Ryan Craig is rolling out a new look on the power play, and while it’s only one new player coming in, it’s going to give the unit a completely new vibe.
With Pavel Dorofeyev no longer in the picture, the like-for-like swap would have been to put Victor Olofsson in the shooter spot while keeping everything else the same. After all, the power play has been dynamite for the last two seasons, hitting at 26.2%, the second best rate in the NHL. And Olofsson was actually a part of it as Bruce Cassidy’s first choice to open the 24-25 season.
Instead, Craig is trying something different. Shea Theodore is replacing Dorofeyev on the top unit, but Mitch Marner will occupy Pavel’s spot in the circle opposite Jack Eichel. It seems like a small change, but it completely revamps the entire plan of attack for Vegas’ top power play unit.
VGK Top PP Unit
Stone
Eichel-Hertl-Marner
Theodore
There is plenty to like about the adjustment. There is also plenty that could go wrong.
Marner’s creativity
One of the VGK power play’s biggest issues in recent seasons has been its tendency to stagnate when the puck reaches Eichel. It felt like the only way for the unit to create something dangerous was for Eichel to take the lead. With Marner now operating on the other side, that’s no longer the case. The puck can start on either side of the ice in the hands of one of the world’s most creative players. Eichel’s main options remain to Mark Stone or Tomas Hertl, but the risky option of sending the puck all the way across to Dorofeyev has been replaced with a simpler drop-off pass to Theodore in the high slot. On the other side, Marner can find Stone on the back door, Hertl in the bumper, or Eichel on the far side.
Interchange opportunities
When the unit consisted of five forwards, Marner was essentially stapled to the blue line. Because he’s by far the most reliable of the group to get back and kill a shorthanded opportunity, he didn’t really have the freedom to move around and create new looks either on or off of the puck. With Theodore in the mix, Marner will have more freedom to try and find soft spots in the opposing kill by shifting his positioning. And, because Theodore is a left-hand shot, if he and Marner end up swapping places, Eichel regains the option to zip the puck through the seam for a one-timer.
Stone becomes more of a goal threat
Mark Stone is somewhat of a wizard with the puck underneath the goal line on the power play. The number of times he found ways to beat defending sticks to get the puck to either Hertl or across to Dorofeyev is astounding. In the new setup, especially when the puck is on Marner’s stick, Stone is much more likely to operate above the goal line as a backboard either for a tip, pass, or shot pass. Before, Stone’s only real chance to score goals was on the classic jam play or collecting rebounds. Now, he’ll be able to use his incredible hands to finish off plays that are actually designed for him. He suddenly becomes the most dangerous option on the ice, which could open up a few more lanes to pass the puck to Hertl in the bumper.
These added layers should bring more versatility to a unit that occasionally went stale. However, they also take away some of the elements that made it one of the NHL’s best power-play units.
Low percentage options
The new setup replaces the shooter on the opposite side of Eichel and instead asks Eichel to be the trigger man on the end of Marner’s passes. It’s a different role, so the opportunities to score will look much different, but Eichel scored just one power play goal last year on 52 shots, a 1.9% shooting percentage. Since arriving in Vegas, Eichel has just 22 power play goals in 315 games and is the only forward shooting less than 10%. He has an extremely dangerous shot and clearly possesses the talent to score goals; he just doesn’t always like to shoot. That’s much different than Dorofeyev and Jonathan Marchessault, who never saw a shot they wouldn’t take.
The other new option is just as low-percentage. When speaking about the new power play setup, Ryan Craig mentioned that Theodore becomes a shooting option in the high slot on passes from Eichel. That would mean a slap shot through traffic from about 70 feet away from the goal. In the last three seasons, Theodore has scored just two goals on slap shots despite attempting 74 slap shots. Meanwhile, Dorofeyev scored 35 goals on 151 shots, nearly a goal every four shots that were on frame. Replacing the highest-percentage option with two much lower-percentage ones raises serious concerns.
Hertl facing the wrong way
One of the Golden Knights’ most dangerous and certainly most aesthetically pleasing power-play plays is only available when Eichel has the puck, and nonexistent when Marner does. Eichel to Stone to Hertl is the quickest, most dangerous option the five-forward unit possessed. If they could hit it, they would, and it typically resulted in a goal. It’ll be much easier to defend now when Eichel or Stone are in possession because there’s no longer a shooter lurking on the far side. Meanwhile, when Marner has the puck, he won’t have the simple pass to Stone because he’ll be in the crease on the other side of the goalie, and the pass into the bumper is more difficult to receive because Hertl is left-handed. The simple tic-tac-toe play that has led to so many goals becomes much more complex, and significantly easier to defend.
Why mess with entries?
The other aspect Craig mentioned Theodore brings to the power play is the ability to skate the puck into the zone. He’s not wrong; Theodore is excellent on power play breakouts, but VGK’s entries were not a problem last season. Eichel has one of the better power play entry rates in the NHL. Theodore and Eichel on the same unit becomes redundant unless they can work together to generate chances off the rush, something Vegas did not get a lot of last season. Maybe together they can break through and find a few cheap chances before the penalty kill is set up, but it also opens the risk that the entries won’t be as smooth and consistent as they were when Eichel was at the controls. It wasn’t broken, so why fix it?
vgk21
the key to any PP is moving the puck QUICKLY…..handling the puck and dusting it off and SURVEYING your options, as Jack likes to do, just allows the opponent checkers and goalie to move over into position and easily block passing lanes and shot attempts.
Jack needs to use his one timer on passes from Theodore and Marner. and Hertl needs to get closer to the crease for rebounds and tipins and screening the goalie.
vgk21
News———-ROSTER has been trimmed down to near-opening night size.
The 28 players remaining in training camp with the Golden Knights are below.
FORWARDS (16): Ivan Barbashev, Braeden Bowman, Trevor Connelly, Nic Dowd, Jack Eichel, Marc Gatcomb, Tomas Hertl, Alexander Holtz, Brett Howden, William Karlsson, Tanner Laczynski, Raphael Lavoie, Mitch Marner, Victor Olofsson, Jonas Rondbjerg, Mark Stone
DEFENSEMEN (10): Rasmus Andersson, Dylan Coghlan, Noah Hanifin, Ville Heinola, Jeremy Lauzon, Brayden McNabb, Juho Piiparinen, Shea Theodore, Antti Tuomisto, Parker Wotherspoon
GOALTENDERS (2): Carter Hart, Adin Hill
FG
Shocking that they didn’t just plug Vegas Vic into Pavel’s old position. One of the big downgrades from Cassidy to Torts and now to Craig will be the success of the PP. Theo fumbling the puck at the blue line, Hertl shooting in the goalie, Marner and Eichel refusing to shoot. I see a train wreck heading down the tracks.
Jeffrey Sutton
Word.
larry
Im simply not buying into Oloffson and his value to the team or Power Play.
Im simply not buying into that Theodore is an option to skate the puck into the zone, I dont remember him doing so, its usually a function of Eichel and Karlsson on the 2nd unit.
I am certainly not buying Theodore at the point for 2 reasons, his penchant for fumbling at the blue line, and the lack of quickness to get his feet moving to defend against odd man defensive breakouts, which Marner does ever so well.
What I am buying into is putting Karlsson on the first unit in Pavel’s old spot, his quickness, puck recovering along the walls, ability to go to the net would free up much of the other offensive weaponry that makes the Power Play such a threat!.
Frank
I actually like this – as Eichel and Marner can create chances/mismatches down low. We’ll see how it works out…..