We had a couple huge pieces of news on Wednesday, and the first was that New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin would be traded to the Los Angeles Kings in return for prospect Liam Greentree and a conditional 3^rd round pick. (That trade was broken by Adam Schefter, of all people.) While Panarin did not suit up for the Kings on Wednesday night, there is a chance he could play Thursday.

I will have more complete thoughts on the trade in my Ramblings tomorrow morning, but Alex did have the trade breakdown yesterday which can be read here.

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The second big piece of news was that top draft prospect Gavin McKenna was charged with four offenses including felony aggravated assault. The report from Onward State said that McKenna broke the jaw of another person in the assault, which led to the charges. We don't know anything else about what happened at this time.

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Brad Marchand was back in the lineup for the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night after missing the last couple of games due to injury. Florida plays again on Thursday night before Marchand is expected to leave this weekend for the Olympics, so that he's well enough to play 48 hours before he's set to leave for Italy is a good sign.

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San Jose welcome Kiefer Sherwood to the lineup on Wednesday night, playing his first game since being acquired a couple of weeks ago. He started the game on the top line with Macklin Celebrini.

Additionally, the Sharks have mercifully switched up the power play and are at least trying the five-forward setup with Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund, Tyler Toffoli, and Alex Wennberg. We will see how long this lasts but it cannot be any worse than it was when John Klingberg was running it.

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In my newsletter a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what helps make power plays successful. Aside from 'Have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl', it's important to figure out what kind of data we can look at that can point us in the direction of why power plays are successful, and which power plays could find success in the future.

To that second point, let's look at the post-Olympic break stretch of games and which teams have power plays that have the hallmarks of a turnaround. We are using tracking data from All Three Zones, the power-play data is at 5-on-4 only, and all data is current as of Wednesday, February 4^th.

While I encourage everyone to go read that newsletter post I linked in the first paragraph, the long-and-short of it is that one area of the tracking data that has a strong correlation to power-play goals is scoring chance setups per zone entry. In other words, the teams that can create the most scoring chances per zone entry on the power play are the ones that tend to find the most success. Unsurprisingly, teams like Dallas, Edmonton, Pittsburgh, and Boston are top-5 by chance setups per entry and are also scoring a lot of goals:

While the members of the top PP units from the Oilers and Stars are going to be rostered in all formats, we have seen a handful of different players assume top PP duties for the Penguins and Bruins, largely due to injuries/suspensions. In that sense, keep an eye on those teams because players like Anthony Mantha, Ben Kindel, Fraser Minten, and Viktor Arvidsson could see a big boost in their fantasy value whenever they do get top power play time.

There has been one exception. There is one team that is third in the league in scoring chance setups per zone entry but has a 5v4 scoring rate right around the league average:

There are two worthwhile notes here. The first is that the Carolina Hurricanes have greatly improved their power play since Christmas, ranking in the top-half of the league by goals/60 minutes at 5-on-4. If they can continue to have a fringe top-10 power play, it is a huge boost to their top guys like Andrei Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis, Sebastian Aho, and Shayne Gostisbehere.

The second note is that Carolina is not a team that typically has high shooting percentages. Last season, the Hurricanes were 26^th by shooting percentage at 5-on-4, and 23^rd by shooting percentage overall. This season, they are 21^st by shooting percentage at 5-on-4 and 23^rd by shooting percentage overall. As someone who heavily invested in the Carolina wingers back in my August/September fantasy drafts, I would like to believe that they will be a top-10 power play the rest of the season – they certainly have some of the tracking data to support that, anyway. But the reality is that it's been a while since they've been able to convert shots into goals at an above-average rate, and that is concerning. Also, the top PP guys (Jordan Staal aside) are likely rostered in the vast majority of fantasy formats anyway, but it is something to keep in mind if any of the members of the top PP unit go through an injury as we've seen with Jarvis and Gostisbehere already this season.

