This article is part of our The Man Advantage series.
With roughly 10-12 games left on the NHL regular season calendar, we look at six players who are filling in for an injured teammate on the power play -- and producing. These guys are probably widely available in your fantasy pools, and could provide a boost to your lineup if you're in a tight race for the money.
Alex Tanguay, LW, ARI: Before he was traded to the Coyotes at the trade deadline Feb. 29, Tanguay was frequently a healthy scratch for the Avalanche, and had a mere 11 points in 25 games. This included just five assists on the power play. Since his debut with the Yotes, Tanguay has really made his presence felt, with seven points in six games, including a PP goal and an assist. What's more, he's been added to the top line to help out in the absence of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who went down with an upper-body injury March 7.
Mark Scheifele, C, WPG: Prior to No. 1 center Bryan Little's season-ending back injury (T6 vertebrae fracture) Feb. 18, Scheifele was having a pretty decent season, with 29 points in 46 games. That included just six points on the power play (2G, 4A) in just 2:20 of average PP ice time per game. Since taking over from Little as the Jets' top pivot, Scheifele has been like a runaway train, with 19 points in 15 games, including five multi-point contests. He's also scored three more PP goals in that span, and
With roughly 10-12 games left on the NHL regular season calendar, we look at six players who are filling in for an injured teammate on the power play -- and producing. These guys are probably widely available in your fantasy pools, and could provide a boost to your lineup if you're in a tight race for the money.
Alex Tanguay, LW, ARI: Before he was traded to the Coyotes at the trade deadline Feb. 29, Tanguay was frequently a healthy scratch for the Avalanche, and had a mere 11 points in 25 games. This included just five assists on the power play. Since his debut with the Yotes, Tanguay has really made his presence felt, with seven points in six games, including a PP goal and an assist. What's more, he's been added to the top line to help out in the absence of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who went down with an upper-body injury March 7.
Mark Scheifele, C, WPG: Prior to No. 1 center Bryan Little's season-ending back injury (T6 vertebrae fracture) Feb. 18, Scheifele was having a pretty decent season, with 29 points in 46 games. That included just six points on the power play (2G, 4A) in just 2:20 of average PP ice time per game. Since taking over from Little as the Jets' top pivot, Scheifele has been like a runaway train, with 19 points in 15 games, including five multi-point contests. He's also scored three more PP goals in that span, and his average PP minutes have risen by a full minute to 3:20 per game.
Matt Niskanen, D, WAS: Niskanen has really stepped up ever since John Carlson, the Capitals' top defenseman and PP quarterback, went down with a lower-body injury Feb. 26. Niskanen was seeing a decent amount of PP time prior to that -- about 2:13 per game -- but he's been seeing over three minutes (3:05) in the 11 games since. Yeah sure, he's playing for the league's top-ranked power-play, alongside the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but he's been more than just a fly on the wall, chipping in for four PP points (1G, 3A) over that 11-game stretch. Prior to that, Niskanen had gone about a month since his last PP point -- a two-assist effort Jan. 19 against the Blue Jackets.
Ryan White, RW, PHI: OK, so this may not be an injury-replacement scenario, but it's still worth mentioning. White has been seeing regular PP minutes since the middle of February, when coach Dave Hakstol switched up his second unit by removing the struggling Michael Raffl -- who had just one PP goal all season up to that point -- and inserting White. The move has worked well for both players. White, who still skates on the Flyers' fourth line at even strength, has been averaging almost two minutes of PP time in 14 games since Feb. 16, and has two PP goals in his past three games. Raffl, meanwhile, has gone on a tear, with 12 even-strength points (5G, 7A) over the same stretch. Both players would make for good waiver-wire acquisitions.
Riley Nash, C, CAR: When the Canes' PP quarterback Justin Faulk went down with a leg injury Feb. 12, coach Bill Peters called on Nash to step in and help fill the void. At the time, Nash had not seen any meaningful PP minutes all season, save for a brief stint in November when he averaged almost two minutes per game in 12 contests, but put up no points. This time, however, Nash has been delivering the goods, averaging 2:11 in his last 16 games, with six PP points during that stretch (2G, 4A). With his improved play, Nash has been bumped up from the fourth to the third line, and has seen his overall ice time rise as a result, from the single-digit, 6-9 minute range in early February, to the 14-16 minute range currently.
Ben Hutton, D, VAN: Hutton has been filling in for Alexander Edler on the Canucks' top PP line since Feb. 9 when Edler suffered a foot injury during a game against the Avalanche, and was later diagnosed with a fractured fibula, thus ending his season. Prior to Feb. 9, Hutton was averaging roughly 1:44 of PP time and had just two PP assists in 46 games. In the last 17 games, he's been seeing 3:34 on the man advantage and has five helpers. On the season, he now has 23 total points in 63 games -- not bad for a guy who wasn't on anyone's radar screens back in October, as he had spent just four games with AHL Utica last season after finishing up a three-year stint with U. of Maine (65 points in 108 games combined).
