Here are the results:
Observations:
- Andrew Ference was surprisingly efficient at producing points with the man advantage. While his number is higher than The Dion's, keep in mind that he only played about 219 PP minutes last season - significantly less than Phaneuf's 436 minutes. In fact, if memory serves, Ference gathered a great deal of his powerplay points feeding Phaneuf passes while Hamrlik was down with injury. That being said, it seems like he should probably be granted some significant PP time next season, with or without Hamrlik in the line-up.
- Kristian Huselius is, apparently, The Man on the powerplay. At least as far as the forwards are concerned (don't want to anger The Dion). He played the third most minutes of any forward on the PP (next to Iginla and Langkow) and still managed to put up a pretty significant number. I think we know who'll be flanking Tanguay and Iginla on the first unit next year. At least, we know who should be.
- Hamrlik was brought in last summer with the hopes he'd be an offensive weapon on the point during the man advantage. Didn't really happen. Even though he was injured a great deal, Hamrlik played on the PP slightly more than Ference (251 minutes vs. 219). but managed to be less efficient at producing points. Hopefully this coming season Hammer can
a.) stay healthy and
b.) produce at a better rate on the PP.
Especially for his $3.5 million. Hell, even Robyn Regehr, he of the "defensive defenseman" persuasion produced at an equivalent rate. For now, I guess I can give Hamrlik the benefit of the doubt and assume his various injuries were impeding his offensive abilities. Although, it would be nice to see Roman's career PPP/60 stat - maybe it's the expectations about Hamrlik's production that are out of line?
- Surprisingly, Langkow was slightly better than Iginla in this department last year. Although, I don't know how much significantly different 4.94 is from 4.21 (keep in mind, Langkow played almost 100 minutes less than Jarome).
- Stephane Yelle: better than Kobasew, Amonte and Lombardi on the PP? Only thanks to a small sample size...he played a mere 60 minutes 5on4 last season. Should Yelle ever get a regular PP shift (he won't), expect that number to go WAY down.
- Jordan Leopold was pretty bad in this department too last year. Course, you already know that.
As useless as this information seems to be (Leopold isn't even a Flame anymore), it might be interesting for comparison purposes once hockey gets going again. With the apparent promise of more offense next season, it'll be worthwhile to examine each player's performance in light of this past year's stats.
Next up...Tanguay, Friesen and Zyuzin ESP and PPP.
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