NHL Power Rankings: Week 7 Injuries, Prospects, In-Depth Analysis

NHL Power Rankings (Heading into Week 7) – New York Rangers are finally knocked out of top spot after a tough week. Blue Jackets and Bruins continue to climb the charts. Minnesota, Ottawa, and Detroit trending downwards.

Welcome back to our weekly NHL power rankings here at Puck Prose. This is a dual collaboration between Matt Duscharme and Ryan Ritchie.

In this week’s edition, the New York Rangers finally drop from the top spot after a tough seven-day stretch. The Columbus Blue Jackets continue to climb despite closing out the week on a sour note. Boston is also making a big jump thanks to a solid effort between the pipes from starter Tuukka Rask.

There was no shortage of big performers over the last seven days. Oilers phenom Connor McDavid had a monster week racking up eight points in four games. Teammate Leon Draisaitl also has a solid four games posting seven points himself. The only other player in the NHL that was as productive was Colorado‘s Nathan MacKinnon, who also had seven points. Three more players managed to pile up six points over the past week: Pittsburgh‘s Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel, as well as Los Angeles‘ Jeff Carter.

As teams continue to tighten things up defensively, we’re starting to see a lot more low-scoring games and shutouts. Among those who recorded a SO: Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB), Martin Jones (SJ), Devan Dubnyk (MIN), Braden Holtby (WSH), and Cam Talbot (EDM). Let’s not forget about the solid play from Pekka Rinne (NSH), Cam Ward (CAR), Chad Johnson (CGY), Tuukka Rask (BOS), Jake Allen (STL), Matt Murray (PIT), Frederik Andersen (TOR), and Calvin Pickard (COL), among others.

We’ve added a few upgrades to our NHL power rankings this week. We’ve added team goals for/against, statistical leaders, and a new weekly prospect profile where each week we take a look at a different player in the minor league system for all 30 teams.