2013 Stats: 14.6%, 24th out of 30, Patrick Maroon led with 12 PPG and Kyle Palmieri was second with 7.
Projected First Unit: Like in the shootout article I've done, I do not know who will be here and with a few players having a chance to stay in Anaheim it could be a big change in special teams.
Scenario 1: Patrick Maroon – Peter Holland – Emerson Etem for the forwards and Sami Vatanen – Kevin Gagne on the blue line. Etem and Maroon worked out well in Norfolk in the second half of the season. Sami is a huge threat from the blue line and another skilled defender that can move and shoot the puck on the ice at the same time could be crazy awesome.
Scenario 2: – Charlie Sarault, Steven Whitney, and I would try to get Devante Smith-Pelly playing confident again and put on the power play. For the defenders I’d go with Hampus Lindholm and I would put Gagne out there for this unit too. I don’t think Mat Clark or Nolan Yonkman would be a good fit on the power play and Stefan Warg and Teigan Zahn probably won’t be big offensively this season, if Zahn makes the team at all. This would be a very young but talented unit.
Last Person I want on the Ice during PP: Zack Stortini – He had just 6 points last season and honestly he will probably just be in the penalty box or on the bench anyway.
Changes from Last Year: I would hope that the power play gets better than last season's. There wasn't a shortage of talent at all but the Admirals just couldn't be consistently good with the man advantage. A big problem that I recall is not screening the goalie enough, with big skaters like DSP or Maroon in front of a goalie they did well. Also shooting the puck is very important to scoring goals and they would always make one pass too many or just lose control of the puck completely.