First Unit Power Plays

Any early value to be found?

Power plays always matter when it comes to fantasy hockey. The opportunity to play in those situations can make or break a player’s value.

I thought I would take a look at first-unit power play usage (per Natural Stat Trick and Daily Faceoff) in the early going and see if there are any surprises that might matter to the fantasy hockey manager.

Anaheim

Kevin Shattenkirk, Rickard Rakell, Adam Henrique, Jakob Silfverberg, Derek Grant

Grant is a little surprising, given that he’s more of a fourth-line checker but he is a big body who has scored some goals.

Arizona

Jakob Chychrun, Phil Kessel, Christian Dvorak, Clayton Keller, Tyler Pitlick

Conor Garland had been in that mix, too. Not sure Pitlick is a PP1 kind of player.

Boston

David Krejci, Matt Grzelcyk, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Nick Ritchie

Still waiting for David Pastrnak to return.

Buffalo

Rasmus Dahlin, Victor Olofsson, Taylor Hall, Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart

Calgary

Rasmus Andersson, Elias Lindholm, Matthew Tkachuk, Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau

Andersson ahead of Mark Giordano is an interesting play by the Flames.

Carolina

Dougie Hamilton, Andrei Svechnikov, Vincent Trocheck, Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen

Chicago

Adam Boqvist, Alex DeBrincat, Andrew Shaw, Dylan Strome, Patrick Kane

Maybe some upside with Boqvist long-term but current Chicago power play is not great.

Colorado

Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Mikko Rantanen

Columbus

Seth Jones, Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Pierre-Luc Dubois(?)

If not Dubois, Mikhail Grigorenko and Zach Werenski have also been options.

Dallas

John Klingberg, Denis Gurianov, Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, Alexander Radulov

Stars haven’t played yet and Klingberg may not be healthy but it will be interesting to see whether, after last season’s playoff performance, Miro Heiskanen gets a look on PP1.

Detroit

Filip Hronek, Anthony Mantha, Bobby Ryan, Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi

Edmonton

Tyson Barrie, Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Alex Chiasson

James Neal could take Chiasson’s spot.

Florida

Aaron Ekblad, Keith Yandle, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Patric Hornqvist

Keith Yandle, apparently barely good enough to play in the league and also on PP1.

Los Angeles

Drew Doughty, Alex Iafallo, Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe

Kempe getting a chance, though the Kings power play isn’t exactly conjuring images of the 1950s Montreal Canadiens.

Minnesota

Jared Spurgeon, Kevin Fiala, Zach Parise, Nick Bonino, Kirill Kaprizov

Sometimes Matt Dumba is in for Bonino.

Montreal

Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Tyler Toffoli, Nick Suzuki, Jonathan Drouin

Nashville

Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Johansen, Matt Duchene

New Jersey

Kyle Palmieri, P.K. Subban, Jack Hughes, Pavel Zacha, Nikita Gusev

Miles Wood and Yegor Sharangovich have been in that mix, too.

N.Y. Islanders

Ryan Pulock, Noah Dobson, Anders Lee, Mathew Barzal, Jordan Eberle

The Isles are very balanced in how they allocate power play time between their top two units.

N.Y. Rangers

Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Ryan Strome

Fox getting a shot at the point with Tony DeAngelo getting scratched.

Ottawa

Thomas Chabot, Josh Norris, Brady Tkachuk, Evgenii Dadonov, Drake Batherson

Philadelphia

Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov, James van Riemsdyk, Nolan Patrick, Oskar Lindblom

Kevin Hayes, Jakub Voracek, Joel Farabee, Erik Gustafsson, Travis Konecny a capable unit for a balanced approach.

Pittsburgh

Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel

San Jose

Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, Evander Kane, Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture

This unit is fine. Still tough on Timo Meier who can’t find his way into a PP1 role.

St. Louis

David Perron, Torey Krug, Brayden Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly, Jaden Schwartz

Tampa Bay

Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Alex Killorn, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat

Toronto

Rielly, Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Marner

With Matthews and Thornton out, someone will have to move into that spot. Wayne Simmonds in a net-front role, probably.

Vancouver

Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller

Vegas

Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, Alex Tuch, William Karlsson, Max Pacioretty

Good opportunity for Tuch. Not so good for someone like Jonathan Marchessault.

Washington

Jakub Vrana, John Carlson, Tom Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie

Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov are being replaced by Vrana and Wilson for the next four games.

Winnipeg

Josh Morrissey, Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler, Paul Stastny, Mark Scheifele

Missing triggerman Patrik Laine for the time being.

THURSDAY STARS

NYI C Mathew Barzal 1 G, 2 A in a 4-1 win vs. New Jersey

MTL RW Joel Armia 2 G, 2 A in a 7-3 win at Vancouver

MTL LW Tyler Toffoli 2 G, 1 A

WPG G Connor Hellebuyck 27 SV in a 4-1 win at Ottawa

Philadelphia 4 Boston 5 (SO)

BOS LW Nick Ritchie 1 G, 1 A

BOS C David Krejci 0 G, 2 A

PHI LW James van Riemsdyk 2 G

PHI RW Jakub Voracek 3 A

PHI C Kevin Hayes 2 A

New Jersey 1 N.Y. Islanders 4

NYI C Mathew Barzal 1 G, 2 A

NYI RW Jordan Eberle 2 G

NYI D Noah Dobson 2 A

NJ D Ty Smith 1 A and has a four-game point streak to start his NHL career.

Tampa Bay 3 Columbus 2 (OT)

CBJ RW Oliver Bjorkstrand 1 G, 1 A

TB D Ryan McDonagh 2 A

Winnipeg 4 Ottawa 1

WPG C Mark Scheifele and LW Nik Ehlers 1 G, 1 A

WPG LW Kyle Connor 2 A

Montreal 7 Vancouver 3

VAN C Bo Horvat 2 G

VAN D Tyler Myers 2 A

MTL RW Joel Armia 2 G, 2 A

MTL LW Tyler Toffoli 2 G, 1 A

Colorado 2 Los Angeles 4

LA C Anze Kopitar 2 A

COL RW Mikko Rantanen and C Nathan MacKinnon 1 G, 1 A

Thursday On-Ice Shots/Expected Goals (via Natural Stat Trick)

Friday’s Game Probabilities

Friday DFS Value Plays:

DAL C Roope Hintz $4200 vs. NSH

MIN C Joel Eriksson Ek $3900 vs. SJ

SJ RW Kevin Labanc $3700 at MIN

VGK RW Alex Tuch $4100 at ARZ

DET D Filip Hronek $4600 at CHI

TOR D Justin Holl $2800 vs. EDM

EDM G Mikko Koskinen $7500 at TOR