The 2021-22 NHL season gets underway on Oct. 12, and that means Fantasy hockey owners across the continent are honing their 2021-22 Fantasy hockey draft strategy. Connor McDavid has clearly separated himself as the most valuable player in Fantasy hockey after a huge season where he put up 105 points during the pandemic-shortened 56-game campaign. However, if you don't have the No. 1 overall pick, things become more tightly bunched quickly.
Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon are all forwards who have a case for going No. 2, and even goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy belongs in the mix. A reliable set of 2021-22 Fantasy hockey rankings can help you nail your first-round picks and help identify the 2021-22 Fantasy hockey sleepers, breakouts and busts throughout drafts. 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 SportsLine has identified: Canadiens wing Cole Caufield. The 20-year-old from Stevens Point, Wis., is a dynamic goal scorer despite his 5-foot-7 frame. At the University of Wisconsin, Caufield had 49 goals and 39 assists in 67 games. After signing his entry-level contract late last season, it didn't take him much time to prove he can score at the highest levels too.
Caufield had three goals and an assist in two games with the Canadiens' AHL affiliate ,and then he registered four goals and an assist in 10 regular-season games with Montreal. He followed that up by registering 12 points (four goals and eight assists) during 20 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the Canadiens. Now he seems bound to be on one of Montreal's scoring lines and the model has him finishing nearly 40 spots ahead of his 2021-22 Fantasy hockey ADP of 148.
Another surprise: Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov fails to live up to his preseason hype and goes down among the 2021 Fantasy hockey busts. The 24-year-old is a former top-10 pick and he's already entering his sixth season in the NHL. Thus far, he's been a solid defender with a heavy shot who has scored 50 goals over his first five seasons from the blue line.
But the skills as a puck mover and facilitator haven't shown themselves just yet and it's limited Provorov's offensive potential. He's never had more than 24 assists in a season, and that's going to make it incredibly hard for him to live up to his 2021 Fantasy hockey ADP of 29. In fact, the model ranks Provorov outside its top 150, so he'd be a big risk in the first few rounds.
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.
