This week, we will examine some interesting player deployments on each Western Conference team after the first few games of the 2025-26 season.

Anaheim Ducks

Beckett Sennecke (19.6 years of age), who was the 3rd overall pick in 2024, scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game on three SOG. He also had three hits and a block in 17:24 of ice time. He was on a line with Mason McTavish and Cutter Gauthier. Not a bad debut!

Olen Zellweger played 19:06 in game one and saw some power play time. He was paired with Jacob Trouba on the second pairing.

Pavel Mintyukov played 15:42 on the third pairing with Drew Helleson (24.5), and the pairing struggled as they were minus two and had a CF% of 34.3 and 31.4.

Calgary Flames

Jonathan Huberdeau missed the first two games of 2025-26. In his absence, Morgan Frost, Nazem Kadri, Joel Farabee, MacKenzie Weegar and Matt Coronato were on the first unit of the power play.

Zayne Parekh has been a healthy scratch while Jake Bean and Brayden Pachal have averaged around 13:30 each so far. I would expect the leash to be short with Bean.

The Flames threw 71 hits as a team in their first two games, led by Ryan Lomberg (12), Blake Coleman (10) and Adam Klapka (10).

Chicago Blackhawks

Frank Nazar has jumped out to three points in his first two games while averaging 20:36 per game.

Connor Bedard has won just three of 28 faceoffs (13.6%). He has a career percentage of 38.1. Chicago will need Bedard or Nazar to be better in the faceoff circle, especially on the power play.

Sam Rinzel has averaged 22:11 while playing 62.7% of the time on the power play. The PP has yet to get a point, but Rinzel looks like the quarterback early on.

Artyom Levshunov has averaged 16:49 and looks to be sheltered early on while paired with Wyatt Kaiser. He has seen 37.3% of the time on the PP.

Colorado Avalanche

The top unit of the power play looks to be Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, Brock Nelson and Artturi Lehkonen early on.

Valeri Nichushkin is pointless in two games with five SOG while averaging 14:48 per game with limited PP time (18.6%).

Gabriel Landeskog is being eased back into the lineup with 12:48 of ice time and 19.3% of PP time. It looks like Nelson, Nichushkin and Landeskog are an early line.

Brent Burns looks like he has pushed Josh Manson to the third pairing. Manson is averaging 15:33 while Burns is at 20:49.

Dallas Stars

Nils Lundkvist had a fantastic first game with a goal and an assist while being a plus three. Be a little wary, as he played just 16:45 with 7.6% on the PP. If his minutes increase and he expands his offensive role, we could see a breakout.

Lian Bichsel played 13:14 and posted three hits and one block. I look for him to possibly reach 100 hits and blocks in 2025-26.

Sam Steel played on a line with Mikko Rantanen and Roope Hintz for 47.4% of game one at even strength. I don't expect that line to remain intact.

Justin Hryckowian won the early roster spot for the last forward. He played 8:47 in game one, so we might see a revolving door on the fourth line as the season progresses.

Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers signed free agent Jack Roslovic during their first game against Calgary. Isaac Howard or Matt Savoie are probably the victims of his addition to the lineup. Howard played 10:43 while Savoie played 12:32 against the Flames.

The first unit of the power play had a new member for 2025-26. David Tomasek had an assist on a pass to Leon Draisaitl and played 87.9% on the PP. I'm sure he (or another player) will be a placeholder until Zach Hyman is back and playing. Tomasek was on a line with Howard and Adam Henrique.

Vasily Podkolzin posted seven hits in game one while playing 12:23 on a line with Kasperi Kapanen and Noah Philp.

Los Angeles Kings

The first unit of the power play looks like it was Quinton Byfield, Andrei Kuzmenko, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala, an all forward PP.

Brandt Clarke averaged 17:12 and 42.4% of PP time in two games. I was hoping for an increased role at even strength for Clarke, but it's not there yet.

Drew Doughty continues to eat up the minutes, averaging 24:14. He was on the ice for 39.3% of the PP. This might be the first time he is under 50% since he came into the NHL if it continues all year.

Minnesota Wild

Fresh off signing the richest contract in NHL history, Kirill Kaprizov had three assists in game one and is now on pace for 248 points in 2025-26.

