Week 13: Fantasy top 100 forward rankings for 2017-18

Each week during the regular season, NHL.com has you covered with an overview of the fantasy forward landscape. With production trends, injury news and top 100 rankings based on performance and upside in standard Yahoo leagues, fantasy owners should use this information as a basis for roster decision-making.

MORE FANTASY RANKINGS:
Top 50 defensemen
|
Top 25 goalies

TRENDING UP

San Jose Sharks top line: The trusted duo of Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton is back in full force for the Sharks after a slow start. Over the past 18 games, Pavelski has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) and Thornton has 17 points (six goals, 11 assists). Each is tied for fourth in the League with 10 power-play points in the span. Thornton (C, 41 percent owned) is still readily available and closing in on the top 100 overall (112th in Yahoo) based on standard-category performance. Deep-league owners should keep an eye on Timo Meier (LW/RW, 1 percent), the third wheel on this line of late, who has covered goals (six), shots on goal (34) and hits (15) well in 12 games over the past month.
Vegas Golden Knights: Believe it or not, the expansion Golden Knights are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender; they have won eight straight games and lead the Pacific Division nearing the midseason mark (Jan. 6). And their roster runs so much deeper than big names like forward James Neal and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Each of their top-six forwards is worth owning in most fantasy leagues, and Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson have been two of the biggest steals based on average draft position (Marchessault: 22nd in Yahoo, 167.1 ADP; Karlsson: 85th in Yahoo; undrafted on average).
Marchessault leads the Golden Knights with 11 multipoint games, Karlsson has nine and forwards David Perron and Reilly Smith have eight apiece. Perron (50 percent owned; 91st) and Smith (43 percent; 69th) are each ranked among Yahoo's top 100 yet available in at least one-half of Yahoo leagues. Erik Haula (C/LW, 38 percent), who's centering the top line with Neal and Perron and playing on the first power-play unit with Neal, Marchessault, Perron and defenseman Shea Theodore (26 percent), is worth adding in standard leagues. Even rookie Alex Tuch (RW, 3 percent) has been producing on the second power-play unit (20 points, six PPP) with Karlsson, Smith and defensemen Colin Miller and Nate Schmidt. Tuch has five points (one goal, four assists), a plus-4, one PPP and 11 SOG over his past five games.
Nick Schmaltz, C/LW, CHI: He quietly ranks second on the Chicago Blackhawks in points per game (0.74) behind frequent linemate Patrick Kane (1.03) and has multiple points in two of his past three games. He had one goal, one assist and three SOG against the New York Rangers on Wednesday, giving him six points (two goals, four assists), two PPP and nine SOG over his past four games. Schmaltz (14 percent owned) cracks the top 100 forwards this week and is finally living up to his preseason fantasy sleeper potential. Chicago is tied for the NHL lead with four games next week, with many other teams on their
bye week
.

TRENDING DOWN

Filip Forsberg, LW, NSH, and Mark Scheifele, C, WPG: Two Central Division teams lost a top-tier fantasy forward to an upper-body injury this past week; Forsberg is out 4-6 weeks, and Scheifele is out 6-8 weeks. Fantasy owners of these two elite point producers (Forsberg: 34 in 37 games; Scheifele: 38 in 38 games) must find a way to survive their long-term absences. In-house forward replacements include Kevin Fiala (LW/RW, 30 percent) or Calle Jarnkrok (C/LW, 9 percent) of the Predators and Kyle Connor (LW, 20 percent) or Mathieu Perreault (C/LW, 18 percent) of the Jets. Connor is on Winnipeg's top line with Blake Wheeler (moved to center) and Patrik Laine, and Jarnkrok is on Nashville's top trio with Ryan Johansen and Viktor Arvidsson. With Forsberg sidelined and Nashville's second line of Kyle Turris, Fiala and Craig Smith in a scoring drought, Jarnkrok is the lone Predators forward to gain fantasy value from this development.
Montreal Canadiens forwards: Top defenseman Shea Weber (foot) is not expected to return until after the NHL All-Star break later this month, making Montreal's forward group even less appealing from a fantasy standpoint. Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk could be trade candidates, but Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher and Jonathan Drouin are droppable in standard leagues. Gallagher has two goals and no assists over his past 12 games and has fallen out of the top 100 forward rankings. Fantasy owners should give Pacioretty, who has eight goals in 40 games, the benefit of the doubt; he has scored at least 30 goals in each of his previous five full seasons.
Jake Guentzel, C/LW, PIT: Fantasy expectations were high for Guentzel (ADP: 104.2) after a stellar rookie season, but his standard-league rank at the midway point (170th) is underwhelming. He's playing outside the Pittsburgh Penguins' top-six forward group and has been moved off the first power-play unit, meaning he's away from Sidney Crosby for at least the time being. Guentzel is minus-13 but has salvaged his fantasy season with respectable totals in PPP (eight), SOG (97) and hits (76) through 41 games. Guentzel's buy-low window has officially reopened, but he has a chance to find chemistry with touted prospect Daniel Sprong (RW, 6 percent owned; recalled Saturday) on the third line and second power-play unit.

