Yesterday’s article was about the Vegas Golden Knights and the Vancouver Canucks, giving a breakdown of their top fantasy players. Today we will be looking at two teams that should be battling it out for a top spot in the Atlantic Division, the Maple Leafs and the Lightning.

Top 5 fantasy forwards: Toronto Maple Leafs
Auston Matthews
Mitch Marner
William Nylander
Patrick Marleau
James van Riemsdyk

Top 3 fantasy defense:
Jake Gardiner
Morgan Rielly
Nikita Zaitsev

Goaltending:
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney

Sleeper:
Connor Brown

Auston Matthews scoring 40 goals as a rookie certainly locks him into the number one spot. Mitch Marner is no slouch with his vision and shiftiness on the ice, not to mention his record breaking 42 assists in 77 games as a rookie. Not bad for a kid that could have been playing junior hockey for one more season! William Nylander is a close second to Marner, and some may even rank him higher because he’s playing with Matthews. It’s very close, so just flip a coin and the odds will be the same either way if you ask me.

Here is where the plot thickens, the Leafs have added in Marleau to the left wing slot on the first line with Matthews and Nylander. He could easily score 25+ goals in the blue and white and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him find the 30 goal plateau once again. Sure Marleau is aging but when you put him with a combination like Matthews and Nylander, he may make it rain.

JVR is playing in a contract year and alongside Mitch Marner, so that alone beefs up his value. He’s been alongside Tyler Bozak for a few seasons now and they two have chemistry together and sneakily put up quality numbers each and every season. Last season JVR scored 29 goals, he’s only reached 30 once before but I think this could be the year he surpasses his 30 goal career high.

Defensively the Leafs are still a bit weak, but with the improved play of Jake Gardiner last season and scoring free agent Zaitsev from the KHL, they are further along in their rebuild than predicted. Gardiner is one of the better skaters in the league and when he’s playing how Babcock wants him to, he’s very dangerous. Rielly had some trouble last season only scoring 6 goals, and tallying 27 points. He must be better both offensively and defensively for the Maple Leafs if they want to do some damage in the rankings. Expect around 35 points from Rielly this season with some more bounces going his way with this high powered offensive machine the Leafs will be rolling. Zaitsev will likely dabble into some power play time and tack on a few extra points playing alongside Gardiner most of the season. He just inked a huge deal so expect him to want to show his worth and really ramp up his game heading into his second NHL season.

Andersen is the Leafs best goaltender in ages, he will certainly be able to handle the load for the Leafs and you can count on him to get vast majority of the starts and hopefully secure 35+ wins for the Leafs as they hope to make the playoffs for the second season in a row. It’s been since 2002-2003/2003-2004 since the Leafs made the playoffs two years in a row. McElhinney will have the backup role for Toronto unless he gets injured or has a lot of trouble getting the job done.

Top 5 fantasy forwards: Tampa Bay Lightning
Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos
Ondrej Palat
Tyler Johnson
Brayden Point

Top 3 fantasy defense:
Victor Hedman
Anton Stralman
Jake Dotchin

Goaltending:
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Peter Budaj

Sleeper:
Brayden Point

One of the more skilled players in the game these days is Nikita Kucherov and he is who tops the charts for the Lightning. He and Stamkos need to stay healthy and avoid any scoring slumps; they should both reach 80 points with ease and could bust into the 90’s if everything goes well for the Lightning’s top two scorers. There is a bit of a drop off at this point where both Palat and Johnson fall into and newcomer to Tampa’s top five forwards is Brayden Point who got 40 points in 68 games last season. Each of these three players should have no issues cracking 50 points and will need to if Tampa wants to secure the number one spot in the Altantic Division like I predict they will. The loss of Jonathan Drouin shouldn’t setback the Lightning offensively in any which way, the emergence of Point and a healthy Stamkos will more than offset. Brayden Point is my sleeper pick for Tampa Bay and I could see him reaching 55+ points if he builds off what he started last season.

Victor Hedman is by far the biggest fantasy asset defensively; he’s a warrior in just about every category but PIM (47). Last season Hedman got 72 points in 79 games which are obviously incredible for any defenseman. Hedman is one of the best in the league for fantasy defense and I would welcome him on any of my teams this upcoming season, especially with Stamkos back in the mix.

Goaltending is going to be the only concern if you ask me, both fantasy wise and of real concern for the Lightning staff. Vasilevskiy and Budaj are not bad by any means, it’s actually a solid combo, and it’s just that Vasilevskiy was a bit shaky last season taking on the number one starting role. Budaj should be able to help take away some of the pressure, but it’s worrisome from a fantasy standpoint simply because Budaj’s play may give him more starts than I’d be comfortable with if I was a Vasilevskiy fantasy owner.

Join the Discussion: » 17 Comments » Post New Comment

» Fantasy Spotlight: Matthew Boldy

» Fantasy Quick Hits: Husso, Nichushkin, Strome, Kahkonen, Mikheyev

» Mid season: Fire up the Free Agency

» Fantasy: Working the waiver wire & who to grab

» The Fantasy Portal