It shouldn’t be any surprise that NHL players are more productive at home compared to on the road, but it may not be as pronounced as you might think. 

Going into this past weekend’s set of games, 556 players had at least 10 points. Of those players, 300 (54 per cent) had more points at home than on the road. 

While some of those players were slightly better at home, there were a few that were much more productive. 

As mentioned in last week’s column about the top 10 road producers, the best way to look at the stats is to use Dobber's Report Generator. Here, you can create and download an excel spreadsheet that sorts players by home and away statistics. From there, you can calculate the points-per-home-game and the points-per-road-game for each player, and use those two numbers to figure out the difference in the per-game stats for every player. Sorting by the difference would give you an idea of who has been much better at home and away.

Brayden Point has the greatest gap between home/away points, with 52 points in 37 home games and 29 points in 34 road games. Second is Nikita Kucherov, with 62 points in 37 home games and 38 points in 34 road games. They’re not the only Lightning players. Going into Sunday’s game, the squad has averaged four goals a game at home this season, tops in the league, but only 2.91 goals per game on the road, 21st in the league. 

However, for this list, we will focus on players that aren’t considered to be superstars.

In case you’re wondering, for the rest of the season, Toronto has the least amount of home games remaining, with only four, while Anaheim, Boston and Nashville have the most at eight. 

10. Michael Amadio

It’s been a strange season for Amadio. He averages just over 12 minutes a night but is usually playing with top-six guys when on the ice. He gets occasional looks on the top power-play unit for five or six games at a time but has only two points with the man advantage. He averaged 8:27 per night in November (a season low), but 13:23 per game in December (a season high). Overall, he has 16 points in 30 home games and five in 26 away games. 

9. Gabriel Vilardi

It took a while, but Vilardi has finally arrived as a fantasy asset. With 40 points in 60 games, Vilardi’s 55-point pace is something many didn’t envision before the season began, especially after last year’s campaign of seven points in 25 games. Part of the increase this season is due to better linemates, more ice time and more power-play time, but a player still needs to produce to keep those plum assignments. Vilardi has been the much better player at home, with 26 points in 31 home games and 14 in 29 away from L.A.

8. Calen Addison

Addison leads the league in the highest percentage of power-play points that make up their overall points. The rookie rearguard has 28 points on the season, 18 of which have come with the man advantage. That equates to 64.3 per cent of his points coming from the power play. The next closest is Tyson Barrie, who has 60.9 per cent of his points coming with the man advantage. Overall, 19 of Addison’s points have come in 30 home games, while nine have come in 29 road games. Amazingly, but maybe not that surprisingly, eight of his nine road points have been on the power play. 

7. Jonathan Drouin

It’s been another frustrating season for Drouin, highlighted by Saturday night’s tilt against Tampa. Drouin was late for a team meeting last week, and as punishment, he dressed for the Tampa game but was stapled to the bench and didn’t see a second of ice time. Maybe it was just as well, considering it was a road game and he is so much more productive at home. Drouin has 16 points in 21 games at the Bell Centre, but 10 in 25 games outside of Quebec. It’s only recently that those away game numbers are as good as they are as he has five points in his last four road games.

6. Jason Zucker

Outside of the top three forwards (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jake Guentzel), there hasn’t been much fantasy relevance in Pittsburgh. Zucker is at least providing some offense at home. He has 27 points in 34 games in Pittsburgh, and 15 in 31 games everywhere else. He’s not the only Penguin to experience a wide discrepancy in home and road points. Bryan Rust has 24 points in 33 home games and 14 in 35 road games, part of the reason why he has struggled mightily this season. 

5. Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Kotkaniemi has been getting an opportunity with Carolina this season that he’s never had before. Playing top-six minutes with the likes of Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas has led to him already besting his career high in goals and matching his career high of 34 points, although you would think it would be a bit higher given his linemates. He has 23 points in 34 home games and 11 in 34 road games. 

4. Barrett Hayton

Because of the way the schedule was designed, Arizona played plenty of road games at the start of the year. The Coyotes started with a six-game road trip, followed by a four-game homestand and then a 14-game road trip. Hayton had only three points in those first 24 games. All those early road games have meant plenty of home games lately, and 12 of their last 14 games have been at home. In those 12 home games, Hayton has 14 points. Overall, he has 26 points in 34 home games but only 11 in 36 away games. 

3. Nick Schmaltz

Schmaltz would be considered a great player if he could stay healthy. His 82-game pace this year is 76 points, but due to various injuries, he’s only going to play 60-some-odd games and will probably finish in the high 50s for points. That pace is buoyed by his play at home, where he has 31 points in 27 games, compared to 16 points in 24 road games. Seven of his 11 power-play points have also come at home. The Coyotes forward is available in 68 per cent of Yahoo leagues, and Arizona has eight home games remaining, so he could be a smart pickup.  

2. Boone Jenner

Jenner is having a great overall fantasy season. He’s not dominating in any one category, but he’s producing everywhere. He has a chance to hit career highs in goals, assists, points, shots, power-play goals, power-play points and blocked shots. Besides the 23 goals and 40 points in 58 games, he’s averaging 3.3 shots per game to go along with 110 hits. He’s also winning a career-high 11 faceoffs per night. His 663 faceoff wins are 10th in the league, and everyone ahead of him has played at least 10 extra games. However, he would be an excellent fantasy option if he could pick up more points on the road as he has 25 points in 30 home games and 15 in 27 away games. 

1. Mikhail Sergachev

We talked in the intro about how big a difference it is for Lightning players on the road and away. Sergachev is a great example as he has 35 points in 36 home games but only 18 in 33 road games. His power-play prowess is similar with 15 home man-advantage points versus seven on the road. It’s been a bit of a breakout season for the Lightning rearguard, given top power-play duties for a while and seeing him already notch 53 points, smashing his previous high of 40 with 12 games still left to go. He has already bested career highs in power-play points and blocked shots, and might also reach career highs in goals, PIM, plus/minus and shots.