The hockey season is upon us. There are NHL rookie tournaments and camps starting up as early as today, with the World Cup of Hockey getting going for real this weekend.
As a result, there are fantasy leagues firing up all over the world, with drafts taking place every day.
To help make sure you are as prepared as possible, our THW fantasy team — headed up by Andrew Forbes — is in the process of providing fantasy outlook previews for all 30 teams.
This series will highlight each team’s top performers, as well as underrated and overrated performers, plus sleeper, bounce-back and breakout candidates, potential impact rookies and goaltending situations from a fantasy perspective.
The Pacific Division team previews are linked below, followed by a full ranked recap of the candidates for each of those eight categories ahead of the 2016-17 season.
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″]San Jose Sharks[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]Anaheim Ducks[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]Los Angeles Kings[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]Arizona Coyotes[/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″]Edmonton Oilers[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]Calgary Flames[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]Vancouver Canucks[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column]
Connor McDavid is providing a glimmer of hope for the Edmonton Oilers and will be key to the success of fantasy teams this season too.
Top Performers
Ranked from most desirable to least.
EDMONTON: Connor McDavid, C
SAN JOSE: Brent Burns, D and Joe Pavelski, RW/C
CALGARY: Johnny Gaudreau, LW and Mark Giordano, D
LOS ANGELES: Anze Kopitar, C
ARIZONA: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D
VANCOUVER: Henrik Sedin, C and Daniel Sedin, LW
ANAHEIM: Corey Perry, RW
Loui Eriksson will be wingmanning it for the Sedin twins in Vancouver, which will certainly boost his fantasy value.
Underrated Performers
Ranked from most underrated to least.
VANCOUVER: Loui Eriksson, RW
LOS ANGELES: Jake Muzzin, D
ANAHEIM: Sami Vatanen, D
EDMONTON: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C and Adam Larsson, D
CALGARY: Mikael Backlund, C and T.J. Brodie, D
SAN JOSE: Joe Thornton, C
ARIZONA: Michael Stone, D, Connor Murphy, D and Kevin Connauton, D
Dennis Wideman had his run-in with the linesman last season, but his run as a fantasy player will likely come to an end this season.
Overrated Performers
Ranked from most overrated to least.
CALGARY: Dennis Wideman, D
VANCOUVER: Alex Burrows, RW and Jannik Hansen, RW
ANAHEIM: Ryan Kesler, C
SAN JOSE: Patrick Marleau, LW/C
LOS ANGELES: Drew Doughty, D
ARIZONA: Martin Hanzal, C
EDMONTON: Leon Draisaitl, C/RW
Mikkel Boedker is back playing for his junior coach in San Jose and could be a fantasy steal with the Sharks.
Fantasy Sleepers
Ranked from best sleepers to worst.
SAN JOSE: Mikkel Boedker, LW and Tomas Hertl, LW/C
ARIZONA: Alex Goligoski, D
CALGARY: Troy Brouwer, RW
VANCOUVER: Philip Larsen, D
ANAHEIM: Nick Ritchie, LW
EDMONTON: Brandon Davidson, D
LOS ANGELES: Teddy Purcell, LW/RW
Logan Couture was held back by injury last season, but look for him to bounce back after leading the entire league in playoff scoring.
Bounce-Back Candidates
Ranked from most likely to bounce back to least.
SAN JOSE: Logan Couture, C
VANCOUVER: Alexander Edler, D and Brandon Sutter, C
ANAHEIM: Ryan Getzlaf, C and Mason Raymond, LW
LOS ANGELES: Marian Gaborik, RW and Dustin Brown, RW
CALGARY: Michael Frolik, RW
EDMONTON: Nail Yakupov, RW and Zack Kassian, RW
ARIZONA: Radim Vrbata, RW and Luke Schenn, D
Sam Bennett is an exciting young talent for the Calgary Flames and he’s bound to break out this season.
Breakout Candidates
Ranked from most likely to break out to least.
CALGARY: Sam Bennett, C
EDMONTON: Oscar Klefbom, D
VANCOUVER: Sven Baertschi, LW
ANAHEIM: Jakob Silfverberg, RW
SAN JOSE: Joonas Donskoi, RW and Chris Tierney, C
ARIZONA: Connor Murphy, D and Kevin Connauton, D
LOS ANGELES: Brayden McNabb, D
Impact Rookies
Ranked from most likely to make an impact to least.
Dylan Strome was selected third overall in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by the Arizona Coyotes and should debut this season.
ARIZONA: Dylan Strome, C, Christian Dvorak, C/LW, Lawson Crouse, LW, Anthony DeAngelo, D and Jakob Chychrun, D
ANAHEIM: Shea Theodore, D
CALGARY: Matthew Tkachuk, LW
EDMONTON: Jesse Puljujarvi, RW
SAN JOSE: Timo Meier, LW, Nikolay Goldobin, LW and Markus Sorensen, RW
VANCOUVER: Anton Rodin, RW and Nikita Tryamkin, D
LOS ANGELES: Michael Mersch, LW and Adrian Kempe, LW
Jonathan Quick is probably still the best fantasy goaltender in the Pacific Division, but several starters could be nipping at his heels this season.
Goaltending
Ranked from most desirable to least.
LOS ANGELES: Jonathan Quick and Peter Budaj/Jeff Zatkoff/Tom McCollum/Jack Campbell
SAN JOSE: Martin Jones and Aaron Dell/Mantas Armalis
ANAHEIM: John Gibson and Jonathan Bernier
VANCOUVER: Jacob Markstrom and Ryan Miller
CALGARY: Brian Elliott and Chad Johnson
EDMONTON: Cam Talbot and Jonas Gustavsson/Laurent Brossoit
ARIZONA: Mike Smith and Louis Domingue
For similar previews on the teams from the NHL’s other three divisions, follow these writers:
Brandon Share-Cohen — Central Division
Andrew Forbes — Atlantic Division
James Harding — Metropolitan Division
That trio, along with myself and a few other contributors, will have you covered throughout the fantasy season with a wide variety of articles available on our Fantasy Hockey home page.