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 New Jersey and Utah.
These two teams are built in opposite directions. New Jersey finished seventh in the Metropolitan last season with 87 points and still has the 10th best top three on our board, because almost all of it is one player. Utah finished fourth in the Central with 92 points and ranks 15th, spread across three players who project within 129 fantasy points of each other.
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.
Jack Hughes, New Jersey
Hughes is 7th overall on our board and the largest single asset in this article. We project 42 goals, 65 assists and 107 points on 293 shots, with 36 power play points on a 74.2% share, the biggest workload of anyone here.
The gap behind him is the story. Hughes projects 259 fantasy points clear of Nico Hischier, the second best player on his own team. That is the fourth largest gap between a first and second option on our board, behind San Jose, Boston and Tampa Bay.
The reason he is available later than a 7th ranked player should be is his availability, which we have at 76.1%, the second lowest in this article. He has never played a full NHL season. His last five read 49, 78, 62, 62 and 61 games, and his career high is the 78 he played in 2022-23. That is the difference between the 820 floor and the 1013 ceiling, a 193 point spread that only Dylan Guenther beats on this page.
His scoring rate has never been the question. He put up 77 points in 61 games last season, which over 82 games is a 103 point pace, almost exactly what we project.
Nico Hischier, New Jersey
Hischier is the captain and the opposite kind of asset. We project 29 goals, 43 assists and 72 points on 213 shots, and a band of 592 to 681, only 89 points wide.
He has been between 60 and 80 points in each of the last five seasons: 60, 80, 67, 69 and 66. He played all 82 games last season and we have his availability at 92.4%.
New Jersey is a genuine one-two punch down the middle, and the power play is where you see it. Hughes takes 74.2% of it and Hischier 73.1%. Two centres carrying almost identical man-advantage workloads is unusual, and it is a large part of why Hischier's floor sits where it does.
He adds 59 blocks and 69 hits, so in a category league he contributes in places Hughes does not.
Timo Meier, New Jersey
Meier is the category player of the three. We project 133 hits, the most in this article by a wide margin, along with 54 blocks and 272 shots.
The scoring has been drifting. His last three seasons are 52, 53 and 44 points, and last season's 44 came on 269 shots, his highest volume as a Devil. We project 28 goals and 55 points, which asks his conversion to come back toward where it sat two years ago rather than stay where it was last season.
His power play share is 48.7%, the only player in this article under 68%, so almost none of his value arrives on the man advantage.
Dylan Guenther, Utah
Guenther is 23 and carries the widest range on this page: a floor of 628 and a ceiling of 897, 269 points apart. We project 40 goals, 41 assists and 81 points on 251 shots, with 32 power play points.
Last season was the breakout, 40 goals and 73 points in 79 games. His scoring has climbed every year he has been in the league: 15 points in 33 games, then 35 in 45, then 60 in 70, then 73 in 79. The shot volume has climbed with it, 1.61 per game to 2.69 to 2.91 to 3.06, which is the part that tends to hold.
The caution is availability at 69.2%, the lowest in this article, and that he has not yet played a full season. Four years in, his 227 career games are under three full seasons' worth. The direction is the encouraging part: 33 games, then 45, then 70, then 79.
Clayton Keller, Utah
Keller is the steadiest player in this article. His availability is 95.1%, the highest here, and his band of 677 to 759 is the tightest, only 82 points wide. He has played 82 and 81 games the last two seasons.
We project 33 goals, 55 assists and 88 points on 228 shots, with 28 power play points on a 70.8% share. He has been between 76 and 90 points in four straight seasons, and last season he put up 62 assists, the most of his career.
He projects only 8.7 fantasy points behind Guenther, so Utah's first and second options are close to interchangeable on our numbers, with very different shapes. Guenther is the wider bet and Keller is the one you can draft and stop thinking about.
Nick Schmaltz, Utah
Schmaltz is 30 and coming off the best season of his career, 74 points in 82 games with 33 goals. We project 25 goals, 45 assists and 70 points on 201 shots.
The projection sits below last season on purpose. Those 33 goals came on 206 shots, and he had never scored more than 23 in a season before it. We project a return toward the 58 to 63 point range he had lived in for four years, with the shot volume, 2.51 per game last season, holding roughly where it is.
He is signed through 2034 at $8.00M, the longest deal in this article, one year beyond Guenther's.
What we would do
New Jersey is the simpler decision of the two. Hughes is a top ten player on our board and the gap to everything else on that roster is the fourth largest of any team's, so the roster gives you one enormous piece and then a steady captain who does a bit of everything. The bet you are making is on games played, and our 76.1% is the number to argue with.
Utah gives you the opposite. There is no single piece near Hughes, but there is no cliff either: three players inside 129 fantasy points, the most durable player in this article, and in Guenther the widest band on the page.
Floor, ceiling and availability on all 406 skaters and 80 goalies, sortable.
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