There is something special about making up these fantasy lists. Sure I could go the easy way and change my rankings slightly from the pro’s at NHL.com, but where is the fun in that?
When I make my lists, I stand by them and I will back up my decisions. By all means, if I double up with someone’s name (which will likely happen), call me out on it and I will adjust accordingly!
The list I will be providing will be forwards only and my suggestion would be to print out the list and make some adjustment that you feel are more accurate to how your pool is setup. Some pools don’t include penalty minutes, hitting, shots or blocked shots, so you have to take these things into consideration before you finalize your list. Once you have personalized your top 100 forwards list, print a few copies of it so you can cross out player’s names as they are selected come draft day. That makes your selections much easier as you know who is available. Nothing worse than thinking you have a great player lined up, only to realize someone took him the round before and you are now stuck in a pinch.
Be prepared!
My list is based on forwards (RW, C, LW) and includes the categories goals, assists, total points, plus/minus, power play points, shorthanded points, game winning goals and penalty minutes. The eight forward categories is what I base my picks on, so if your pool includes hits, shots, blocked shots or any other categories, ensure you adjust if needed.
Top 100 Forwards:
1. Sidney Crosby 2. Alexander Ovechkin 3. Jamie Benn 4. Patrick Kane 5. Tyler Seguin 6. Steven Stamkos 7. Joe Pavelski 8. John Tavares 9. Connor McDavid 10. Vladimir Tarasenko 11. Claude Giroux 12. Evgeni Malkin 13. Johnny Gaudreau 14. Corey Perry 15. Evgeny Kuznetsov 16. Nikita Kucherov 17. Anze Kopitar 18. Blake Wheeler 19. Joe Thornton 20. Taylor Hall 21. Logan Couture 22. Artemi Panarin 23. Patrice Bergeron 24. Nathan MacKinnon 25. Ryan Getzlaf 26. Jonathan Toews 27. Nicklas Backstrom 28. Aleksander Barkov 29. Jack Eichel 30. Phil Kessel 31. Sean Monahan 32. Filip Forsberg 33. James Neal 34. Wayne Simmonds 35. Mark Scheifele 36. Daniel Sedin 37. Zach Parise 38. Max Pacioretty 39. Jason Spezza 40. Ryan Johansen 41. Matt Duchene 42. Ryan O’Reilly 43. Brad Marchand 44. Tyler Toffoli 45. Alexander Steen 46. Kyle Okposo 47. Tyler Johnson 48. Jakub Voracek 49. Patrick Sharp 50. Jordan Eberle 51. Brandon Saad 52. Brayden Schenn 53. Jaromir Jagr 54. Milan Lucic 55. Auston Matthews 56. Dylan Larkin 57. Gabriel Landeskog 58. Jeff Carter 59. Max Domi 60. Andrew Ladd 61. Patrik Laine 62. TJ Oshie 63. Rick Nash 64. Alex Galchenyuk 65. Robby Fabbri 66. James van Riemsdyk 67. Patric Hornqvist 68. Jonathan Drouin 69. Mike Hoffman 70. Henrik Sedin 71. Jaden Schwartz 72. Kyle Palmieri 73. Ryan Kesler 74. Alexander Radulov 75. Mark Stone 76. Vincent Trocheck 77. Loui Eriksson 78. David Krecji 79. Bobby Ryan 80. Derek Stepan 81. Henrik Zetterberg 82. Brendan Gallagher 83. Derick Brassard 84. Mika Zibanejad 85. Marian Hossa 86. Mats Zuccarello 87. Anthony Duclair 88. Leon Draisaitl 89. Rickard Rakell 90. Ondrej Palat 91. Eric Staal 92. Brian Little 93. Boone Jenner 94. David Backes 95. Adam Henrique 96. Paul Stastny 97. Jeff Skinner 98. Gustav Nyquist 99. William Nylander 100. Tomas Hertl
No list is perfect as there are injuries and trades that will take place throughout the season. With that being said, I do feel this list will help steer you in the right direction. Feel free to give me some feedback as I’d love to hear your opinions and perhaps I missed someone who you feel deserved to be in the top 100 that wasn’t.
On Monday October 3rd I will post a finalized list of my top 100 forwards, top 50 defense and top 30 goaltenders.
Thanks for reading, have a great day.