First Edition of Puck Prose’s Weekly Power Rankings
Today is Monday which means we have a new week on our hands! Today we are proud to start our weekly power rankings. Our NHL Power Rankings will be once a week on Mondays so watch for that on a weekly basis.
To start, Jimmy Lynch and I sat down and separately power ranked (what team has been playing best in the past week) all 32 NHL teams. This was done in privacy so we could not affect each other’s ranking of individual teams. Once both rankings were submitted, each team was ranked by adding their individual rankings from our lists.
After doing this for each team the final rankings were calculated using the lowest added score for first place, and the highest added score for last place. For example, in this week’s ranking Jimmy and I both ranked Florida at 1, so their power ranking score is a 2. In the event of a tie, the teams we were closer to agreeing with got the better ranking. In future weekly rankings, ties will go to whichever team was ranked higher the previous week.
Puck Prose’s Power Rankings will be released weekly on Monday mornings.
Without further adieu, here are our NHL Power Rankings from 1-9-2022 through 1-16-2022:
. . Seattle Kraken. 32. team. 2255.
121. . . . Arizona Coyotes. 31. team
152. . . . Montreal Canadiens. 30. team
12. . . . Buffalo Sabres. 29. team
Ottawa Senators. 28. team. 91. . .
106. . . . New York Islanders. 27. team
26. team. 68. . . . Philadelphia Flyers
. . New Jersey Devils. 25. team. 85.
Naturally, there is not much to say about the bottom quarter of the league. Philadelphia is a team that is new to this quadrant of the league this season, as they had competitive seasons prior to this one.
The NHL’s newest franchise Seattle Kraken have struggled mightily out of the gate. Vegas is the reason the Kraken are getting judged unfairly based on their performance, but in all reality, this is what an inaugural season should look like from an expansion team.
113. . . . Columbus Blue Jackets. 24. team
. . . Edmonton Oilers. 23. team. 148
94. . . . Chicago Blackhawks. 22. team
. . Dallas Stars. 21. team. 119.
Vancouver Canucks. 20. team. 104. . .
Detroit Red Wings. 19. team. 72. . .
107. . . . Winnipeg Jets. 18. team
. Calgary Flames. 17. team. 112. .
Here are your “Eh, I guess they’re okay” teams. A few of these teams could no doubt make a run for a playoff spot down the stretch. Detroit and Philadelphia seemed to have switched quadrants this season which has probably been the biggest surprise of this section of the power rankings.
With that being said, one could argue that Calgary, Winnipeg, Detroit, Vancouver, Dallas, and Edmonton still have very real opportunities to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Currently, the second wild-card position in the Western Conference is held by the San Jose Sharks with 42 points. Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Dallas, Vancouver have 40, 39, 38, 38, and 37 points respectively. Obviously, the race in the West looks tight right now and a good number of the teams in this quadrant have an opportunity to play for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
105. . . . Anaheim Ducks. 16. team
15. team. 120. . . . San Jose Sharks
67. . . . Los Angeles Kings. 14. team
team. 98. . . . Minnesota Wild. 13
team. 942. . . . Vegas Golden Knights. 12
11. team. 19. . . . Washington Capitals
151. . . . Nashville Predators. 10. team
99. . . . St. Louis Blues. 9. team
As we start to tap into the top 10, the pretenders and contenders begin to be separated out. While teams like Anaheim, Los Angeles, and San Jose have had relatively good starts, how long will their success last? The Kings are hot as of late with a 4 game win streak and the Ducks are the opposite as they have dropped 3 in a row.
Time is Vegas’s friend as each day the Golden Knights get closer and closer for Jack Eichel’s VGK debut. I would expect them to climb up the power rankings once Eichel returns to the ice. Their performance this season after a slow start and some key injuries is impressive. The Knights are not a team anyone would want to see come April and May.
8. team. 92. . . . Pittsburgh Penguins
70. . . . Boston Bruins. 7. team
. . Toronto Maple Leafs. 6. team. 116.
95. . . . New York Rangers. 5. team
23. . . . Tampa Bay Lightning. 4. team
team. 109. . . . Carolina Hurricanes. 3
. Colorado Avalanche. 2. team. 103. .
team. 97. . . . Florida Panthers. 1
Here are the big boys in the NHL as of this week. The biggest surprise and newcomer to this region of the NHL are the Florida Panthers. Up to this point in the regular season, the Panthers have looked scary and on top of that a team that can seriously contend for a Stanley Cup. Do they have what it takes to take down the current kings of the Sunshine State in the Tampa Bay Lightning?
With that, hockey is alive and very well in the southeast (I hate to break it to you Arizona, but your location is not why your team is suffering).
On top of the Panthers having a great season, Tampa Bay and Carolina have also had fantastic seasons up to this point. The New York Rangers rebuild is starting to really take shape as they look like another team you wouldn’t want to see come playoff time. Also, is this finally Colorado’s year? The Avs have been building something special in the Rockies and look even better this season.