It\u2019s worth taking a closer look at players who changed teams over the past three seasons.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to assume that some of them turned out to be just as influential as the league\u2019s biggest names.<\/p>\n
The only thing to keep in mind is that the fewer games a player has appeared in, the less representative his Impact and Impact\/60 numbers will be.<\/p>\n
A good example is Sean Monahan \u2014 the same center who made noise alongside Voronkov and Marchenko in the 2024\u201325 season. Monahan played only 54 games, during which his team outscored opponents 53\u201328 (+25). Without him, the Blue Jackets\u2019 2024-25 numbers were 148\u2013151 (\u20133). His overall Impact is solid at +28, but his Impact\/60 stands out even more \u2014 2.07, about 25% higher than Voronkov\u2019s or Marchenko\u2019s mark. Monahan was clearly a key piece for Columbus, but his sample size is simply too small for a fair comparison.<\/p>\n
Among players who changed teams in the past three years but played at least 123 games for one of them, one name stands out \u2014 perhaps surprisingly \u2014 Mattias Ekholm in Edmonton. Many have credited him with stabilizing the Oilers\u2019 defense, and the numbers back that up.<\/p>\n
In 165 games with Edmonton, the Oilers outscored opponents 174\u2013111 (+63) with him on the ice, compared to 244\u2013253 (\u20139) without him. His Impact is an impressive +72, and his Impact\/60 sits at 1.39 \u2014 good enough for fourth place in our rankings, between MacKinnon (1.45) and Cole Caufield (1.35).<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the top five most influential players who changed teams in the past three years and played at least 100 games for one of their clubs.<\/p>\n
Player<\/p>\n
Team<\/p>\n
GP<\/p>\n
TOI\/GP<\/p>\n
Impact\/60<\/p>\n
With<\/p>\n
Without<\/p>\n
Impact<\/p>\n
Mattias Ekholm<\/p>\n
EDM<\/p>\n
165<\/p>\n
17:31<\/p>\n
1,39<\/p>\n
63<\/p>\n
-9<\/p>\n
72<\/p>\n
Alex DeBrincat<\/p>\n
DET<\/p>\n
164<\/p>\n
14:02<\/p>\n
0,95<\/p>\n
17<\/p>\n
-48<\/p>\n
65<\/p>\n
Brock Nelson<\/p>\n
NYI<\/p>\n
225<\/p>\n
14:03<\/p>\n
0,86<\/p>\n
44<\/p>\n
-4<\/p>\n
48<\/p>\n
Jake Guentzel<\/p>\n
PIT<\/p>\n
128<\/p>\n
15:21<\/p>\n
0,66<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
-14<\/p>\n
30<\/p>\n
Mikko Rantanen<\/p>\n
COL<\/p>\n
211<\/p>\n
16:46<\/p>\n
0,64<\/p>\n
43<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
33<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also worth noting that Brock Nelson\u2019s Impact\/60 dropped significantly after being traded to Colorado, while Jake Guentzel\u2019s jumped noticeably after joining Tampa Bay. Mikko Rantanen, meanwhile, was more of a disruptive element in Carolina but reached new heights in Dallas.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll have more on that in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s worth taking a closer look at players who changed teams over the past three seasons. It\u2019s easy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,971,897,230,5179,6815,3543,5,1944,21,4,42497,14499,975,2566],"class_list":{"0":"post-289984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-cole-caufield","11":"tag-columbus","12":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","13":"tag-columbusbluejackets","14":"tag-dmitri-voronkov","15":"tag-hart-trophy","16":"tag-hockey","17":"tag-kirill-marchenko","18":"tag-montreal-canadiens","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-nhl-analytics","21":"tag-nhl-mvp","22":"tag-nick-suzuki","23":"tag-zach-werenski"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115510298787739848","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}