Top 200 Cap League Skater Rankings – May 2021

Alexander MacLean

2021-05-25

I hope those of you with Quinn Hughes, Andrei Svechnikov, Cale Makar, and the rest of the tasty 2021 RFA crop were able to take advantages of those bargain contracts and win some championships. Hughes, Conor Garland, and the rest of my group carried me as far as the semis in my one cap league, and the finals in another, but I unfortunately wasn't able to bring home either prize. Back to the drawing board, and updating these rankings is the first place I start.

Lots of new names high up the list, but 2020 top-five ranked Adam Fox still has another year left on his ELC, so he stays atop the leaderboard. Rookies Jason Robertson and Alexis Lafreniere round out the top three as they look to build upon their short-season production over a longer campaign. Meanwhile, McDavid jumps up to #4 in the rankings, as his fantastic production this year just blows the competition out of the water, despite being on the largest contract in the league.

The numbers will change through the offseason as the future lineups and free agent market settles out, and new contracts are signed. Scoring projections are taken into account, and the future salaries for the UFAs/RFAs are estimated through my model, with free agent skaters currently rated based on their expected next contracts. Signing a bargain or an overpriced deal will greatly affect their ranking.

Standard pre-rankings note:

This isn't meant to be a be-all and end-all rating system for you to use without thinking and just trade your players for anyone above them on the list that you can find, but used with some foresight for managing salaries, I'm hoping that the list can help you mine value in trades, and at the draft table.

The assumed league setup is for points-only leagues, with a salary allotment of approximately $73 million per team (10% of the NHL's $81.5 million being allocated for goalies), for 12 forwards and six defencemen per roster, amongst a range from eight to 14 teams (completely covered by the top 200 list). Cap hit is used for the player cost, so if your league uses salary or AAV, please account for that, as it can greatly change the impact of rookies. The rankings are set up so as to provide the most value in the current season, while providing some value in future years, based on modeling for predicted salary increases and production growth.

For those of you with variations from this setup, whether in terms of number of teams, salary space, roster positions, or scoring categories, you can make your own personal tweaks to move players up or down as necessary. This list is made to be a baseline guide for player evaluation, and to promote discussion and understanding of how to optimize rosters in a cap league setting.

If you note a mistake, or have any further questions about the ranking system, please let me know. You can find me on Twitter here @alexdmaclean.

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I'm not perfect, and the rankings won't be either. Comments help with optimizing the values.

We're sticking with the +/- 5.0 rating that Dobber uses on all of his rating schemes as the range for approximately equivalent value. The skater and goalie rankings are synched so that the value of a skater against a goalie can be compared, though the scale of the ratings has changed a little since the last update.

All salary info is courtesy of capfriendly. Without further ado, the rankings:

