Fantasy Apple: Fantasy Hockey Rankings by Position

October is around the corner, which means it is fantasy hockey draft season!

As you may know by now, I fancy myself as the numbers guy on the Die By The Blade crew. On top of my analytical contributions to the 2019-20 season - of which there will be plenty - I have decided to offer up my services as your go-to advisor for the fantasy hockey season (unless you’re in my leagues...then go away). Whether it’s fulfilling daily fantasy needs, or, in this case, gaining an advantage in your season-long league, just keep your stick on the ice as I hope to feed you the game-winning assist.

So, what better way to start than with some position rankings? My database is updated as of September 25th, and breaks down each player’s projections at even-strength, special teams, player usage and roles, and team performance. In order to keep things clear-cut, I will simply provide a list of the top projected fantasy players at each position for the upcoming season. I will leave the position value or auction price up to you, since many leagues vary in procedure.

So without further ado, here are the lists:

Keep in mind that I used Yahoo’s default scoring settings for head-to-head points leagues as the basis for these projections.

Center

1. Patrice Bergeron, BOS - I know, I KNOW! He may be the surprise number one at center (roll your eyes if you wish), but consistency across the board renders Bergeron the most valuable at his position. With Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak flanking his line, and the Bruins poised for another strong season, Bergeron’s expected goal total outvalues the NHL’s best talent.
2. Connor McDavid, EDM
3. John Tavares, TOR
4. Nathan MacKinnon, COL
5. Auston Matthews, TOR
6. Tyler Seguin, DAL
7. Sidney Crosby, PIT
8. Jack Eichel, BUF - Eichel has steadily climbed up fantasy rankings each year and after a strong performance last season, he looks to improve on those numbers and establish himself as a top 10 center in fantasy circles
9. Sean Monahan, CGY
10. Steven Stamkos, TBL
11. Dylan Larkin, DET
12. Aleksander Barkov, FLA
13. Eric Staal, MIN
14. Sebastian Aho, CAR
15. Mika Zibanejad, NYR
16. Mathew Barzal, NYI
17. Jonathan Toews, CHI
18. Nico Hischier, NJD
19. Brayden Schenn, STL
20. Sean Couturier, PHI
21. Evgeni Malkin, PIT
22. Matt Duchene, NSH
23. Logan Couture, SJS
24. Pierre-Luc Dubois, CBJ
25. Tomas Hertl, SJS

26. Brayden Point 27. Derek Stepan 28. Ryan Getzlaf 29. Elias Pettersson 30. Nazem Kadri 31. Paul Stastny 32. Anze Kopitar 33. Ryan O’Reilly 34. Mark Scheifele 35. Evgeny Kuznetsov 36. Nicklas Backstrom 37. Colin White 38. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 39. William Karlsson 40. Vincent Trocheck 41. Mikael Backlund 42. Max Domi 43. Dylan Strome 44. Bo Horvat 45. Kevin Hayes 46. Phillip Danault 47. Jack Hughes 48. Filip Chytil 49. Roope Hintz 50. Jordan Staal

