2019 BBKL Power Rankings

[Bruyns]

New year, new rankings, overall rankings are my thoughts, but skater/goalie rankings are from Fantrax.


31 - CHI (Skaters 31st, Goalies 27th)

Not to hard to see why we start off with CHI, besides poor stats he has the 2nd lowest GP for skaters. As with any team with aspirations for the lottery his focus will now be on making GP. There's hope for the future and this isn't the bleakest roster we have seen a new GM take over, but he has a long road ahead.

Strengths - nil
Weaknesses - Needs GP

Biggest Surprise - Jason Dickinson
Biggest Disappointment - Andrew Ladd



30 - ARI (Skaters 30th, Goalies 29th)

One of the longest serving GMs has also endured a very long run of futility. After trying to keep ANA afloat for years Cliff has taken over ARI and despite being terrible there is reason for optimism. A GM whose trades often lacked direction I have seen a marked improvement and more patience to rebuild ARI the "right" way. Still no where near contention this team at least has high end futures which you couldn't always say for past teams Cliff managed.

Strengths - nil
Weaknesses - High end talent

Biggest Surprise - Valtteri Filpulla
Biggest Disappointment - Phillip Grubauer/Julius Honka



29 - CAR (Skaters 29th, Goalies 23rd)

Familiar territory for everyone's favourite lovable loser. Surprisingly hasn't traded his 2020 1st yet and has some legit players, but still not enough high end talent and with Demko possibly starting in the not so distant future goaltending is looking like a concern. CAR does seem to be slowly improving and Paul would probably be making more trades if it wasn't for a very slow trade market this year.

Strengths - nil
Weaknesses - High end talent

Biggest Surprise - Tomas Tatar
Biggest Disappointment - Tyson Jost



28 - MTL (Skaters 26th, Goalies 22nd)

Unfamiliar territory seeing Chuck at the bottom of one of these lists, but being a playoff team and contender for as many years as Chuck has takes a toll and his team is now one that isn't very strong and requires building back up. Smart trades like turning Lowry into multiple 1sts + prospects will have Chuck hoping his stay at the bottom is short lived.

Strengths - 13th in hits
Weaknesses - below average in all but hits and SHTOI

Biggest Surprise -Warren Foegele
Biggest Disappointment - Cam Talbot



27 - STL (Skaters 28th, Goalies 19th)

You can tell Koomzz is wanting his team to be near the bottom of the standings this season and he will be picking high, but he is playing with fire with the lowest skater GP in the league. Give a team with Stamkos, Kuch, Radulov and Krug another 150GP and the team stats and standings are probably looking better than they are. This is a team that could transition out of the basement a little quicker than other teams around this ranking.

Strengths - 10th in +-
Weaknesses - 31st in FOW, 30th in G, SOG

Biggest Surprise -Jaroslav Halak
Biggest Disappointment - Nathan Beaulieu



26 - CBJ (Skaters 27th, Goalies 13th)

Clearly a tier above the bottom feeders (CHI, ARI, CAR) this team has been treading water for a few seasons and doesn't seem to be improving yet. You aren't going to see any knee-jerk reactions and panicked trades from this experienced GM, but I am curious to see if Dave receives any offers worth moving some of his talented vets for to add some future help.

Strengths - Rittich + 11th in PIMs
Weaknesses - Below average pretty much across the board for skater stats

Biggest Surprise -Mathieu Joseph/David Rittich and a shoutout to a surprising 43GP from Bogosian.
Biggest Disappointment - Riley Nash



25 - NYR (Skaters 24th, Goalies 26th)

After winning the lottery GM Kyle hopes to continue to ascend these rankings over the years. He continues to be plagued by the problem of his depth players not being able to put up enough stats to complement his star players. Dahlin has been as advertised, not PKing yet but has met or exceeded my expectations in all other stats. With some young stars on this team the focus now turns to filling out the rest of the roster and hoping the prospects already in the system develop.

