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NHL Power Rankings; Islanders Mock Drafts

By Dominik
John Tavares and Jordan Staal face-off at the Jeff Norton & Rich Pilon Tribute Center in Pittsburgh, Penn.
John Tavares and Jordan Staal face-off at the Jeff Norton & Rich Pilon Tribute Center in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Are you ogling the NHL Draft yet? Yeah, don't lie.

Naturally nhl.com is. They have two mock drafts from scouts this month -- positioning the Islanders with the 5th pick -- which have the Isles selecting defenseman Mathew Dumba in one and "power winger" Filip Forsberg in the other.

The wild card is Alex Galchenyuk, Sarnia's talented Russian center who missed essentially the whole season with an ACL injury. He's back for the playoffs and scoring again like it's no problem. He's arguably top-two talent, so monitor the playoffs and bet he certainly won't drop to 19 (as one scout had him) or even 5 (where he is in the mock draft in the first link above).

There will be plenty of time to draft-gaze once the games are over, but I know some of you will want to talk and talk and talk it over from here on out. So there's a discussion bone. Another bone before we get to the power rankings: Bob McKenzie tells Quebec to chill.

Now to the weekly power rankings...

Survey of Media Power Rankings

Here is the weekly roundup of media rankings and commentary. Links take you to the overall rankings. Commentary is what specifically was penned about the Isles.

This week: Burnside gets new material! (No, not really.) The Islanders added a couple of wins (well, a shootout win and a regulation win), but it was against two of Canada's worst three teams so that's not going to move the needle much.

Outlet Rank Last Week Their Commentary
CBSSports 25 23
 Matt Moulson's production has gone up every season he has been a member of the Islanders.
THN
(Proteau)		 26 27
 Isles tied for fourth in shootout wins (7) and Frans Nielsen is almost singlehandedly responsible: he has seven shootout goals and no other Islander has more than two.
ESPN
(LeBrun)		 27 26 Led by John Tavares & Co., the offense is in good hands for years to come. But that 27th-ranked defensive record tells the tale. This club needs an upgrade on the blue line but also needs its five-man units to buy in defensively.
Sportsnet 25 26 Imagine the press this guy would get if he played for a contender. With his three-assist night in Toronto last week, John Tavares has now played an impressive nine games in which he has registered three or more points.
TSN
(Cullen)		 24 25 3-2-2 in their last seven, the Islanders are teetering on the verge of playoff elimination, but haven't quite been bounced yet, but with one regulation win in the last nine, the end is certainly near.
Fox 27
 27 The Isles will try to finish off a solid road trip in Pittsburgh as part of a six-game stretch against playoff-bound opponents. Matt Moulson has raised his scoring total for the third consecutive year and has seven goals in March.
Average
25.6
 25.6 John Tavares and Matt Moulson have 65 goals between them. This I know.

For reference, here is last week's power rankings post.

Real Power Rankings

And now on to our weekly "real" power rankings courtesy of Mike, or ICanSeeForIslesAndIsles (who is the one you'll find tirelessly compiling FIG picks in the game thread), who conceived and delivers these week after week. They are calculated in true "power ranking" fashion -- i.e. how well teams fare based on their opponents' records.

These tables are through Monday's games. Buffalo keeps climbing, climbing, climbing -- they may deserve a playoff spot yet:
W L OTL Pts Pct PWR
1 NY Ready for Disappointments 47 21 7 101 0.673 2057
2 St. Louis 47 20 9 103 0.678 2044
3 Pittsburgh 47 22 6 100 0.667 2024
4 Vancouver 46 21 9 101 0.664 1985
5 Detroit 46 25 5 97 0.638 1940
6 Philadelphia 44 24 8 96 0.632 1903
7 Nashville 44 24 8 96 0.632 1900
8 Chicago 42 26 8 92 0.605 1819
9 Boston 44 28 3 91 0.607 1816
10 New Jersey 42 28 6 90 0.592 1805
11 Los Angeles 37 27 12 86 0.566 1761
12 San Jose 39 27 10 88 0.579 1754
13 Phoenix 37 27 13 87 0.565 1744
14 Florida 36 24 15 87 0.580 1739
15 Ottawa 39 28 10 88 0.571 1725
16 Dallas 41 30 5 87 0.572 1711
17 Colorado 40 32 6 86 0.551 1679
18 Washington 38 30 8 84 0.553 1667
19 Buffalo 37 29 10 84 0.553 1661
20 Calgary 35 27 15 85 0.552 1655
21 Tampa Bay 35 33 7 77 0.513 1562
22 Winnipeg 35 33 8 78 0.513 1555
23 Anaheim 32 33 11 75 0.493 1521
24 Carolina 30 31 15 75 0.493 1518
25 Toronto 33 34 9 75 0.493 1493
26 NY Islanders 31 33 11 73 0.487 1486
27 Minnesota 31 34 10 72 0.480 1479
28 Montreal 29 34 13 71 0.467 1447
29 Edmonton 31 36 9 71 0.467 1439
30 Columbus 24 45 7 55 0.362 1116