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Bruno's 8 fantasy hockey breakout players and potential league-winning picks for 2026. His top early round league winning candidates include Tage Thompson, Jack Hughes, Logan Thompson, and more.
The first few rounds of a fantasy hockey draft usually aren't where people think leagues are won. Everybody knows the names. Nobody is finding sleepers in the early rounds.
The difference is finding players who can give you more than what you paid for, even when the price is already steep. For this list, I analyzed players from the top 60 picks in current Yahoo drafts. Some are values relative to where I think they should go. Others are players I'm completely comfortable paying full price for because the ceiling, category production, or positional advantage is worth it. Be sure to check out our updated top 250 "tiered" rankings.
Be sure to also follow RotoBaller on X for all of our league-winning content and me @MuleKickSports. Let's dive in!
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Fantasy Hockey League Winners - Centers
Jack Hughes (NJ - C/LW; ADP 19.3)
There aren't many players available around pick 20 who can realistically threaten 100 points. Hughes is one of them.
He finished with 77 points in 61 games last season, already a 100-point pace over 82 games. Then came the stretch that really sticks with me. After the Olympic break, Hughes piled up 41 points in 25 games. Only Connor McDavid tallied more over that span.
That's the player you're drafting. Of course, there's a reason Hughes is still hanging around late in the second round. He hasn't played more than 62 games in any of the last three seasons, and you can't pretend that isn't part of the equation.
I'm still taking the shot. Hughes has already put up 99 points in a season, and he doesn't need a massive shift in role or surrounding talent to get back there. He needs games. If we finally get 70-plus of them, there's a very real chance you're holding a top-10 scorer you drafted around 20th overall. In the offseason, the Devils brought in veteran Anthony Mantha, who is coming off a 33-goal season, which could further increase Hughes' opportunities to rack up helpers.
The added left-wing eligibility is a bonus.
Tage Thompson (BUF - C/RW; ADP 29.5)
I'm probably going to end up with a lot of Tage Thompson this year.
He scored 40 goals last season and finished with 81 points, giving him back-to-back 40-goal seasons. What makes that especially interesting is where so much of the scoring came from. Thompson scored 31 goals at five-on-five and 34 at even strength overall. This isn't a player whose fantasy value needs a monster power-play season to stay afloat.
He's also already shown us the higher-end outcome. Thompson scored 47 goals with 94 points in 2022-23. That's sitting there in the range of possibilities, and Yahoo drafters are currently letting him get to the middle of Round 3.
RotoBaller has Thompson 25th overall, a few spots ahead of his Yahoo price, and that feels right. The goal floor is strong, the shot volume will be there, and he gives you C/RW eligibility instead of locking you into center only. If Thompson is still sitting there after pick 25, take him with confidence.
YET ANOTHER GOAL FOR TAGE THOMPSON‼️ pic.twitter.com/DMXCPglm2Q
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) April 9, 2025
Fantasy Hockey League Winners - Wingers
Dylan Guenther (UTA - LW/RW; ADP 40.8)
At some point, we have to stop talking about Dylan Guenther like he's merely a breakout candidate.
He scored 40 goals last year.
Guenther finished with 73 points in 79 games while putting 242 shots on net. He also had 66 hits, which matters in formats that count them. He led Utah in goals, even-strength goals, and shots, and he's only 23.
Now, there is something worth watching. Guenther scored those 40 goals on a 16.5% shooting percentage, so I'm not automatically penciling him in for another 40. Some cooling there wouldn't be surprising. The 242 shots are what don't scare me away. He created enough volume that his entire fantasy case isn't hanging on an inflated goal total.
The next jump might come in the assists anyway. If the playmaking takes another step while he continues to shoot this much, an 80-point season is well within reach. Yahoo has him at 40.8, which means you're paying for some of last year's breakout without completely paying for what he could become next.
That's a fourth-round bet I'm happy to make.
Juraj Slafkovsky (MTL - LW/RW; ADP 52.9)
This is probably the one I'm going to be most stubborn about in drafts.
Slafkovsky is going 52.9 on Yahoo. RotoBaller has him 43rd.
He broke through with 30 goals and 73 points last season, including 15 power-play goals and 28 power-play points. He had 180 shots. That's already a useful fantasy player before getting to the rest of his line.
Slafkovsky also finished with 105 hits and 78 blocks. He was the only player in the NHL last season to reach 30 goals, 100 hits, and 60 blocks. That's a pretty unusual fantasy profile, especially from a winger who is also playing alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.
And he's still only 22.
I'm not sure why we should treat 73 points as the ceiling. Even a modest step forward offensively could push Slafkovsky much closer to the top 35 while the hits, blocks, and power-play production give him several ways to help when he isn't scoring.
