Here are the top 120 defensemen to own in your points-only dynasty leagues – August edition!

The free agents have signed and the 2021 draftees are in. Adjustments have been made, but these are all via eyeballing it. As I put together the Fantasy Guide, I go over each and every player with a fine-tooth comb. An “audit”, if you will. So the September rankings will be the most accurate of the year (as with every year).

First an announcement. DobberHockey’s 16th annual Fantasy Hockey Guide is coming out, ready for download on August 14. Pre-order it here!

As always, players within +/-5.0 rating points of each other should be considered equal and at that point become a matter of team need or personal bias. Click any name to be taken to his customized fantasy hockey player profile.

Def Rk	Player	Team	Rating	Aug	Jul	Change
1	Cale Makar	COL	114.8	34	34	0
2	Adam Fox	NYR	114.1	35	41	-6
3	John Carlson	WAS	110.9	39	37	2
4	Victor Hedman	TBL	107.3	45	43	2
5	Quinn Hughes	VAN	97.8	52	59	-7
6	Morgan Rielly	TOR	96.1	59	65	-6
7	Shea Theodore	VGK	95.4	61	63	-2
8	Roman Josi	NSH	94.3	67	62	5
9	Dougie Hamilton	NJD	90.3	74	70	4
10	Tyson Barrie	EDM	89.7	76	79	-3
11	Thomas Chabot	OTT	78.6	92	92	0
12	Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	74.8	99	101	-2
13	Torey Krug	STL	67.8	114	114	0
14	John Klingberg	DAL	66.7	116	117	-1
15	Seth Jones	CHI	65.3	120	130	-10
16	Kris Letang	PIT	64.8	121	107	14
17	Miro Heiskanen	DAL	63.2	124	125	-1
18	Samuel Girard	COL	59.2	134	134	0
19	Zach Werenski	CBJ	58.9	135	135	0
20	Alex Pietrangelo	VGK	57.4	141	141	0
21	Charlie McAvoy	BOS	54.7	149	150	-1
22	Darnell Nurse	EDM	53.4	155	153	2
23	Ivan Provorov	PHI	49.0	170	170	0
24	Drew Doughty	LAK	48.3	172	168	4
25	Mikhail Sergachev	TBL	46.4	178	177	1
26	Jakob Chychrun	ARI	45.9	180	182	-2
27	Erik Karlsson	SJS	45.2	182	204	-22
28	Filip Hronek	DET	42.9	187	188	-1
29	Ty Smith	NJD	41.0	192	199	-7
30	Neal Pionk	WPG	40.2	194	195	-1
31	Aaron Ekblad	FLA	40.1	196	197	-1
32	Adam Boqvist	CBJ	36.5	212	229	-17
33	Brent Burns	SJS	35.8	217	196	21
34	Tony DeAngelo	CAR	34.7	221	255	-34
35	Josh Morrissey	WPG	34.0	224	220	4
36	Jeff Petry	MON	33.2	227	218	9
37	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	VAN	33.1	229	230	-1
38	Ryan Ellis	PHI	32.5	234	228	6
39	Devon Toews	COL	31.5	237	235	2
40	Jamie Drysdale	ANA	28.3	251	262	-11
41	Matt Dumba	MIN	26.8	260	256	4
42	Jaccob Slavin	CAR	25.9	268	264	4
43	Mattias Ekholm	NSH	23.9	283	276	7
44	Mackenzie Weegar	FLA	23.8	285	272	13
45	Evan Bouchard	EDM	23.4	290	295	-5
46	Ryan Pulock	NYI	22.7	298	285	13
47	Jacob Trouba	NYR	22.6	300	290	10
48	Damon Severson	NJD	20.5	311	304	7
49	Gustav Forsling	FLA	20.2	314	293	21
50	Matt Grzelcyk	BOS	19.7	322	312	10
51	Keith Yandle	PHI	18.5	341	291	50
52	Shayne Gostisbehere	ARI	18.4	344	313	31
53	Rasmus Ristolainen	PHI	18.3	346	308	38
54	Bowen Byram	COL	17.9	353	357	-4
55	Rasmus Andersson	CGY	17.9	356	343	13
56	Travis Sanheim	PHI	17.9	357	356	1
57	Brandon Montour	FLA	17.7	360	420	-60
58	Ryan Merkley	SJS	17.4	364	361	3
59	Noah Dobson	NYI	15.7	387	398	-11
60	Vince Dunn	SEA	15.4	393	382	11
61	Jake Bean	CBJ	15.4	394	396	-2
62	Mike Matheson	PIT	15.1	400	432	-32
63	Colton Parayko	STL	14.5	408	423	-15
64	Justin Schultz	WAS	14.3	413	387	26
65	Alexander Romanov	MON	14.2	415	417	-2

The Next Group (gap between 66 and 90 is same as gap between 17 and 20 – i.e. they are pretty equal)

📢 advertisement:

Nils Lundkvist	NYR	Noah Hanifin	CGY
Conor Timmins	ARI	Victor Soderstrom	ARI
Will Butcher	BUF	Mike Reilly	BOS
Ethan Bear	CAR	Brett Pesce	CAR
Juuso Valimaki	CGY	Wyatt Kalynuk	CHI
Nick Leddy	DET	Esa Lindell	DAL
Jared Spurgeon	MIN	David Farrance	NSH
Jonas Brodin	MIN	Pierre-Olivier Joseph	PIT
P.K. Subban	NJD	Scott Perunovich	STL
Dante Fabbro	NSH	Travis Dermott	TOR
Erik Brannstrom	OTT	Erik Gustafsson	UFA
Jake Muzzin	TOR	Nicolas Hague	VGK
Alec Martinez	VGK

Vets who can chip in, injury risks, prospects with varying degrees of upside and wait time, other defensemen with lower upside and expectations but can chip in at times

Cam Fowler	ANA	Caleb Jones	CHI
Josh Mahura	ANA	Jake Gardiner	CAR
Hampus Lindholm	ANA	Jake McCabe	CHI
Henri Jokiharju	BUF	Ryan Suter	DAL
Kale Clague	LAK	Max Gildon	FLA
Philippe Myers	NSH	Sean Walker	LAK
Robin Salo	NYI	Luke Hughes	NJD
K’Andre Miller	NYR	John Marino	PIT
Cameron York	PHI	Justin Faulk	STL
Marcus Pettersson	PIT	Timothy Liljegren	TOR
Dennis Cholowski	SEA	Tyler Myers	VAN
Mark Giordano	SEA	Jack Rathbone	VAN
Ryan McDonagh	TBL	Dylan Coghlan	VGK
Rasmus Sandin	TOR	Ville Heinola	WPG
Nate Schmidt	WPG	Logan Stanley	WPG