The Man Advantage: Ranking the Power Play Units

Written by

Updated on January 18, 2013 12:44PM EST

Hello fantasy hockey fanatics, and welcome back to what promises to be a lockout-shortened, 48-game sprint to the playoffs. As regular readers know, this column takes a look at the ever-changing NHL power play landscape. As in past years, I like to kick off each season with a quick look at each team's top line, how they ranked overall last season and how they stack up this year. Feel free to agree or disagree as you like, however these projected rankings are really just a gut feel, based on a number of factors, including each team's ranking from last year, and whether they made any significant roster moves over the offseason. Beginning next article, we will start to look at individual players a little more closely - i.e., who's getting PP time, who isn't, and which guys make for good fantasy selections based on their PP prospects.

For now, check out my projected rankings below. At a minimum, this should give you a feel for how each team's first PP unit is shaping up to start the season. Accurate forecasts are always tough to come up with, but this year I'm calling for Dallas and Minnesota to have the most-improved PP attacks this year, while the sharpest dropoffs should be seen by Nashville, Calgary and New Jersey.

Now, discuss amongst yourselves and enjoy the season.

Last Year		This
PP%	Rank	Year	Team	Projected 1st PP Unit (new faces in bold)	Comment
21.6	3	1	EDM	Nugent-Hopkins, Hall, Eberle, Horcoff,

Now, discuss amongst yourselves and enjoy the season.

Last Year		This
PP%	Rank	Year	Team	Projected 1st PP Unit (new faces in bold)	Comment
21.6	3	1	EDM	Nugent-Hopkins, Hall, Eberle, Horcoff, Schultz	Already loaded, 2nd line now becomes Yakupov-Hemsky-Gagner-Smyth-Whitney.
19.9	5	2	PIT	Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Kunitz, Letang	A full season with Crosby (fingers crossed) makes this an elite, dangerous squad.
19.4	4	3	VAN	D Sedin, H Sedin, Burrows, Edler, Garrison	Put whoever you want with the Sedin twins. They will still rack up the points.
20.9	2	4	SJS	Thornton, Marleau, Couture, Pavelski, Boyle	A great example of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
19.7	6	5	PHI	Briere, Giroux, Voracek, Hartnell, Timonen	Proved last year they could survive the departures of Richards & Carter....in fact, were better for it.
17.5	17	6	LAK	Kopitar, Brown, Richards, Carter, Doughty	Cup champs were slow out of the gate last year. Not this time.
13.7	30	7	DAL	Whitney, Morrow, Roy, Jagr, Robidas	Should see a huge improvement with addition of proven PP contributors Whitney, Roy and Jagr.
20.1	7	8	FLA	Versteeg, Weiss, Fleischmann, Mueller, Campbell	Rag-tag bunch surprised a lot of people last year. Huberdeau could graduate to top line very quickly.
22.0	12	9	WPG	Wheeler, Jokinen, Little, Byfuglien, Enstrom	Jokinen a big upgrade down the middle, but Toby and Big Buff still key to the Jets attack.
14.4	9	10	COL	Duchene, Landeskog, Parenteau, Jones, Johnson	If Duchene returns to form and Parenteau fits in, look out. Solid 2nd line with Stastny & Hejduk.
15.3	8	11	NYI	Moulson, Tavares, Neilsen, Streit, Visnovsky	Loss of Parenteau only slightly offset by addition of Visnovsky.
18.0	27	12	MIN	Parise, Heatley, Koivu, Suter, Spurgeon	Expect a big jump with their new big guns, but Suter not riding shotgun with Weber anymore - much to prove.
15.2	15	13	BOS	Bergeron, Seguin, Krejci, Lucic, Chara	The return of Nate Horton should make the B's better....and watch Dougie Hamilton.
19.7	16	14	BUF	Vanek, Stafford, Pominville, Myers, Ehrhoff	Stafford, Pominville came into their own last year. But Roy will be missed.
18.6	22	15	DET	Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Brunner, Franzen, Kronwall	Wll be better than last year, even with loss of Lidstrom.
16.0	20	16	CAR	E. Staal, J. Staal, Skinner, Pitkanen, Faulk	Brotherly unit of Eric and Jordan should click well. Even more depth with Semin on 2nd line.
22.9	1	17	NSH	Hornqvist, Fisher, Erat, Weber, Ellis	Were a surprise #1 squad last year but a fall-back is to be expected. Lots of depth to replace Suter.
17.2	10	18	TOR	Kessel, Lupul, Bozak, Phaneuf, Liles	Van Riemsdyk, Kadri, Gardiner ready to step in if anyone falters.
15.8	23	19	NYR	Nash, Callahan, Gaborik, Richards, Del Zotto	Very inconsistent last season due to chemistry issues. Nash will make them better, but he can't do it by himself.
18.9	19	20	STL	Oshie, Backes, Berglund, Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk	Could have best blueline tandem in NHL now that Weber and Suter no longer together.
14.0	26	21	CHI	Kane, Toews, Hossa, Sharp, Keith	Can't possibly be as bad as they were last season. Too much talent.
18.7	18	22	WSH	Ribeiro, Backstrom, Ovechkin, Green, Carlson	Plenty of talent, but also plenty of question marks (Green's knees, Backstrom's head, Ovie's heart).
17.4	11	23	OTT	Alfredsson, Spezza, Michalek, Gonchar, Karlsson	Karlsson's great, but unit probalby overachieved last year. Too many aging bodies.
16.7	25	24	TBL	Stamkos, Lecavalier, St. Louis, Bergeron, Carle	Maddeningly inconsistent. Should be one of the league's best squads.
16.4	21	25	ANA	Perry, Selanne, Getzlaf, Ryan, Fowler	Still looking for a proven QB on the blueline. Fowler proving he is not the answer....yet, anyway.
14.3	29	26	PHX	Vrbata, Doan, Hanzal, Yandle, Ekman-Larsson	Losing Whitney (20 PP points last year) is gonna hurt.
15.5	28	27	MTL	Pacioretty, Desharnais, Plekanec, Cole, Markov	A healthy Markov alone could make this squad very dangerous. Lots of upside here.
14.7	13	28	CGY	Cammalleri, Iginla, Tanguay, Giordano, Wideman	Leading PP goal-scorer from last year (Jokinen) gone; Iginla only sniper left.
16.0	14	29	NJD	Kovalchuk, Elias, Clarkson, Zajac, Zidlicky	Kovalchuk #8 in PP points last season but doesn't have Parise to pass him the puck anymore.
17.2	24	30	CBJ	Umberger, Brassard, Prospal, Wisniewski, Johnson	Loss of Nash & Carter means an already dreadful PP will only get worse.