Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up. This week will examine players who have recently been seeing increased roles on their team's top power-play units which is an excellent opportunity for more production, particularly if your league counts power-play points. As always, be sure to keep an eye on recent line combinations for any changes that might behoove you to scoop up someone off the waiver wire in that extra effort to win your week.

Let's dive in.

Kirby Dach

One of Montreal's reclamation projects has found himself lining up on the team's top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield and the deployment has paid off so far. Dach is currently on a 68-point pace for the season and is riding a hot streak with seven points in his past four games. This pace would be a big increase from his previous career pace of 48 points. Much of this jump in production can be attributed to the 30% of his ice time that he is spending alongside the two stars Suzuki and Caufield. However, Dach is also lining up with these players on the power play and over his last three games has subsequently seen a 71.2% of the power-play share which is almost a 30% increase from what he averaged over the first eight games of the season.

This top line and top power-play deployment is excellent exposure and should allow for him to continue his hot streak. Dach's advanced metrics indicate that he has a slightly higher than normal shooting percentage, points per 60 minutes and PDO but the prime minutes should help to compensate for a regression in those areas. At only 21% rostered in Yahoo leagues, look at adding Dach so long as he maintains his spot on the top line.

Jake DeBrusk

Jake DeBrusk's line situation just became even more impactful with the return of superstar winger Brad Marchand. Much like last season, DeBrusk is seeing around a quarter of his ice time with Marchand and Patrice Bergeron helping him along to his current pace of 10 points in 12 games. DeBrusk has also been shooting a lot more with 3.9 shots per game so far this season and that may help explain his increased point output. However, DeBrusk is also lining up on the top power-play unit even with the return of Marchand. In fact, last game Boston even opted for a five-forward unit, replacing Hampus Lindholm with David Krejci instead of removing DeBrusk.

This kind of deployment will have huge implications for DeBrusk if he can maintain it. In the last two seasons he has not had more than 1:23 of PPTOI or more than a 30% share. Now he is seeing more than double that PPTOI and seeing 50% of the power-play share. Keep in mind that this is continuing with Marchand having returned. That increased exposure on what is historically an effective Boston power-play would allow him to surpass his career high in points and shots.

Note that Boston still has three games remaining this week including two of those games on light days and against more porous teams in Buffalo and Vancouver.

JJ Peterka

The Buffalo rookie JJ Peterka has quietly been productive in bottom six roles, posting seven points in 12 games so far. Following two Buffalo losses over the weekend to Tampa Bay and Carolina, it looks as though the lines are being thrown in the blender and Peterka has landed alongside Tage Thompson.

Peterka made noise during the 2021 WJC on Team Germany by notching 10 points in five games. He then followed that up to lead all rookies in the AHL in goals and points with 68 in 70 games. The expectation was that he would spend another year growing in the AHL before graduating to the club next season as he is still quite young at 20. After 12 games in the NHL, clearly Peterka had other plans. It is unlikely that he will be attached to Thompson for the duration of the season, but in the short term this will no doubt be an excellent situation for Peterka to continue producing. Buffalo also starts the first of three games this week tonight against Arizona so a good opportunity to showcase some potential. If you have spots in your lineup tonight on a full slate, get him in while the matchup is most ideal.

Caleb Jones

Older brother Seth Jones was injured blocking a shot last week in a game against Buffalo and is expected to miss three to four weeks with a thumb injury. Since the injury, Caleb Jones has taken over the role of power-play quarterback, seeing close to 60% of the man advantage TOI and logging a PP assist. He is also on a hot streak currently with six points in his past seven games and can contribute in peripheral categories: he has so far averaged over three hits and blocks per game this season.

Chicago only plays twice this week but will play four games next week and three of those games are on light days in the schedule. Caleb Jones is also only rostered in 3% of Yahoo leagues. For a team that is currently in the top half of the league in power-play conversion, the defenseman running that unit should not be so widely available. Consider swapping him into your rotation while Seth Jones remains sidelined.

Thanks for reading.