Rostering a team under a salary cap can vastly change the value of players in your league. Draft positions change; some players take big jumps while others fall further down the depth chart. Which players are the best to own in a league that counts cap hit? I’d like to start off with who’s the best and I’ll show you why he is.

1.Daniel Sedin – Yup, ballee dat. Daniel "McFlannel" Sedin (known for being an incredibly comfortable own) is the most efficient forward in a salary cap league. "Shut the front door!" you say? I will not – unless it’s on your argument that there is someone better. Consistency is key in fantasy hockey and Daniel Sedin is the epitome of the word.

Only the Big Three have produced in more and even his mirror image Henrik, whose production is typically tied to Daniel’s, is below him at 68.1%.

Daniel is also the picture of health. Other than a broken foot that held him out of 18 games in 2009-10, he has played in all 82 games since 2007-08. On pace for 80 games this season, it’s clear that Daniel is not an injury risk. Within those seasons, Sedin has the third highest points total with 395 in 355 games. He’s behind only Alex Ovechkin and his brother Henrik, who may have more total points but shares the same 1.11 point-per-game average as his counterpart.

Unsurprisingly, the Big Three hold the advantage in points-per-game, but fall short of Daniel’s total points mark due to missed games. Ovechkin holds a 35-point lead thanks to his ability to stay healthy alongside a few huge seasons, but looking at the past two and a half seasons paints a very different picture.

Daniel has a league-leading point-per-game average of 1.25 while Ovechkin has dropped to 1.17 – which includes a 109-point season. Incredibly, Daniel also holds a 10 point lead on Ovechkin in total production with four less games played. While Ovie holds the advantage over the past five seasons, Daniel has overtaken him as the league’s most efficient producer.

Only Crosby holds a better point-per-game average in the past two and a half seasons with an eye-popping 1.43 ppg, and Malkin isn’t too far off with 1.12, but Daniel has 53 more points than Crosby and 73 more than Malkin in that same time period. Without considering using injury replacements on your roster, it’s clear that Daniel has been far more accountable than these two, and anyone else in the league under the criteria I set out. And we haven’t even considered his cap hit or peripheral stats yet.

How does Daniel match up in terms of cost/production to the players we’ve already analyzed? With a cap hit of $6.1 million until 2014, saving anywhere from $1.7 to $3.4 million by playing Sedin over the five players in the table below creates major roster flexibility and efficiency.

The above table says it all. Daniel Sedin obliterates his competition in every category except penalty minutes. But, while we know that his cost/production ratio has a big advantage due to his cap-friendly hit, do his average statistics compare to the elite when we take cost out the picture? The table below compares their average statistics over a five year period. (stats consider pace for any season under 65 games played)

With the numbers in front of us it isn’t a stretch to say that taking Daniel first overall in a cap league is a smart move. Between the roster flexibility and the consistent production, owners enjoy the ability to draft the more expensive players avoided by teams in a cap-crunch in the mid to later rounds of their draft. If someone could guarantee me a fully healthy season from Crosby or Malkin, give me cap-troubles that come with – otherwise I’ll take Daniel.

Between his health, consistency, solid contribution in every category and the fact that he plays on a powerhouse team with a top power play, Daniel Sedin is the number one most effective salary cap player to own.