With one of the hottest teams in the 2023-24 season, the NY Rangers dominated in many categories, one of which was the power play. If you didn’t keep track of team stats closely last season both because the Rangers were awesome and Artemi Panarin was a legitimate Hart Trophy candidate, let me fill you in on just how good the Blueshirts power play was last year.
With a power play percentage of 26.42, the Rangers sat roughly five-and-a-half percentage points higher than the league average of 20.98. This ended with the Blueshirts ranking third in the NHL, behind only the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes, the former of whom dominated the league by nearly two whole percentage points over the latter.
But who on the Rangers finished sequences on the man advantage more than anyone else last season? Let’s discuss four forwards who came through time and again for the league’s third-best power play unit.
NY Rangers had four players rule the power play in 2023-24
Often, I’ll talk about the three best players in each category when I write these recaps, but since we have a tie, that number will be bumped up to four. Our co-third-place winners scored 11 power play goals apiece, and they are Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck.
Panarin led the Blueshirts last season in goals scored with 49 and in even strength goals with 38, so there’s no surprise he took a top-three spot in these rankings. As for Trocheck, he scored 25 goals, meaning 11, or 44 percent, came on the man advantage while 13 occurred at even strength and another at 4-on-5.
You can also say the same for Mika Zibanejad, who had 12 even strength goals, 12 power play goals, and two while short-handed. Only Chris Kreider scored more, with 18 of his 39 goals coming at 5-on-4. Like Zibanejad, two also came while the Rangers were short-handed, and an additional 19 were at even strength.
And in case you’re curious, Adam Fox clocked in at No. 5 with six, nearly half the amount that our third-place finishers scored. Nobody else on the Rangers scored more than two goals on the man advantage in 2023-24.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)