RankNameAgePosCap HitYrsRatingPrev Rank
1Adam Fox23D$925,0001315.734
2Jason Robertson21F$795,0001262.03124
3Alexis Lafreniere19F$925,0002235.1215
4Connor McDavid24F$12,500,0005233.9518
5Martin Necas22F$863,3331233.6412
6Nick Suzuki21F$863,3331225.767
7Quinton Byfield18F$925,0003219.5246
8Tim Stützle19F$925,0002218.9619
9Leon Draisaitl25F$8,500,0004215.379
10Ty Smith21D$863,3332212.44190
11Carter Verhaeghe25F$1,000,0001208.9799
12Nathan MacKinnon25F$6,300,0002206.8117
13Tyson Barrie29D0202.5624
14Cole Caufield20F$880,8332201.54NR
15Joel Farabee21F$925,0001188.7216
16Marco Rossi19F$925,0003186.7555
17Trevor Zegras20F$925,0002185.5841
18Jack Hughes20F$925,0001182.6010
19Dylan Cozens20F$925,0002181.6742
20Jonathan Huberdeau27F$5,900,0002180.7727
21Lucas Raymond19F$925,0003178.6464
22Joshua Norris22F$925,0001177.51188
23Oliver Wahlstrom20F$894,1672177.08NR
24Nikita Kucherov27F$9,500,0006172.78NR
25Shea Theodore25D$5,200,0004172.7843
26Alex Newhook20F$908,3332172.67NR
27Jakob Chychrun23D$4,600,0004171.92105
28Nils Hoglander20F$891,6672170.83NR
29Mark Scheifele28F$6,125,0003170.4236
30Brad Marchand33F$6,125,0004166.8544
31Mikko Rantanen24F$9,250,0004165.1540
32Roope Hintz24F$3,150,0002165.09186
33Jordan Kyrou23F0164.4826
34MacKenzie Weegar27D$3,250,0002163.55150
35Aleksander Barkov25F$5,900,0001162.9835
36Jake Guentzel26F$6,000,0003161.9329
37Filip Zadina21F$894,1671161.4548
38Cale Makar22D0159.932
39Bowen Byram19D$925,0002159.0657
40Nicholas Robertson19F$821,6673159.01NR
41David Pastrnak25F$6,666,6662157.0728
42John Klingberg28D$4,250,0001156.1862
43Jamie Drysdale19D$925,0002156.1175
44Quinn Hughes21D0155.861
45Drake Batherson23F0155.7232
46John Carlson31D$8,000,0005154.3231
47Max Comtois22F0154.2768
48Victor Hedman30D$7,875,0004153.3233
49Cole Perfetti19F$894,1663151.4891
50Kaapo Kakko20F$925,0001151.4621
51David Perron32F$4,000,0001150.2938
52Jack Roslovic24F$1,838,3621149.0089
53Adam Boqvist20D$894,1671148.6430
54Alex DeBrincat23F$6,400,0002148.61112
55K’Andre Miller21D$925,0002148.0182
56Filip Hronek23D0147.918
57Evan Bouchard21D$863,3332147.5480
58Mitch Marner24F$10,903,0004146.4874
59Elias Lindholm26F$4,850,0003146.2667
60Morgan Rielly27D$5,000,0001146.1751
61Kirill Kaprizov24F0144.705
62Daniel Sprong24F$725,0001144.69187
63Mike Reilly27D0144.50126
64Johnny Gaudreau27F$6,750,0001143.64100
65Mason Appleton25F$900,0001143.62185
66Pavel Zacha24F$2,250,0001143.54178
67Auston Matthews23F$11,640,2503141.8287
68Morgan Frost22F$863,3331141.7453
69Yegor Sharangovich22F0140.30NR
70Mika Zibanejad28F$5,350,0001140.0754
71Kirby Dach20F$925,0001140.0279
72J.T. Miller28F$5,250,0002139.4852
73Denis Gurianov23F$2,550,0001139.22184
74Mikhail Sergachev22D$4,800,0002138.5085
75Tyson Jost23F0138.40NR
76Sebastian Aho23F$8,460,2503137.72114
77Moritz Seider20D$863,3333137.56177
78Samuel Girard23D$5,000,0006136.8063
79Devon Toews27D$4,100,0003136.66125
80Rasmus Dahlin21D0135.9813
81Gabriel Vilardi21F$894,1671135.8737
82Dougie Hamilton27D0134.2823
83Nikolaj Ehlers25F$6,000,0004134.0176
84Troy Terry23F$1,450,0002133.83109
85Kris Letang34D$7,250,0001133.40139
86Alexander Romanov21D$925,0002132.74NR
87Darnell Nurse26D$5,600,0001132.5677
88Brayden Point25F$6,750,0001132.5258
89Alexander Wennberg26F0132.40NR
90Brock Boeser24F$5,875,0001132.37102
91Nicolas Hague22D$791,6671132.3050
92Artemi Panarin29F$11,642,8575132.2783
93Chandler Stephenson27F$2,750,0003132.24175
94Kevin Fiala24F0132.0788
95Ryan Strome27F$4,500,0001132.0293
96Erik Brannstrom21D$863,3331131.91136
97Vitali Kravtsov21F$925,0001131.55NR
98Oliver Bjorkstrand26F$5,400,0005130.7520
99Jared McCann24F$2,940,0001130.30NR
100Patrick Kane32F$10,500,0002130.2773
101Kyle Connor24F$7,142,8575130.1272
