Which NHL team has the deepest offense so far?

Three weeks worth of games does not a season make. But with just a little under a month of the 2016-17 season in the books, we already have a pretty good idea of what is working – or not working – for teams around the league. That includes team depth, both up front and on the blue line.

Typically when it comes to scoring goals early in a hockey season the spotlight is focused on the stars of the team, the players that are expected to be atop the NHL Leaders lists. But when those top scorers are sidelined with injury or going through a dry spell, it’s up to offensive depth – the bottom lines, special teams, guys off the bench – to pick up that slack.

However some teams have more offensive wiggle room than others. And some teams have already put that depth on display during the October Hockey stretch. Here’s a look at the deepest, and not-so-deep, offenses in the NHL through the first few weeks.

Atlantic Division
Deep: The two most interesting teams in this division, at least so far, have been Tampa Bay and Montreal. Not coincidentally, those are the two clubs showing the most offensive depth so far this season.

For the Bolts, their offense looks just as threatening on the ice as it does on paper. In addition to the Lightnings’ heavy hitters notching goals – some guy named Steven Stamkos is playing great hockey right now – bottom six players such as Valtteri Fippila and Cedric Paquette have been making contributions.

The newly rejuvenated Habs have also found contributions from their bottom lines, like current fourth line center Torrey Mitchell registering three goals in five games – including one in Montreal’s highly-entertaining tilt with Tampa Bay last week. It also doesn’t hurt that the Habs have a stellar scoring defenseman in offseason acquisition Shea Weber.

Not-So-Deep: The Buffalo Sabres’ depth was tested right from the start of the season, with top dogs Jack Eichel and Evander Kane sidelined. Unlike other clubs in the same position, they haven’t found a scoring solution.

Buffalo has a very green bottom six, and although they have produced a couple goals over the last five or so games, it still wasn’t enough to keep them from dropping four straight games. (To their credit, though, the only game in which they didn’t score was on October 27, against a very tough Minnesota Wild team.) Even once Eichel and Kane return (Kane reportedly could return in November) Buffalo doesn’t have a whole lot of scoring support behind them.

Metropolitan Division
Deep: The defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins instantly come to mind when discussing teams that are demonstrating offensive depth early in the 2016-17 campaign.

The spotlight at the opening of the season was, of course, focused on Sidney Crosby being out with a concussion. But he was on an injured list that included fellow forward Conor Sheary as well as defenseman Kris Letang and goalie Matt Murray.

Pittsburgh has, however, gotten a boost from the bottom of the lineup, like from fourth-liner Matt Cullen who tallied three assists in a five game span. Pittsburgh has also had production from its other big players – Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Patrick Hornqvist registered three goals a piece through the team’s first eight games. (All of Kessel and Hornqvist’s markers have come on the power play, which had a 25% success rate for Pittsburgh through eight games, ranking them seventh overall  in the league.)

Not-So-Deep: Despite having a roster full of names that typically strike fear in their opponents eyes, the Washington Capitals are in odd territory as of late due to a lack of scoring up and down the lineup. In fact, just last week they are tied with the Buffalo Sabres for fewest goals scored so far this season.

Washington’s collective puck possession is top notch, but the puck isn’t finding the back of the net outside of captain Alex Ovechkin scoring four goals in a five game stretch. Coach Barry Trotz has been forced to juggle all of this lines to try to ignite find some offense from bottom six players such as winger and fantasy favorite Andre Burakovsky hasn’t found the back of the net since October 13. (Granted they could be turning things around, as Trotz moved T.J. Oshie down to the third line with Burakovsky and put Tom Wilson on the second line and the Capitals grabbed a much-needed win on Saturday night over the Canucks.)

Central Division
Deep: Here is where you insert some really bad bun about the Central Division being the “Wild” West, because Minnesota’s resident hockey franchise is on a serious tear these days.

Sure a lot of that can be attributed to netminder Devan Dubnyk and his hot streak that includes two consecutive shutouts. But the off-season additions of Chris Stewart and Eric Staal to the offense have really helped propel them to the top of the Central. Their offensive attack has been balanced so far in the early season, with all but four players tallying at least one goal so far, (Staal leads the team with four goals, while Ryan Suter’s seven assists has him leading the team with a whopping 10 points.)

Not-So-Deep: Forget “depth” scoring, the St. Louis Blues haven’t been scoring goals at all. Heading into last Saturday’s tilt with the LA Kings, the Blues had only scored one goal in four of their past five games. Granted it only took one goal to beat LA that night, as netminder Jake Allen blanked the Kings to lead the Blues to a 1-0 victory. After the win Blues’ bench boss Ken Hitchcock reportedly defended the win and was happy that one goal got the job done. Going down the stretch however, everyone from the Jaden Schwartz-centered second line on down will have to find the back of the net if they want to win more games.


Pacific Division
Deep: Although the Edmonton Oilers are the darlings of the Western Conference these days, I wouldn’t say they have proven to have a deeper offensive corps than they had last season. We can revisit that if Connor McDavid and/or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins get sidelined with injury and Milan Lucic carries the entire team.

The defending Western Conference champion San Jose Sharks are the team whose offensive depth should be standing out to everyone, with their faceoffs improving and their bottom six looking lethal—San Jose’s fourth line contributed a goal in Team Teal’s 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday, while the third line combo centered around Tomas Hertl is creating some of the team’s best scoring chances. Having a scoring defensemen like Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic on your squad adding to the offensive force probably doesn’t hurt either.

Not-So-Deep: Nobody expected the Vancouver Canucks to kick off the 2016-17 campaign as well as they did. Then after winning four straight games to open up the season,  they promptly lost five straight. The culprit? Difficulty  scoring. Even with some positive moves in the off-season, like the addition of winger Loui Eriksson, Vancouver still puts too much weight on the shoulders of the Sedin twins to carry the offense. Unless youngsters like Jake Virtanen and Bo Horvat step up, it looks like this will be another season in which the Canucks will struggle offensively.