Ranking All 32 NHL Squads' Special Teams With The '100 Rule'

Ken Hitchcock, who coached Dallas, Philadelphia, Columbus, St. Louis and Edmonton during a Hall of Fame career, used to say if an NHL team’s combined power-play and penalty-kill rate was below 100 percent, “you’re in trouble.”

He was right, though teams can sometimes overcome poor special teams play with dominance at even strength and with outstanding goaltending.

Hitchcock arrived at his “100 Rule” by simply adding a team’s power-play percentage to its penalty-kill percentage. Hence, if a team had, say, a 20-percent rate on the power play and killed 85 percent of its penalties, it would be in good standing with a 105 total.

The special teams numbers in the chart below show why Winnipeg (tops in special teams with a 112.4 percentage), New Jersey (second at 110.2), Washington (fourth at 107.4) and Carolina (fifth at 106.8) are among the NHL’s best teams. All four are also strong at even strength.

Based on Hitchcock’s 100 Rule, these are the teams in trouble unless their 5-on-5 play or goaltending is very good: Los Angeles, Columbus, Detroit, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Jose, Buffalo, Calgary, St. Louis, Minnesota, Boston, Anaheim and the New York Islanders. All are below 100 percent, some just barely, others to an alarming degree.

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Heading into the games on Jan. 28, Minnesota has a combined special-teams percentage of just 89.6 – far below the 100 Rule. The Wild are 29th in special teams in the 32-team NHL. Yet, the Wild rank eighth in the league standings, thanks to their goaltending and solid 5-on-5 play, where they scored 97 goals and conceded 88 for a 10th-best 52.43 goals-for percentage, per naturalstattrick.com.

When you examine the special teams’ numbers, it’s amazing that the New York Islanders are even in the playoff race. They are last on the power play and penalty kill and have a ridiculously low 80.2 rate – by far the worst in the league, behind next-to-last Anaheim (86.4).

Chicago would be a contender if it only had to play on special teams. The Blackhawks have the eighth-ranked special teams but the 31st-most points. Blame the Blackhawks' atrocious 5-on-5 play: their goals-for percentage is 30th in the NHL. The same can be said for Pittsburgh and Nashville – two teams with great special teams but among the league’s bottom four at 5-on-5 goals-for percentage.

Here is a look at the 32 NHL teams and where they rank in combined play of their special (or not so special) teams, with stats heading into Jan. 28:

Special Teams Above 100 Percent

1. Winnipeg Jets: 112.4 percent (33.3 power-play percent, 79.1 penalty-kill percent)

2. New Jersey Devils: 110.2 (28.1 PP, 82.1 PK)

3. Tampa Bay Lightning: 109.8 (27.9 PP, 81.9 PK)

4. Washington Capitals: 107.4 (22.6 PP, 84.8 PK)

5. Carolina Hurricanes: 106.8 (21.1 PP, 85.7 PK)

6. Vegas Golden Knights: 105.6 (28 PP, 77.6 PK)

7. Pittsburgh Penguins: 105.5 (26.2 PP, 79.3 PK)

8. Chicago Blackhawks: 104.6 (23.7 PP, 80.9 PK)

9. Nashville Predators: 104 (22.1 PP, 81.9 PK)

10. Dallas Stars: 103.9 (19.2 PP, 84.7 PK)

11. New York Rangers: 103.7 (20.3 PP, 83.4 PK)

12. Utah Hockey Club: 103.6 (21.9 PP, 81.7 PK)

13. Florida Panthers: 103.3 (24.2 PP, 79.1 PK)

14. Vancouver Canucks: 102.6 (22.6 PP, 80 PK)

15. Toronto Maple Leafs: 102.1 (21.6 PP, 80.5 PK)

16. Montreal Canadiens: 102 (20.3 PP, 81.7 PK)

17. Edmonton Oilers: 101.8 (24.4 PP, 77.4 PK)

18. Ottawa Senators: 101.1 (22.2 PP, 78.9 PK)

19. Colorado Avalanche: 100.4 (20.5 PP, 79.9 PK)

Special Teams Below 100 Percent

20. Los Angeles Kings: 97.8 (15.9 PP, 81.9 PK)

21. Columbus Blue Jackets: 97.4 (22.6 PP, 74.8 PK)

22. Detroit Red Wings: 97.4 (27.8 PP, 69.6 PK)

23. Seattle Kraken: 95.3 (18.3 PP, 77 PK)

24. Philadelphia Flyers: 94.9 (16.4 PP, 78.5 PK)

25. San Jose Sharks: 94.5 (17.8 PP, 76.7 PK)

26. Buffalo Sabres: 94.3 (16.7 PP, 77.6 PK)

27. Calgary Flames: 92.4 (21.2 PP, 71.2 PK)

28. St. Louis Blues: 90.6 (18.8 PP, 71.8 PK)

29. Minnesota Wild: 89.6 (19.4 PP, 70.2 PK)

30. Boston Bruins: 89.4 (13.4 PP, 76 PK)

31. Anaheim Ducks: 87.5 (13.4 PP, 74.1 PK)

32. New York Islanders: 80.2 (11.9 PP, 68.3 PK)

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