This article is part of our The Man Advantage series.
It's a new year, but the same old NHL season. As the calendar turned from 2016 to 2017, some NHL players kept up their strong play with the extra man. If your New Year's resolution was to improve the power-play performance of your fantasy hockey team, perhaps this list will help...
Jonathan Drouin, LW, TAM – You would be hard-pressed to find a hotter player on the power play than Drouin at the moment. In his last nine games, he has six power-play points, and overall he has 11. Last season, Drouin averaged a whopping 4:28 of ice time with the extra man, but only managed two power-play points. This year, his minutes are down to (a still robust) 2:51, but clearly the results are there.
William Nylander, RW, TOR – There's Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, but there's also Nylander. The 20-year-old was impressive in limited action last year but has taken his game has gone to another level. Nylander has six power-play points in his last 10 games, and a whopping 15 points with the extra man in total.
Patrick Marleau, LW, SAN – Marleau has lost a step, which is fair considering he's 37 years old. However, Marleau has been a potent power-play performer well into his advanced hockey age. While his overall minutes are down, Marleau still averages 3:24 a night with the extra man, where he has tallied seven power-play points. Four of those have come in his last 10 games,
It's a new year, but the same old NHL season. As the calendar turned from 2016 to 2017, some NHL players kept up their strong play with the extra man. If your New Year's resolution was to improve the power-play performance of your fantasy hockey team, perhaps this list will help...
Jonathan Drouin, LW, TAM – You would be hard-pressed to find a hotter player on the power play than Drouin at the moment. In his last nine games, he has six power-play points, and overall he has 11. Last season, Drouin averaged a whopping 4:28 of ice time with the extra man, but only managed two power-play points. This year, his minutes are down to (a still robust) 2:51, but clearly the results are there.
William Nylander, RW, TOR – There's Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, but there's also Nylander. The 20-year-old was impressive in limited action last year but has taken his game has gone to another level. Nylander has six power-play points in his last 10 games, and a whopping 15 points with the extra man in total.
Patrick Marleau, LW, SAN – Marleau has lost a step, which is fair considering he's 37 years old. However, Marleau has been a potent power-play performer well into his advanced hockey age. While his overall minutes are down, Marleau still averages 3:24 a night with the extra man, where he has tallied seven power-play points. Four of those have come in his last 10 games, though, which is perhaps an encouraging sign.
Justin Williams, RW, WAS – Speaking of veteran wingers with a little life left in their legs, Williams has three power-play points in his last 10 games. Granted, he only has five total, and he only had nine last season. However, right now Williams is just generally hot. He has 12 points in his last 11 games, and eight in his last five, so he's useful at even strength, too.
Jake Gardiner, D, TOR – Gardiner's stock has been on the rise, but he's still readily available in many leagues. That might not be the case much longer, given that Gardiner has five power-play points in his last 10 games. Admittedly, he only has eight power-play points overall, but for a defenseman who has only played in 37 games, that's a perfectly fine total.
Nick Leddy, D, NYI – Over his last 12 games, Leddy has notched four power-play points, giving him seven on the year. He's also averaging 3:10 per game with the extra man, and in his two previous seasons with the Islanders, has never had fewer than 12 power-play points. He's trending up at the moment and could be useful in deep enough leagues.
