As the NHL season creeps closer, talk of the annual fantasy pools start to heat up. Whether you take part in a keeper league, a head to head league, or just a straight up points league, nothing feels better then coming out on top and having exclusive bragging rights for the offseason. Every season brings a new wave of players to the table who are eligible to be drafted onto your winning team, but there are always going to be the elite players who make the cut year in and year out.
I asked some of the other writers here at 2PS to give me their list of their top targets for this season. Not surprisingly, many of the players on their lists are the same. I went with the format of having to draft 10 forwards, 5 defensemen, and 3 goalies. Here are the results:
Ryan Womeldorf
Fowards –
Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Evgeni Malkin, Claude Giroux, Alex Ovechkin, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Tyler Seguin
Defense –
Erik Karlsson, Shea Weber, Duncan Keith, PK Subban, Victor Hedman
Goalies –
Tuuka Rask, Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick
Sean Wu
Fowards –
Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Evgeni Malkin, Claude Giroux, Alex Ovechkin, Jamie Benn, Nicklas Backstrom, John Tavares
Defense –
Erik Karlsson, Shea Weber, Duncan Keith, Alex Pietrangelo, Drew Doughty
Goalies –
Tuuka Rask, Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick
Marie Sevior
Fowards –
Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane, Tyler Seguin, Evgeni Malkin, Claude Giroux, Alex Ovechkin, Phil Kessel, Taylor Hall, John Tavares
Defense –
Erik Karlsson, Shea Weber, PK Subban, Alex Pietrangelo, Kris Letang
Goalies –
Tuuka Rask, Carey Price, Jonathan Quick
My Picks
Fowards –
Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane, Tyler Seguin, Evgeni Malkin, Claude Giroux, Alex Ovechkin, Jonathan Toews, Taylor Hall, John Tavares
Defense –
Erik Karlsson, Shea Weber, PK Subban, Alex Pietrangelo, Kris Letang
Goalies –
Tuuka Rask, Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick
Sports websites like tsn.ca, espn.com, and nhl.com always have “fantasy lists” prior to the season starting to help out in your selection process. These are invaluable tools that can give you not only lists of top projected players, but the reasoning behind their choices as well. I highly recommend doing some research before heading into your fantasy draft, as knowledge is most definitely power when it comes to picking then right players for your roster!
Best of luck with your pools!
You can follow James on Twitter: @hashtagswag604