Strengths - 10th in STP
Weaknesses - 31st in SHTOI

Biggest Surprise - Kevin Connauton
Biggest Disappointment - Ilya Kovalchuk



24 - OTT (Skaters 25th, Goalies 4th)

You could make an argument to bump up Billy a few spots based on his goaltending, but the majority of our stats come from skaters and it's tough to win with the roster Billy is icing. Still some good players, and I expect his trades will begin to be more focused on the future rather than trading youth for Hainsey and Plekanec. It's going to be some long years in the nation's capital as I don't see any quick fix with this team.

Strengths - Goaltending
Weaknesses - 31st in blocks, 30th in GWG + FOW

Biggest Surprise - Neal Pionk
Biggest Disappointment - Jordan Eberle



23 - ANA (Skaters 23rd, Goalies 10th)

Same as OTT in that we have fairly good goaltending, but this isn't the WPG system it's 2 backups from good teams and I wouldn't be surprised to see the stats drop a bit from 10th. As much as GMs in here like to rag on Matthew for his bad offers, you have to give the man props for what he has done since taking over. A team once bereft of talent or pretty much just NHLers now finds itself with no GP worries a handful of legit prospects and a few top picks in the next couple drafts. Not punching above his weight class as much as he did last season where the stats had him as one of the better teams for a large chunk of the year, but not a gimmie win every week either.

Strengths - Goaltending? 2nd in FOW
Weaknesses - 30th in +- and A

Biggest Surprise - Cedric Paquette
Biggest Disappointment - William Nylander



22 - DET (Skaters 22nd, Goalies 25th)

Hard to frame this season as anything other than a disappointment for Shoalzie who I'm sure was hoping to be in the teens not 20s for a ranking at this point in time. His efforts over the last couple seasons show how difficult it can be to transition from rebuilder to contender and I think it may be part of the reason we have so many teams not making moves to improve. One of the easier GMs to root for hopefully he catches a break but with no 1st or 2nd and only a 6th in 2020 Scott is still facing an uphill battle.

Strengths - 9th in FOW
Weaknesses - 26th in SOG and hits

Biggest Surprise - Kris Letang
Biggest Disappointment - Alexander Wennberg



21 - BOS (Skaters 21st, Goalies 5th)

Having this team ranked here seems mind boggling, but the stats don't lie and this team is in danger of missing the playoffs based on weak skaters. A perennial powerhouse team this year is a reminder that all good things eventually come to an end and without a wealth of picks and prospects a great team will eventually fall back to the pack. So far this season BOS isn't just falling back to the back they are getting passed by teams that should have no business passing them.

Strengths - Goaltending
Weaknesses - 25th in SHTOI, 26th in A, 29th in +-

Biggest Surprise - David Perron
Biggest Disappointment - Vladimir Tarasenko/Ryan Spooner



20 - SJS (Skaters 20th, Goalies 2nd)

The third team with top 10 goaltending who finds themselves in the bottom third. Although goaltending is great when you get it, it is the most volatile week to week and season to season so I find it difficult to give teams ranked low in skaters a big boost up the rankings. SJS is a bit of a middling team right now, Kessel, Krejci, Skinner, ROR, Panarin and Petry are all elite talents helping keep this team competitive but they aren't enough and more high end talent will be needed through the draft or trades. Enough assets and a good GM means this team will be good, but I think it's going to take a while.

Strengths - Goaltending, 1st GWG
Weaknesses - 31st in PIM, 29th in SHTOI

Biggest Surprise - Jeff Skinner, Tomas Greiss
Biggest Disappointment - Samuel Girard, Nick Bjugstad



19 - NJD (Skaters 19th, Goalies 28th)

After a couple of teams that have received good goaltending we go to one of the worst. Still in the thick of the playoff race due to playing in the worst division in BBKL this team is on the rise, but still has a ways to go. One of the common themes we will see from here on out is skater GP, we use a lot of counting stats so it only makes sense more GP = more stats. NJD are 6th in GP and that is definitely helping their cause and creating separation between them and other East teams like CAR, CBJ, MTL, DET, NYR, OTT who are ranked 24th-29th in skater GP with around 100 less GP. For those curious LAK at 859GP have 240 more than 31st place STL. With 16 weeks down that would be equivalent to having 15 more GP every single week.