He's an easy selection when looking for not only a safe floor but even more untapped upside around pick 50.
Fantasy Hockey League Winners - Defensemen
Zach Werenski (CBJ - D; ADP 16.3)
Werenski isn't on this list because he's cheap.
He isn't.
He's here because I'm willing to pay the price.
The reigning Norris Trophy winner had 81 points in 75 games last season after scoring 82 the year before. That's 163 points in 156 games across the past two seasons. Werenski also led NHL defensemen with 260 shots last year and averaged a ridiculous 26:37 per game.
There isn't much left to prove.
Sometimes fantasy managers get so focused on finding the next breakout defenseman that they pass on the guy already giving them elite forward-level production from a defense slot. I don't want to make that mistake here.
Yahoo has Werenski going in the middle of Round 2, while RotoBaller ranks him 14th overall. That sounds expensive until you start looking at what is available at defense several rounds later. There are good options, obviously, but very few players at the position can give you 80-point upside with this kind of shot volume.
If Werenski is sitting there in the middle of Round 2, I'm selecting him and giving my team an elite positional advantage.
THE BEST DMAN IN THE NHL! Zach Werenski's taking home the Norris Trophy!
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) June 2, 2026
Matthew Schaefer (NYI - D; ADP 32.6)
This one could look aggressive by November.
It also might look cheap.
Schaefer scored 23 goals and tallied 59 points as an 18-year-old rookie defenseman. He played all 82 games, took 222 shots, recorded 18 power-play points, and averaged 24:41 per game. He finished the year as the first unanimous Calder Trophy winner since 1992-93.
Read that again and remember he was 18.
The 23 goals are the obvious place to be careful. I'm not drafting Schaefer in Round 3 because I think that's automatically happening again. It might not. He doesn't need to score 23 again for this pick to work, either.
The Islanders were already giving him the workload of a franchise defenseman as a rookie. He has the puck, he shoots, he gets power-play time, and there's plenty of room for the assists and overall point total to grow as his game develops. According to MoneyPuck.com, Schaefer took a hefty 40.6% share of possible ice time while generating a 55% Fenwick% with an elite 54.4% On-Ice Expected Goals%.
At 32.6, there isn't much discount built in anymore. You're making a bet on the sophomore leap, which the underlying metrics suggest is in the realm of possibilities.
Fantasy Hockey League Winners - Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB - G; ADP 10.9)
Normally, taking a goalie around the end of Round 1 makes me uncomfortable.
Vasilevskiy is the guy who can talk me into it.
He went 39-15-4 last season with a 2.31 goals-against average and .912 save percentage. He led the NHL in wins and captured the second Vezina Trophy of his career.
There's volatility at goalie every year. We know that. It's also why having one of the few guys who keeps showing up near the top of the position matters so much.
Vasilevskiy has now recorded at least 30 wins in nine straight seasons. That's not a typo. His current streak is the second-longest in NHL history behind only Martin Brodeur.
In terms of advanced metrics, Vasilevskiy generated the fourth-highest Goals Saved Above Expected and the fifth-lowest xGAA (among netminders who played in at least 50 games.
I'm not drafting him at 10.9 because I think I'm stealing him. I'm drafting him because I don't mind paying for this kind of track record at a position that rarely gives us much certainty. RotoBaller ranks him ninth overall, so the price aligns with the house rankings as well.
If I'm drafting around the turn and the group of skaters I really want is gone, Vasilevskiy becomes very tempting.
Logan Thompson (WSH - G; ADP 29.8)
If I don't get Vasilevskiy, Thompson is probably the goalie I'm going to chase.
This price makes a lot more sense to me.
Thompson appeared in 58 games for Washington last season and went 31-21-6 with a 2.44 goals-against average, .912 save percentage, and four shutouts. He finished fourth in Vezina voting and earned a spot on the NHL's Second All-Star Team.
We're past the point where this needs to be treated as a nice little run.
Thompson has posted a save percentage of at least .908 and a GAA of 2.70 or lower in each of his five full NHL seasons. Now he has the workload to go with those ratios. Washington gives him a chance to win plenty of games, but I wouldn't be interested around pick 30 if wins were all he brought to the table.
And here's the number that really gets my attention: Yahoo has Thompson at 29.8, while RotoBaller ranks him 21st overall. That's a meaningful gap that drafters can exploit.
While Vasilevskiy's advanced metrics were elite, Thompson was on another level as he led all goalies in Goals Saved Above Expected (29.3) and posted the highest SV% on unblocked shots.
I'm not forcing a goalie at pick 30 if the board falls another way, but if Thompson is there and I'm staring at the next tier of skaters, I have no problem making him my G1. There's enough track record here that it doesn't feel like I'm paying for one good season.
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