NHL.com is gearing up for fantasy hockey season, and six Pittsburgh Penguins, including Sidney Crosby, have made the list.
Even though it is mid-summer, it's never too early to start thinking about fantasy hockey. Earlier this week, NHL.com rolled out their Top 200 fantasy players, which featured six Pittsburgh Penguins skaters.
After historical seasons for several of the league's top players, such as Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov, and Auston Matthews, it's no surprise that they rank first, second, third, and fourth on the list.
The oldest player to crack to the Top 10 is Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who had 94 points in 82 games in 2023-24. He'll be 37 in August and is still regarded as one of the top players in professional hockey 20 years into his career.
However, Crosby is the only Pittsburgh player in the Top 100, as center Evgeni Malkin ranked 102th overall. Last season, the 18-year veteran had 67 points in 82 games.
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Further down the list, two defensemen, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson, rank 168th and 169th respectively. During his first campaign with the black and gold, Karlsson finished fourth in the team, scoring 56 points in 82 games.
Meanwhile, Letang played in every contest for the first time in 13 years and collected 51 points, the first time he's surpassed 50 points in a campaign since 2019.
At 179th, five-time 20-goal scorer Bryan Rust makes the list. Last season, the right-winger scored a career-high 28 goals and came within two points of tying a career-high in points while finishing with a plus-10 rating.
Finally, the last name on the NHL list is Michael Bunting, who Pittsburgh acquired in the Jake Guentzel trade in March. Despite splitting the season between the Carolina Hurricanes and Penguins, he had 55 points with 36 assists.
Given his production in limited sample size, Bunting is on pace to have a break year and could finish much higher than his projections.
The entire list of Top 200 fantasy hockey players is available here.