March 10, 2010
Player Power Rankings
No Olympic Bounce

by Tom Awad

The Puck Prospectus metric GVT (goals versus threshold) allows us to compare players at every position to determine who the true leaders are. With the Olympics behind us, the NHL's stars return to league play, in which Ryan Miller and Sidney Crosby don't stack up to the league's current top dog.

Puck Prospectus: Player Power Rankings

Nabokov is still atop the rankings, but it's too bad for Miller that the Olympics don't count toward our NHL leaderboard.

Legend:

OGVT: Offensive GVT

GGVT: Goaltending GVT

DGVT: Defensive GVT

SGVT: Shootout GVT

GVT: Total GVT

Rank Player                    Last Week   OGVT/GGVT    DGVT    SGVT     GVT
1.   Evgeni Nabokov, G, SJ      1          27.5        -0.7     2.8     29.6  

Comment: Nabokov may well be the NHL's best regular-season goalie this season, but his Olympic performance didn't reassure Sharks fans who worry about him melting on the biggest stage. Regardless, he soon will tie Martin Brodeur's NHL record for consecutive 40-win seasons with three.

2.   Ryan Miller, G, BUF        3          30.1        -0.6    -1.4     28.1  

Comment: With his play at the Olympics, Miller probably locked up the Vezina Trophy in the minds of the voters, even though it is awarded uniquely for NHL play. He's been strong in his two games since the break.

3.   Tomas Vokoun, G, FLA       4          31.9        -2.0    -2.9     27.0  

Comment: Another casualty of the salary cap: Vokoun stayed in place on deadline day, even though the Panthers were selling and he is better than half of the No. 1s who will lead their teams to the playoffs.

4.    Alex Ovechkin, F, WAS     2          23.0         3.5    -0.7     25.7    

Comment: Ovechkin has been pretty subdued since the Olympics, with one assist in three games, but the Capitals have such a good team now that they won all three regardless. Ovechkin's sights are already on the playoffs.

5.    Sidney Crosby, F, PIT     5          17.6         2.9     2.8     23.4    

Comment: Crosby has two remaining objectives for this regular season: lead the Penguins to the division title, avoiding a difficult first-round matchup, and win the scoring title. He's on track for both.

6.    Craig Anderson, G, COL    7          22.7        -0.7    -0.5     21.5    

Comment: Anderson has had one of the most trying schedules since the Olympic break, with four games in six nights, but he's been equal to the task with a .919 save percentage.

 
7.    Henrik Sedin, F, VAN      6          16.4         3.9     0.0     20.4   

Comment: The road doesn't suit Sedin very well. In 31 home games this season, he has 17 goals and 32 assists. In 32 road games, he has eight goals and 26 assists.

8.    Ilya Bryzgalov, G, PHO    9          17.4         0.4     2.3     20.2  

Comment: Amazingly, Bryzgalov's numbers are no better than they were two seasons ago, when the Coyotes missed the playoffs. There are two differences: The team has gotten better, and Bryzgalov plays 85 percent of its games as opposed to the 65 percent he played in 2007-08.

9.    Duncan Keith, D, CHI     10          11.7         7.3     0.0     19.0  

Comment: Keith is the biggest reason the goaltending controversy in Chicago might not matter. The Blackhawks rank second in the NHL in goals for and first in shots against.

10.   Nicklas Backstrom, F, WAS 8          15.5         2.7     0.1     18.3  

Comment: Backstrom led Team Sweden in scoring on a team with the Sedins, Daniel Alfredsson and Henrik Zetterberg. How scary is it that he is only 22?

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.