It’s not often three of the best four players at a given position move in the off-season, but that’s exactly what happened this past summer.
As such, wingers Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk and Jonathan Huberdeau all carried the same label into this season: ‘New Guy.’
Gaudreau and Huberdeau each registered 115 points last year, more than everyone in the league save Connor McDavid. Tkachuk’s 104 ranked him fourth among wingers, with only Gaudreau, Huberdeau and Kirill Kaprizov scoring more than him from the flank.
How those guys came to be on different squads this fall, of course, varies from case to case. What they can all tell you early on, though, is it’s not always easy dropping into a new situation. Huberdeau has a single goal on the season and just this week his new coach, Darryl Sutter, was telling reporters the big left winger needs to play with a little more pace.
Tkachuk and Gaudreau — both former Flames — have been productive in their new spots, but their teams aren’t necessarily off to flying starts. Tkachuk’s Florida Panthers are 5-4-1 with a goal differential of minus-1, while only the San Jose Sharks have a worse points percentage than Gaudreau’s Columbus Blue Jackets as the team sits in Finland in anticipation of two Global Series games versus the defending Stanley Cup-Champion Colorado Avalanche on Friday and Saturday.
Of course, change can also be a good thing and there’s plenty of guys loving their new surroundings. So for this edition of the power rankings, we’ll check in with one fresh face for each squad and see how things have gone so far.
1. Boston Bruins (9-1-0) Pavel Zacha has been a nice middle-six addition to the Bruins, with six points through 10 outings. If we can stretch the newcomer definition, though, the big addition has been Hampus Lindholm on the back end. The Swede signed an eight-year extension after coming over at the deadline last year — he played just 10 games for Boston last spring — and already has 11 points in 10 outings this season while Charlie McAvoy has been sidelined.
2. Vegas Golden Knights (9-2-0) Adin Hill has eye-popping numbers in four starts this year, posting a .940 save percentage and 1.72 goals-against average as part of the Knights’ surprisingly strong battery in goal.
3. Carolina Hurricanes (6-2-1) You kind of figured Brent Burns and the Canes were going to be a perfect fit and, sure enough, the veteran blue-liner has seven points in nine contests playing on the top pair with Jaccob Slavin.
4. Edmonton Oilers (7-3-0) Jack Campbell has the second-worst high-danger save percentage among goalies with 175 minutes in the crease this year, so it’s safe to say he’s still adjusting to life as an Oiler.
5. Colorado Avalanche (4-4-1) Don’t blame Alexandar Georgiev for the Avs’ middling start; the goalie has the fourth-best five-on-five save percentage in the league among tenders with 200 minutes in the crease.
6. Tampa Bay Lightning (6-4-0) Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel are both in their first full year with the Bolts and each guy is holding his own in a top-six role while Anthony Cirelli recovers from shoulder surgery.
7. New Jersey Devils (7-3-0) John Marino is off to a steady start as a top-four guy in New Jersey. Vitek Vanecek, meanwhile, has a 3-1 record in four starts, but his underlying numbers aren’t that hot.
8. New York Rangers (6-3-2) So far, Vincent Trocheck looks like a perfect 2C in New York, as his 4-5-9 statline in 11 games indicates.
9. Calgary Flames (5-3-0) How many times did you hear someone say they liked the Nazem Kadri signing for Calgary, as long as we all understand he wasn’t truly an 87-point guy? After eight games he’s on pace for 103.
10. Buffalo Sabres (7-3-0) Eric Comrie, save percentage, first three starts of the year: .930. Eric Comrie, save percentage, past four starts: .856.
11. New York Islanders (6-4-0) Alexander Romanov is averaging over 20 minutes a night on Long Island and has — very predictably — delivered more hits than any other Isles defender.
11. Dallas Stars (6-3-1) The Stars were willing to roll the dice on Mason Marchment after his late-bloomer breakout season last year in Florida. Marchment stormed out of the gate with six points in his first four games, but has just one in his past half-dozen outings.
13. Toronto Maple Leafs (5-4-2) If I told you that 10 games into the season there would be talk of axes falling in Toronto, you’d assume the goalies had been terrible. As it turns out, Ilya Samsonov is 5-2-0 with a .920 save percentage.
