Which Edmonton Oiler you should draft on your NHL fantasy team

The 2024–25 NHL season is a little over a month away. Hopefully your fantasy league is waking up from the summer break and making plans for draft day. If not, give the group a nudge and get those competitive juices flowing.

My goal is to provide you with a list of player rankings that can be applied to any league format. I respect that many leagues add categories to provide extra layers of enjoyment. Just like others remove some of the more nuanced criteria to keep things simple. Today’s top 100 players are ranked based upon a wide, yet balanced group of stat categories:

Skaters: G, A, +/-, PPP, SHP, SOG, HIT, BLK
Goalies: W, GAA, SV, SV%, SO

With so many categories factored, you can be sure that players who contribute in multiple aspects of the game are rewarded over those with a distinct player profile. A good example of this is Filip Forsberg, who added 144 hits and 44 blocks to his 48 goal total last season vaulting him to 17th in the coming list. The more categories that a player can contribute towards, the better insulated their value becomes for us to project for draft day.

Rank	Name	Team	Pos	Age
1	Connor McDavid	EDM	C	27
2	Nathan MacKinnon	COL	C	29
3	Auston Matthews	TOR	C	27
4	David Pastrnak	BOS	RW	28
5	Leon Draisaitl	EDM	C,LW	29
6	Nikita Kucherov	TB	RW	31
7	Mikko Rantanen	COL	RW	28
8	Brady Tkachuk	OTT	C,LW	25
9	J.T. Miller	VAN	C,RW	31
10	Matthew Tkachuk	FLA	LW	27
11	Kirill Kaprizov	MIN	LW	27
12	Elias Pettersson	VAN	C	26
13	Jack Hughes	NJ	C,LW	23
14	Jason Robertson	DAL	LW	25
15	Cale Makar	COL	D	26
16	William Nylander	TOR	C	28
17	Filip Forsberg	NSH	LW	30
18	Steven Stamkos	NSH	C,LW	34
19	Sidney Crosby	PIT	C	37
20	Roman Josi	NSH	D	34
21	Mitch Marner	TOR	RW	27
22	Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	D	24
23	Zach Hyman	EDM	LW,RW	32
24	Artemi Panarin	NYR	LW	33
25	Evan Bouchard	EDM	D	25
26	Sam Reinhart	FLA	C,RW	29
27	Connor Hellebuyck	WPG	G	31
28	Seth Jarvis	CAR	C,RW	22
29	Adrian Kempe	LA	C,RW	28
30	Sebastian Aho	CAR	LW	27
31	Mika Zibanejad	NYR	C	31
32	Chris Kreider	NYR	LW	33
33	Joel Eriksson Ek	MIN	C	27
34	Igor Shesterkin	NYR	G	29
35	Jeremy Swayman	BOS	G	26
36	Jake Oettinger	DAL	G	26
37	Vincent Trocheck	NYR	C	31
38	Timo Meier	NJ	LW	28
39	Andrei Svechnikov	CAR	LW,RW	24
40	Jake Guentzel	TB	LW	30
41	Brayden Point	TB	C	28
42	Sergei Bobrovsky	FLA	G	36
43	Jack Eichel	VGK	C	28
44	Tage Thompson	BUF	C,RW	27
45	Dylan Larkin	DET	C	28
46	Aleksander Barkov	FLA	C	29
47	Stuart Skinner	EDM	G	26
48	Wyatt Johnston	DAL	C,RW	21
49	Quinn Hughes	VAN	D	25
50	Adam Fox	NYR	D	26
51	Juuse Saros	NSH	G	29
52	Andrei Vasilevskiy	TB	G	30
53	Noah Dobson	NYI	D	24
54	MacKenzie Weegar	CGY	D	30
55	Jesper Bratt	NJ	LW,RW	26
56	Thatcher Demko	VAN	G	29
57	Elias Lindholm	BOS	C	30
58	Nico Hischier	NJ	C	25
59	Moritz Seider	DET	D	23
60	Jacob Markstrom	NJ	G	34
61	Alex Ovechkin	WAS	LW	39
62	Kyle Connor	WPG	LW	28
63	Carter Verhaeghe	FLA	C,LW	29
64	Josh Morrissey	WPG	D	29
65	Tim Stutzle	OTT	C	22
66	Ilya Sorokin	NYI	G	29
67	Connor Bedard	CHI	C	19
68	Victor Hedman	TB	D	34
69	Robert Thomas	STL	C	25
70	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	EDM	C,LW	31
71	Mathew Barzal	NYI	C,RW	27
72	Nazem Kadri	CGY	C	34
73	John Tavares	TOR	C	34
74	Travis Konecny	PHI	LW,RW	27
75	Brad Marchand	BOS	LW	36
76	Owen Tippett	PHI	LW,RW	25
77	Clayton Keller	UTA	LW,RW	26
78	Alex Tuch	BUF	RW	28
79	Bryan Rust	PIT	RW	32
80	Mark Scheifele	WPG	C	31
81	Brandon Montour	SEA	D	30
82	Matt Boldy	MIN	LW,RW	23
83	Alex DeBrincat	DET	LW,RW	27
84	Kevin Fiala	LA	LW	28
85	Morgan Rielly	TOR	D	30
86	Roope Hintz	DAL	C	28
87	Nick Suzuki	MON	C	25
88	Dougie Hamilton	NJ	D	31
89	Frank Vatrano	ANH	LW	30
90	Linus Ullmark	OTT	G	31
91	Tomas Hertl	VGK	C	31
92	Brock Boeser	VAN	RW	27
93	Bo Horvat	NYI	C	29
94	Brock Nelson	NYI	C	33
95	Drake Batherson	OTT	RW	26
96	Miro Heiskanen	DAL	D	25
97	Charlie McAvoy	BOS	D	27
98	Adin Hill	VGK	G	28
99	Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen	BUF	G	25
100	Alexandar Georgiev	COL	G	28

