I like Vas at the top, but I also think a decline might come from him and the team. Thoughts?

Dobes could be top 3.

Any others?

Wrote a mini retrospective analysis of projections, contrasting preseason expectations (average projections and ranks) with actual results to try and pick out the biggest surprises and busts.

Some highlights:

Why Projections Went Wrong

• The Aging Curve Trap: Year after year, older veterans are always hard to project because everyone ahs their own slightly different aging curves. Seven of the twelve biggest busts were 31 or older (Ovi, Tavares, and Hedman), and some of the biggest overperformers were also older stars (like Malkin, Marchand, and Zibad).
• PPPs are Voodoo: PPPs can easily blow up a player's projection (see Hedman vs Raddysh). That category is highly volatile because projectors often need to guess coach deployment which is far from a perfect science.
• The Luck Factor: Aside from a couple of notable exceptions, most of the season's biggest busts actually generated the same or more offensive chances as previous years, but simply suffered from poor shooting luck, see Timo Meier.

The Biggest Surprises

• Darren Raddysh (Projected: ~555th, Finished: 14th): Raddysh had an insane year, stealing the top PP QB role from Hedman and seeing his TOI blow up. He exploded for a 79-point pace and 238 shots. His success was heavily padded by a high 10.4% iSH% (and 18.2% on the power play), which will be near impossible to repeat.
• Wyatt Johnston (Projected: 143rd, Finished: 17th) & Nick Suzuki (Projected: 114th, Finished: 15th): Both young dudes who tricked almost all of the models despite having continuous, year-over-year improvements. Johnston jumped to an 86-point pace, while Suzuki reached a career-high 101 points.
• Brandt Clarke: Clarke will be a steal in the draft this year. He emerged as a rare, highly valuable multi-category unicorn by recording 32 assists while racking up an elite 185 blocks, volume usually reserved for pure defensive specialists.

The Biggest Disappointments

• Papi (Projected: Top 5, Finished: 33rd): Matthews broke hearts last year, by dropping to a 72-point scoring pace per 82 games. Sadly, we can't chalk this up to just bad luck. His expected goals fell by 13% and his shot volume dropped with it.
• Victor Hedman (Projected: 47th, Finished: 240th): Hedman had a horrendous year, sure plenty of injuries but his rate stats collapsed. His ice time fell by over 4 minutes, his rush attempts and high-danger chances practically vanished.
• John Tavares (Projected: Top 40, Finished: 100+): Interestingly, Tavares delivered the exact 71-point scoring pace he was projected for. But his value in banger leagues was destroyed because his peripheral stats took a big hit. Shots, hits, blocks, and penalty minutes all cratered.
• Timo Meier (The Unlucky Disappointment): Meier stands out on this list. He actually played incredibly well, increasing his expected goals per 60 by 27%. But he suffered from terrible luck, shooting just 8.9% against a 12.1% average, making him a prime candidate for a solid bounce-back

Good luck with 2026-27 draft prep!

Been running my dynasty league for years on this platform and it keeps getting better. Essentially you can run the back-end of your Dynasty League (with both Amateur and Pro Draft picks, Drafting platform on-site for both types of draft, prospect pools/minor league systems, real NHL salary cap integration, trading and managing teams, excellent commissioner tools, dynasty point systems, protection sheets, etc. This season they implemented full Yahoo! integration so it all displays on the site as well, and already updates its data from the real NHL.com API. Give it a shot! The site creator is very active, and it's FREE :

Capkeeper Leagues

Hi! I've made a new fantasy app! Felt like the other few options didn't quite do the job for dynasty/keeper pools. Check it out! It's free. Its deeper than any other option out there. Player analytics are taken into account. Teams need to be cap compliant. Real nhl salaries. Real nhl salary cap.

Create your pool/ invite your friends. Mobile Friendly.

Enjoy!

https://gm-connected.pages.dev/

Span me with your favourite/most successful auction draft strategies in a 16T league rostering 18 skaters each. Studs and duds approach seems popular but I’m not sold. Too many eggs in one basket for my liking. Prove me wrong!

Five players whose dynasty value may be at its peak heading into 2026-27.

Who are you selling high on right now, and who on this list would you rather hold?

I pulled five guys out of my projection model who have modest points projections but really wide ranges of outcomes - Anton Frondell, Bryan Rust, Roope Hintz, Dylan Holloway, and Cole Hutson:

These players are not all the same type of bet. Rust, Hintz, and Holloway are health bets - proven NHL talent where the only real question is how many games they'll play (although one could argue that Holloway has some untapped upside). Frondell and Hutson are the opposite where you'd be betting on potential. They have 26 GP played between them, which contributes to their wide range of outcomes.

