In this week’s edition of the NHL Power Rankings the Carolina Hurricanes maintain their hold on the top spot with a four-game winning streak that has been driven in part by their latest impact player: 19-year-old rookie Seth Jarvis.
Jarvis has a goal in three straight games for the Hurricanes (a stretch where he has also recorded 12 shots on goal) and looks to have secured a permanent spot on the roster and in the lineup.
Carolina is now 14-2-0 on the season owning the league’s best points percentage and goal differential.
On the other end of the rankings, the New York Islanders keep sliding down the rankings with a shorthanded lineup that is currently riding a six-game losing streak that has seen them score only six goals. There is still hope they can turn this around when they start getting some players back, but they have already given themselves quite a deficit to start the season.
Where does your team sit this week?
To this week’s NHL Power Rankings!
1. Carolina Hurricanes (Last Week: 1). As if their roster was not already good enough, here comes Jarvis to start making an impact.
2. Edmonton Oilers (LW: 2). Everybody knows about Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and their power play. But did you also know their penalty killing unit is second best in the NHL? Special teams is carrying this team right now.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (LW: 4). The offense gets all of the attention here, but they have been very good defensively and are getting outstanding goaltending. They have allowed two goals or less in 10 of their past 13 games.
4. Florida Panthers (LW: 7). Sergei Bobrovsky‘s bounce back is one of the more overlooked storylines in the league this season.
5. Washington Capitals (LW: 5). Every year you wonder if it is the year they will start to slow down. They never do.
6. Tampa Bay Lightning (LW: 6). Even when you take a couple of top-line players out of the lineup they just keep rolling.
7. Calgary Flames (LW: 14). They already have seven shutouts this season. This is what happens when Darryl Sutter hockey and great goaltending meet.
8. New York Rangers (LW: 10). It feels like Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad still have an even bigger breakout ahead of them this season. In the meantime, Igor Shesterkin is their MVP right now.
9. Vegas Golden Knights (LW: 11). Hopefully you did not count this team out during its slow start, because it is starting to roll and still has a lot of help on the way.
10. Colorado Avalanche (LW: 13). They have scored 24 goals over the past four games since Nathan MacKinnon left the lineup. Still an insanely deep team.
11. Minnesota Wild (LW: 3). The Wild’s transition from all defense/goaltending and no offense to all offense and no defense/goaltending the past two years has been fascinating to watch. They need more from their goalies this season.
12. Winnipeg Jets (LW: 9). Pierre-Luc Dubois very quietly has 10 goals and is averaging a point per game for the Jets this season. That trade might still work out.
13. Anaheim Ducks (LW: 12). Still not sure how good they actually are this season and if that winning streak was just a mirage. But it was fun to watch.
14. Boston Bruins (LW: 15). All of the talent is still there, and you can see it all starting to come together. Still think they could use somebody like, oh, say, Tuukka Rask, in goal for the long haul.
15. St. Louis Blues (LW: 8). Things have cooled off considerably here after a fast start. The Blue have just one regulation win (and only two wins overall) in their past eight games.
16. Nashville Predators (LW: 16). They had a nice hot streak here recently, but overall this is probably a pretty average ranking for a pretty average team.
17. Pittsburgh Penguins (LW: 23). Really nice weekend to get back-to-back shutouts in Montreal and Toronto. This is still a good team that is going to figure it out.
18. Dallas Stars (LW: 24). The Stars showed some signs of life this past week winning three out of four. But what a disaster in Minnesota. Not the game, but for the way Rick Bowness handled the last minute scratching of hometown kid Riley Tufte.
19. Columbus Blue Jackets (LW: 21). The Blue Jackets always seem to find a way to overachieve and be better than their roster looks.
20. Philadelphia Flyers (LW: 20). Great goaltending is elevating an ordinary Flyers team. Welcome to the bizarro Flyers season.
[Related: Carter Hart’s turnaround carrying Flyers right now]
21. New Jersey Devils (LW: 22). Dawson Mercer looks really good and has really stepped up offensively in the absence of Jack Hughes.
22. Chicago Blackhawks (LW: 25). It has not always looked pretty but they are 4-1-0 since the coaching change. Marc-Andre Fleury has a lot to do with that.
23. Los Angeles Kings (LW: 17). Since winning their season opener the Kings have gone on a six-game losing streak, that was followed by a seven-game winning streak, that is now being followed by an ongoing four-game losing streak. It all balances out to a .500 team.
24. Detroit Red Wings (LW: 19). This was never supposed to be a playoff season. Just see progress and hope young players develop. Both things are happening.
[Related: Calder Trophy Watch: Battle of Red Wings early on]
25. San Jose Sharks (LW: 26). They are 4-8-1 since that 4-0-0 start. Never jump to conclusions based on early season results.
26. New York Islanders (LW: 18). Just a confluence of bad things happening. The 13-game road trip to open the season, COVID protocols, injuries, bad luck on the ice. When they have a full roster you have to imagine this team can turn it around. But they are also facing a pretty big uphill climb.
27. Buffalo Sabres (LW: 28). Their moving up one spot has more to do with everybody below them being worse than anything they did.
28. Seattle Kraken (LW: 29). This is probably true for any team, but I want to see what this team looks like with good goaltending.
29. Vancouver Canucks (LW: 27). Such a frustrating situation. They have high-end talent at the top of the roster, but everything else here is just so average to below average and has been for seven years now.
30. Montreal Canadiens (LW: 31). At this point you are just hoping that players like Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki keep developing into impact players.
31. Ottawa Senators (LW: 30). Almost impossible to rate them right now given that they have not played in a week, and when they have played they have had a fraction of a roster.
32. Arizona Coyotes (LW: 32). After winning one of their first 15 games the Coyotes are now 3-0-1 in their past four games. Not the prettiest wins, but they are not going to turn them down right now.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.
NHL Power Rankings: Hurricanes find another impact player; Islanders struggling originally appeared on NBCSports.com