Which player to keep an eye on

The Edmonton Oilers have players holding high ranking positions on this list. It’s no surprise to see Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the top of your fantasy drafts. Drafting these players is a matter of positional fortune. Let’s look past the first round and talk a little more about the Oilers mentioned in our top 100 who you have an option to select, no matter your draft position.

Zach Hyman (LW,RW) – Rank 23

Zach Hyman scored 18 more goals in 2023–24 than he did in 2022–23 bring his total to a career high 54. His left wing/power play combination along side McDavid is one of the most desirable positions you can seek for a player in your upcoming draft. Don’t overthink this pick, Hyman makes a fantastic selection at the end of Round 2. Should you be fortunate enough to get the first overall pick in you’re upcoming draft, consider stacking McDavid and Hyman together for maximum upside.

Evan Bouchard (D) – Rank 25

Hot on the heels of the previously mentioned Zach Hyman, is Evan Bouchard. Perhaps the most exciting young defenceman in the NHL. Bouchard is well worth the draft capital that it will cost to select him early in the third round of drafts. At just 25-years-old, his fantasy value and output is still rising. Bouchard is a +34 player who plays the point on Edmonton’s PP1 unit adjacent to McDavid and Draisaitl.

Stuart Skinner (G) – Rank 47

Another young star rising in the NHL. The hometown hero is just 26 years of age and gained intangible characteristics by the boatload during Edmonton’s 2023–24 playoff run. We can project continued and increasing success for Skinner, who ranked T-third in wins and fourth in GP during last year. With Edmonton comfortable in its position with Calvin Pickard as its backup goaltender, we can expect another season with 60 or more games played. The kind of volume, coupled with Edmonton’s lofty projected win total makes skinner an easy choice as you top goaltender late in the fourth round of drafts.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (C,LW) – Rank 70

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins set career high totals in 2022–23 in all major statistical categories. Everything went right for him, perhaps highlighted by an 18.4 SH%. The 2023–24 season became a let down for fantasy managers drafting him with 100 point expectations. Look to select Nugent-Hopkins in the sixth or seventh rounds of your fantasy drafts this season with expectations close to the 75 point mark skating L1/PP1 to start the season.

Thanks for checking in on the top 100 fantasy players to draft in 2024–25. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to draft preparation. League winning values come from all levels of fantasy hockey drafts. Enjoy the process and keep checking in for more fantasy hockey content throughout the year.

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Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire