The Man Advantage: Ranking the Power Play Units

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Updated on October 5, 2011 6:52PM EST

Hello pool junkies, and welcome back to another fantasy season. As usual, in this column we take a look at the ever-changing world of NHL power play units. 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. Agree or disagree as you will - these projected rankings are really just a gut feel, based on two things: one, each team's ranking from last year, and two, 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 Colorado and Winnipeg to see the sharpest dropoffs in PP efficiency, while the two most improved PP squads will be Washington and Los Angeles.

Now, discuss amongst yourselves and enjoy the season.

Last Year		This
PP%	Rank	Year	Team	Projected 1st PP Unit (new faces in bold)	Comment
24.3	1	1	VAN	D Sedin, H Sedin, Burrows, Samuelsson, Edler	Still loaded, still deadly. All that depth makes loss of Ehrhoff no big

Now, discuss amongst yourselves and enjoy the season.

Last Year		This
PP%	Rank	Year	Team	Projected 1st PP Unit (new faces in bold)	Comment
24.3	1	1	VAN	D Sedin, H Sedin, Burrows, Samuelsson, Edler	Still loaded, still deadly. All that depth makes loss of Ehrhoff no big deal.
17.5	16	2	WSH	Semin, Backstrom, Ovechkin, Green, Wideman	Throw last year out the window. Too much talent not to have a huge rebound.
23.1	4	3	CHI	Kane, Toews, Hossa, Sharp, Keith	Look for a big rebound year from Kane - just five PPG's last season, down from 13 two years before.
23.5	3	4	ANA	Perry, Selanne, Getzlaf, Visnovsky, Fowler	Fowler fitting in well - more than half of his 40 points (23) came on the PP last year.
20.5	6	5	TBL	Stamkos, Lecavalier, St. Louis, Bergeron, Brewer	Scary dangerous, even without a bona fide PP d-man to man the point.
23.5	2	6	SJS	Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski, Boyle, Burns	Last year's 40 PPP's from Heater & Seto will be tough to replace. Watch Couture this year, though.
16.1	21	7	LAK	Penner, Kopitar, Richards, Doughty, Johnson	Expect a big bounce back this year with Richards, Gagne in the fold. And Doughty will be better.
19.4	9	8	BUF	Vanek, Roy, Pominville, Myers, Ehrhoff	A healthy Roy (touch wood) and the addition of Ehrhoff means added depth.
22.3	5	9	DET	Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, White	Will be slightly weaker with the loss of Rafalski. Plus, Lidstrom can't possibly repeat last season…can he?
18.6	10	10	STL	Steen, Berglund, McDonald, Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk	Crazy good depth with Backes, Stewart, Oshie, Arnott, Langenbrunner, etc.
19.7	7	11	MTL	Gionta, Plekanec, Cammalleri, Cole, Subban	In Cole, finally get a big body to stand in front and tip in rebounds. Huge upside if Markov ever gets healthy.
18.2	13	12	MIN	Heatley, Koivu, Setoguchi, Cullen, Zidlicky	Watch Koivu's assist totals this year, dishing off to Heater and Seto.
16.6	19	13	PHI	Briere, Giroux, Jagr, Timonen, Pronger	Jagr may be a step or two slower, but he can still dish the puck to finishers like Giroux, Briere and JVR.
16.9	18	14	NYR	Callahan, Dubinsky, Gaborik, Richards, Staal	Finally getting a true PP quarterback in Richards, who had 22 PPA's last year.
17.2	17	15	NYI	Moulson, Tavares, Parenteau, Okposo, Streit	Return of Streit will be a big boost to an already-promising young squad.
19.5	8	16	CGY	Bourque, Jokinen, Iginla, Tanguay, Giordano	Deadly at home last year (25.6%) but feeble on the road (13.3%). Sadly, no new bodies coming in to change that.
15.8	25	17	PIT	Kunitz, Malkin, Neal, Sullivan, Letang	Always seem to struggle on the PP, even when Sid's healthy. This year he's not. Do the math.
16.2	20	18	BOS	Bergeron, Krejci, Lucic, Chara, Seidenberg	Power play? We don't need no stinking power play!We're the Cup Champs!
14.5	27	19	EDM	Hall, Horcoff, Paajarvi, Smyth, Gilbert	It's not the kids' time yet, but they're getting there. Smyth a fine addition to help them along.
14.0	29	20	CBJ	Umberger, Carter, Nash, Wisniewski, Tyutin	It all centers around Nash & Carter and how well they mesh. Wisniewski will provide more pop from back end.
18.0	14	21	DAL	Morrow, Ribeiro, Eriksson, Benn, Goligoski	Not having Richards on the point will expose the Stars' lack of blue line depth. Desperately need a new QB.
16.0	22	22	TOR	Grabovski, Connolly, Kessel, Phaneuf, Liles	Team needs someone to light a fire under Phil. Connolly is not the guy to do it.
15.2	26	23	NSH	Hornqvist, Fisher, Erat, Weber, Suter	Preds win games with goaltending and D, not special teams. That said, watch for a small improvement this year.
15.9	24	24	CAR	Ruutu, Staal, Skinner, Kaberle, Pitkanen	Kaberle may just shine this year, now that he's not competing with Chara for top d-man honours anymore.
18.3	12	25	WPG	Ladd, Antropov, Little, Byfuglien, Enstrom	Buff was the key to the Thrashers' second-half slide last year. Expect more of the same.
14.4	28	26	NJD	Elias, Zajac, Parise, Kovalchuk, Rolston	First key to PP success is drawing penalties. Devils were worst in that category last year with just 237 PP Opps.
17.5	15	27	OTT	Alfredsson, Spezza, Michalek, Gonchar, Karlsson	Just not a whole lot to get excited about.
18.5	11	28	COL	Mueller, Stastny, Hejduk, Duchene, Johnson	Avs needs Stastny and Johnson to step up big time. Duchene can't do it all by himself.
13.1	30	29	FLA	Booth, Weiss, Fleischmann, Versteeg, Campbell	Looking stronger on paper but ... meh. We're not convinced.
15.9	23	30	PHX	Whitney, Langkow, Vrbata, Doan, Yandle	Yandle had 23 PPA's last year - imagine how many more he could have with a better supporting cast.