The NHL regular season begins on Wednesday, Oct. 3, so if you play fantasy hockey, it’s time to set your keepers and prepare for your draft. This article outlines the top 250 players for fantasy hockey to help you do just that.
Fantasy hockey rankings are difficult to set, as leagues use different category settings. Some just have points, while others include a number of categories and those categories are often different. To give the best set of rankings possible, I used a weighted approach, with goals and assists being of the highest importance, followed by power-play points, plus-minus and shots, with a small amount of consideration given to hits, penalty minutes and blocked shots as well. The positions listed next to each player are based on eligibility in Yahoo Fantasy Hockey.
Top 250 Fantasy Hockey Rankings for the 2018-19 Season:
- Connor McDavid EDM C
- Nikita Kucherov TB RW
- Sidney Crosby PIT C
- Alex Ovechkin WSH LW
- Auston Matthews TOR C
- Evgeni Malkin PIT C
- Brad Marchand BOS LW
- Nathan MacKinnon COL C
- Blake Wheeler WPG C,RW
- Steven Stamkos TB C
- Tyler Seguin DAL C
- Jamie Benn DAL LW
- John Tavares TOR C
- Patrick Kane CHI RW
- Taylor Hall NJ LW
- Andrei Vasilevskiy TB G
- Connor Hellebuyck WPG G
- Patrik Laine WPG RW
- Brent Burns SJ D
- Phil Kessel PIT RW
- Claude Giroux PHI C,LW
- Vladimir Tarasenko STL RW
- Erik Karlsson SJ D
- David Pastrnak BOS RW
- Mark Scheifele WPG C
- Jack Eichel BUF C
- Johnny Gaudreau CGY LW
- Evgeny Kuznetsov WSH C
- Mitchell Marner TOR RW
- Victor Hedman TB D
- Jakub Voracek PHI RW
- Filip Forsberg NSH LW
- Anze Kopitar LA C
- Pekka Rinne NSH G
- Jonathan Marchessault VGK C,LW
- Tuukka Rask BOS G
- Artemi Panarin CBJ LW
- Sergei Bobrovsky CBJ G
- Joe Pavelski SJ C,RW
- Patrice Bergeron BOS C
- Dustin Byfuglien WPG D
- Jonathan Quick LA G
- Frederik Andersen TOR G
- Mikko Rantanen COL RW
- Leon Draisaitl EDM C,RW
- Matt Murray PIT G
- Aleksander Barkov FLA C
- P.K. Subban NSH D
- Roman Josi NSH D
- Marc-Andre Fleury VGK G
- Braden Holtby WSH G
- Martin Jones SJ G
- Drew Doughty LA D
- John Gibson ANA G
- Sean Couturier PHI C
- John Carlson WSH D
- Mathew Barzal NYI C
- John Klingberg DAL D
- Alexander Radulov DAL RW
- Vincent Trocheck FLA C
- Shayne Gostisbehere PHI D
- Evander Kane SJ LW
- Ryan Getzlaf ANA C
- Jaden Schwartz STL LW
- Seth Jones CBJ D
- William Karlsson VGK C,LW
- Devan Dubnyk MIN G
- Kristopher Letang PIT D
- Dougie Hamilton CAR D
- Brock Boeser VAN RW
- Brayden Schenn STL C
- Patric Hornqvist PIT RW
- Nicklas Backstrom WSH C
- Max Pacioretty VGK LW
- Sebastian Aho CAR RW
- Viktor Arvidsson NSH RW
- Sean Monahan CGY C
- Tyson Barrie COL D
- Torey Krug BOS D
- Mikael Granlund MIN C,RW
- Jonathan Huberdeau FLA LW
- William Nylander TOR C,RW
- Brayden Point TB C
- Cam Atkinson CBJ RW
- Jonathan Toews CHI C
- Mike Hoffman FLA LW,RW
- Rickard Rakell ANA LW,RW
- Mark Giordano CGY D
- Keith Yandle FLA D
- Alex Pietrangelo STL D
- Nikolaj Ehlers WPG LW,RW
- James Van Riemsdyk PHI LW
- Ben Bishop DAL G
- Matthew Tkachuk CGY LW
- Dylan Larkin DET C
- Gabriel Landeskog COL LW
- Jason Zucker MIN LW,RW
- Mark Stone OTT RW