Washington Capitals

The Capitals did not have a great power play in 2024-25, tying for 14^th overall by goals-for per 60 minutes at 5-on-4. But that seems like a tremendous outcome compared to what they've done so far this season, posting the fifth-lowest rate in the league by goals/60 at 5-on-4, in the range of teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders. Of course, things should be better when we look at how high their rate of chance setups per zone entry is:

In this data set, the Capitals have the sixth-highest rate of chance setups per entry, but are really struggling to score thanks to a shooting percentage that ranks 28^th so far this season. Here is the good news: Ryan Leonard may be the Prince Who Was Promised. With Leonard, Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, and Jakob Chychrun on the ice at 5-on-4, the team is scoring 10 goals per 60 minutes. For some context on how bad things were, the Capitals were scoring 3.8 goals per 60 minutes without Leonard on the top PP unit. The shot metrics haven't changed much, but the team is scoring a lot more often, and their shooting percentage with Leonard (16.9%) is in a normal range for a top power play.

The problem is that, assuming Leonard remains on the top PP unit, their 5-man attack seems set with Leonard, Ovechkin, Strome, Tom Wilson, and Chychrun. Those guys are going to be rostered in all formats, but like with Carolina, should an injury hit any of those top guys, the replacement will be in a position to produce on the power play.

Anaheim Ducks

One important fact for the Ducks is just getting healthy. They have recently welcomed Troy Terry and Mason McTavish back to the lineup, and Leo Carlsson will presumably be ready to go once play resumes after the Olympic break. And it isn't as if this team hasn't had some power-play success this year: up until December 1^st, Anaheim was 17^th in the league by goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-4. It wasn't a resounding success, but after finishing a distant dead last in 2024-25, being 17^th through the first two months of the season was a great sign.

As the team started struggling over the last couple of months, the power play followed suit, coming in at 25^th by goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-4 since December 1^st. It is important to note that they are 1 of 10 teams to have a chance setup per entry rate over 0.5:

It is no guarantee that the Ducks will even be average on the power play following the Olympic break, but having a healthy lineup with most of their top players getting an extended rest should help. On top of that, the Frozen Tools Schedule Report has the Ducks with the second-most games on light days from March 2^nd onward (11) and the second-easiest schedule by opponent points percentage. A healthy roster, an easy schedule, and a lot of games on off-days should put the ancillary parts of the Anaheim power play on the radar of fantasy managers in all formats, including names like Mikael Granlund, Chris Kreider, and Pavel Mintyukov.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Anaheim is 1 of 10 teams with a chance setup per zone entry rate of at least 0.5, and Columbus is one of those teams as well:

The problem here is that most of the top guys – Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, and Zach Werenski specifically – are almost certainly rostered in most fantasy leagues. However, both Charlie Coyle and Mason Marchment are around 30-50% owned in Yahoo, Fantrax, and ESPN leagues, per the Frozen Tools Percent Rostered tool. The Coyle/Marchment duo are available in a number of leagues, and whenever there is an injury, we have seen players like Kent Johnson and Damon Severson get some top power-play time.

Coming back from the Olympic break, the Blue Jackets will have 26 games remaining. Of those 26 games:

• Boston Bruins x3
• Carolina Hurricanes x3
• Montreal Canadiens x2
• New York Islanders x2
• Buffalo Sabres
• Detroit Red Wings
• Los Angeles Kings
• Seattle Kraken
• Tampa Bay Lightning
• Utah Mammoth

That makes 16/26 games against teams currently in, or within one point of, a playoff spot. It isn't a brutal schedule because even some current playoff teams like Montreal and Boston have given up their fair share of goals this season. Additionally, it means Columbus is done with the elite Western Conference teams like Colorado, Minnesota, Dallas, and Vegas, and that's a positive.

Beggars can't be choosers and despite Columbus having a much harder schedule down the stretch than a team like Anaheim, they do have what we're looking for in terms of power-play improvement, and some of their top PP options are available on the waiver wire in a lot of formats.