We are running through all 32 teams, three fantasy players at a time, two new teams every weekday until all 32 are done. Today it is Dallas and Philadelphia.
Add up each team's top three on our board and Dallas ranks 5th of 32 and Philadelphia 28th. Dallas has three players inside the top 27 overall, and the third of them projects higher than anything Philadelphia has. Philadelphia's best is a 19-year-old who has played nine NHL games, and we project him for the sixth-most shots in the league.
Fantasy points below are Yahoo-style scoring from our 2026-27 projections. The band after each is that player's floor and ceiling, not a guarantee.
Jason Robertson, Dallas
Robertson is 9th overall and he has played all 82 games in four straight seasons. We have him at 98.0% availability, and we project 45 goals and 104 points on 259 shots, with 33 power play points on an 80.6% share.
His points follow his shot volume almost exactly. The two best seasons of his career, 109 and 96 points, came on 313 and 294 shots. The two 80-point seasons came on 231 and 211. We project 259 shots and 104 points, which asks his efficiency to sit at the top of its range rather than in the middle of it.
His band is 803 to 901, and the 803 floor is the highest in this article. The part that will get missed is the contract: he signed for one year at $12.00M and is a free agent again next summer. He is 27, he is coming off 45 goals and 96 points, and he is playing for his next contract.
Mikko Rantanen, Dallas
Rantanen is 20th overall and the power play is most of the case. He takes 84.6% of Dallas's, the highest share in this article, and we project 36 power play points, 10th among every skater on our board.
What changed in Dallas is the shooting. He took 271 shots in his last full season in Colorado and 139 last year in 64 games, 2.17 a night against 3.39. He put up 77 points in those 64 games and 55 of them were assists, which is 0.86 a game and the best assist rate of his career.
We project 40 goals on 202 shots. That is 19.8%, and it would be the highest full-season rate of his career, above the 18.0% he shot the year he scored 55. His band is 723 to 817, 94 points wide. The 93.4% availability is last season's 64 games and nothing else: he played 82, 80 and 82 in the three years before it.
Wyatt Johnston, Dallas
Johnston is 27th overall, he is 23, and he has played all 82 games in every one of his four NHL seasons. His availability is 100.0%, the only player in this article at the number, and his points have gone up every year: 41, 65, 71, 86.
His shooting is the number to sit with. His first three years it stayed between 14.8% and 16.3%, then it jumped to 21.8% last season, and our projection of 45 goals on 209 shots keeps him at 21.5%. His scoring is not being asked to grow. His shooting percentage is being asked to hold a level he has reached once.
His band is 641 to 891, 250 points wide, second only to Martone below. The 891 ceiling is behind only Robertson in this article and the 641 floor is still the third best here, which is what a 250-point band looks like when the player underneath it is good.
Porter Martone, Philadelphia
Martone is 36th overall and the first thing to say about him is that he has played nine NHL games.
He turns 20 in October. Last season he played those nine games at 17:02 a night and scored 10 points, then played ten more in the playoffs at 16:48. That is the entire professional record underneath everything below.
What it produces is startling. We project 299 shots, the sixth most of the 406 skaters on our board, behind only MacKinnon, Brady Tkachuk, Matthews, Pastrnak and Werenski. We project 74 points, 113 hits and 20 power play points on a 50.4% share, and he is on an entry level deal at $977,917.
His band is 608 to 874, 266 points wide and the widest in this article. The 874 ceiling would be the third best on this page. The 608 floor would be the third worst.
Travis Konecny, Philadelphia
Konecny is 92nd overall and he is the steadiest thing Philadelphia has. We project 30 goals and 73 points on 188 shots, with 114 hits and 15 power play points on a 57.3% share.
His last five seasons read 52, 61, 68, 76 and 68 points. That is the whole argument. He does the same thing every year, and our projection of 73 sits inside that range rather than above it.
His band is 553 to 634, 81 points wide and the tightest in this article. He is 29 and signed at $8.75M with a no-movement clause, so nothing about his usage is going anywhere.
Owen Tippett, Philadelphia
Tippett is 132nd overall and he is here on volume rather than scoring. We project 217 shots, 155 hits and 50 blocks, and 57 points with 10 power play points on a 45.5% share.
The hits are the most in this article and the power play points are the fewest, which is a precise description of the player. In a category league he fills three columns at once. In a points league he is sixth of the six here and it is not close.
His scoring has been flat for four years: 49, 53, 43 and 51 points. We project 57, which would be a career high at 27. His band is 497 to 593, and the 497 is the lowest floor on this page.
What we would actually do
Dallas first and it is not much of a debate. Robertson, Rantanen and Johnston go 9th, 20th and 27th, and Johnston at 741 fantasy points is worth more than Martone at 703, which means Dallas's third-best player is better than anything Philadelphia can offer. Take Robertson for the availability and the volume, Rantanen for the power play, Johnston if you want the ceiling and can live with the band under it.
Philadelphia is one decision, and it is Martone. He is the youngest player in this article by four years and the least proven by a distance, and he is also the only player here with a real case for a top-20 season. If your league is deep enough that a miss does not sink you, take him and take him early. If it is not, Konecny is 73 points you can draft and forget about.
Tippett is worth a pick only if your league counts hits and blocks, but if it does, 155 and 50 alongside 217 shots is a genuine profile even at 57 points.
Floor, ceiling and availability on all 406 skaters and 80 goalies, sortable.
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