NHL.com's Top 250 fantasy hockey rankings released; Some Top 25 notes

There isn't much for a fantasy hockey fan to do in the summer month except to cross days off on the calendar until the start of a new season.

On Sunday, NHLdotcom gave fantasy hockey fans something to be excited about when they released the top 250 rankings for fantasy hockey this season.

There are plenty of mid and late round steals available, but for the purposes of this article, we'll stick to the top 25.

The top 25 list reads as follows:

1. McDavid

2. MacKinnon

3. Kucherov

4. Draisaitl

5. Vasilevskiy

6. Matthews

7. Marchand

8. Panarin

9. Rantanen

10. Pastrnak

11. P. Kane

12. Huberdeau

13. Ovechkin

14. Crosby

15. B. Tkachuk

16. Hedman

17. Makar

18. Barkov

19. Point

20. Marner

21. Aho

22. Zibanejad

23. Fox

24. Lehner

25. Kuemper

The list stands up fairly well, but there are a few interesting names here that I wanted to touch on for the benefit of the fantasy hockey folk!

5. Andrei Vasilevskiy

While Andrei Vasilevskiy is the consensus number one goalie in the NHL right now, that doesn't mean that using a top 5 pick on him is a wise idea - unless of course your league values goaltending stats high, and tracks more than just your run-of-the-mill Wins, SV%, GAA and shutouts.

While Vasilevskiy is going to win you games and probably be among the league leaders in the aforementioned Stat columns, when you land a top 5 pick, you're almost certainly going to want a bona-fide superstar offensive forward on your team.

The main reason for this is that your offensive players typically cover more columns in your fantasy league. It's not as tough as you'd think to land a quality goaltending tandem just a couple of rounds later. It's much more difficult to draft those multi-category horses or high-end offensive producers later on.

If you have the chance here, you should take Matthews at 5 - or if he is unavailable, that means that one of the other top 4 guys has slipped, making pick number 5 easy - say Draisaitl or Kucherov.

15. Brady Tkachuk

If you're in a banger league (tracking hits and penalty minutes), Brady Tkachuk is going to be a highly coveted player in your fantasy league. There are very few players (if any others) who put up 300+ shots on goal and 300+ hits in a season. Tkachuk is one of those players. He'll also likely net you 100 or more PIMs, which is high-end production in that category as well.

While Brady Tkachuk's point totals through his first 3 seasons haven't really jumped off the page, a young and hungry Ottawa Senators team, bursting at the seams with young skill, will certainly boost his offensive numbers this season. The chances are also good that he plays with 2020 3rd-overall pick Tim Stützle this season. Stützle is a high, high end offensive talent who definitely has the potential to explode offensively this season - and if Tkachuk is riding shotgun, he could be a top-5 value in any banger league.

If your league doesn't track hits or PIMs, however, Tkachuk may be a tad high at 15th overall with names like Aleksander Barkov, Mitch Marner and Brayden Point potentially still on the board.

20. Mitch Marner

If you happen to be in a points only league, Marner is certainly ranked pretty low at 20 for the value that he brings - especially since he is likely to assume the same position as he did last year, alongside reigning Rocket Richard Trophy winner Auston Matthews.

Marner was in the top 5 in league scoring last season with 67 points in 55 games. That's a 100-point pace over the course of an 82-game season. The season prior, Marner was on a 93-point pace as well - and for those who may be concerned with Marner's ability to surpass the 90-point plateau over a full 82-game schedule, he did just that in 2018-19 when he registered 94 points in 82 games.

Simply put, in the regular season, you should just call him Mitch Money.. because you can bank on a healthy Marner being over a point-per-game player.

If Marner can put together another strong season playing Robin to Matthews' Batman, he's going to be a huge asset to your fantasy hockey team.

Marner also has both PP and PK applications, so if your league includes power play and shorthanded categories, Marner is definitely a worthwhile pick early in the 2nd round. Feel free to reach for this kid anywhere in the 14-18 range, depending on the stats your league covers and who is left on the board.

Honorable mention here goes to NYR defenseman Adam Fox and goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who has been one of the league's better goalies for some time and now finds himself on one of the strongest teams in the entire National Hockey League.

Hang tight, fantasy hockey managers! We're getting there. Just a little under two months to go until puck drop!

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