Eighteen rounds, eleven keepers, one GM who showed up with a full board and no security blanket. The AI Hat handed out the order. ESPN handed out the projections. We handed the rosters to a calculator that does not care who won last year.
This is a head-to-head points league. You start 2 C / 2 LW / 2 RW / 4 D / 2 G / 2 UTIL. The ranks below use the live 2026-27 ESPN rosters, ESPN's 2027 projected fantasy points in this scoring, plus draft rank, last year's production, and whether the roster is actually shaped like a lineup or like a center convention. The full cards also live on Power Rankings.
| # | Team | GM | Grade | Start proj. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Boldy and the Beautiful | Jaimie Stojanovski | A+ | 3,727 |
| 2 | Eagle Fang | Josh D | A | 3,624 |
| 3 | Team not Josh Allen! | James Reynolds | A- | 3,493 |
| 4 | Pit - i - ful | Greg Bishop | B+ | 3,511 |
| 5 | District 5 Ducks | Stoj | B+ | 3,470 |
| 6 | Trocheck Yo'Self | Kristin VanEnwyck | B+ | 3,435 |
| 7 | Take Your Kaprizov | Austin McNeill | B | 3,185 |
| 8 | B.O.B. (Brady Over Baghdad) | Dawn Reynolds | B | 3,339 |
| 9 | Very Knies | Brian Moore | B- | 3,384 |
| 10 | Got That Stankoven On Him | Josh McInnis | B- | 3,325 |
| 11 | Pasta My Prime | Adam Vanenwyck | C+ | 3,225 |
| 12 | Raleigh IceCaps | Bill Blackburn | C | 3,116 |
Jaimie opened the draft with Nathan MacKinnon and closed the value board with Macklin Celebrini at a 14th-round keeper price, which is the closest this league has come to legal theft. Jack Hughes, Dylan Guenther, Andrei Svechnikov, and a still-dangerous Patrick Kane fill out a lineup ESPN projects as the highest-scoring 14-man start in the room. Ilya Sorokin and Jeremy Swayman is a real tandem, not a prayer, and there is actual bench scoring (Bennett, Verhaeghe, Boeser) instead of the usual late-round souvenirs. If there is a nit, the blue line after Darren Raddysh and Erik Karlsson gets thin. That is a nit you can live with when your 1C is MacKinnon and your “sleeper” is already a top-five fantasy player.
The champs did not defend the title by getting cute. Leon Draisaitl, Clayton Keller, William Nylander, and Mika Zibanejad is a weekly engine, Logan Thompson is a legitimate 1G, and then Josh spent an 18th-round chip on Matthew Schaefer, whom ESPN already ranks 37th overall. Nikolaj Ehlers, Jesper Bratt, and Mark Stone give him scoring on the flanks, with Matvei Michkov and Evgeni Malkin still on the pine. The defense is Schaefer plus veterans rather than a second star, and Duchene is day-to-day. This is still the most complete roster after Jaimie's, and it is built to survive a week when the stars go quiet.
James left the draft with four players ESPN stuffed inside the top 24: Brady Tkachuk, Alex DeBrincat (the sixth-round keep), Evan Bouchard, and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Martin Necas is a fifth. That is the most star power anyone not named Jaimie walked away with. The problem is the training room: Marchand is already on IR, Brady, Bryan Rust, and Brock Faber are day-to-day, and Bobrovsky is a 2G you start because you have to. If this team is healthy in November, it is a 1-seed conversation. If the dings linger, the weekly floor drops fast. Ceiling: title favorite. Floor: the most expensive injured reserve in the league.
Nikita Kucherov at 1.03 is still the best player in a lot of rooms, and Greg surrounded him with a center pile that actually works in this format: Wyatt Johnston, Mark Scheifele, Roope Hintz, Logan Cooley. Adrian Kempe and Kirill Marchenko are real wingers, Carlson and Morrissey are a fine 1-2 on D, and the Anthony Mantha keep looks less spicy next to a 9th-round swing on Gavin McKenna. The hole is obvious and it is 60 feet wide: Joey Daccord and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is a streamer's tandem wearing starter minutes. This offense can outrun a lot of weeks. It will lose some of them 8-7 because the crease could not hold.
On a clean whiteboard this is a top-three team: Cale Makar, Kyle Connor, Matthew Tkachuk, Mitch Marner, and a 16th-round Zach Hyman who ESPN still treats like a 30th-overall player. Aleksander Barkov and Robert Thomas give you two real centers behind the stars. The whiteboard is not clean. Connor Bedard is out, Connor Hellebuyck is listed as suspended — ESPN already docked him to a 111th-overall projection — and Ivan Demidov is day-to-day. Jet Greaves and Dan Vladar can keep the lights on, and the kids (Demidov, Snuggerud, Martone) are the kind of late-round bets that look smart in March. Until Bedard and Hellebuyck are actually in the lineup, this is a star team playing in a cast.