Left Wing

1. Timo Meier, SJS - Two-for-two on surprises, eh? Meier grades out as the top left wing in my projections as the benficiary of a good line, good team, and very strong individual metrics. He scores a high percentage of his goals around the goalmouth, so his expected goal total projects to remain very high. He ranks significantly lower in Yahoo’s default rankings, so sit awhile on him and make sure to thank me later for stealing a top player in a mid-round.
2. Brady Tkachuk, OTT - The Senators may be in for a tough season, but the younger Tkachuk will be a major bright spot for Ottawa’s present and future. He’s another one that will be a steal in mid-rounds. If you miss out on Meier, take Tkachuk.
3. Alex Ovechkin, WSH
4. Jamie Benn, DAL
5. Taylor Hall, NJD
6. Jason Zucker, MIN
7. Anders Lee, NYI
8. Jonathan Huberdeau, FLA
9. James van Riemsdyk, PHI
10. Jonathan Marchessault, VGK
11. Viktor Arvidsson, NSH
12. Evander Kane, SJS
13. Zach Parise, MIN
14. Gabriel Landeskog, COL
15. Jeff Skinner, BUF - Coming off a 40-goal season, Skinner projects really well again this season. Talent-wise, he is clearly the Sabres’ top left winger. That won’t necessarily get him back on Eichel’s line, however, as they have yet to be put together at even strength this preseason. Still, he edges out the competition on his team at his position in the rankings (barely...)
16. Nino Niederreiter, CAR
17. Jake Guentzel, PIT
18. Victor Olofsson, BUF - What? Is it Sabres bias? Well...actually...no. I just come up with the algorithm, and the numbers tell me the rest. My model projects Olofsson so high because of his metrics and production at the NHL level, his projected spot on Eichel’s wing, and his likely spot on the Sabres’ top power-play unit. My advice would be to wait until the final rounds to take a flyer on him if you don’t have Sabres fans in your league, or, if you do, hope they happen to miss this post! Let that be a lesson to never miss a post from us again.
19. Chris Kreider, NYR
20. Artemi Panarin, NYR
21. Jaden Schwartz, STL
22. Tyler Bertuzzi, DET
23. Leon Draisaitl, EDM
24. Claude Giroux, PHI
25. Matthew Tkachuk, CGY

26. Rickard Rakell 27. Nikolaj Ehlers 28. Brad Marchand 29. Andreas Johnsson 30. Andreas Athanasiou 31. Alex DeBrincat 32. Johnny Gaudreau 33. Kyle Connor 34. Max Pacioretty 35. Alex Galchenyuk 36. Jake DeBrusk 37. Micheal Ferland 38. Zach Hyman 39. Gustav Nyquist 40. Tyler Johnson 41. Mikael Granlund 42. Frank Vatrano 43. Tanner Pearson 44. Jonathan Drouin 45. Tomas Tatar 46. Nick Ritchie 47. Jakub Vrana 48. Brandon Saad 49. Clayton Keller 50. Oskar Lindblom

Right Wing

1. Brendan Gallagher, MON - Gallagher grabs the top spot at right wing because of his high expected goal metrics and power play contributions. Another one that gets to high danger scoring areas consistently, Gallagher found synergy last season on Montreal’s top line with Danault and Tatar.
2. Nikita Kucherov, TBL
3. Cam Atkinson, CBJ
4. Vladimir Tarasenko, STL
5. Blake Wheeler, WPG
6. Filip Forsberg, NSH
7. David Pastrnak, BOS
8. Phil Kessel, ARI
9. Andrei Svechnikov, CAR
10. Mitch Marner, TOR
11. Joe Pavelski, DAL
12. Patrick Kane, CHI
13. Evgeny Dadonov, FLA
14. Kyle Palmieri, NJD
15. Ondrej Kase, ANA
16. Travis Konecny, PHI
17. Mark Stone, VGK
18. Alex Radulov, DAL
19. Patric Hornqvist, PIT
20. Anthony Mantha, DET
21. Jordan Eberle, NYI
22. Sam Reinhart, BUF - A pretty safe pick, if he’s available. Whether he’s playing with Eichel all season or not, Reinhart has shown he can produce either way.
23. Brock Boeser, VAN
24. Reilly Smith, VGK
25. Kevin Fiala, MIN

26. Dustin Brown 27. Tyler Toffoli 28. Mikko Rantanen 29. Elias Lindholm 30. Jakub Voracek 31. Patrik Laine 32. Conor Garland 33. Tom Wilson 34. William Nylander 35. Craig Smith 36. Kevin Labanc 37. Jakob Silfverberg 38. James Neal 39. Pavel Buchnevich 40. Andrew Shaw 41. Oliver Bjorkstrand 42. Wayne Simmonds 43. Teuvo Teravainen 44. Dominik Kahun 45. Ondrej Palat 46. T. J. Oshie 47. Alex Tuch 48. J.T. Miller 49. Josh Anderson 50. Jeff Carter