102Tomas Hertl27F$5,625,0001130.1095
103Kasperi Kapanen24F$3,200,0001129.71166
104Noah Dobson21D$894,1671129.7045
105Mathieu Joseph24F$737,5001129.64146
106Nicolas Beaudin21D$863,3332129.17NR
107Mark Stone29F$9,500,0006129.0698
108Pavel Buchnevich26F0128.5549
109Sidney Crosby33F$8,700,0004128.3565
110Neal Pionk25D0127.7425
111Jason Spezza37F0127.47138
112Tyler Toffoli29F$4,250,0003127.30127
113Sean Couturier28F$4,333,3331127.2766
114Connor McMichael20F$863,3333126.96169
115Jakub Vrana25F0126.8294
116Jeff Petry33D$6,250,0004126.72110
117Joe Thornton41F0126.71165
118Alexander Holtz19F$925,0003126.57NR
119Thomas Chabot23D$8,000,0007125.95107
120Brandon Hagel22F0125.78NR
121Rasmus Sandin21D$894,1671125.0592
122Bryan Rust29F$3,500,0001124.8469
123Mathew Barzal23F$7,000,0002124.00132
124Grigori Denisenko20F$925,0002123.99NR
125Torey Krug30D$6,500,0006123.77104
126Charlie McAvoy23D$4,900,0001123.54122
127Eeli Tolvanen22F0123.02181
128Teuvo Teravainen26F$5,400,0003122.48164
129Matthew Tkachuk23F$7,000,0001122.17151
130Jesse Puljujarvi23F$1,175,0001122.09161
131Anthony Duclair25F0121.82108
132Seth Jones26D$5,400,0001121.6759
133Jordan Greenway24F$2,100,0001121.48120
134Dominik Kubalík25F$3,700,0001121.3084
135Alex Barre-Boulet24F0120.96NR
136Andrei Svechnikov21F0120.726
137Ryan O’Reilly30F$7,500,0002120.46157
138Ian Mitchell22D$925,0002120.03NR
139Elias Pettersson22F0120.023
140Travis Konecny24F$5,500,0004119.76103
141David Farrance21D$925,000.001119.68NR
142Shane Pinto20F$925,0002119.25NR
143Barrett Hayton20F$894,1671119.0770
144Andre Burakovsky26F$4,900,0001118.88NR
145Roman Josi30D$9,059,0007118.7378
146Thomas Harley19D$863,3333118.61NR
147Andrew Mangiapane25F$2,425,0001118.54172
148Michael Bunting25F0118.32NR
149Jonathan Marchessault30F$5,000,0003118.22194
150Kieffer Bellows22F0118.18NR
151Pius Suter25F0118.07160
152Ondrej Palat30F$5,300,0001117.99189
153Max Pacioretty32F$7,000,0002117.97174
154Eric Robinson25F$975,0001117.81NR
155Victor Olofsson25F$3,050,0001117.6761
156Pierre-Olivier Joseph21D$863,3331117.57NR
157Mario Ferraro22D$925,0001117.52NR
158Conor Garland25F0117.1811
159Miro Heiskanen21D0117.1514
160Christian Fischer24F$1,000,0001117.13NR
161Henri Jokiharju21D0116.84NR
162Zach Werenski23D$5,000,0001116.7396
163Jesper Bratt22F$2,750,0001116.72199
164Matt Grzelcyk27D$3,687,5003116.68NR
165Colin Blackwell28F$725,0001116.62NR
166Kailer Yamamoto22F0116.3834
167Liam Foudy21F$863,3332116.11NR
168Ryan Nugent-Hopkins28F0115.13117
169Kale Clague22D0114.98NR
170Anthony Beauvillier23F0114.6486
171Robert Thomas21F0114.3539
172Anders Bjork24F$1,600,0002114.29NR
173Vince Dunn24D0114.22111
174Justin Schultz30D$4,000,0001114.07NR
175Brady Tkachuk21F0113.9522
176Alexander Radulov34F$6,250,0001113.73NR
177Alexander Volkov23F0113.58NR
178Gabriel Landeskog28F0113.3260
179Owen Tippett22F$863,3331113.06NR
180Alex Ovechkin35F0113.0181
181Cody Glass22F$863,3331112.7547
182Jesperi Kotkaniemi21F0112.65119
183Mike Hoffman31F0112.36163
184Scott Perunovich22D$925,0001112.16NR
185Vincent Trocheck28F$4,750,0001111.97NR
186Justin Holl29D$2,000,0002111.69NR
187Bo Horvat26F$5,500,0002111.66142
188Jack Studnicka22F$769,1671111.63NR
189William Nylander25F$6,962,3663111.62173
190Sean Walker26D$2,650,0003110.96NR
191Peyton Krebs20F$863,3333110.89NR
192Calle Jarnkrok29F$2,000,0001110.63162
193Jaret Anderson-Dolan21F$747,5001110.33NR
194Jake Bean22D0110.18NR
195Aaron Ekblad25D$7,500,0004109.56121
196Craig Smith31F$3,100,0002109.49NR
197Wyatt Kalynuk24D$925,0001109.46NR
198Evander Kane29F$7,000,0004109.24NR
199Nolan Patrick22F0108.88168
200Brett Pesce26D$4,025,0003108.71NR

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