Fantasy Hockey Focus: How to handle rookies on draft day

Fans and fantasy hockey enthusiasts alike are enamoured with prospects. There is a certain joy in seeing a player develop to, and perform at, the level that we hope they can achieve. In one-year fantasy hockey leagues, though, today’s production is all that matters. It is worth going through how rookies typically fare, this year’s top rookies, and where there is (or isn’t) fantasy value to be found. 

Let us begin with the forwards and the difficulty of finding a fantasy-relevant role. 

Over the last three seasons, there were 208 rookie forwards who reached at least 10 games, or enough to burn the first year of their entry-level contract. Of those 208 forwards, just nine played at least 17 minutes a game, or fewer than 5 percent of all rookies. As mentioned in last week’s feature on Timo Meie