After last season was truncated to 56 games because of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ll have a full 82-game NHL schedule to work with for the 2021-22 season. Fantasy hockey owners will have to be more focused on depth for a season that could feel like a grind after last year’s sprint. That means crafting a 2021-22 Fantasy hockey draft strategy where you get value out of as many of your Fantasy hockey picks as possible is critical.
The 2021-22 NHL season begins on Oct. 12 with a doubleheader that features Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Pittsburgh Penguins in the opener, followed by the Seattle Kraken making their NHL debuts against the Vegas Golden Knights. There will be plenty of Fantasy-relevant players on all four teams and a reliable set of 2021-22 Fantasy hockey rankings will help you identify 2021-22 Fantasy hockey sleepers, breakouts and busts before the season gets underway.
Before setting your 2021 Fantasy hockey draft strategy, check out the Fantasy hockey rankings 2021-22 from the proven computer model at SportsLine.
Last year, the model predicted Andre Burakovsky would have a top-100 season despite the fact that he was going undrafted, and the Avalanche winger produced 19 goals and 25 assists in 53 games. It also predicted Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry wouldn’t live up to his top-70 Fantasy hockey ADP and he saw his GAA drop from 2.43 to 2.75 and his save percentage fall from .921 to .909 season over season.
The model was created by Mike McClure, a predictive data engineer and professional daily Fantasy player with almost $2 million in career winnings. He’s used his prediction model to simulate the entire 2021-22 NHL schedule 10,000 times and identify the top Fantasy hockey sleepers, breakouts and busts. Head to SportsLine now to see them.
McClure’s model takes factors such as player history, schedule, injuries and matchups into account to create the most unbiased 2021-22 Fantasy hockey rankings possible. Now the model has zeroed in on the 2021-22 NHL season, ranked every player, and found the top sleepers, breakouts and busts. See every pick here.
Top 2021-22 Fantasy hockey picks
One of the 2021-22 Fantasy hockey breakouts from SportsLine’s 2021-22 Fantasy hockey rankings: Florida Panthers goalie Spencer Knight. The No. 13 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft made his debut as a 19-year-old late last season and didn’t look daunted by the speed of the game at all.
Knight won all four of his regular-season starts and turned away 91 of the 99 shots he faced. Then he made two playoff starts and looked even better, posting a .933 save percentage and 2.06 GAA. Now he’s being given a clear chance to emerge from training camp and the preseason as the team’s No. 1 goalie. The model likes him to finish as a top-100 option overall in Fantasy hockey despite a current 2021-22 Fantasy hockey ADP of 178.
Another surprise: St. Louis Blues wing Vladimir Tarasenko ranks among 2021-22 Fantasy hockey sleepers. The two-time NHL All-Star helped lead the Blues to a Stanley Cup win in 2019 and had five consecutive 30-goal seasons before battling injuries the last two years.
Tarasenko only played in 10 games in 2019-20 and then only played 24 games in 2021 because of lingering shoulder injuries. However, Tarasenko says the shoulder is stable and strong heading into the 2021-22 season and at 29, he could still have plenty of great hockey left in him if he can stay healthy. The model ranks him as its No. 111 player in its 2021-22 Fantasy hockey rankings but he’s being drafted 195th overall on average.
How to find proven 2021-22 Fantasy hockey rankings
The model has also made a surprising call on new Blackhawks goalie and last year’s Vezina winner Marc-Andre Fleury, and it features a stunner in the top 10 you won’t want to miss. You can only see the latest Fantasy hockey rankings 2021-22 here.
So what’s the exact value of every NHL player in the 2021-22 Fantasy hockey rankings? And what surprising player cracked the top 10? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy hockey rankings, all from a DFS pro who has won almost $2 million in his career and has simulated the entire NHL season 10,000 times, and find out.
