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Fantasy Hockey: Breakout Candidates

September 27, 2017, 4:10 PM ET [26 Comments]
Lucas Neilson
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When describing a breakout candidate for fantasy hockey I am zeroing in on players who are going to take a big jump in points. Some of them will be rookies, some sophomores and others will be players who had good seasons last year but are going to really explode this season. There will be a mix of different types of breakout players to choose from.

Keep in mind some of the jumps in points are only 10 points, but going from a 50 to 60 points player is a big jump.

It’s up to you to gauge where you would want to pick up one of these players in your draft pending on the categories and what players are available when you see their name pop up.

A lot of things factor into the best possible fantasy hockey draft, knowing when to grab a player who is available when he should have already been taken is one of the key factors. Knowledge of your ranks helps a ton, so be sure to have a list prepared for forwards, defense and goaltenders so you are not scrambling to make your picks.

Hopefully this list of breakout candidates helps solidify your roster in the middle and later rounds of your draft. Most people don’t have problems picking quality named players in the first handful of rounds. It’s the depth picks that really make a difference, remember that!

Breakout candidates:

Anaheim:
(D) Brandon Montour – my projection: 28-30 points – last season 6 points in 27 games.

Arizona:
(F) Clayton Keller – my projection: 43 points – rookie

Boston:
(D) Charles McAvoy – my projection: 33 points – last season 3 assists in 6 playoff games (NHL)

Buffalo:
(F) Sam Reinhart – my projection 57 points – last season 47 points in 79 games

Calgary:
(F) Matthew Tkachuk – my projection 56 points – last season 48 points in 76 games

Carolina:
(F) Sebastian Aho – my projection 60 points – last season 49 points in 82 games

Chicago:
(F) Nick Schmaltz – my projection 40 points – last season 28 points in 61 games

Colorado:
(F) Mikko Rantanen – my projection 55 points – last season 38 points in 75 games

Columbus:
(D) Zach Werenski – my projection 61 points – last season 47 points in 78 games

Dallas:
(D) Julius Honka – my projection 28 points – rookie

Detroit:
(F) Anthony Mantha – my projection 55 points – last season 36 points in 60 games

Edmonton:
(F) Kailer Yamamoto – my projection 40 points – rookie

Florida:
(F) Evgeni Dadonov – my projection 48 points – last season KHL 66 points in 53 games

Los Angeles:
(F) Adrian Kempe – my projection 37 points – rookie

Minnesota:
(F) Joel Eriksson Ek – my projection 41 points – last season 7 points in 15 games

Montreal:
(F) Brendan Gallagher – my projection 51 points – last season 29 points in 64 games

Nashville:
(F) Kevin Fiala – my projection 45 points – last season 16 points in 54 games

New Jersey:
(F) Nico Hischier – my projection 44 points – rookie

New York Islanders:
(F) Josh Ho-Sang – my projection 40 points – last season 10 points in 21 games

New York Rangers:
(F) Pavel Buchnevich – my projection 41 points – last season 20 points in 41 games

Ottawa:
(D) Thomas Chabot – my projection 29 points – rookie

Philadelphia:
(F) Jordan Weal – my projection 48 points – last season 12 points in 23 games
(F) Nolan Patrick – my projection 40 points – rookie

Pittsburgh:
(F) Jake Guentzel – my projection 62 points – last season 33 points in 40 games

San Jose:
(F) Logan Couture – my projection 68 points – last season 52 points in 73 games

St. Louis:
(F) Brayden Schenn – my projection 63 points – last season 55 points in 79 games

Tampa Bay:
(F) Brayden Point – my projection 57 points – last season 40 points in 68 games

Toronto:
(F) Auston Matthews – my projection 84 points – last season 69 points in 82 games

Vancouver:
(F) Brock Boeser – my projection 48 points – last season 5 points in 9 games

Las Vegas:
(F) Vadim Shipachyov – my projection 50 points – last season KHL 76 points in 50 games

Washington:
(F) Jakub Vrana – my projection 42 points – last season 6 points in 21 games

Winnipeg:
(F) Kyle Connor – my projection 43 points – last season 5 points in 20 games

That concludes my main list, there are surely going to be other players as I only picked one from each team other than the Flyers who I took two from as I see both players making big strides forward.

Are there any players I didn’t mention that you think may burst out?

Thanks for reading!
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