No IR tags, no suspensions, no wait-until-December stickers on the best players. Jason Robertson and Filip Forsberg are a top-ten wing pairing, Sebastian Aho and Sidney Crosby still do center things on purpose, and Jakob Chychrun plus Roman Josi is one of the better D duos in the league. Juuse Saros with Spencer Knight behind him is a tandem you can live with, and the Jackson Blake keep is a Hurricane in the house. The drop-off after the top six is real — Hertl, Byram, Nikishin, Toffoli is depth, not terror — but this is the roster you want when you are trying to win a 23-week grind instead of a screenshot. Quietly one of the safest playoff builds in the draft.
The names say top four. ESPN's positional math says otherwise, and both things can be true. Auston Matthews, Matt Boldy, Alex Tuch, Cutter Gauthier (11th-round keep), Alex Ovechkin, and Steven Stamkos is a ridiculous forward room — eight players inside ESPN's top 50, best rank-quality of anyone. Then you look at the blue line and Noah Dobson is the only defenseman the projection model still likes. Weegar's rank (42) and his projected points do not currently live on the same planet, and Nurse / Faulk / Parayko is not a championship D corps. John Gibson and Dustin Wolf is a volatile pair. If Dobson and Weegar just play like their ranks, this team jumps three spots. Until then, Austin has a first-line party and a third-pair defense.
Cole Caufield, Jake Guentzel, and Artemi Panarin on one roster should be illegal in a points league. Add Pavel Dorofeyev and a Tom Wilson keep at a 12th-round cost and Dawn has the loudest wing group in the draft. Moritz Seider is a true 1D. After that the volume play takes over: Vejmelka, Wedgewood, and Blackwood is three goalies looking for one job, and Chabot / Rielly / Hanifin / Montour is a lot of minutes without a second star. Ryan O'Reilly, Dylan Cozens, and Joel Eriksson Ek will win you some faceoff weeks and lose you some flashy ones. This team is a weekly coin flip that can blow the doors off when the wingers are humming. It is not yet a team that survives a Caufield slump.
Brian walked in with no keeper and all 18 picks, then spent the early ones like a man who had somewhere to be: David Pastrnak, Jack Eichel, Brandon Hagel, Sam Reinhart. That is a genuine contention core. Nick Schmaltz, Bo Horvat, and Dylan Holloway are actual hockey players, not late-round vibes. The bill came due on defense — Matheson, Trouba, Dougie Hamilton, Ekholm is a group you stream against, not with — and Seth Jarvis is already on IR. Sergei Murashov is the spicy ESPN projection, with Kuemper and Hofer as the grown-ups. The forwards can win weeks. The blue line will donate a few.
First draft, ninth overall, and Josh built the best defense in the league on purpose: Zach Werenski, Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox, Jake Sanderson. That is a 4D you actually start without holding your nose. Nick Suzuki, Dylan Larkin (the sixth-round keep), and Nico Hischier is a real center trio, not a waiver experiment. The rest of the roster is a rookie-year tell — Timo Meier and Drake Batherson are fine, Carter Hart / Lukas Dostal / Yaroslav Askarov is a goalie room with a plot, and Anton Frondell plus Landeskog are bets, not ballast. For a 0-0 franchise this is a serious opening statement. The D will keep him in games. The wings and the crease will decide whether he is in the photo in March.
The spine is still a title spine: Kirill Kaprizov at the turn, Mikko Rantanen, Rasmus Dahlin, Igor Shesterkin, plus Lane Hutson and Brayden Point. That is five players you would steal in a restart. Then Adam spent the rest of the night in the prospect catalog — Will Smith (the 18th-round keep), Beckett Sennecke, Jesper Wallstedt, Ryan Leonard, Ivar Stenberg, Brandt Clarke. ESPN's model does not pay you for that yet, which is why the starting projection sits 11th. If two of those kids hit, this is a playoff team with a first-round ceiling. If they need another year, Adam is watching Kaprizov do 40-goal things on a roster that cannot fill UTIL. Highest variance in the league. The only ranking that will look wrong in April.
Connor McDavid at 1.02 still breaks matchups, and Tage Thompson plus Tim Stutzle means Bill did not waste the picks after him. Leo Carlsson as an 18th-round keep is a good get. The roster construction is the problem: eight centers, one right wing, and a UTIL slot that cannot save you from yourself. Elias Pettersson, Nazem Kadri, and Mathew Barzal are good players trapped behind a logjam, Nichushkin is doing a lot of heavy lifting at RW, and Charlie McAvoy is already suspended. Jake Oettinger is a 1G; Jakub Dobes is the rest of the plan. McDavid will put up a 12-point week and Bill will still lose because three of his centers were on the bench. The talent is not 12th. The shape of the roster is.
James vs. Greg is health vs. Kucherov. Austin vs. everyone from 6 through 9 is star count vs. a dead blue line. Pasta and the IceCaps can both jump if the kids hit or those extra centers get moved. Puck drops Tuesday. The first week of scores will be louder than this post.
— The Front Office