that spot for now.

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See you next Monday.

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