A fun topic that comes up throughout the season is the powerplay. It’s not usually one that people like to talk about during the summer because the issue isn’t right in the face of the fans.

For many fans though, over the past season, the powerplay was a huge point of contention. It’s no wonder though, since the powerplay was ranked 18th in the league. For most of the season, the top unit was Perreault, Little, Wheeler, Enstrom, and Byfuglien. This unit saw the most time on the powerplay. The second unit for the most part was Ehlers, Scheifele, Laine, Trouba, and whoever was healthy. This unit saw very little time on the powerplay, including once only getting about 20 seconds of ice time total.

The NHL is a copycat league so it’s not wrong to look at the team that was at the top for the powerplay last season. That team was the Buffalo Sabres. A team that finished just as bad as the Jets did, but somehow managed to have a wonderful powerplay. The Sabres top unit was Eichel, O’Reilly, Kane, Moulson, and Ristolainen. If you look at that, it’s pretty much all of their top talent and an extra player chucked in there.

Looking at the Jets, that’s exactly the structure of the second unit. It would also be a simple fix and all you’d have to do is switch how much ice time the units are getting. This is an easier fix than creating new units and trying to build new chemistry. With the new season starting, it wouldn’t hurt to try it. When you have some of the top scoring players in a season and you’re regulating them to the second unit, you’re doing something wrong.

How would you look at improving the powerplay? Do you think just switching the units around is enough or do we need new units overall?

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