We ran a power play article a few weeks back and I thought it would be interesting to see what changes to the power play units teams from the West have made in the past three weeks.

Changes can happen quickly!

Anaheim Ducks (27th in the NHL at 13.9%; 5 goals/36 PP opportunities)

Players that have seen the biggest increase in power play time over the past month are Mason McTavish (12.0% increase to 55.9%), Troy Terry (10.3% to 52.9%) and Leo Carlsson (7.4% to 53.2%).

Players who have seen the largest decrease are Pavel Mintyukov (34.6% down to 18.2%), Alex Killorn (12.0% down to 43.6%) and Ryan Strome (8.2% down to 47.6%).

Jackson LaCombe (46.6%) technically was the quarterback on the first unit Sunday night against Chicago. LaCombe saw 51.5% of the PP time in that game compared to 47.9% for Olen Zellweger.

Mintyukov is not even in the equation at the moment.

Calgary Flames (23rd at 16.2%; 6/37)

Yegor Sharangovich (59.8%) has been back for five games now and has yet to record a PPP even though he has been on the first unit. He scored his first goal of the season on Sunday night at even strength.

Players who have lost a bit of time are Connor Zary (7.7% decrease to 52.8%), Andrei Kuzmenko (8.7% to 57.5%) and Jonathan Huberdeau (5.5% to 60.6%).

Tyson Barrie got his first power play point on Sunday night in his fifth game as a member of the Flames. He is now up to 35.2% of power play time overall. 

Chicago Blackhawks (11th at 22.5%; 9/40)

The first unit on Sunday's 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks consisted of Connor Bedard, Lukas Reichel, Ryan Donato, Tyler Bertuzzi and Seth Jones and they scored one PPG (Jones).

The second unit scored a PPG as well in that game (Teuvo Teravainen) and that unit consisted of Teravainen, Taylor Hall, Alex Vlasic, Patrick Maroon and Craig Smith.

Nick Foligno and Philipp Kurashev saw no PP time.

Overall Chicago went two for two in that game.

Colorado Avalanche (2nd at 34.2%; 14/41)

He’s now out six-to-eight weeks with a broken foot, but Ross Colton saw his time increase 29.3% to 69.6%, while Ivan Ivan has benefitted from some injuries as well (24.0% to 32.9%).

Jonathan Drouin might struggle to get back onto the first unit when he comes back from injury, and the team might start Valeri Nichushkin on the second unit at first if things are still going well when he is eligible to return in mid-November, but Colton’s injury opens the door slightly for both.

Will Casey Mittelstadt (decrease of 7.6% to 84.9%) be able to keep his role as well? 

Dallas Stars (17th at 19.4%; 7/36)

The Stars have kept their existing units almost identical since the beginning of the year. The biggest increase for a player has been Logan Stankoven (2.5% to 40.9%) and the biggest decrease has been Matt Duchene (2.9% to 44.4%).

The Stars have a pretty deep forward group and should run a 55/45 split for most of the year depending on which players are rolling in any particular stretch.

Edmonton Oilers (25th at 115.2%; 5/33)

As the PP woes for the Oilers continue, Evan Bouchard has seen the biggest decrease in time (12.4% to 80.6%) along with Zach Hyman (8.1% to 76.3%).

Viktor Arvidsson (14.0% increase to 26.4%) and Jeff Skinner (6.3% increase to 21.2%) have benefitted with increased time.

With Connor McDavid out with an injury, it has made way for Mattias Ekholm to increase his time (15.1% to 26.7%). The Oilers have elected to play it safe and have Ekholm and Bouchard out on the same unit at times.

Edmonton's power play will figure things out sooner than later with the players they have, especially once McDavid is back.

Los Angeles Kings (21st at 16.7%; 7/42)

Brandt Clarke has secured his spot for the time being on the first unit (5.8% increase to 59.3%) as he has put up five power play points.

Jordan Spence (5.6% decrease to 40.3%) has seen his time decrease slightly and it might continue to go down.

It's a little concerning to see Quinton Byfield (5.8% decrease to 37.9%) get a little further away from the first unit than closer. He is without a goal after 12 games.

Alex Laferriere (3.1% increase to 60.0%) has just one power play point but has eight goals in 12 games and appears to be solidifying his role.

Minnesota Wild (13th at 22.2%; 8/36)

The first unit of the Wild is starting to stretch from around 70% to closer to 75%, with Matt Boldy (3.0% increase to 75.6%), Kirill Kaprizov (4.6% increase to 75.0%), Mats Zuccarello (3.9% increase to 74.6%), Joel Eriksson Ek (77.3%) and Brock Faber (69.9%).

Eriksson Ek missed two games because of an injury and was replaced by a combination of Jared Spurgeon (21.4%) and Marco Rossi (24.5%), Liam Ohgren (21.4%) and Ryan Hartman (25.6%).

Nashville Predators (10th at 23.7%; 9/38)

When we last checked in with Nashville, their first unit was operating around 74-75% of the time. Since then, Steven Stamkos has maintained his 75.5%, and the other top four members decreased slightly starting with Roman Josi (1.5% decrease to 74.1%), Ryan O'Reilly (1.9% decrease to 69.9%), Jonathan Marchessault (2.5% decrease to 70.1%) and Filip Forsberg (2.6% decrease to 70.5%).

Unless there is an injury, it's unlikely that we will see anyone from the top unit not on it, unless they really struggle.