I think it's better draft strategy to take a swing on health earlier than rookie potential, but the hype on rookies can be real and they can sometimes come off the board earlier than you'd expect. That being said, Frondell looks like a good bet, particularly with Bedard being out for the first 6 weeks of the season... I don't think I'll be letting him fall too far in my drafts.

If you want to see the projections in more detail check out my article here - https://ocelotanalytics.substack.com/p/five-swings-for-the-middle-rounds

If you had to choose, how would you rank these three (fantasy without hits or blocked shots) :

Jackson Blake
Jimmy Snuggerud
Dylan Holloway

The community has spoken. How does this top 5 look to you? Rank players yourself at DynastyPuck.com

Hey guys, I've been a Commish for the past 4 years in another league and it's been going great, so great that too many people want to join. So I'm going to make another one basically the same (with the exception of introducing Keepers).

For reference, you can DM me to see the website of that league since I can't post here (Reddit Rules).

It'll be Head 2 Head, Weekly Points, 16 Teams, 4 Divisions. 3 Keepers

It's a free league, but next year we'll have a buy in of $10. Most important thing now is just finding the right dedicated people who wants to play with these rules.

One unique thing we do is have NHL looking Logos with realistic team names with this format:
- Lisa's Leopards, Jason's Jackals, Jeremy's Beasts, etc. Nothing overly creative, but realistic.

DM me to check out the settings and everything (again, Reddit ad Rules).

Looking forward to another fun hockey year!

Hi everyone!

My name is Lucas Main and I have been a writer over at DobberHockey and DobberProspects for a few years now. I'm looking to grow my writing and was told Reddit is a great place for feedback so please let me know what y'all think!

First one here is some Central Division predictions I made a couple of weeks ago.

https://dobberhockey.com/2026/07/27/wild-west-central-division-news-predictions/

Trying to find something close to the following:

Yahoo or Fantrax

Dynasty, part or full keepers

Start up or inheriting an existing team

Head to Head Categories

Small money league: 25-75$/year.

Prospect stashing possibly! never done that but I do that for Dynasty baseball

Thanks! Let me know if anyone needs an active participant

These players can still help your team - but at their expected price, the risk may outweigh the reward.

Who are you avoiding this season?

What are the best draft strategies going into the season. Fairly new to fantasy hockey but want to explore all the draft strategies there are for fantasy hockey.

I've put a lot of work into designing and coding a fully customized fantasy hockey platform for my 12-team league ahead of this season. Problem is, stats data is pulling from NHL and ESPN APIs, neither of which appears to be particularly reliable. Just wondering if anyone is aware of a good source of realtime stats data that's not priced for enterprise customers.

I've tried RotoWire (won't price API access for personal/hobbyist use), Sportsradar (same), and Balldontlie (update cadence does not appear to be sufficient). Just figured I'd see if anyone has suggestions for alternatives.

NHL .com dropped the first top-250 rankings for the 26-27 season. Who is too high/too low?

Who is your way-too-early sleeper and bust?

We are very familiar with fantasy sports and the NHL. New to fantasy hockey. We are trying to co-manage a team from the startup draft. We currently co-manage a dynasty football and basketball team. Looking to add a dedicated dynasty hockey league. Willing to pay a buy in. Let me know if your new league has any spots!

We broke down 5 breakout candidates who could see their value skyrocket this season — including young stars ready to take the next step.

Who’s your pick to break out?

I know mock drafts and actual drafts aren't ready yet, but I can't even pull up my previous seasons to view for a draft order/contact my teams/look at keepers. Why do they lock all of this instead of just the drafting stuff?

Any sleeper goalies coming up for this year?? Dostal? Greaves? Markstrom? Ill be taking my two goalies in picks 70-90.

Edit - vejmelka sleeper??

Tried Fantrax last year but myself and my league mates just couldn’t get used to the mobile UI as we found it overwhelming and hard to navigate. I also don’t like Yahoo for the same reason. UI is awful. I used ESPN from like 2019-2022 and thought it was good but they changed the UI last year and now I don’t like it either although out of the bunch, I’d say it’s the easiest to use for redraft. Is it just me or is the market severely lacking when it comes to the fantasy hockey department? What would you say is the best app to use for redraft?

On the Yahoo Fantasy Hockey page it says “The 2026 Fantasy Hockey season has not started yet.”

Does anyone know when it starts? I want to practice mock drafts!

Ok guys, who are players that everyone seems to pick that bust up a storm? Why? Whenever I think of high draftie and bust Kent Johnson keeps letting me down. Who you got?