Discover undervalued gems like Travis Konecny and Bryan Rust to gain a competitive edge. Secure elite production in later rounds before these draft-day steals vanish from boards.
With preseason drawing to a close, fantasy managers are putting the finishing touches on their rosters, sweating over the same handful of first-round names that everyone else in the league is also eyeing.
But that's not really where fantasy titles get decided as the real separation between a good draft and a great one happens in the middle rounds and beyond, where a well-timed sleeper pick can return two or three times his draft slot's worth of value.
Finding those names takes a bit more digging than scrolling through last year's final standings. These are the players worth digging for, the ones whose situation on paper looks a lot more promising than their current draft price suggests.
With that in mind, here are 10 names worth targeting on your draft board before the rest of your league catches on and their average draft position starts to climb.
Travis Konecny
The chemistry between Konecny and Porter Martone was obvious even in a small sample, with the pairing alongside Christian Dvorak combining for five goals scored against just one allowed.
Given a full season together, that trio has a real chance to develop into one of Philadelphia's best forward lines in years. Konecny has cleared 68 points in three straight seasons, and pairing him with arguably the most talented winger he's ever skated alongside all but locks in another finish inside the top 75. Despite that, he's currently being drafted outside the top 130 picks on average.
Jared McCann
It's easy to lose sight of the fact that McCann, when healthy, has been a legitimate 60- to 70-point scorer in three of his last four seasons. A full offseason to recover could set the 30-year-old Stratford, Ontario native up for a bounce-back campaign.
McCann is currently sliding toward the tail end of most drafts, going around pick 144 on average and rostered in just 19 percent of leagues. If he can stay on the ice for a full season the way he did in 2024-25, clearing his 60-point floor and reclaiming top-100 fantasy value is well within reach.
Bryan Rust
Rust has quietly turned into a near point-per-game producer, following up a career-best 65-point season with another strong campaign right behind it. At 34, he continues to prove age is just a number, and with Pittsburgh treating this year like a farewell run for its core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, Rust looks primed to leave everything on the ice one more time.
He'll keep skating alongside Crosby and Rickard Rakell, a trio that was lethal when healthy last season, combining for 23 goals scored against just 17 allowed. Rust has posted a 0.85 points-per-game average over the last seven seasons, and with extra motivation on his side this year, another 60-point campaign looks very much in play.
He finished last season inside the top 60 fantasy players overall, yet is still going outside the top 125 picks, making him one of the sharper value plays on the board.
Drew Doughty & Darcy Kuemper
Two aging veterans playing for their next contracts both come with appealing price tags relative to their upside. Doughty enters the season at 36, but he was still one of Canada's first choices for its Olympic roster this past February, a testament to how much his defensive instincts remain intact even as his offensive totals have slipped.
That decline has pushed his average draft position down to around pick 122, which looks like fair value rather than a reach. Up until last season, Doughty had been a consistent 50-point defenseman, including as recently as 2024-25, when he was on pace for right around that mark before an injury cut his year short.
Last season was statistically his roughest in a while, with just 23 points in 72 games, but with something to prove and a genuine offensive weapon in Artemi Panarin now on the roster to set him up, a rebound looks realistic over a full season.
Kuemper's case runs along similar lines. Playing behind a defensively sound Kings system, the 36-year-old has been steady over his last two seasons in Los Angeles, going 50-25-22 with a 2.40 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.
He also earned a spot on Canada's Olympic roster alongside Doughty, even if he didn't see action as the team's third goaltender. With the Kings' back end largely intact and still anchored by stay-at-home defenders like Mikey Anderson, Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci, Kuemper should remain a dependable starter. He's going as late as pick 145 on average, deep into the back half of most drafts.
Mason Marchment
Last season, both Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith spent the year lined up alongside veteran wingers Tyler Toffoli and Collin Graf, and each of those complementary pieces cleared 46 points as a result.