Strengths - 8th GWG, solid but unspectacular most other stats
Weaknesses - goaltending, 30th in PIMs and hits

Biggest Surprise - Chris Tierney/Brayden Point
Biggest Disappointment - Jesse Puljujarvi/Victor Mete



18 - WPG (Skaters 17th, Goalies 17th)

Feel like WPG needs to be ranked 17th based on their rankings, but they drop a spot to 18. Not sure if it's because they play in the West or if it's because I don't talk much with Luke, but his team always seems like a forgotten one to me. Nothing stands out and he seems to be right on the bubble year in and out and seems to make some smart deals although he seems to be spinning his wheels a bit. Reminds me of some of the top heavy teams at the bottom of the rankings, but WPG has more quality depth. A truly average team WPG seems to be a middling team in all stats, good enough to be competitive weekly and able to take down stronger teams on a hot week.

Strengths - nil
Weaknesses - nil

Biggest Surprise - Erik Cernak
Biggest Disappointment - Sergei Bobrovsky



17 FLA (Skaters 18th, Goalies 12th)

FLA kind of reminds me of WPG East, quiet GM, been here forever, knows what he is doing in building a solid yet unspectacular team and has been a playoff fixture of late. This team isn't going to leap off the page and look threatening yet week in week out goes about its business winning cats and collecting points. Lack of weaknesses make it a tough matchup since a hot scoring week or great goaltending turns this average team into one that is tough to beat. Missing GP has been an issue this season with them sitting 21st in GP just ahead of 22nd BOS and nearly 100GP behind NYI, NJD, PIT who they will be fighting for a playoff spot.

Strengths - 1st in +- 6th in FOW
Weaknesses - 28th SOG, 23rd goals

Biggest Surprise - Mikko Rantanen
Biggest Disappointment - Karl Alzner



16 COL (Skaters 12th, Goalies 31st)

Casper has a sneakily decent team that wins periphs most weeks and that is being sewered in the standings by league worst goaltending. His stats are likely a little inflated by having the 3rd most skater GP but maximizing GP is a positive and I'm not going to hold that against him. Whereas Matthew gets a bad rep for offering bad trades I think Casper is starting to get the reputation where he only accepts trades that he clearly wins. Lots of assets on the team he would likely be willing to part with, but will anyone meet the asking price? Would like to also point out this strategy is still more sound then Paul's strategy of only making trades he clearly loses.

Strengths - 3rd PIM, 5th hits, 2nd blocks
Weaknesses - Cam Ward

Biggest Surprise - Max Lajoie
Biggest Disappointment - Henrik Borgstrom

[Bruyns]

Top 15 coming tomorrow

[Matthew]

Awesome, bruyns. Love these types of things. Always fun. Can't wait to see the rest tomorrow.

[Sensfanjosh]

Awesome stuff thanks Matt

[Jordan (VGK)]

Expected to see my name in this list. Good stuff Matty boy

[CasperX22]

Pretty surprised to see myself this high honestly. And not sure how the perception of I only make bad deals has changed to the perception I only accept deals that I clearly win. And who makes deals to lose value anyway? Lol!

[Shoalzie]

Fair rankings.

I think the most frustrating part of this season, I could've just been as good (or bad) if I just stood pat and could've saved myself some futures in the process. The only move I probably needed to make was adding a goalie. I just wouldn't have felt comfortable with Elliott as my goalie.

The Wennberg move has been frustrating. I moved Jenner with the assumption he was going to be a winger primarily. Extra costly given what I gave up for what was meant to be an upgrade.

The Okposo deal was quite disappointing but the Sabres have been mostly a one line team this year.

No regrets on the Connor for Henrique swap. I figured I was giving up offense in that swap for a solid middle of the lineup center, which I needed. I figured the "upgrade" of Wennberg would've helped make up for any lost offense I'd give up in this trade.

