The Winnipeg Jets have the most power-play goals in the NHL despite having the 20th-most opportunities and only one player tied for 10th in most power-play points.
As the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off reaches Thursday’s grand finale, the focus will soon turn back to the pursuit for the Stanley Cup. The Winnipeg Jets look very good in that regard.
If the regular season ended today, the Jets would win the Presidents’ Trophy with 81 points at the mid-season break. Those are the most points the Jets have had after 56 games since relocating from Atlanta ahead of the 2011-12 season.
But the Jets haven’t just bested themselves. They are on track to beat another Canadian squad for the NHL’s most successful power play since tracking began in 1977-78.
Coming into this season, the 2022-23 Edmonton Oilers held the record for the best power play percentage at a dazzling 32.4 percent.
Winnipeg currently has a 33.3 power-play percentage. Even though the season’s not over yet, the 2022-23 Oilers had a 31.5-percent success rate after 56 games.
Not only do the Jets have the most power-play goals in the NHL with 51, which is six more than the second-place Detroit Red Wings, but they only have the 19th-most power-play opportunities at 153.
The Jets only have one player tied for 10th in most power-play points, and it’s an eight-player tie. Kyle Connor’s 23 points are tied with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk, among others.
Quite simply, the team has scored by committee on the special teams.
Eight Jets players have at least 10 power-play points, which is more than can be said for other teams with skaters in the top 10. Many of these teams are front-loaded on two skaters: Tampa Bay (Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point), Colorado (Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar), New Jersey (Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt), Toronto (Mitch Marner and William Nylander) and Edmonton (Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid).
Even in 2022-23, the Oilers only had six players with at least 10 points on the man advantage. McDavid’s 71 points, Draisaitl’s 62 and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ 53 led the NHL. This season, Winnipeg’s Connor (23), Gabriel Vilardi (22) and Mark Scheifele (20) don’t even combine for as many points as McDavid’s 2022-23 total.
While the Winnipeg Jets promoted Scott Arniel to replace Rick Bowness as the team’s coach, they also hired assistant coach Davis Payne to help with the power play and the forwards.
“There’s not a lot of focus on end results,” Payne told Connor Hrabchak of illegalcurve.com. “We basically stick to the process about what we want to do, how we want to do it. And we’ve got good players out there that are finishing off plays.”
From Jan. 7 to Feb. 7, Winnipeg registered a jaw-dropping 41.4 power-play percentage, going 12-for-29. That was also the highest success rate in the NHL despite getting the fifth-fewest power-play opportunities in that span.
Momentum seems to be at its peak in the capital of Manitoba. While all of Canada is anxiously watching Sidney Crosby and the Canadians at the 4 Nations Face-Off, Winnipeggers perhaps can’t wait for it to be over for the Jets to focus on chasing the hardest trophy to win in sports.
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