TOP 100 FORWARD RANKINGS

Standard Yahoo categories include goals, assists, plus/minus, PIMs, PPP and SOG for skaters. ... Value has been quantified based on factors including but not limited to past production, line combinations, power-play usage, injury history, age, sleeper, bounce-back or breakout potential, anticipated regression, contract status, Yahoo ADP and overall upside for the rest of the season. ... Any players with day-to-day injury concerns (DTD) are noted. NEW - INJ. indicates a player who has returned from injury and rejoined the rankings.
1. Nikita Kucherov, RW, TBL (SAME)
2. Steven Stamkos, C, TBL (SAME)
3. Alex Ovechkin, LW, WSH (+1)
4. Connor McDavid, C, EDM (-1)
5. Sidney Crosby, C, PIT (SAME)
6. Vladimir Tarasenko, RW, STL (SAME)
7. Tyler Seguin, C/RW, DAL (+1)
8. Blake Wheeler, RW, WPG (+5)
9. John Tavares, C, NYI (-2)
10. Auston Matthews, C, TOR (-1)
11. Brad Marchand, LW, BOS (-1)
12. Phil Kessel, RW, PIT (-1)
13. Evgeni Malkin, C, PIT (-1)
14. Jamie Benn, C/LW, DAL (+2)
15. Patrick Kane, RW, CHI (+2)
16. Nathan MacKinnon, C, COL (+5)
17. Johnny Gaudreau, LW, CGY (-2)
18. Patrik Laine, RW, WPG (+2)
19. David Pastrnak, RW, BOS (SAME)
20. Jakub Voracek, RW, PHI (+2)
21. Brayden Schenn, C/LW, STL (+2)
22. Anze Kopitar, C, LAK (+2)
23. Claude Giroux, C/LW, PHI (+2)
24. Patrice Bergeron, C, BOS (+2)
25. Ryan Getzlaf, C, ANA (+4)
26. Nicklas Backstrom, C, WSH (+5)
27. Anders Lee, LW, NYI (SAME)
28. Evgeny Kuznetsov, C, WSH (SAME)
29. Taylor Hall, LW, NJD (+1)
30. Brock Boeser, RW, VAN (+3)
31. Josh Bailey, LW/RW, NYI (DTD)
32. Jack Eichel, C, BUF (+3)
33. Alexander Radulov, RW, DAL (+3)
34. Sean Monahan, C, CGY (+3)
35. Leon Draisaitl, C/RW, EDM (+3)
36. Evander Kane, LW, BUF (+3)
37. Vladislav Namestnikov, C/LW, TBL (+3)
38. Brayden Point, C/RW, TBL (+6)
39. Jonathan Marchessault, C/LW, VGK (+11)
40. Mathew Barzal, C, NYI (-8)
41. Artemi Panarin, C/LW, CBJ (SAME)
42. Nikolaj Ehlers, LW, WPG (SAME)
43. Aleksander Barkov, C, FLA (+2)
44. Jonathan Huberdeau, LW, FLA (+2)
45. Sean Couturier, C, PHI (+2)
46. Vincent Trocheck, C, FLA (+2)
47. Joe Pavelski, C/RW, SJS (+5)
48. Mikko Rantanen, LW/RW, COL (+5)
49. Tyler Toffoli, C/RW, LAK (+6)
50. Rickard Rakell, C/LW, ANA (+8)
51. William Nylander, C/RW, TOR (-2)
52. Tyler Johnson, C/RW, TBL (+8)
53. Eric Staal, C, MIN (+16)
54. Kyle Turris, C, NSH (-11)
55. Ryan Johansen, C, NSH (-4)
56. Jonathan Toews, C, CHI (+17)
57. Dustin Brown, LW/RW, LAK (+7)
