Auston Matthews is the best goal-scorer alive but how this distinction carries over to fantasy hockey can be a bit of a mystery.
Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin released his Top 300 rankings for the 2024-25 season, where Matthews ranks 4th among all players, trailing Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Leon Draisaitl.
Here’s what Larkin wrote about Matthews’ fantasy output:
He’ll never possess the same points ceiling as the names listed above him, but when you score 12 more goals than the next-closest player in the NHL, you belong in the elite first-round tier.
It’s an interesting point of contention: McDavid, MacKinnon and Draisaitl tend to outscore Matthews during the regular season, while he shoots the lights out like no other player in the NHL. It seems like a fair valuation — it’s not a player ranking after all, where Matthews’ significant defensive impact should be considered, when in comparison to his elite peers.
William Nylander ranked 22nd on Larkin’s list. Here’s what Larkin thought about Nylander:
“Nylander will never match his contract-year output again” and “Nylander reached a new level last season” can both be true. Maybe he’s not a 98-point scorer again, but I buy him as a 90-point guy with a boatload of shots.
It’s an interesting point of contention, surmising that Nylander was extrinsically motivated by his expiring contract during the first half of the 2023-24 season. Nylander signed an eight-year extension with the Maple Leafs in January and played in all 82 regular season games, before being sidelined by migraines for large stretches of the team’s first-round series against the Boston Bruins. The 28-year-old is a shot-creation machine and his analytical profile suggests he’s likely due for another season hovering around the 100-point mark.
Mitch Marner, perhaps the most-discussed player in the NHL this summer, ranked No. 27 on Larkin’s list. Larkin assessed that all the discussion surrounding Marner’s trade status could see his fantasy value fluctuate:
Only six players have more points over the past five years. All the trade talk and Marner fatigue can be your friend in fantasy: he could fall to the second or third round and give you 100 points if he stays healthy.
Say what you will about Marner (OK maybe not, some of you need to relax about him!) he’s a prolific playmaker during the regular season and would represent excellent value with the No. 27 pick in any draft.
Matthews, Nylander and Marner were the only three Maple Leafs to make Daily Faceoff’s Top 100 list. We’ll see how these projections come into play as fantasy draft season is around the corner.