- Logan Couture SJ C,LW
- Morgan Rielly TOR D
- Ryan Johansen NSH C
- Rasmus Dahlin BUF D
- Reilly Smith VGK LW,RW
- Eric Staal MIN C
- Brendan Gallagher MTL RW
- Zachary Werenski CBJ D
- Jeff Carter LA C
- Clayton Keller ARI LW,RW
- Ilya Kovalchuk LA LW,RW
- Chris Kreider NYR LW
- Carey Price MTL G
- Mike Smith CGY G
- Jake Gardiner TOR D
- Antti Raanta ARI G
- Wayne Simmonds PHI RW
- Tom Wilson WSH RW
- Jake Allen STL G
- Craig Smith NSH RW
- Jeff Skinner BUF LW
- Teuvo Teravainen CAR LW,RW
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson ARI D
- Cam Talbot EDM G
- Matt Duchene OTT C
- Aaron Ekblad FLA D
- Evgenii Dadonov FLA LW,RW
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins EDM C,LW
- Nico Hischier NJ C
- Mathew Dumba MIN D
- Ivan Provorov PHI D
- Anders Lee NYI LW
- Mats Zuccarello NYR RW
- Roberto Luongo FLA G
- Kyle Palmieri NJ RW
- T.J. Oshie WSH RW
- Dustin Brown LA LW,RW
- Kyle Connor WPG LW
- Nazem Kadri TOR C
- Jake Guentzel PIT LW
- J.T. Miller TB C,RW
- Pierre-Luc Dubois CBJ C,LW
- Kevin Fiala NSH LW,RW
- Rasmus Ristolainen BUF D
- Jordan Eberle NYI RW
- Ryan Suter MIN D
- Tyler Toffoli LA RW
- Derek Stepan ARI C
- Scott Darling CAR G
- Kyle Turris NSH C
- Bo Horvat VAN C
- Duncan Keith CHI D
- Anthony Mantha DET LW,RW
- Tomas Hertl SJ C,LW,RW
- Kevin Shattenkirk NYR D
- Semyon Varlamov COL G
- Cory Schneider NJ G
- Jake DeBrusk BOS LW
- Ryan O’Reilly STL C
- Alex DeBrincat CHI LW,RW
- Ryan Ellis NSH D
- Travis Konecny PHI LW,RW
- Colin Miller VGK D
- Elias Petterson VAN C
- Andrei Svechnikov CAR RW
- Josh Bailey NYI RW
- James Neal CGY RW
- Nick Bjugstad FLA C,RW
- Corey Perry ANA RW
- Mikhail Sergachev TB D
- Milan Lucic EDM LW
- Jonathan Drouin MTL C,
- Mikko Koivu MIN C
- Timo Meier SJ LW
- Yanni Gourde TB C,RW
- Mikael Backlund CGY C
- Jake Muzzin LA D
- Alex Galchenyuk ARI C,LW
- Tyler Johnson TB C,RW
- Sam Reinhart BUF C,RW
- Juuse Saros NSH G
- Joe Thornton SJ C
- Charlie McAvoy BOS D
- Oscar Klefbom EDM D
- Eeli Tolvanen NSH RW
- Erik Haula VGK C,LW
- David Krejci BOS C
- Brian Elliott PHI G
- Jakob Silfverberg ANA RW
- Henrik Lundqvist NYR G
- Jeff Petry MTL D
- Justin Faulk CAR D
- Filip Zadina DET LW
- Nick Leddy NYI D
- Cam Fowler ANA D
- Tyler Myers WPG D
- Patrick Marleau TOR C,LW
- Will Butcher NJ D
- Colton Parayko STL D
- Adam Henrique ANA C
- Elias Lindholm CGY C,RW
- Corey Crawford CHI G
- Carter Hutton BUF G
- Shea Weber MTL D
- Keith Kinkaid NJ G
- Thomas Chabot OTT D
- Thomas Vanek DET LW,RW
- Derick Brassard PIT C
- David Perron STL LW
- Ryan Donato BOS LW,RW
- Josh Anderson CBJ RW
- Mika Zibanejad NYR C
- Brandon Montour ANA D
- Casey Mittelstadt BUF C
- Alex Tuch VGK RW
- Jacob Trouba WPG D
- Kyle Okposo BUF RW
- Mattias Ekholm NSH D
- Josh Manson ANA D
- Patrick Maroon STL LW
- Shea Theodore VGK D
- Nolan Patrick PHI C
- Paul Stastny VGK C
- Gustav Nyquist DET RW
- Ryan Pulock NYI D
- Mathieu Perreault WPG LW
- Jacob Markstrom VAN G
- Nick Schmaltz CHI C,LW
- Brandon Saad CHI LW
- Alexander Steen STL RW
- Aaron Dell SJ G
- Alexander Edler VAN D
- Justin Schultz PIT D
- Nino Niederreiter MIN LW,RW
- Ondrej Palat TB LW
- Philipp Grubauer COL G