58. Viktor Arvidsson, LW/RW, NSH (-1)
59. Gabriel Landeskog, LW, COL (+15)
60. William Karlsson, C/LW, VGK (+15)
61. Mika Zibanejad, C, NYR (-7)
62. James Neal, LW/RW, VGK (-6)
63. Kevin Fiala, LW/RW, NSH (-4)
64. Mitch Marner, C/RW, TOR (-3)
65. Wayne Simmonds, RW, PHI (-3)
66. Patric Hornqvist, RW, PIT (+2)
67. Mikael Granlund, C/RW, MIN (+12)
68. Reilly Smith, LW/RW, VGK (+12)
69. Mark Stone, RW, OTT (-2)
70. James van Riemsdyk, LW, TOR (+2)
71. Matthew Tkachuk, LW, CGY (+10)
72. Max Pacioretty, LW, MTL (-9)
73. Jake Guentzel, C/LW, PIT (-8)
74. Anthony Mantha, LW/RW, DET (-8)
75. Dylan Larkin, C/RW, DET (+10)
76. T.J. Oshie, RW, WSH (-6)
77. Milan Lucic, LW, EDM (-6)
78. Mats Zuccarello, RW, NYR (+4)
79. Sebastian Aho, LW/RW, CAR (+4)
80. Nazem Kadri, C, TOR (-3)
81. Jeff Skinner, LW, CAR (-3)
82. Clayton Keller, C/LW/RW, ARI (+2)
83. Mike Hoffman, LW/RW, OTT (-7)
84. David Perron, LW/RW, VGK (NEW)
85. Danton Heinen, C/LW/RW, BOS (+8)
86. Joe Thornton, C, SJS (+8)
87. Pierre-Luc Dubois, C/LW, CBJ (-1)
88. Josh Anderson, RW, CBJ (SAME)
89. Nino Niederreiter, LW/RW, MIN (NEW - INJ.)
90. Kyle Palmieri, RW, NJD (-3)
91. Teuvo Teravainen, C/LW/RW, CAR (-2)
92. Oliver Bjorkstrand, RW, CBJ (+5)
93. Kyle Connor, LW, WPG (NEW)
94. Jordan Eberle, C/RW, NYI (-4)
95. Tom Wilson, LW/RW, WSH (-3)
96. Ondrej Palat, LW, TBL (+2)
97. Nick Schmaltz, C/LW, CHI (NEW)
98. Pavel Buchnevich, LW/RW, NYR (-4)
99. Alexander Steen, C/LW/RW, STL (SAME)
100. Ryan Kesler, C, ANA (SAME)
Dropped out: Brendan Gallagher, RW, MTL; Tomas Hertl, C/LW/RW, SJS
Just missed:Patrick Marleau, C/LW, TOR; Jason Zucker, LW/RW, MIN; David Backes, RW, BOS; Brandon Saad, LW, CHI; Erik Haula, C/LW, VGK; Nico Hischier, C, NJD; J.T. Miller, C/LW/RW, NYR; Henrik Zetterberg, C/LW, DET; Yanni Gourde, C/RW, TBL; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C, EDM; Jesse Puljujarvi, RW, EDM; Alex DeBrincat, LW/RW, CHI; Bryan Little, C, WPG; Mathieu Perreault, C/LW, WPG; Zach Parise, LW, MIN (NR - INJ.); Thomas Vanek, LW/RW, VAN; Jakob Silfverberg, LW/RW, ANA; David Krejci, C, BOS; Calle Jarnkrok, C/LW, NSH; Elias Lindholm, C/RW, CAR; Timo Meier, LW/RW, SJS
Key injuries: Filip Forsberg, LW, NSH (dropped out); Mark Scheifele, C, WPG (dropped out); Jaden Schwartz, LW, STL; Logan Couture, C/LW, SJS; Corey Perry, RW, ANA; Chris Kreider, LW, NYR; Cam Atkinson, RW, CBJ; Bo Horvat, C, VAN; Jeff Carter, C, LAK; Alexander Wennberg, C, CBJ
READ: Last week's Top 100 forward rankings