14. Minnesota Wild (5-4-1) There’s got to be serious questions about Filip Gustavsson’s ability to be a credible backup for Marc-Andre Fleury. The former has an .878 save percentage this year.
15. Winnipeg Jets (5-3-1) Eric Comrie was a really solid No. 2 behind Connor Hellebuyck last season. Thus far, the same cannot be said for David Rittich.
16. Philadelphia Flyers (5-3-2) Nobody has ever questioned Anthony DeAngelo’s ability to put up points and he’s doing it again early on in Philly with seven of them through 10 games.
17. Florida Panthers (5-4-1) Florida’s flat start is no reflection of Matthew Tkachuk’s play; the shift disturber has 13 points in 10 outings.
18. Washington Capitals (5-4-2) Dylan Strome is doing a solid job trying to replace a little of what the Caps have lost with Nick Backstrom out indefinitely. The 25-year-old has nine points in 11 contests, while the new crease duo of Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren have combined for a stellar .921 save percentage.
19. Detroit Red Wings (4-3-2) Detroit plugged several veteran newcomers into the lineup this season and a number of them are panning out. Dominik Kubalik is tied for the team scoring lead; David Perron has five goals in nine games and Ville Husso has the seventh-best five-on-five save percentage among goalies with 200 minutes.
20. Los Angeles Kings (6-6-0) Kevin Fiala was acquired with one thing in mind: offence. So far, the Swiss stud has delivered with 13 points in 12 outings.
21. Pittsburgh Penguins (4-5-2) Jeff Petry may not be the player he was three years ago, but the 35-in-December D-man has done just fine playing significant minutes on the right side of Pittsburgh’s second pair.
22. Seattle Kraken (5-4-2) Andre Burakovsky brought his Cup pedigree over from Colorado and has nine points in 11 contests for Seattle. Martin Jones has had some major swings in his career, and while his save percentage still isn’t great, he is 4-3-1 this season.
23. Chicago Blackhawks (4-4-2) Jason Dickinson had five goals in Vancouver last year and he’s already at three this season in Chicago. Max Domi has been productive at the top of the lineup, posting seven points in 10 games.
24. Montreal Canadiens (5-5-0) As soon as the Canadiens acquired Sean Monahan, speculation started they could flip him before the deadline. So far, the 28-year-old has looked pretty good with six points in 10 games while playing a little bit of wing and a little bit of centre.
25. Ottawa Senators (4-5-0) Basically, the entire second line is new guys with freshman Shane Pinto centering Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat. Pinto’s six goals earned him rookie-of-the-month honours while DeBrincat (eight points) and Giroux (seven) are doing just fine so far.
26. St. Louis Blues (3-5-0) Thomas Greiss lost both his starts this year, but combined with one appearance in relief, he has stopped 86 of 94 shots for a .915 save percentage.
27. Arizona Coyotes (3-5-1) 19-year-old Dylan Guenther is making his pitch to stick with the Coyotes. The rookie has three points in his past two games and six overall in eight.
28. Nashville Predators (3-6-1) Not a ton has gone right for Nashville this season, but Nino Niederreiter does have five goals in 10 games. That said, three of them came in the Preds’ two overseas wins to start the season.
29. Anaheim Ducks (3-6-1) It’s sort of odd to recall the fact re-tooling Anaheim wound up signing the top defenceman on the market last summer after nobody else swept John Klingberg off his feet with a long-term offer. The right-shooting Swede has just three assists so far on the struggling Ducks. Centre Ryan Strome, though, has looked pretty good with six points in 10 games.
30. Vancouver Canucks (2-6-2) In a sea of sorrow, two Russian newcomers have asserted themselves pretty well in Vancouver. Ilya Mikheyev has five points in seven games, while former KHLer Andrei Kuzmenko has 3-3-6 in 10 adjusting to North American hockey.
31. Columbus Blue Jackets (3-7-0) Johnny Gaudreau had four points in back-to-back Columbus wins on Oct. 18 and 20. He’s got a total of four more in the Jackets’ other eight games and the club is 1-7-0 in those contests.
32. San Jose Sharks (3-8-1) Erik Karlsson is certainly playing like a new man with nine goals on the year. Among players actually making their Sharks debut, Evgeny Svechnikov has shown a little something on the top line, registering five points in 11 games.
