I was a bit bored this morning and decided to mosey on over to NHL.com to do some video scouting of the Oilers’ new signing, Jakub Jerabek, because I feel like I really haven’t given him a proper chance before judging the signing. Anyways, I got sidetracked when I saw NHL.com’s fantasy power play rankings. I was curious where they’d have the Oilers this year after such a disgusting year they had on the PP last year.
How far would they send Edmonton up the rankings for the 2018/19 season?
Before we get into my reaction, here’s how NHL.com writer Pete Jensen prefaced the article:
NHL.com projects the first power-play unit for each of the 31 teams in 2018-19 and ranks team power plays for fantasy purposes. Fantasy owners should use these rankings as a basis for team evaluation and offseason draft research.
Right… Boy if anybody goes on Jensen’s recommendations, they’re going to get facked in fantasy hockey this year. Check out the rankings.
- Toronto (2nd)
- Pittsburgh (1st)
- Washington (7th)
- Tampa (3rd)
- Winnipeg (5th)
- Boston (4th)
- Philly (15th)
- Nashville (T-12th)
- LA (T-17th)
- Florida (21st)
- SJ (16th)
- Dallas (19th)
- Colorado (8th)
- Minnesota (T-17th)
- Buffalo (20th)
- Vegas (T-9th)
- St.Louis (30th)
- Carolina (27th)
- New York Islanders (6th)
- Calgary (T-28th)
- NJ (T-9th)
- New York Rangers (T-12th)
- Anaheim (23rd)
- Arizona (26th)
- Edmonton (31st)
- Columbus (25th)
- Chicago (T-28th)
- Vancouver (T-9th)
- Montreal (12th)
- Ottawa (27th)
- Detroit (24th)
There’s lots to get to here before I touch on Edmonton. So you should crack a beer and get comfy.
I don’t think Tampa is a top-5 PP with Killorn and Miller on their top unit. In my opinion, they would be if they went with Sergachev and Johnson instead of those two.
Boston has a helluva team with Marchand, Bergeron, Pastrnak, and Krug running the show, no doubt. But when you toss Danton Heinen as the final piece of the puzzle there, tell me how that makes the PP a top-10 finalist. Is it simply the sum of the parts because one of these pieces looks off to me. Plus their 2nd unit has Bjork and Donato on it? Give me a break!
I like Philly and Nashville where they are. Their top units are tight but I do wonder about LA at #9. They were 17th last season. Does adding Kovalchuk really shoot them into the top-10? That said, I do like their first PP a bit better than Boston’s.
Florida goes from finishing 21st in the NHL on the PP last year to a having one of the ten best power plays in the NHL? Seriously? Don’t get me wrong, I love who Jensen is projecting the Panthers to play on their first unit (Barkov, Huberdeau, Trocheck, Yandle, Dadonov) but that’s a helluva jump. What has changed since last year?
San Jose at 11 is meh, Dallas at 12 is a bit of a jump to me because they’ve got Nichushkin as the 5th part of that no.1 unit… I’m not sure how he’s going to be after those few years in Russia. I mean he should be better now that Hitchcock is gone but I’ll have to wait and see there.
Jensen has Colorado dropping to 13th and I agree that they’ve basically got no 2nd unit or secondary scoring. Not sure how they’re going to follow up last year’s performance if that secondary scoring doesn’t come from somewhere.
Minnesota I can’t see having the 14th best PP in the league. I think they’ll be shite with the man advantage unless you’re expecting Eric Staal to reproduce last season’s totals or Zach Parise to finally play a full season. Maybe Jordna Greenway comes in like a bull in a China shop and disrupts everything for the opposition or perhaps they find a way to keep players off of the IR but nah, they’re bottom 10 for me.
Buffalo at 15 is VERY interesting to me. They’ve got some masterful skillers on their club. Eichel, Skinner, Dahlin, and Middlestadt on the ice at the same time could be very intriguing but it’s not enough past that. Is Sam Reinhart and Kyle Okposo supposed to carry the 2nd unit with Ristolainen?
Now we’re at the point where Jensen is throwing darts.