Defense

1. Roman Josi, NSH - Josi takes the top spot at defense thanks to an offensively improved Nashville team. With P.K. Subban leaving town, Josi no longer has competition for quarterbacking the first power play unit and free rein to rack up the additional points as a result.
2. Brent Burns, SJS
3. John Carlson, WSH
4. Erik Karlsson, SJS
5. Dougie Hamilton, CAR
6. Victor Hedman, TBL
7. Seth Jones, CBJ
8. Morgan Rielly, TOR
9. Kris Letang, PIT
10. Jacob Trouba, NYR
11. Mark Giordano, CGY
12. Alex Edler, VAN
13. Alex Pietrangelo, STL
14. Erik Gustafsson, CHI
15. Ryan Pulock, NYI
16. Shea Weber, MON
17. Mikhail Sergachev, TBL
18. John Klingberg, DAL
19. Darnell Nurse, EDM
20. Thomas Chabot, OTT
21. Torey Krug, BOS
22. Oscar Klefbom, EDM
23. Shayne Gostisbehere, PHI
24. Zach Werenski, CBJ
25. Tyson Barrie, COL

26. Josh Morrissey 27. Matt Dumba 28. P.K. Subban 29. Shea Theodore 30. Tyler Myers 31. Ryan Ellis 32. Duncan Keith 33. Aaron Ekblad 34. Rasmus Dahlin 35. Michal Kempny 36. Rasmus Ristolainen 37. Brent Seabrook 38. Drew Doughty 39. Erik Johnson 40. Sami Vatanen 41. Radko Gudas 42. Nate Schmidt 43. Ivan Provorov 44. Jakob Chychrun 45. Justin Schultz 46. Oliver Ekman-Larsson 47. Jaccob Slavin 48. Ryan Suter 49. Jeff Petry 50. Marc-Edouard Vlasic

Goaltender

1. John Gibson, ANA - If Anaheim gets back into the playoffs this season, it will be because of Gibson. His advanced goaltending metrics are unparalled by any of the others at his position, and should lead to a bunch of saves above average. Of course wins play a major role in fantasy goaltending, and that may be the one thing working against his case. Still, Gibson stands at the top of the hill.
2. Pekka Rinne, NSH
3. Ben Bishop, DAL
4. Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL
5. Devan Dubnyk, MIN
6. Antti Raanta, ARI
7. Frederik Andersen, TOR
8. Sergei Bobrovsky, FLA
9. Connor Hellebuyck, WPG
10. Marc-Andre Fleury, VGK
11. Philipp Grubauer, COL
12. Joonas Korpisalo, CBJ
13. Robin Lehner, CHI
14. Carey Price, MON
15. Cory Schneider, NJD
16. Matt Murray, PIT
17. Carter Hart, PHI
18. Semyon Varlamov, NYI
19. Martin Jones, SJS
20. Carter Hutton, BUF - The impending starter for the Buffalo Sabres, Hutton doesn’t quite project in the top half of the league for fantasy purposes. If he can return to his 2017-2018 form, however, that can certainly change.
21. Jordan Binnington, STL
22. Brayden Holtby, WSH
23. Tuukka Rask, BOS
24. Craig Anderson, OTT
25. Jimmy Howard, DET

26. Jonathan Quick 27. Henrik Lundqvist 28. Jacob Markstrom 29. David Rittich 30. Petr Mrazek 31. Mike Smith 32. Darcy Kuemper 33. Jake Allen 34. Keith Kinkaid 35. Anders NIlsson 36. Cam Talbot 37. Juuse Saros 38. Ryan Miller 39. Jack Campbell 40. Alex Stalock 41. Anton Khudobin 42. Linus Ullmark 43. Corey Crawford 44. James Riemer 45. Curtis McElhinney 46. Jonathan Bernier 47. Alexandar Georgiev 48. Casey DeSmith 49. Aaron Dell 50. Malcolm Subban