November 10, 2009
Player Power Rankings
'A' for Anderson

by Tom Awad

Five weeks into the NHL season, it's a good time to take a first look at who are the MVPs of the league so far. The Puck Prospectus metric GVT (Goals vs. Threshold) allows us to compare players at every position to determine who the true leaders are. It's difficult for defensive specialists to distinguish themselves over such a short period, so early in the year the list is dominated by scorers and goaltenders, as you can see:

Puck Prospectus: Player Power Rankings

While a few of the National Hockey League's brightest stars make the top 10, there are many new faces at the top of the leaderboard in the early going.

   Player                  Off./Goalie GVT  Def. GVT   Shootout GVT  Total GVT 
1. Craig Anderson, G, COL   12.2             -0.5       -0.2          11.8 
The story of the NHL so far this year. He's played 16 of 17 games for the
Avalanche and excelled in all of them. 

2. Ryan Miller, G, BUF       8.0              0.1        1.4           9.5 
Leads the NHL in save percentage with .936. The Sabres are aiming to make up
for missing the playoffs last season. 

3. Evgeni Nabokov, G, SJ     7.7              0.2       -0.2           7.7 
In his last six games, Nabokov has a GAA of 0.96 and save percentage of .965. 

4. Ilya Bryzgalov, G, PHO    6.3              0.4        0.7           7.4 
Is there a streakier player in the NHL? Bryzgalov's GVT last season was 
minus-2, 940th in the league. 

5. Anze Kopitar, F, LAK      6.2              1.3       -0.2           7.3 
Kopitar has finally broken out as an offensive superstar, and he's only 22.
 The Kings are the new Blackhawks. 

6. Alex Ovechkin, F, WAS     5.8              0.8        0.3           6.9 
The NHL's premier offensive player was on track for one of the finest goal-
scoring seasons of all time before his injury. The Capitals can't wait for his 
return. 

7. Antero Niittymaki, G, TB  6.9             -0.2        0.2           6.9 
Unwanted in Philadelphia despite being a fine backup, Niittymaki is making 
believers out of Tampa fans. 

8. Marian Gaborik, F, NYR    4.9              1.3        0.0           6.2 
Nobody expected the Rangers to be fourth in the conference, and Gaborik is one
big reason why. 

9. Ray Emery, G, PHI         5.5              1.0        0.6           6.1 
The Flyers were mocked when they trusted their goaltending to Emery during the
offseason. No longer. 

10. Patrick Marleau, F, SJS  4.6              1.4       -0.2           5.8 
No longer the captain, Marleau continues to lead the Sharks by example. One of
the few offensive stars who kill penalties. 

A version of this story originally appeared on ESPN Insider .

Tom Awad is an author of Hockey Prospectus. You can contact Tom by clicking here or click here to see Tom's other articles.