Power Players: Powerplay Ice-time Leaders

Knowing which players are consistently seeing time on their teams powerplay units is extremely beneficial to your fantasy hockey team, especially if your league counts powerplay points, a common stat in most league formats. Of course you can always browse through the our team lineups at DailyFaceoff, but we’ve decided to take it one step further and compile the top 50 powerplay ice-time per game leaders in terms of both forwards and defencemen (Full list below).

Evgeni Malkin leads all players in PP ice-time per game, averaging over 6 minutes, or three full powerplays.  It’s no coincidence that teammates Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz are second and fourth respectively on the list of forwards. The Pens powerplay currently ranks  22nd in the league converting at a rate of just 15.2%.  With the talent they can put on the ice with the man advantage one would expect the Pens percentage to improve as the season goes on.  An improved powerplay will see Kunitz’s stock rise because of the time he sees next to Malkin and Crosby with the man advantage.

The biggest surprise in the top 10 amongst forwards would have to be Alex Steen of the Blues.  He ranks 8th among forwards averaging 4:49 of powerplay time per game.  Oddly enough Steen has just 1 powerplay assist to show for his time on the man advantage this season.

The Islanders powerplay was on fire to start the season as was the leader in PP ice-time among d-men, James Wisniewski. Like the rest of their game the Islanders powerplay has struggled and so has Wisniewski’s production. After starting the season on a 7 game PP point streak in which he had 11 points, Wiz has registered just 2 assists (1PP) since Oct. 29.  His -13 rating in that time has made him nothing more than a liability to your fantasy team.  Another Isles falling victim of the plus/minus category is John Tavares who is 15th among forwards in PP time per game. Like Wiz,  Tavares is -15 on the season. Doug Weight, PA Parenteau, Matt Moulson, and Blake Comeau also crack the top 50 forwards, but I wouldn’t be putting my money on any Islanders players this season.

Canes captain Eric Staal is 10th among forwards averaging 4:36 of PP ice-time, but the Carolina player that should catch your eye on this list is, further down the list at #40, Jussi Jokinen. Jokinen is hot, with 8 points in his last 4 games, and he now has 17 points on the season. He isn’t seeing much time this season at full strength with Staal, but they do play together on the Canes top PP unit where Jokinen has 2 goals and 7 assists. On the point for the Canes Joni Pitkanen is the quarterback and Joe Corvo is the big shot from the blueline. Newcomer Ian White was seeing a lot of PP time in Calgary but will likely find himself on the 2nd unit in Carolina and with that you should see his average time decrease from 4:05.

Brad Richards is the quarterback of the Stars powerplay, often staying on the ice for the full two minutes so there is no surprise he ranks third among forwards in PP time per game.  With Richards on the point it makes room for 2nd line center Mike Ribeiro to play center on the top unit.  The other 2 forwards on the Stars top unit Brendan Morrow and Loui Eriksson. Morrow can often be found doing his best Tomas Holmstrom impression in front of the opposition net on the powerplay. Holmstrom also cracks the top 50 forwards and could be a valuable pickup in deeper leagues because of the time he spends standing in front of the net while Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom and Rafalski fire the puck towards it. All five of these Red Wings are in the top 50 at their position.

The Vancouver Canucks have the best powerplay in the NHL, its converting at 27 percent. Oddly enough there are no Canucks forwards in the top 50. Maybe thats because when the do get a man advantage they waste little time putting the puck in the net. There are however two Vancouver defencemen in the top 50 in Alex Edler and Christian Ehrhoff, who have nine and eight powerplay points respectively; you may be able to get them in a trade a good price since they arent big names but they are very productive defencemen on a good team with a great powerplay.

The second best powerplay in the league belongs to the Minnesota Wild and its quarterback from the point is center Matt Cullen. Cullen ranks 19th amongst forwards in powerplay time per game. 12 of Cullen’s 15 points have come on the powerplay. He is owned in only 38 percent of Yahoo! leagues. If you need a depth center take a good hard look at Cullen.