I've been satisfied with the Letang/van Riemsdyk for Braun/Lee swap. Letang along with Nugent-Hopkins have been my two most consistent players all season. Lee and van Riemsdyk are the exact same goals per game rate, so I saw that deal as a win for me.

Not having six steady defensemen has been a killer as well...and I got off to such a slow start. My team isn't good enough to make a huge rally like I've seen from Tony.

[The BBKL Insider]

great read, thanks Matt

[Handsome&FairMike]

Some honest shots fired here Matt - great work! Love this shit.

Also - the idea that the metro is the worst division needs to be revisited. 5 teams in the top 16 in the league. Sure not as top heavy as others but solid nonetheless.

[CasperX22]

Some honest shots fired here Matt - great work! Love this shit.

Also - the idea that the metro is the worst division needs to be revisited. 5 teams in the top 16 in the league. Sure not as top heavy as others but solid nonetheless.

Dunno bout all that. The top 4-5 teams are head and shoulders above the pack and there are more bad teams league wide than good teams.

[Bruyns]

Some honest shots fired here Matt - great work! Love this shit.

Also - the idea that the metro is the worst division needs to be revisited. 5 teams in the top 16 in the league. Sure not as top heavy as others but solid nonetheless.

Hoped to create some discussion with less games over the next couple weeks.

Metro also only has 2 teams in the top 12 and other divisions have 3/4. With only 3 teams over .500 and one is just barely I have a feeling if you took combined records for each division Metro is likely 4th. I think PIT/NJD/NYI record is helped by getting to play CAR/NYR/CBJ more than other teams do.

One thing I have definitely seen change is when I joined East was BY FAR the stronger conference and now you take the top 8 from each conference and I think the West comes out ahead.

[Arian The Insider]

Thanks Matt, good read

[Loki]

Awesome, good rundown, definitely agree on my assessment. Been scrambling this year to even make GP on goaltending, just one of those years injury wise. I may need to look at acquiring a bruiser for the hits and pims if I want to compete.

[thom54]

great write up, and man this made me laugh hard "Would like to also point out this strategy is still more sound then Paul's strategy of only making trades he clearly loses."

[CasperX22]

great write up, and man this made me laugh hard "Would like to also point out this strategy is still more sound then Paul's strategy of only making trades he clearly loses."

Well, he hasn't traded his 1st next year yet. That's a start.

[CasperX22]

Awesome, good rundown, definitely agree on my assessment. Been scrambling this year to even make GP on goaltending, just one of those years injury wise. I may need to look at acquiring a bruiser for the hits and pims if I want to compete.

Apparently I have em all.

[Matthew]

Some honest shots fired here Matt - great work! Love this shit.

Also - the idea that the metro is the worst division needs to be revisited. 5 teams in the top 16 in the league. Sure not as top heavy as others but solid nonetheless.

This is the average amount of points each division has per team:

Pacific = 1010 points
Central = 997.43 points
Atlantic = 996.88 points
Metro = 965 points

[kimmer]

nice nice

[Handsome&FairMike]

Some honest shots fired here Matt - great work! Love this shit.

Also - the idea that the metro is the worst division needs to be revisited. 5 teams in the top 16 in the league. Sure not as top heavy as others but solid nonetheless.

This is the average amount of points each division has per team:

Pacific = 1010 points
Central = 997.43 points
Atlantic = 996.88 points
Metro = 965 points

Alright! Touché haha. What’s the median number though out of curiosity?

[Matthew]

Some honest shots fired here Matt - great work! Love this shit.

Also - the idea that the metro is the worst division needs to be revisited. 5 teams in the top 16 in the league. Sure not as top heavy as others but solid nonetheless.

This is the average amount of points each division has per team:

Pacific = 1010 points
Central = 997.43 points
Atlantic = 996.88 points
Metro = 965 points

Alright! Touché haha. What’s the median number though out of curiosity?

Pacific -> 1019
Central -> 934
Metro -> 977.5
Atlantic -> 933.5

But it doesn't tell you much.