How in the world is Vegas going to have a better power play than St.Louis? For me, the Blues are a top-10 PP team without question. They’ve got the veteran scorers and they’re going to have the young blue chip ones as well. Seriously, Tarasenko, Perron, O’Reilly, Schwartz, Schenn, Maroon, Steen, Fabri, Robert Thomas, etc… We haven’t even mentioned Parayko and Pietrangelo. It’s a shame they’re being ranked this low.
Carolina could be much higher in the rankings if everything comes together and Dougie Hamilton keeps producing. Will Justin Faulk be there to run the 2nd unit though?
Calgary will have a potent first power play line, no doubt about that but who will be the QB on the back-end? Giordano is good but does he still have what it takes offensively? can Brodie bounce back? Is that Noah Hanifin’s job to lose?
The Islanders, the Devils, and the Rangers will finish in the 25th to 30th range with their PPs. As if the Islanders aren’t going to suffer with the man advantage w/o John Tavares running that show. Is Taylor Hall going to be a one-man show again in 2018 because if the Devils’ PP is going to finish higher than 25th in the NHL, someone else will have to man up in New Jersey. How in Sam’s Hell will the Rangers NOT be a bottom-5 PP team in 2018? Who’s on their team anymore?
Anaheim could be higher than 23rd but screw them. They’re a bunch of cheaters.
Arizona MIGHT be a team who improves on last year’s mark with the addition of Galchenkyuk and a healthy Chychrun. I wonder about Perlini and Strome too. Lots of potential there.
Edmonton comes after Arizona but I want to end the post talking about them.
Columbus at no.26 is a travesty. Artemi Panarin, Zach Werenski, emerging Norris candidate Seth Jones, Josh Anderson, Wennberg and Bjorkstrand too. This is a team who should have a much better PP in 2018. Not one that lingers in the bottom-5 of the league.
Chicago is a weird team to see down this low with Kane, Toews, Debrincat, Saad, and Keith but this isn’t the NHL-dominating powerhouse it once was.
Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal and Detroit round out the 31 teams.
I think that Vancouver will surprise folks this season. Boeser is a superstar in the making and Pettersson may very well win the Calder this year. Bo Horvat is a beast too but yeah… That’s about it eh. Well Quinn Hughes will be there next year and maybe Kaapo Kakko too if they’re lucky.
Montreal and Detroit should be better than Ottawa with the likes of Zadina, Mantha, Larkin, Vanek, and Nyquist for the Red Wings and Pacioretty, Domi, Gallagher, and Drouin for the Habs.
Who’s Ottawa got? Matt Duchene? Erik Karlsson won’t be there. Not sure where Bobby Ryan fits here either…
THE OILERS
25th ranked eh? Well if that isn’t a huge pile of bullsh*t, I don’t know what is.
Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Milan Lucic, Oscar Klefbom… This is their first unit and how it doesn’t vault you into the top-15 at least, I’m not sure. The amount of talent on this line alone should have them ranked over FLA.
The 2nd unit is what lets them down but even then, throw McDavid on it and that line is easily better than 90% of the league’s 2nd PP lines.
Might this be a unit?
McDavid, Puljujarvi, Rieder (Aberg), Strome, Jerabek
I’d mix things up a bit if I were the coach
PP1: McDavid, Puljujarvi, Strome, Draisaitl, Klefbom
PP2: McDavid, Lucic, RNH, Rieder (Aberg), Jerabek
And that could get even better if Yamamoto proves to be an NHL player in 2018.
Look, I get that last season’s NHL-worst PP belonged to the Oilers and that that is being considered in the rankings. PPP (power play points) from last season play a role here too because nobody really shined with the man advantage statistically in 2017/18 for the Oilers but Edmonton demoted the coach responsible for their PP and brought in a coach who destroyed the WHL with his.
When you’re making a list like this, are you only looking at the previous season’s stats or are you looking at the actual players themselves?
There’s no way in hell that the Edmonton Oilers are the owners of the 25th worst PP in the NHL today. To suggest otherwise is being ignorant.
