Devils
Panthers
Kings

NJ is the top - all well worth their current cap hits, and likely to become even more value deals being so young with their primes ahead.

Carolina
NJ
Panthers

I am Devils fan, so I’d pick them. But other than NJD…

FLA
OTT

BUF
TBL
CAR
LAK
DET

NYI
NYR
STL
VGK
MTL
CGY

(Eastern bias, I guess).

Those three you picked for Buffalo are good offensive players but aren't very good in their own end (Especially Skinner)

Sens
Lightning
Devils

Rangers trio should be moved up a tier. They’ve been better than Carolina’s except for the age difference

NJ then NYR with everyone else below them

could have put newhook for the habs instead of goddam josh anderson

Devils
Sabres
Sens

Carolina and Rangers is a wash... Aho is better than Mika (.087 p/60 at 5v5 better and about the same if not better in his own end), Svech is about the same as Kreider (better p/g than Kreider in 2 of the last four seasons) and Vinny is better than KK but KK and Svech still aren't done developing

Yea sounds about right. I think the rangers core gets slept on a bit because they’re “old” and not that good at 5v5

Being good at 5v5 is a massively important part of player evaluation for a reason. I would much rather have a player that's above average at 5v5 and below average on the pp and pk than a player who's below average at 5v5 and above average at the pk and pp

Yea but above average at 5v5 wouldn’t guarantee you a goal whereas if you’re above average on a powerplay, you’ll probably score

And lately the nhl has been a special teams game with more and more scoring and deadly powerplays

But when you're able to dominate 5v5 play it's much more likely to lead to penalties against your opponents especially if your able to forecheck them to death.

Well the rangers success to win is above average special teams and goaltending with average 5v5. Seems to work somewhat

But it isn't a long term recipe for success... eventually your going to hit a dry spell with your PP or goaltending is going to have a bad few games... like what happened to the Rangers last year

I mean it works well enough over 82 games and to reach the ECF under bad coaching

An insane PDO doesn't exactly scream sustainability

I mean you said a bad spell on the PP or bad goaltending for some games, which can also easily happen at 5v5

Not every team is built and operates the same way. Sometimes you rely on elite goaltending, sometimes you rely on special teams or some times you step up on 5v5

You could say Vegas got lucky that Adin Hill randomly put up .930 save % in the playoffs for them lol

"I mean you said a bad spell on the PP or bad goaltending for some games, which can also easily happen at 5v5"- Yes but it's a lot easier to just grind goals at 5v5 than it is on the PP.

"Not every team is built and operates the same way. Sometimes you rely on elite goaltending, sometimes you rely on special teams or some times you step up on 5v5"- That's completely fair... you guys are reliant on your top 6 and Igor (a lot more than the average team) meanwhile Canes rely a lot more on the depth scoring and defense

"You could say Vegas got lucky that Adin Hill randomly put up .930 save % in the playoffs for them lol"- Yah Hill's performance was super out of the norm

I don’t think so haha. It’s called man advantage for a reason. You SHOULD be scoring goals 5v4 easier than at 5v5

The playoffs is basically just a crapshoot. You literally never know what will happen. I expected NYR to lose when they were down 3-1 vs Pen or win when up 2-0 on NJD. Never thought they would beat the Canes to get to the ECF 2 years ago

But you’re right. The rangers have to be way better at 5v5 if they want to win meaningful games in the playoffs. But right now they’re struggling and chytil/Kakko play a role in it

I think Chytil/Kakko being out is a problem but I'd be willing to point the finger more at roster construction than a couple of injuries.

"I don’t think so haha. It’s called man advantage for a reason. You SHOULD be scoring goals 5v4 easier than at 5v5"- For the most teams that's case but not for the Canes... their style requires a few greasy goals to win sometimes and those greasy goals are easier to score at 5v5 sometimes

Given a normal ratio of PP/5v5…which team scores more?

Team A: 11.0 GF/60 on PP, 2.3 GF/60 on 5v5
Team B: 6.0 GF/60 on PP, 2.8 GF/60 on 5v5

(Team A has #1 power play, Team B has bottom five power play)

Well chytil is a good play driver and creator at 5v5 and Kakko mainly helps with puck possession, defense and pushing someone out of the top 9 that doesn’t belong there

Greasy dirty goals are the playoff goals the rangers never score. Lavi has been good at getting the rangers to crash the net more thankfully