Daily Faceoff Archetype Rankings: Colorado has market cornered on NHL’s top Power Forwards

Part V in a Series

Think of the NHL’s best power forwards of all-time and your mind is likely to slide back to the mid-’90s when the likes of Mark Messier, Eric Lindros, Brendan Shanahan, Keith Tkachuk and John LeClair ruled the ice. They were big, burly men who dominated play with brute force and brawn and busted through all the clutching and grabbing.

In today’s NHL, moving at 100 miles an hour, there are still giants who roam the land. Big people still beat up little people.

But the game has changed, and along with it, so have the defining characteristics of what makes the Power Forward so powerful. Puck possession and effective puck transportation are now the hallmarks of the position, instead of massive muscle and a Jaromir Jagr-sized behind – though either one of those things would certainly help aid in those directives.

So, what is the 2022 definition of a Power Forward? Using size, leverage or courage – and sometimes all three – the Power Forward can effectively (and sometimes single-handedly) exit one zone, enter another and consistently get to scoring areas in the middle of the ice. They may or may not do all the scoring, but they are the puck mules that make it happen, and they’re usually involved heavily on the scoresheet. In order to score, you have to get the puck there.

Granted, some of the best players in the world – such as Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews – would also be appropriately labeled as Power Forwards. But they’re already in our Franchise player bucket, and each player can only be placed into one classification category as part of this exercise. And frankly, so many of these Power Forwards are borderline Franchise players in their own right.

With that definition serving as our guiding light, and the help of five anonymous NHL front office executives, here are Daily Faceoff’s Top 20 projected Power Forwards for the 2022-23 season, with their league-wide rank from last season in these categories:

Rank	Player	Pos	Age	Team	OZ Puck Carry	Entry Carry	Exit Carry	Inner Slot Shots	Cycle Shots	xG
1	Mikko Rantanen	RW	25	COL	18	87	92	117	8	16
2	Brad Marchand	LW	34	BOS	25	39	76	141	37	45
3	Evgeni Malkin	C	36	PIT	20	138	77	83	9	34
4	Gabriel Landeskog	LW	29	COL	45	117	23	2	46	39
5	William Nylander	LW	26	TOR	26	59	126	26	21	6
6	Nazem Kadri	C	32	CGY	54	50	76	48	29	38
7	Brady Tkachuk	LW	23	OTT	127	235	274	10	35	47
8	Filip Forsberg	LW	28	NSH	34	92	131	72	12	16
9	Evander Kane	LW	31	EDM	152	158	135	7	20	18
10	J.T. Miller	C	29	VAN	23	61	155	125	68	110
11	Jordan Kyrou	RW	24	STL	75	13	43	212	157	88
12	Tomas Hertl	C	28	SJS	134	98	74	24	107	51
13	Valeri Nichushkin	RW	27	COL	101	96	137	30	163	64
14	Troy Terry	RW	25	ANA	39	29	59	79	134	75
15	Tom Wilson	RW	28	WSH	220	178	201	160	126	127
16	Blake Wheeler	RW	36	WPG	43	135	144	40	99	84
17	Josh Anderson	RW	28	MTL	162	133	184	50	115	100
18	Pavel Buchnevich	LW	27	STL	78	84	105	138	109	86
19	David Perron	LW	34	DET	36	173	73	371	53	104
20	Sam Bennett	C	26	FLA	108	25	33	61	62	42

LEGEND
OZ Puck Carry: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in puck carries in the offensive zone, defined as skating with the puck for six or more feet and then attempting an action (shot attempt, pass attempt or advance).
Entry Carry: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in entry carries into the offensive zone, defined as skating in a path six or more feet with the puck that begins in the neutral or defensive zone, into the offensive zone and then attempting an action (shot attempt, pass attempt or advance).
Exit Carry: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in exit carries from the defensive zone, defined as skating in a path of six or more feet with the puck that begins in the defensive zone and attempts an action in the neutral or offensive zone (shot attempt, pass attempt or advance).
Inner Slot Shots: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in shots attempted from the inner slot, defined as the area within the trapezoid markets and below the hashmarks.
Cycle Shots: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in shot attempts produced off the cycle.
xG: NHL rank among forwards in 2021-22 in goals the player was expected to score given the quality and quantity of their opportunities.

Under Consideration (in alphabetical order): Cam Atkinson, Andre Burakovsky, Conor Garland, Mike Hoffman, Phil Kessel, Travis Konecny, Brock Nelson, Ondrej Palat, Brayden Schenn, Reilly Smith, Trevor Zegras.

Some of the players included may surprise. Brad Marchand, William Nylander and Troy Terry probably aren’t the physical prototypes of the Power Forward. But as discussed above, they are reliable puck transporters, they don’t give it up easily, and they get it to the net with regularity and consistency. It’s important to keep in mind that with some players such as Tom Wilson or Josh Anderson, the underlying numbers may not wholly support the thesis, but there is no question those players are true and effective power forwards.

Some players were incredibly difficult to categorize because they were elite in many of the same statistical categories that might have defined a Clutch player or a Net-Front Scorer. Typically, they were elite (close to the Top 50 league-wide) in either carrying marks, in cycle opportunities created, or inner-slot shots. Some like Mikko Rantanen excelled in all three of those areas.

What stands out among this group is that Rantanen is one of three Colorado Avalanche players on the list. When you consider that Nazem Kadri recently departed for Calgary, Burakovsky (now in Seattle) fell just short, and they already have MacKinnon leading the way as one of the game’s true forces of nature, it’s easy to see their recipe for success in the Stanley Cup playoffs. They dominate opponents in these areas, overwhelming in both puck possession and control. And they may still be too much to handle, even after saying goodbye to Kadri and Burakovsky as salary cap casualties.

Daily Faceoff Archetype Rankings Series

Part I: Explainer / Franchise Players
Part II: Clutch
Part III: Distributor
Part IV: Shooter
Part V: Power Forward

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Up Next: Net-Front Scorer

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