- Jesse Puljujarvi EDM RW
- Justin Williams CAR RW
- Mike Green DET D
- Max Domi MTL C,LW
- Dylan Strome ARI C
- Martin Necas CAR C
- Jack Roslovic WPG C
- Tyson Jost COL C,LW
- Jared Spurgeon MIN D
- Jaroslav Halak BOS G
- Jakub Vrana WSH LW,RW
- Petr Mrazek CAR G
- Pavel Buchnevich NYR RW
- James Reimer FLA G
- Miro Heiskenen DAL D
- Brady Tkachuk OTT LW
Draft Auston Matthews With the Fifth Overall Pick
Connor McDavid should always be chosen first overall in any fantasy hockey draft and some combination of Kucherov, Crosby and Ovechkin are likely to follow in picks two through four. Pick No. 5 is where things get interesting. You can go with a proven elite scorer like Malkin, Kane, Stamkos, Marchand or Tavares, a player that covers a lot of categories like Wheeler or Benn, or one of last year’s big breakout stars in MacKinnon or Hall. All are decent choices but my pick is Auston Matthews.
Matthews will have just turned 21 years old entering the season and has the talent to be a Hart Trophy candidate. He was a point per game player last season, scoring 34 goals and 63 points in 62 games (that’s a 45-goal pace for an 82-game season). That was despite playing on the Maple Leafs’ second power play unit and facing the opponent’s best defenders.
In 2018-19, with a boost to the top power-play unit and with Tavares taking some of the opposition’s attention away, 50 goals, 40 assists and 300 shots are not unreasonable targets for Matthews and it’s that high ceiling that has me taking him fifth overall in fantasy drafts.
Target Rookies in the Late Rounds of Your Draft
A number of rookies made big impacts to fantasy hockey rosters last season, including Clayton Keller, Matthew Barzal and Brock Boeser. Towards the end of your draft, rather than grabbing a mediocre veteran, it’s better to take a chance on a rookie with high upside. My rankings have Rasmus Dahlin, Elias Petterson, Andrei Svechnikov, Eeli Tolvanen and Filip Zadina as the top rookies to target, followed by Ryan Donato and Casey Mittelstadt and then a stack of them in the 235-250 range.
Position Scarcity is Important
As soon as the draft ends, the value of centres plummet and the value of goalies skyrocket. There are plenty of good centres and very few good goalies available. Wingers and defencemen fall in-between. My recommendation is to get at least one of the top 12 goalies, and then as soon as the top centres are gone (everyone up to Anze Kopitar), focus on filling out the rest of your goalies (three is usually a good number for standard leagues), your wingers and defencemen and then start to pick centres again.
Fantasy Hockey Resources
The Hockey Writers has a dedicated fantasy hockey page that you can keep an eye on for more content and advice. Goalie Rankings and Draft Strategy and Defencemen Rankings are also available. You can compare my rankings with other experts using Fantasy Pros Expert Consensus Rankings.
Daily Faceoff and Leftwinglock are also excellent resources as they update starting goalies and line combinations on a daily basis. As fantasy hockey expands in popularity, NHL.com now has a dedicated fantasy page as well.
