Camp Battles: The Power-Play and First-Line Jobs Still Open
Every top power-play unit and first-line job our depth charts still have open, ranked by what the job is worth in points. 68 of them across 31 clubs.
A camp battle is worth exactly what the ice time behind it is worth, and that is a number rather than an opinion. The gap between a first power-play unit and a second is real minutes, measured per club from what the two units actually played, and those minutes are where power-play points come from. So every contest below carries the points the job itself is worth over a season, and they are ranked by that instead of by how interesting they sound.
None of this predicts who wins. It says what is at stake if he does, which is the part a draft board can actually use.
The power play
52 first-unit jobs are open, across 30 clubs. This is the half that moves a fantasy season furthest: power-play minutes are worth more per minute than any others, and the men on the ice for them are the ones who finish.
| # | Club | Holds it | Chasing | Worth | We rate higher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TOR | John Tavares (67.8) | Gavin McKenna (53.0) | 10.1 | Tavares |
| 2 | LAK | Mats Zuccarello (53.2) | Alex Laferriere (45.2) | 9.9 | Laferriere |
| 3 | VAN | Filip Hronek (45.0) | Zeev Buium (31.3) | 9.8 | Hronek |
| 4 | DAL | Miro Heiskanen (58.6) | Thomas Harley (46.4) | 9.7 | Heiskanen |
| 5 | CAR | Jackson Blake (51.1) | Logan Stankoven (44.6) | 9.4 | level |
| 6 | ANA | Jackson LaCombe (52.4) | Pavel Mintyukov (23.4) | 9.3 | LaCombe |
| 7 | CHI | Teuvo Teravainen (40.9) | Roman Kantserov (48.0) | 9.3 | Kantserov |
| 8 | PHI | Jamie Drysdale (25.5) | Cam York (24.8) | 9.2 | York |
| 9 | SEA | Jordan Eberle (42.5) | Bobby McMann (35.2) | 9.2 | McMann |
| 10 | DET | Viktor Arvidsson (42.6) | Emmitt Finnie (38.1) | 9.1 | Finnie |
| 11 | BUF | Jason Zucker (39.9) | Zach Benson (45.4) | 8.6 | Zucker |
| 12 | CGY | Zayne Parekh (13.7) | Simon Nemec (22.9) | 8.4 | Nemec |
| 13 | OTT | Jake Sanderson (62.5) | Carter Yakemchuk (26.0) | 8.4 | Sanderson |
| 14 | WSH | Jakob Chychrun (52.6) | Cole Hutson (25.0) | 8.4 | Chychrun |
| 15 | BOS | JJ Peterka (53.6) | Elias Lindholm (50.8) | 8.0 | Lindholm |
The five biggest, man for man
Press either name to hand him the job and watch the projections move. The number under each man already assumes an outcome, which is the part a table cannot say. Beneath each is the rest of the unit he would be joining, because a promotion is a promotion into something.
Even strength
16 first-line jobs, a smaller number and a different question. A first-line winger who loses his job still plays and still scores; a first-unit winger who loses his stops getting power-play points more or less entirely.
| # | Club | Holds it | Chasing | Worth | We rate higher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FLA | Carter Verhaeghe (56.5) | Brady Tkachuk (76.0) | 6.2 | Tkachuk |
| 2 | UTA | Nick Schmaltz (66.0) | Dylan Guenther (72.8) | 5.5 | Guenther |
| 3 | DAL | Mikko Rantanen (97.4) | Roope Hintz (67.1) | 5.0 | Rantanen |
| 4 | MTL | Cole Caufield (81.0) | Ivan Demidov (69.2) | 5.0 | Caufield |
| 5 | OTT | William Eklund (62.9) | Dylan Cozens (58.5) | 4.8 | Cozens |
| 6 | NSH | Luke Evangelista (53.9) | Steven Stamkos (53.6) | 4.7 | Stamkos |
| 7 | TBL | Anthony Cirelli (54.0) | Brayden Point (73.4) | 4.7 | Point |
| 8 | CAR | Nikolaj Ehlers (65.7) | Jackson Blake (51.1) | 4.1 | Ehlers |
| 9 | PHI | Christian Dvorak (39.8) | Owen Tippett (47.8) | 4.0 | Tippett |
| 10 | PIT | Rickard Rakell (58.1) | Egor Chinakhov (35.6) | 3.9 | Rakell |
The five biggest, man for man
Reading the tables
Worth is the projected points the job carries over and above what the man who loses it gets. We rate higher names whichever of the two our projection prefers, ignoring who currently holds the job. Where it names the chaser, the job is the only thing standing between them and that is the contest worth a late pick. Where it names the incumbent, he is holding a job we think is his. Where it says level, the two are inside half a point and this model cannot separate them.
Where the most is at stake
TOR, and it is not close. John Tavares holds it, Gavin McKenna is chasing, and the job is worth 10.1 points. 1.40 more min/game on PP1 (measured PP1 vs PP2 minutes) John Tavares projects 67.8 points off 17.5 minutes a night last season; Gavin McKenna projects 53.0 off 16.0.
We rate the chaser higher in 30 of the 68 contests. Those are the ones worth a late pick: the market prices the depth chart as it stands, and the depth chart is the thing being argued about. The other 38 are incumbents we expect to hold on, where the challenger is a lottery ticket rather than a value.
34 are ones the model itself calls live, which is a different question from who is better. A job can be genuinely open between two players we rate far apart, and it can be settled between two we rate the same. Where those two judgements disagree is usually where the interesting draft-day argument is.
Power play against even strength
52 of these are first power-play units, across 30 clubs. 16 are first-line jobs. That ratio is itself the point: a power-play promotion moves a fantasy season further than an even-strength one, because the minutes are worth more per minute and because the men on the ice for them are the ones who finish.
It also means the two contests want different responses. A first-line winger who loses his job still plays; a first-unit winger who loses his stops getting power-play points almost entirely, and power-play points are a category in most leagues.
How the number is built
Points at stake are the difference between what the model projects for a man in the contested role and what it projects for the same man in the role he falls to. The unit minutes are measured per club rather than assumed, so a team that runs one unit for most of a power play is priced differently from one that rolls both evenly.
Nothing here reports a coach's decision. These are the jobs our depth chart says are contested, and where the chart is wrong the contest is wrong with it. The chart is corrected by hand as lines are confirmed through camp, and this article is regenerated from it rather than rewritten.
Projections are for the 2026-27 season, which runs 84 games. Depth charts, unit assignments and camp battles are our own. Generated August 25, 2026.