The power play units were divided 55/45, with the first unit comprising Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Ryan Hartman, Marco Rossi and Zeev Buium.

The second unit was Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson, Jared Spurgeon, Vladimir Tarasenko and Vinnie Hinostroza.

Buium played 20:10 with 54.4% of the time on the PP. It's a good sign as the Wild aren't sheltering him early on.

Nashville Predators

A healthy Roman Josi is vital to this team having any chance at the playoffs in 2025-26. In game one, he played 22:51 with 63.5% on the power play. He had one assist and five blocks in the game.

Nick Perbix could have found a home in the top four in Nashville. He played 19:58 and had five blocks in game one.

Brady Martin played 12:44 in his first NHL game and had one block. He did see 34% of the time on the PP. He might need to produce to stay longer than nine games.

San Jose Sharks

Alex Nedeljkovic fumbled away the game against Vegas and might have lost his starting role after one game. It looks like Yaroslav Askarov is in line for the next start and could take over the reins early on. I thought this might be a 50/50 split before the season started.

How long Ryan Reaves remains in the lineup and Michael Misa out of it, might be a short time. Adam Gaudette struggled in game one as well, so he could come out of the lineup for Misa as well.

Nick Leddy played 21:01 in game one and had two blocks. He's not an ideal top four defender.

Shakir Mukhamadullin played just 12:45 but did post two assists.

Ty Dellandrea was the best Shark in game one after putting up an assist, four hits, one block and winning nine faceoffs, while playing 16:06. He needs to have a good start to 2025-26 to cement his role in the NHL. The past two seasons have been a struggle for the 13th overall pick from 2018.

Seattle Kraken

Vince Dunn played 19:54 and was under 20 minutes. Brandon Montour, Adam Larsson and Ryan Lindgren all played more than 21 minutes. Dunn might be giving up some ice time at even strength with the arrival of Lindgren.

Ryan Winterton had an excellent first game with five hits and three shots on goal. He went pointless, but with more games like this and he will stick as a regular in the NHL.

Jani Nyman played just 7:52 with no PP time. He managed one hit and one block with no shots on goal.

St. Louis Blues

The Blues were smoked 5-0 by the Minnesota Wild, so it's difficult to take much away from the one game.

The units of the power play appeared to be split 50/50, which might have been a result of the scoreline.

It looks like unit 1A was Dylan Holloway, Justin Faulk, Jimmy Snuggerud, Pius Suter and Jake Neighbours while unit 1B was Pavel Buchnevich, Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas and Cam Fowler.

Logan Mailloux played 14:12 and was minus two with three hits. He did not see any power play time.

Utah Mammoth

The first unit of the PP was Dylan Guenther, Mikhail Sergachev, Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley.

The second unit was Jack McBain, Sean Durzi, Nate Schmidt, JJ Peterka and Kailer Yamamoto.

Peterka was on a line with Guenther and Cooley to start. I'm not sure who Peterka would supplant on the first unit of the PP at this point.

Vancouver Canucks

Filip Chytil scored two goals on five shots on goal with 16:25 of ice time and 38.8% on the PP.

The first unit of the PP was Evander Kane, Brock Boeser, Elias Petterson, Quinn Hughes and Jake DeBrusk.

The second unit was Chytil, Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Conor Garland, Filip Hronek and Braeden Cootes.

Kiefer Sherwood kept up his 2024-25 campaign with one goal and six hits. It will be a stretch to match his 19 goals and 462 hits, but he's had a good start.

Vegas Golden Knights

What a start to 2025-26 for both Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev. Eichel had two goals and four assists in two games, while Dorofeyev had four goals, with three coming on the power play.

Mitch Marner had a good start in his new uniform with two assists while averaging 22:37 of ice time (the most among Vegas forwards).

The top unit of the PP was Eichel, Marner, Dorofeyev, Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl.

Winnipeg Jets

Connor celebrated his new contract with a hat-trick in the first game of 2025-26 on six SOG and 19:45 of ice time.

Jonathan Toews will need some time to get his game back to a level he is happy with. He played 18:19 but was held to one SOG and seven faceoff wins.

Nikita Chibrikov deserves more than the 10:08 of ice time he received. It's difficult for offensive players to produce, playing on the fourth line.

Thanks very much for reading. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter @gampbler15.