Top 10 Underhyped Players

Tom Collins

2021-04-05

After last week's column on the top 10 overhyped players under the age of 25, a reader on Twitter suggested a column on underhyped players.

That made me think about what players are the most underhyped. Fantasy general managers tend to yearn for younger players over veterans. It's the shiny new toy syndrome. So logically, those younger players wouldn't be underhyped. Instead, it would be older players, usually those over the age of 30.

Look at points-only leagues. You would have been more successful last year with Ryan Suter and Keith Yandle than Adam Fox and Rasmus Dahlin. Zach Parise was just as successful as Dominik Kubalik. Despite the perceptions that one was awful and the other was excellent, Carey Price finished with more wins, saves and shutouts than Carter Hart (although in all fairness, Price also started 18 more games).

Below are 10 players over the age of 30 who are underhyped. These are not necessarily the best players over the age of 30. That would be a simple list, with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and Alexander Ovechkin, but none of those players are underhyped.

10. Mark Giordano

The Flames defenseman was overhyped a couple of years ago after he posted a 74-point season, higher than his previous two seasons combined. Now that he has come back to his regular 35-40-point pace and has lost his plum power-play spot, he's become slightly underhyped. While I would still stay away from him in points-only leagues, he has value in fantasy leagues with peripherals. Giordano is one of only two players with at least 70 blocked shots and 85 shots so far this season. Of those with at least 70 blocked shots, Giordano leads in goals and is second in power-play points.

9. Anders Lee

Lee has been underhyped since John Tavares has left town, but Lee has continued to provide value in multi-cat leagues. Even though he doesn't pace for 60-point seasons, he does score around 26 goals a season. This year, he averaged three shots per game before he went down with a right knee injury. He's also good for about 100 hits a season. Throw in the fact that he will finish as a positive in plus/minus, and he's a vital piece of a fantasy championship squad.

8. Tomas Tatar

Last week, I mentioned how difficult it would be for Nick Suzuki, or any Montreal player, to put up 70 points as the team prefers to roll four lines. Max Domi is the only Hab to do it in the last 10 years, but Tatar was on pace to hit that number a year ago when he had 61 points in 68 games before the season was halted due to the pandemic. That was an 82-game pace of 74 points. He's struggled this year, but thanks to seven points in his last six games, he's on pace for 57 points over an 82-game season.

7. Marc-Andre Fleury

It seems as if Fleury does his best work when many experts have written him off. In his last year in Pittsburgh, he was usurped by Matt Murray, but Fleury was excellent in the postseason. No one gave him much of a chance behind an expansion team in Vegas, but he finished fifth in Vezina voting and the Knights went to the finals in the team's inaugural campaign. This past offseason, Fleury was expected to be traded, and when that didn't happen, he would be at best a 1B option. Now he's having arguably the best season of his career. In Yahoo pools, he's the third-ranked netminder, and in a points-only pool I participate in, he's also ranked third.

6. Jakub Voracek

Every once in a while, Voracek has a great season where he puts up 80 points. If that's what you expect every season, then you are going to be disappointed. Because of that, many fantasy general managers tend to shy away from Voracek since he won't live up to those lofty heights. However, he's been pretty consistent as he's put up at least a 60-point pace in nine straight seasons and at least a 65-point pace in four straight campaigns. This year, he's on pace for what would be 72 points over 82 games.

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5. Jonathan Marchessault

The 30-year-old is underhyped thanks in large part to his first season with the Golden Knights. Back in 2017-18, he had 75 points in 77 games, which translates to an 82-game pace of 80 points. Many have been hoping for a repeat, but he hasn't come close. However, he's been on an 82-game pace of almost 60 points in each season since then. Going into Sunday's action, he has the same number of points as Andrei Svechnikov and William Nylander this year. How many fantasy GMs would trade either of the two younger ones for the Vegas forward straight up?

4. Semyon Varlamov

A season ago, Varlamov had a 19-14-6 record with two shutouts, a 2.62 GAA and a .914 SV%. Not great numbers, but respectable. This year, he was the 27th netminder drafted on average in Yahoo pools, behind backup Jaroslav Halak, Braden Holtby, Joonas Korpisalo and even Ben Bishop, who hasn't played a game yet because of his surgery on his right knee. Those who scooped up the Islanders netminder have been rewarded as Varlamov is the fifth-ranked netminder in Yahoo leagues this season. Sure, he may play behind one of the league's best defensive systems, but does that matter? Did you shy away from Martin Brodeur in the late 1990s because his team played the neutral zone trap?

3. David Perron

Perron has taken a long road to fantasy relevance with his first 10 seasons of underwhelming production souring fantasy general managers on the now 32-year-old. From the 2007-08 season to the 2016-17 campaign, Perron had two relevant fantasy seasons. Something switched when he went to Vegas for the Knights' first season in 2017-18. Since then, he has 209 points in 235 games. That four-year mark of 0.89 points-per-game lands him in the top 50 and ties him with Tyler Seguin, Matthew Barzal and Phil Kessel, and ahead of Jake Guentzel, Vladimir Tarasenko, Patrik Laine and Max Pacioretty. As well, Perron's 74 power-play points over those four years ranks 38th, tied with Artemi Panarin and ahead of Taylor Hall, Mark Scheifele, Brayden Point and Auston Matthews.

2. Dustin Brown

Brown is the type of player you should always take a chance on in your league, no matter what the setup. Yet he was undrafted in 65 per cent of Yahoo leagues this season (Jeff Skinner, Mikko Lehtonen and Nick Foligno were taken on average before Brown). The Kings forward has everything you should be looking for in a player: He plays on the top line next to an elite player in Anze Kopitar, he's on the top power-play unit, he averages at least 2.5 shots per game and will get at least 150 hits in an 82-game season. If he were 26 years old instead of 36, fantasy general managers would be salivating over him.

1. Kris Letang

Part of Letang being underhyped can be chalked up to his storied injury history, but many don't realize he's been fairly healthy the last few years. Since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, he is 55th in games played among defensemen. Aside from his injuries, he's truly a multi-cat beast. Already this season, he has 28 PIM, 85 shots, 63 hits, 11 power-play points and 48 blocked shots. That doesn't include his 28 points, which puts him seventh in the league. He's valuable in every setup, and while he will never be able to fully shake his Band-Aid boy label, fantasy general managers should take solace that he doesn't take as many trips to the IR as he once did.

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