NHL Power Rankings: The holiday season edition

The holiday season is all about giving. I mean, first it’s about the stress of figuring out what to get people, worrying it won’t be delivered on time, then carving out precious hours to cover gifts in wrapping paper without looking like a four-year-old did that last part.

But, yeah, let’s just stick with it’s all about giving.

The NHL has a slew of set-up men who, by their nature, prefer the act of passing on to others rather than hogging all the red-light glory for themselves. A quick check of the reverse Cy Young standings reveal, among others, candidates like Florida Panthers defenceman MacKenzie Weegar (zero goals, 15 assists), Edmonton Oilers centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2-21) and cagey old veterans Ryan Getzlaf and Jakub Voracek at 1-19.

This week’s power rankings highlight a player on each team who has been putting it on a platter for his teammates.

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1. Florida Panthers (17-4-4)
Nobody else in the league with a goose egg in the goal column has as many assists as Weegar’s 15. The team leader in helpers, mind you, is Jonathan Huberdeau with 21.

2. Minnesota Wild (18-6-1)
Kirill Kaprizov’s 12 primary assists at five-on-five are tied for the league lead with Johnny Gaudreau and Nazem Kadri.

3. New York Rangers (17-5-3)
Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox are both brilliant passers, racking up 22 assists apiece. Panarin has a slight edge at even-strength, though, by a 12-11 margin.

4. Washington Capitals (16-4-6)
In the five seasons between 2016-17 and 2020-21, 66 players had more five-on-five assists than Alex Ovechkin. This year, ‘Ovie’ leads the league with 16.

5. Tampa Bay Lightning (16-5-4)
The only people with more assists than Victor Hedman are Kadri and Connor McDavid. Hedman, with 22 helpers, is on pace for 72 this year, by far the highest total of his fantastic career.

6. Toronto Maple Leafs (18-7-2)
Morgan Rielly leads the team with 19 apples, nearly half of which (eight, to be exact) have come in his past four outings.

7. Carolina Panthers (17-6-1)
Sebastian Aho paces the club with 16 assists this year and he has 191 since his rookie season of 2016-17. The only Cane with more during that span is Teuvo Teravainen, who joined Carolina that same season and leads his fellow Finn by a single dish with 192.

8. Colorado Avalanche (14-7-2)
Maybe you’ve heard a little something about Kadri’s career year (as a UFA-to-be) by now? He’s on pace for 86 assists. His previous best is 30.

9. Calgary Flames (15-6-5)
Gaudreau’s 2.4 assists-per-60 minutes is the best mark of his career.

10. Dallas Stars (13-8-2)
Since he entered the league in 2006-07, Joe Pavelski is one of six players — along with Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Steven Stamkos and Patrick Kane — to exceed both 400 goals and 400 assists. His 12 apples this season rank one behind team leader Miro Heiskanen.

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11. Edmonton Oilers (16-8-0)
Only 11 players in the league have at least 21 assists and three of them play for the Oilers. League-leader Connor McDavid has 27, Leon Draisaitl has 22 and ‘The Nuge’ is right behind at 21.

12. Anaheim Ducks (14-8-5)
Getzlaf leads the team with 19 assists, but the 16 helpers recorded by Trevor Zegras include the single greatest set up https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/watch-alley-oop-ice-zegras-pulls-off-unbelievable-assist/ in the history of sticks, ice and imagination.

13. Vegas Golden Knights (15-10-0)
Mark Stone has played just 13 games this year, but his 12 assists put him just one off the pace of club co-leaders Chandler Stephenson and Shea Theodore. Stone’s five-on-five assists-per-60 mark of 3.62 is easily the best in the league.

14. Pittsburgh Penguins (12-8-5)
With Malkin still sidelined and Crosby having played about half of Pittsburgh’s games, Kris Letang has stepped into the void to top all Pens with 16 assists.

15. St. Louis Blues (13-8-4)
Robert Thomas is another reverse Cy Young candidate, rocking the 2-20 mark.

16. Boston Bruins (12-8-2)
Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron both have nine goals, while the third Perfection Line member, David Pastrnak, is one behind with eight. Marchand, naturally, is the most considerate, spooning out 15 assists.

17. Detroit Red Wings (13-10-3)
Moritz Seider’s team-best 15 assists rank the D-man second among fellow rookies in that category, trailing only Zegras’s 16.

18. Nashville Predators (14-10-1)
Ryan Johansen’s stat line after 25 contests this year is the exact same as it was in his 48-game campaign last season: 7-15-22. Still, he sits third in helpers on the club behind Roman Josi (16) and another resurgent Predator, Mikael Granlund (21).

19. San Jose Sharks (14-11-1)
Logan Couture and Timo Meier are tied for the team lead at 15, but 13 of Meier’s assists have come at five-on-five, as opposed to nine for Couture.

20. Winnipeg Jets (12-9-4)
Neal Pionk and Nate Schmidt lead the way with 14, but Blake Wheeler — after a miserable start — has eight assists in his past five outings and will likely re-assume his usual spot atop the charts in this category very soon.

21. Columbus Blue Jackets (13-11-0)
Welcome back, Jake! Voracek’s 2.8 assists-per-60 is the best mark of his NHL tenure.

22. New Jersey Devils (10-9-5)
Jesper Bratt is making the leap this year and his club-best 15 apples are a big part of that.

23. Seattle Kraken (9-14-2)
Jaden Schwartz registered an assist on Monday to give him a team-leading 13. That helper came after a two-game stay on the sidelines thanks to a lower-body injury, so here’s hoping this hard-luck guy can stay healthy the rest of the way.

24. Los Angeles Kings (10-10-4)
Anze Kopitar sets the pace with 16 assists, but Drew Doughty has nine in eight games this year. He stacked up three apples in Edmonton last Sunday in his second game back after a month on the sidelines.

25. Vancouver Canucks (10-15-2)
Quinn Hughes has 102 assists — including a team-best 19 this year — since the start of his rookie season in 2019-20. The only D-man with more in that span is John Carlson at 112.

26. Chicago Blackhawks (9-14-2)
There’s not much to feel good about in Chicago so far, but newcomer Seth Jones is nearly a point-per-game player largely on the strength of his 19 assists.

27. Ottawa Senators (7-16-1)
Drake Batherson has done most of his dishing damage on the man advantage, racking up seven power-play helpers as part of his squad-pacing 13.

28. New York Islanders (6-10-5)
Granted they’ve played just 21 games, but the Isles are the only team without one player who has a double-digit assist total. Mathew Barzal is the best they have at nine.

29. Buffalo Sabres (8-14-3)
Rasmus Dahlin is your leader with 12, but it’s nice to see Kyle Okposo playing every game and picking up 11 himself.

30. Philadelphia Flyers (8-12-4)
This team needs an assist from the Hockey Gods to get out of its miserable tailspin. Claude Giroux’s sauce still slaps, though, as he has 12 assists on the year.

31. Montreal Canadiens (6-18-3)
Nick Suzuki and Tyler Toffoli both have a dirty dozen.

32. Arizona Coyotes (5-18-2)
Good on Shayne Gostisbehere for going out to the desert and re-discovering his offensive touch. The D-man’s 13 assists are the best mark on the lowest-scoring team in the NHL.

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