Today on Frozen Tool Forensics we are going to take a quick departure from actual production and spend some time looking at player deployment. As deployment so often dictates changes in production, we certainly will see some players who are performing a bit better or worse than expected, but what we are really looking at is how players are being used. In particular their power-play usage and overall time on ice. Even more specifically though we are comparing a player's usage so far this season with their averages from last season.

In order to do this I have taken a Big Board Report from the Frozen Tools' Reports Page for the full 2024-25 season and for the 25-26 season to this point (December 11, 2025). Obviously, we are talking larger samples so recent changes in deployment will not factor in as heavily in the sample, but certainly will be discussed when checking in on specific players.

The table below contains some basic player information (name, position, and team) and then some descriptive stats regarding their performance (games played, season pace, percent of the team's power play, and average time on ice). The time on ice numbers (%PP and TOI) are changes in those numbers over the two samples while the games played and season pace numbers represent the 2024-25 performance to date.

First up, we are looking at players who have increased their power-play share the most (and as such have often also increased their total time on ice).

We can handle the first two at once. With all of the changes in San Jose on the back end, John Klingberg was brought in to anchor the top power play, so it makes sense that his percent increased dramatically. Unfortunately, he has been injured for a chunk of games so Dmitry Orlov, also brought in over the off season, stepped in in his absence. For the most part when in the lineup Klingberg has been running the top unit, getting more than 50% of the team's power-play time in all but three of the team's last 14 games. Both are seeing more time on a team that was significantly lacking quality on the back end though neither have really been taking advantage of the time in terms of point production.

It is kind of a similar story for Cam York. He is up three minutes a night on average and seeing a 35% bigger share of the team's power-play time. Unfortunately for York his deployment has been a bit more all over the place. While he does have a good showing of games where he got more than 50% of the team's power-play it is a lot more variable than Klingberg's. He is currently out of the lineup and with Travis Sanheim getting most of the duties on December 9th, but it isn't like Jamie Drysdale hasn't been eyeing that spot as well.

Morgan Geekie continues to shine over in Boston. He has jumped 30% of the team's power play and is up to an average of almost 70% per game. With that he has tied his power-play production from 2024-25 with nine points. That deployment is by far a career high as is the 17:38 of total time on ice he is getting, and the 2.6 shots per game. He is still shooting at a very high 27% so that goal pace might not sustain, but Geekie has maintained a high shooting percentage before and is very much enjoying his role with the Bruins.

Eeli Tolvanen has seen a bump in deployment in big part because of the absence of Jared McCann. Seattle is running a bit more a true top unit this year, with the Matty Beniers/Vince Dunn unit pretty consistently getting 60-70% of the total available time. The members of that unit have changed over time, but Tolvanen was getting a good run win it. In the few games that McCann returned to the lineup though Tolvanen was demoted back to the second unit. Even a second unit kind of deployment is better than what he was getting in 2024-25 when he often wasn't on either of the power-play units. Given his shot and propensity for goal scoring, adding power-play time back to his repertoire is certainly a big positive.

Noah Cates seems to shuffle around the power-play lineups. There was a good series of games where he was getting time on the top unit, and also plenty of time when he has been on the second unit. Elite point production isn't really his thing, but he is seeing career highs across the board and has been flirting with a 50 point pace this season because of it.

On the flip side we have a number of players who are really missing out on some time.

Yegor Chinakhov seems to be in a bit of a free fall right now. After consecutive seasons of point paces in the 40s, two shots per game, 15 minutes a night, and secondary power-play time, Chinakov is now averaging only 10 minutes a night with times as low as seven minutes. He has dropped off both power-play units for the most part and unsurprisingly is barely shooting and on a career-low point pace. This is all coming during a season where we might have otherwise hoped to see him take a step forward. For at least the 25-26 season though things are not looking good.

Frank Vatrano has had a fairly lengthy career at this point, almost constantly in the 'is this the year?' conversation. He typically has had strong hit and shot rates, so has been valuable in some leagues, but only has one 60-point season to his name. Unfortunately, 2025-26 doesn't look to be an opportunity to add to that. While the top six in Anaheim is reaching new heights, Vatrano is on the outside looking in. He has barely gotten any power-play time this season, is down to 12.5 minutes a night on average and is essentially frozen out of that productive top six. At 31 he is likely starting to trend down, and while 11-point seasons are not likely to be the new normal, returning to a 40-point pace seems like an absolute dream scenario at this point.

For the most part, this group of defencemen is the same story repeated several times. In Chicago Alex Vlasic was replaced by Sam Rinzel and then Artem Levshunov, Mike Matheson lost even more time after being usurped by Lane Hutson in 2024-25 when Montreal went and added Noah Dobson in the offseason, and Shea Theodore lost his top spot when Vegas brought Mitch Marner to town. Matt Grzelcyk is the same but different. He managed to steal a top power-play role in Pittsburgh despite Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang being in town but hasn't been able to do the same in Chicago. Of the group Theodore probably has the best shot at regaining some of that time, but generally the prognosis isn't great for any of them.

That is all for this week.

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