The 2026-27 NHL season drops the puck on September 29, and while the marquee names at the top of fantasy drafts will get plenty of attention, the league’s biggest fantasy swings this year came from the trade market and free agency, not the draft lottery. Three deals moved proven scorers to new opportunities over the summer, a handful of young forwards are already trending toward career years, and a run of training camp injuries has opened real minutes elsewhere. Here are six players fantasy managers should be targeting above their current draft position.
The Trade Landscape Reset Real Value
San Jose sent William Eklund to Ottawa in June for the No. 9 pick in the 2026 draft plus two prospects, and the change of scenery matters. Eklund posted 53 points on 15 goals and 38 assists in 78 games last season as the Sharks’ top playmaking winger, and he now walks into a Senators top six that needed exactly that skill set. A winger who already produces at a 53-point pace rarely gets cheaper on draft day than a player switching organizations, and that is exactly what is happening here.
Bowen Byram’s move was even bigger business-wise: Chicago signed him to a six-year, 75 million dollar contract after acquiring him, banking on the 42 points, 11 goals and 109 shots he put up in 82 games last season as a floor rather than a ceiling. A workhorse, right-shot defenseman who is about to log heavy minutes on a rebuilding roster that will lean on him in every situation is a classic case of draft-day price lagging real opportunity.
Anthony Mantha put together the best season of his career in Pittsburgh, 64 points on 33 goals and 31 assists in 81 games, both career highs, before cashing in on a two-year, 9.5 million dollar deal with New Jersey. The Devils did not sign him to be a complementary piece; he is walking into a scoring role, and a 6-foot-5 net-front forward coming off a 33-goal season is being drafted like a depth add in a lot of rooms right now.
Forwards Already Trending Toward Career Years
Quinton Byfield does not need a change of scenery to break out, he already showed what it looks like. After the Kings landed Artemi Panarin, Byfield settled in on his wing and immediately took off, and it padded out a season that finished with career highs of 24 goals in 79 games and 20:01 of average ice time. A center who spent the stretch run on a top line with Panarin and is walking into a full training camp in that role is one of the safer bets in this group to push past last year’s numbers.
Zach Benson quietly put up 43 points on 13 goals and 30 assists in just 65 games for Buffalo, a per-game pace that would translate to roughly 54 points over a full 82-game slate if he simply stays healthy. He is 21 years old, already trusted in all situations by the Sabres, and the accumulated fantasy questions around him amount to health, not talent.
Will Smith’s second NHL season produced 59 points on 24 goals and 35 assists in 69 games in San Jose, and the shot volume, 166 shots on goal, says the scoring should keep climbing as he adds strength and the Sharks build the offense around him. A jump into the 70-point range this season would not be a stretch given the role he already holds.
Camp Injuries Are Already Reshuffling Lineups
Fantasy managers drafting this week also need to track who is actually healthy. Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle is expected to miss four to five weeks after adductor surgery, which pushes minutes down the Canadiens’ blue line to start the season. Detroit captain Dylan Larkin was held out of on-ice work to begin camp with an upper-body injury, a situation worth monitoring closely given his central role in the Red Wings’ offense. Anaheim winger Troy Terry is set to miss the first two to three months of the season, which opens real top-nine minutes in a young Ducks lineup from opening night. None of these situations are the kind of season-altering news that should scare managers off the affected teams, but each one nudges the depth chart in a way draft-day rankings have not fully caught up to yet.
The Takeaway
The names topping fantasy hockey rankings this fall are mostly the ones you would expect. The value is in the players whose situation changed after the numbers were already in the book, a winger who got traded into a better role, a defenseman who got paid to be a workhorse, a forward who signed into a bigger opportunity, and the young players already producing at a level their draft slot has not caught up to. Build a draft board around opportunity, not just last year’s box score, and these six names should outperform where they are actually being picked.
See today's NHL lines on DFS Lines, each one set against the player's last ten games.