NHL Power Rankings: 30 Biggest Surprises

The offence. Who expected Tomas “PTO” Fleischmann and Dale Weise to perform like this? Montreal’s identity is all defence and Carey Price, but no Eastern Conference team is coming close to scoring as frequently.

John Klingberg. We knew the sophomore defenceman was good, but this good? Klingberg, who has a grand total of 87 NHL games played, leads everyone not named Patrick Kane in assists and ranks top-five overall in scoring.

The wonderful bounce-back of Mats Zuccarello. This is a guy who fractured his skull in the spring and temporarily lost the ability to speak. Now he’s a point-a-game stud, leading all Rangers in scoring by a mile and all Rangers forwards in ice time. Incredible, underwritten story here.

The team’s leading scorer is not Alex Ovechkin or Nicklas Backstrom but Evgeny Kuznetsov, with 24 points. His 19 even-strength points are also a team high, as is his plus-13 rating. Guy’s a star.

With a stick-tap to new acquisition Troy Brouwer (third in Blues scoring), we gotta go with 22-year-old Colton Parayko here. The rookie D-man seemingly came out of nowhere (actually St. Albert, Alta.) to crack one of the NHL’s best blue lines. Kid has 12 points, three game-winners and is a plus-10.

That Anze Kopitar still hasn’t re-signed. Wayne Gretzky anointed the two-way centre the third-best player in the world, and for some reason the pivot still doesn’t have a contract in place for next season — even though the player and team have said it’ll get done. Hmmm….

Road damage. Last season the Sharks were mediocre at best playing away from San Jose. This season they’re the NHL’s scariest visitors. San Jose is just the sixth team in history to win a road trip of six or more games. An astonishing 20 of the Sharks’ 26 standings points have come on enemy ice.

Power-play improvement. Boston ranked 17th in the category last season. Now the Bruins are far and away the league’s most dangerous club with the man-advantage (32.3 per cent success rate).

Super rookie Artemi Panarin. We knew he’d be an effective NHLer, but did we think he’d rack up more points than Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews at the 22-game mark? Not a chance.

The easy surprise is the Travis Hamonic trade request, which no one could’ve predicted, but let’s go with something else: Attendance. The Isles’ move to Brooklyn has chopped home crowds by roughly 3,000 fans a game. Only the Panthers and Hurricanes are drawing fewer spectators.

Underwhelming production. The 25th-ranked offence? The 26th-best power-play? Surely the state of Mario Lemieux’s friendship with Sidney Crosby is not the cause of this.

Their inability to finish games in 3-on-3 overtime. Six times Ottawa has failed to end a game in the new wide-open OT format, which bucks the NHL trend. We figured Erik Karlsson would not only love all that extra ice, but that he’d spring a few young Sens forwards with long passes and they’d finish more opponents before the shootout.

That they’re not in a playoff spot. I mean, c’mon, the Bolts play in the Atlantic Division. They were supposed to run the East this year. Hands up, everyone who thought 21 teams would be out-scoring Tampa by U.S. Thanksgiving.

That they’ve been taking flak for those yellow helmets. Reminds us of Mario-era Penguins and ’80s Canucks and probably some weird Euro club team we saw during the lockout. We love ’em.

Their Stadium Series sweaters. Minnesota desperately wanted an outdoor game, and the State of Hockey deserved one. But once the Wild got one, they chose not to incorporate North Stars colours into their special sweaters. Different franchise, sure, but how sweet would it have been to see a nicely executed throwback?

Defence. Dressing Oliver Ekman-Larsson and a bunch of guys you’d probably have to Google, the Coyotes are keeping tough Western opponents in check and are legitimately in the running for a playoff spot. We figured they’d finish 30th. Good on ’em.

Their record. Cynically we figured New Jersey—a team in transition, no doubt—would be counting its lottery balls at this point. So what if the Devils are firing a league-low 25.4 shots on net per night? Cory Schneider is a beast, and the goals have been timely enough to get them in the playoff conversation.

The commitment to youth. Jared McCann (19), Jake Virtanen (19) and Ben Hutton (22) have all seen plenty of ice as the Canucks’ effort to get younger finally looks real. That McCann can play, boy.

At this point we’re no longer surprised when fortysomething Jaromir Jagr leads his team in scoring. He’s a freak. We get it. So we’re going with unsung 22-year-old Vincent Trochek, who filled in nicely when No. 1 centre Aleksander Barkov went down to injury, and has already matched his career high of seven goals.

Healthy-scratch Tomas Jurco (age 22) and top-six regular Dylan Larkin (age 19). The last teenager to make the Red Wings regular roster out of training camp was defenceman Jiri Fischer. That was 16 years ago.

James Reimer’s seizing of the No. 1 spot. Jonathan Bernier couldn’t win a game in regulation, yet it took an injury for Reimer to get a legitimate shot to run with it. He’s delivered.

That Matt Duchene’s name even hit the rumour mill. He’s 24, he’s a centre, he’s an Olympic champion, and he’s locked up for four more years at a fair rate — and now he’s the hottest player in the league. Threw down 13 points in his seven-game scoring streak.

Uh, everything. Too many surprises here to pinpoint one: the horrible start by Sergei Bobrovsky; the fact they’re open to trading Ryan Johansen when young, exciting No. 1 centres are so hard to find; that they paid a second-round pick to hire John Tortorella as their coach…

That they’re four points out of a playoff spot. The Ducks, a consensus favourite to win it all this season, actually have the NHL’s best penalty kill (87.7%), a solid power play and have been given good goaltending. Their inability to generate goals five-on-five is flummoxing.

We’re surprised by anyone who is surprised that the Sabres aren’t more of a surprise. Yes, they made significant improvements in net, up front and behind the bench, but this club was so ugly in 2014-15, the notion that they could jump to a wild-card spot was unrealistic.

Their shots allowed. Carolina is rarely credited with having an impressive defence core, yet no team allows fewer shots on net than the ‘Canes (25.6). With so much importance poured into shot quantity, it’s a head-scratcher to see the Hurricanes out-shooting opponents by more than five shots a game and still losing with regularity.

The ho-hum contract year of Jacob Trouba. We figured the young defenceman would take another step this year, but the RFA-to-be has been just OK: three points, minus-4, and 35 penalty minutes — which is way too many.

They can’t freaking score. We spoke with defenceman Michael Del Zotto this summer, and he was jacked up to learn that new coach Dave Hakstol liked defenders to jump in the play. He imagined a bit more run-and-gun in Philly, a team with enough weapons up font. The Flyers mustered just 38 goals in 22 games — worst in the league.

A vanishing defence. Captain Mark Giordano is a shadow of his pre-injury self, Dougie Hamilton is struggling to find his groove, and Dennis Wideman is playing much more like Dennis Wideman. NHL-worst 3.59 goals allowed per game.

That they’re the worst. Now, we were not in the camp who believed Edmonton would become a playoff team under a new coach and with the addition of a franchise player, but when you consider the abysmal starts of Columbus and Anaheim and Toronto and Philadelphia and Calgary, it takes a magical recipe of awful for the Oilers to position themselves in the No. 30 spot so swiftly. Maybe one more No. 1 overall pick can solve things.