With Marchment now signed to a significant five-year contract in San Jose, the physical, gritty winger looks like the next long-term fit alongside that young duo. A 45-plus point season has been the norm for Marchment throughout his career, and skating alongside two elite young talents while also drawing top power-play time could give him the most productive setup of his career.
After a down year that saw him finish outside the top 200 fantasy players, Marchment looks like one of the better value plays available in the later rounds.
Sean Durzi
Durzi arrives in New York from Utah, where he was on pace for roughly 37 points last season on a team that ranked among the league's top 12 offenses. Projections have him dropping to around 28 points with the Rangers, who finished near the bottom of the league offensively.
That pessimism may be overdone, though, given how much New York overhauled its attack this summer, adding Pavel Dorofeyev's proven scoring touch along with free-agent depth pieces Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen. Durzi is ticketed for second-pairing minutes and the quarterback role on the second power-play unit, a clear step up from the roughly 19 minutes a night he logged last season.
Given his history of 38- and 41-point seasons earlier in his career, a return to the 40-point range isn't far-fetched. Rostered in fewer than 10 percent of leagues, Durzi looks like a cheap source of scoring from the blue line.
Calum Ritchie & Kyle Palmieri
Matthew Schaefer's spectacular rookie campaign soaked up most of the attention on Long Island, but Ritchie quietly put together a solid season of his own, posting 30 points in 65 games, and he's set for a larger role this year.
The 27th overall pick in 2023 is expected to move up to the second line, skating alongside the best linemates of his career in Mathew Barzal and Brayden Schenn. That trio logged 97 minutes together across just 11 games last season and showed real offensive promise, scoring five goals as a unit, even while allowing six against.
If the Islanders can tighten things up defensively, this line has the makings of a genuinely productive second unit, one that could push Ritchie from his near-40-point pace last season into the 50-to-60-point range.
On the top line, Palmieri is entering a contract year of his own and looking to build on a strong start to last season that had him on pace for 60 points before things cooled off. That kind of production isn't out of reach for the 35-year-old, who has hit that pace before when healthy and has stayed remarkably durable, playing all 82 games in two of his last three seasons.
He and Bo Horvat have already built real chemistry as linemates and will look to carry that forward. Both Ritchie and Palmieri are rostered in just 3 percent of Yahoo leagues, making each an intriguing bet given the price.
Luke Evangelista & Nico Daws
It was something of a surprise to see Nashville part ways with Evangelista, a former second-round pick and rising talent who broke out for 56 points last season, in exchange for a first- and second-round pick. New Jersey didn't hesitate to make the deal, and it could pay dividends for the franchise going forward.
Jack Hughes is expected to keep his usual running mate in Jesper Bratt on one wing, while Anthony Mantha currently occupies the other spot despite carrying real questions about repeating his 33-goal, 64-point season, questions significant enough that he only landed a two-year deal worth $4.75 million annually.
That uncertainty, paired with Mantha's injury history at 31, makes a younger option like the 24-year-old Evangelista considerably more appealing long term. He's currently projected to open the season on the third line behind Mantha, but if injuries or a slump open the door, he could easily leapfrog him and become Hughes and Bratt's long-term winger given the age gap between the two.
Evangelista is going as late as pick 145 on average, a price that undersells his ceiling if he ends up skating alongside Hughes and Bratt, where topping his 56-point career high, potentially by a wide margin, is a real possibility.
Daws presents a similar profile as a younger alternative to presumed starter Jake Allen, who is 36. At 25, Daws is projected to open the year as the backup, but there's a realistic path for him to take the job outright if given the opportunity.
His first three NHL seasons were rocky, but over his last two stretches of call-ups, he's posted a 5-2-0 record with a 2.02 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage across nine appearances, a sign his game may finally be coming together.
Owned in just 2 percent of Yahoo leagues and largely going undrafted, Daws is a name worth monitoring on waivers the moment he starts cutting into Allen's workload.
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