2025-26 NHL Fantasy Primer: Players To Watch, Players To Avoid
Some of the best and worst options this season for your fantasy team.
With the NHL season set to begin Tuesday, fantasy hockey managers are gearing up for one of the busiest drafting weekends of the year. The struggle for fantasy owners every season is knowing who to draft, who to avoid, and where to find the best bargains.
Strategies will vary based on your league’s respective rules. As such, it’s difficult to offer up a sure-fire game plan that will work for all drafts. What might be a clever play in one league isn’t always a savvy play in another. At the same time, there are typically solid players that team owners should focus on. In most cases, these players will be good for a substantial number of fantasy points.
Pick A Motivated NHLer: Martin Necas
There are several players in the NHL this season who have a lot riding on their respective seasons. With the salary cap exploding, more pending UFAs than ever are waiting to sign extensions with their teams. That’s an opportunity for fantasy owners who believe that when players perform in a contract year, they up their game.
The big names are Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor, Adrian Kempe, Artemi Panarin, Alex Tuch, and John Carlson.
One of the players I’ll suggest considering is Martin Necas. Perhaps more than most pending UFAs, Necas has a lot riding on his chemistry with one of the top players in the league. He’ll be slotted beside Nathan MacKinnon and trying to earn his millions on a solid team in the Colorado Avalanche.
There was a sense that Necas wasn’t thrilled about the idea of locking in long-term with the Avs. Whether that’s accurate is unclear. Still, if he wants to stay, he’s got to convince the Avs to give him the kind of money that the team refused to give Mikko Rantanen last season. If he’s destined to leave, he’ll want to have upped his numbers to the point a bidding war starts on July 1. He’s a talented player, but not in the same tier as McDavid and Eichel. His goal this season is to get himself in that conversation.
He’s also unlikely to be one of the big-ticket free agents to sign early. Necas will be playing most of the year with a new contract on his mind. He’s often overlooked by fantasy owners, as well.
Watch Out: Avoid Taking Alex Ovechkin Too Early
Alex Ovechkin is in the final year of his current contract. He may retire at the end of the season, and he may not. One thing seems clear: he’s personally got little left to play for.
Ovechkin broke the goal-scoring record last season. He’s too far away from 1000 NHL goals for that to be a realistic goal. Expect the Capitals to take a step back this season, and anticipate Ovechkin to experience a significant decline in his individual production.
This is not to suggest Ovie will coast into retirement. However, there’s no milestone to reach. That will likely affect his traditionally high goal totals. He had 44 last season. He’ll always score, but 30 seems more realistic.
Take Note of Key Injuries
Every year, I join a fantasy team, and there’s a gung-ho member of the group who didn’t do their homework on the injury situation in the NHL.