As for the second unit, Philip Tomasino has been a healthy scratch for most of the past seven or eight games and has seen his time go to Colton Sissons (8.6%) and Mark Jankowski (7.8%).

San Jose Sharks (15th at 20.5%; 8/39)

There have been quite a few changes to the Sharks' power play since we last wrote about it.

Macklin Celebrini (68.8%) should be back in the next few games and will take his spot on the top unit.

We have seen the top unit go from 80 to 90% of the time on the ice to well below 70%.

The biggest increase in ice time was Jack Thompson (53.7%), who played six games and had three power play points. He has dressed in just one of the past three games and only saw nine seconds of power play time in that game. The experiment might have been a short one.

Timothy Liljegren (66.7%) was acquired from Toronto and in his first game as a Shark on Saturday night he was given the keys to the first unit. We shall see how long that lasts?

Alexander Wennberg (45.7% increase to 57.8%), Luke Kunin (22.7% increase to 22.7%) and Will Smith (11.7% increase to 28.7%) have all had more time.

Fabian Zetterlund (44.8% decrease to 43.5%), Jake Walman (21.5% decrease to 55.5%), Mikael Granlund (17.8% decrease to 72.5%), Tyler Toffoli (14.8% decrease to 70.8%) and William Eklund (9.1% to 69.7%) have all seen the biggest decreases. Granlund, Toffoli, Eklund and Wennberg look like the current first unit along with whatever quarterback they go with. Wennberg is the likely placeholder until Celebrini is back.

Seattle Kraken (22nd at 16.7%; 7/42)

The biggest changes to the Kraken PP units have seen decreases for Andre Burakovsky (18.3% decrease to 32.6%) and Vince Dunn playing in just four games and missing eight.

Ryker Evans has emerged as a viable option and has seen 35.0% of time on the man advantage.

The first and second units are still split around 50/50 with the biggest change being 2.9% for Jordan Eberle (51.9% to 54.8%).

I was a little surprised to see Brandon Montour (0.4% increase to 53.6%) didn't get more time with Dunn out of the lineup.

St. Louis Blues (28th at 13.3%; 4/30)

Brandon Saad (36.0%) missed the first three games of the year and is now a fixture on the second unit. He replaced Kasperi Kapanen (18.6% decrease to 8.7%) who saw some early time in his place.

With Robert Thomas (64.5%) out for quite a bit, Brayden Schenn (14.4% increase to 41.3%) appears to have filled his role on the first unit. The coaches have dialled down the first unit from 72-73% to under 65%. Dylan Holloway also saw some increased time (9.3% increase to 35.1%).

Jake Neighbours (12.6% decrease to 59.4%) is followed by Jordan Kyrou (10.1% decrease to 62.8%), Justin Faulk (10.0% decrease to 63.4%) and Pavel Buchnevich (9.8% decrease to 61.7%).

Phillip Broberg (1.1% increase to 25.5%) was seeing some time on the top unit of the power play but had to leave Saturday's game with an injury and is out for a few days. Hopefully, it's not an opportunity lost for Broberg.

Utah Hockey Club (18th at 19.4%; 6/31)

With Sean Durzi out with an injury and Josh Doan sent to the AHL, two spots opened up on the second unit for Utah.

Nick Bjugstad (32.5%) stepped into the spot vacated by Doan and Juuso Valimaki (19.9%) saw some early time on the PP, but in the past four games, he has been a healthy scratch twice and in the other two games so no time with the man advantage.

Michael Kesselring (11.1%) saw some time on the second unit in three of the past four games.

The other members of both units have remained steady with a 65/35 split.

Vancouver Canucks (24th – 16.1%; 5/31)

The big change for the Canucks is Jake DeBrusk (14.1% decrease to 39.1%) moving down to the second unit and Conor Garland (10.8% increase to 56.1%) replacing him on the first unit.

The top unit has struggled but the split is stuck at 65/35 until they start to produce at which point I still think they will be above 70%.

I was wrong that Debrusk would get 15-20 games on the top unit. He got nine.

Danton Heinen (9.9% decrease to 27.7%) has seen his time level out to the rest of that unit.

If both units continue to struggle, I would expect to see Pius Suter or Kiefer Sherwood get an opportunity on the second unit.

Vegas Golden Knights (4th at 32.3%; 10/31)

Victor Olofsson (70.2%) has played just four games but had three goals (two on the PP).

His absence has opened a door for Pavel Dorofeyev (43.1%) who has had (12-7-3-10) and three power play goals. He has been on the top unit for the past eight games.

Jack Eichel (80.7%), Tomas Hertl (76.8%), Shea Theodore (74.7%), and Mark Stone (72.0) make up the other members of that unit.

Winnipeg Jets (1st at 44.1%; 15/34)

Of the 15 goals the Jets have scored on the power play, the first unit has scored eight and the second unit has scored seven.

The first unit has still seen an increase in their PP time: Josh Morrissey (7.5% increase to 69.2%), Kyle Connor (7.8% increase to 65.6%), Mark Scheifele (8.5% increase to 66.0%), Gabriel Vilardi (8.8% increase to 66.3%) and Nikolaj Ehlers (6.5% increase to 63.3%).

The second unit PPG scorers are Cole Perfetti (three), Neal Pionk (two), Nino Niederreiter (one) and Alex Iafallo (one). They have averaged between 28.8% and 33.5% of the Jets PP time.

Thank you very much for reading and if you have any comments, please leave them below or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15