Fantasy Pool Look: Power shortage?

As anyone worth his or her salt in the fantasy hockey world knows, a player’s value leans heavily on his power play ice time and subsequent PP performance. Rarely will you find a high-scoring player who doesn’t see at least second-unit ice time with the man advantage.

There are, however, a handful of players who do see very little PP time, but are consistently average producers when it comes to 5-on-5 play. Here are the top 15 players in even-strength (ES) points, who do not have a single point on the power play (PP):

PLAYER	TEAM	POS	GP	ESG	ESA	ESP	PPG	PPA	PPP
Viktor Stalberg	CHI	L	43	14	14	28	0	0	0
Jannik Hansen	VAN	R	46	12	9	21	0	0	0
Jason Chimera	WSH	L	43	13	8	21	0	0	0
Lauri Korpikoski	PHX	L	45	8	11	19	0	0	0
Maxime Talbot	PHI	C	43	9	9	18	0	0	0
Radek Dvorak	DAL	R	43	2	16	18	0	0	0
Jiri Tlusty	CAR	C	47	9	7	16	0	0	0
Eric Nystrom	DAL	L	38	13	3	16	0	0	0
Jamie Langenbrunner	STL	R	42	3	13	16	0	0	0
Sean Couturier	PHI	C	39	8	7	15	0	0	0
Erik Condra	OTT	R	45	6	9	15	0	0	0
Vernon Fiddler	DAL	C	43	6	9	15	0	0	0
Lars Eller	MTL	C	42	6	8	14	0	0	0
Nick Spaling	NSH	L	39	7	7	14	0	0	0

Looking at this group, you can safely assume some of the older veterans are not going to suddenly find themselves on the top PP unit. For those players, such as Jamie Langenbrunner, Jason Chimera, Max Talbot and Radek Dvorak it will be status quo. No sudden bump because of better PP time. Same goes for the role players, i.e. the ones who are established checkers who bring some nice “pop” to the third line – Lauri Korpikoski, Eric Nystrom and Nick Spaling.

This means that the ones who have not yet carved out a niche as a checker or a scorer are making a great case for themselves. These include youngsters who are destined to be top-sixers, such as Sean Couturier and Lars Eller. This list also includes tweeners,’ players that either have a future on the third line (in which case their production will be status quo) or could be top-sixers (where their production will increase when they start to see PP time). This list includes the likes of Viktor Stalberg, Jannik Hansen, Erik Condra and Jiri Tlusty.

In doing this same analysis, but allowing for as many as four power play points, we get another nice crop of potentials. These are players who are either not seeing much time with the man advantage, or they are just snakebitten when they’re out there. In either case, you could see a boost in the second half if the coach leans on them a little more and/or they shake off the slump:

PLAYER	TEAM	POS	GP	ESG	ESA	ESP	PPG	PPA	PPP
Brad Marchand	BOS	L	37	13	15	28	2	1	3
Nick Foligno	OTT	L	46	11	16	27	1	0	1
Alexandre Burrows	VAN	L	44	14	12	26	3	0	3
Pascal Dupuis	PIT	R	44	10	14	24	0	1	1
Bobby Ryan	ANA	R	44	16	8	24	0	3	3
Tuomo Ruutu	CAR	C	47	13	9	22	2	2	4
Saku Koivu	ANA	C	36	9	13	22	0	3	3
Matt Cullen	MIN	C	44	9	12	21	2	2	4
Chris Kelly	BOS	C	41	10	10	20	1	0	1
Petr Sykora	NJD	R	44	9	11	20	1	2	3
Alexander Steen	STL	C	36	11	9	20	2	2	4
Artem Anisimov	NYR	C	42	4	15	19	2	0	2
Jordin Tootoo	NAS	R	42	5	14	19	1	1	2
Zack Smith	OTT	C	46	10	8	18	1	0	1
Brandon Dubinsky	NYR	C	40	4	14	18	0	1	1
Todd Bertuzzi	DET	R	37	8	10	18	0	2	2
Teddy Purcell	TBL	R	43	6	13	19	3	2	5
Troy Brouwer	WSH	R	43	11	7	18	3	1	4
Tim Connolly	TOR	C	32	5	13	18	2	2	4
Sergei Kostitsyn	NAS	L	38	9	9	18	1	3	4

Names jump out at you here. Marchand and Burrows, for example, are consistent producers yet rarely see ice time on the power play. That will probably not change. Other players are clearly checkers, but may occasionally see PP ice time if the top units are tired. Dupuis, Foligno, Kelly, Tootoo and Smith jump out.

Still other names, such as Bobby Ryan and Sergei Kostitsyn, are scorers who just haven’t put it together on the power play yet. Their even strength numbers are decent, but the PP numbers are so far off that their entire season is looking weak as a result. Think about it. If Ryan had another 15 points on the power play, would he be considered a fantasy bust? And if Kostitsyn had 10 more PP points, would he?

If you’re looking for more help in your fantasy hockey league, pick up my Mid-season Fantasy Guide – second-half projections, prospects to watch down the stretch and more! To see everything that’s in it, I’ve released last year’s edition for you to check out for free.

Darryl Dobbs’ Fantasy Pool Look is an in-depth presentation of player trends, injuries and much more as it pertains to rotisserie pool leagues. Also, get the top 300 roto-player rankings on the first of every month in THN’s Fantasy section. Do you have a question about fantasy hockey? Send it to the Fantasy Mailbag.

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