Top 120 Keeper League Defensemen – May 2022
Dobber
2022-05-04
Here are the Top 120 defensemen to own in your points-only dynasty leagues – May edition
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May and June are generally my “mess around with this list” months. I go through all the players and adjust just by eyeballing them. All the injured players get reset for next season. All the overachievers get brought back down to earth. All the underachievers get a bit of a boost. Young players generally get an uptick while the aging vets get a knock downward. I don’t dive into each player for hours – they each get about a minute, and I go with my gut. The July/August rankings are where every player get fully audited thanks to the in-depth analysis that the Fantasy Guide requires.
As always, players between +/-5.0 rating points of each other should be considered equal value and at that point are a matter of team needs or personal bias.
Click any player to be taken to his fantasy hockey profile – a page that we painstakingly set up to give the best information to help fantasy owners.
| Def. Rk | Player | Team | Rating | May | April | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cale Makar | COL | 163.0 | 16 | 18 | 2 |
| 2 | Roman Josi | NSH | 128.2 | 35 | 19 | -16 |
| 3 | Adam Fox | NYR | 127.8 | 36 | 33 | -3 |
| 4 | Victor Hedman | TBL | 111.3 | 49 | 41 | -8 |
| 5 | John Carlson | WAS | 104.1 | 58 | 53 | -5 |
| 6 | Morgan Rielly | TOR | 103.7 | 59 | 46 | -13 |
| 7 | Quinn Hughes | VAN | 98.3 | 68 | 65 | -3 |
| 8 | Aaron Ekblad | FLA | 92.4 | 79 | 70 | -9 |
| 9 | Shea Theodore | VGK | 85.9 | 95 | 120 | 25 |
| 10 | Rasmus Dahlin | BUF | 83.2 | 101 | 103 | 2 |
| 11 | Charlie McAvoy | BOS | 78.3 | 108 | 100 | -8 |
| 12 | Tony DeAngelo | CAR | 77.4 | 109 | 101 | -8 |
| 13 | Moritz Seider | DET | 75.9 | 112 | 110 | -2 |
| 14 | Dougie Hamilton | NJD | 73.7 | 115 | 135 | 20 |
| 15 | Thomas Chabot | OTT | 73.4 | 116 | 121 | 5 |
| 16 | Seth Jones | CHI | 72.2 | 121 | 113 | -8 |
| 17 | Kris Letang | PIT | 68.2 | 133 | 84 | -49 |
| 18 | Miro Heiskanen | DAL | 67.3 | 136 | 144 | 8 |
| 19 | Devon Toews | COL | 65.8 | 141 | 91 | -50 |
| 20 | Zach Werenski | CBJ | 65.5 | 143 | 125 | -18 |
| 21 | John Klingberg | DAL | 62.5 | 148 | 139 | -9 |
| 22 | Torey Krug | STL | 57.7 | 159 | 142 | -17 |
| 23 | Drew Doughty | LAK | 54.6 | 168 | 178 | 10 |
| 24 | Erik Karlsson | SJS | 52.3 | 176 | 177 | 1 |
| 25 | Evan Bouchard | EDM | 51.6 | 180 | 169 | -11 |
| 26 | Samuel Girard | COL | 47.7 | 191 | 212 | 21 |
| 27 | Alex Pietrangelo | VGK | 46.3 | 199 | 171 | -28 |
| 28 | Rasmus Andersson | CGY | 43.3 | 206 | 183 | -23 |
| 29 | Noah Dobson | NYI | 42.6 | 208 | 187 | -21 |
| 30 | Darnell Nurse | EDM | 42.1 | 211 | 210 | -1 |
| 31 | Tyson Barrie | EDM | 41.9 | 213 | 176 | -37 |
| 32 | Filip Hronek | DET | 41.4 | 215 | 199 | -16 |
| 33 | Neal Pionk | WPG | 41.1 | 217 | 253 | 36 |
| 34 | Noah Hanifin | CGY | 39.8 | 220 | 238 | 18 |
| 35 | Ivan Provorov | PHI | 37.4 | 225 | 259 | 34 |
| 36 | Jakob Chychrun | ARI | 36.3 | 231 | 335 | 104 |
| 37 | Mikhail Sergachev | TBL | 36.1 | 234 | 201 | -33 |
| 38 | Adam Boqvist | CBJ | 35.0 | 237 | 280 | 43 |
| 39 | Mackenzie Weegar | FLA | 35.0 | 238 | 184 | -54 |
| 40 | Jaccob Slavin | CAR | 33.7 | 244 | 208 | -36 |
| 41 | Brent Burns | SJS | 33.3 | 247 | 161 | -86 |
| 42 | Jamie Drysdale | ANA | 31.4 | 257 | 250 | -7 |
| 43 | Josh Morrissey | WPG | 31.0 | 258 | 275 | 17 |
| 44 | Shayne Gostisbehere | ARI | 29.8 | 263 | 204 | -59 |
| 45 | Jacob Trouba | NYR | 29.6 | 264 | 230 | -34 |
| 46 | Bowen Byram | COL | 29.1 | 266 | 277 | 11 |
| 47 | Damon Severson | NJD | 28.6 | 269 | 217 | -52 |
| 48 | Matt Dumba | MIN | 27.9 | 274 | 270 | -4 |
| 49 | Scott Perunovich | STL | 27.8 | 276 | 257 | -19 |
| 50 | Owen Power | BUF | 26.1 | 285 | 375 | 90 |
| 51 | Gustav Forsling | FLA | 25.9 | 287 | 266 | -21 |
| 52 | Brandon Montour | FLA | 23.3 | 298 | 300 | 2 |
| 53 | Vince Dunn | SEA | 21.6 | 313 | 378 | 65 |
| 54 | Ryan Merkley | SJS | 21.4 | 316 | 306 | -10 |
| 55 | Sean Durzi | LAK | 19.9 | 329 | 424 | 95 |
| 56 | Justin Faulk | STL | 19.7 | 332 | 338 | 6 |
| 57 | Ryan Ellis | PHI | 19.4 | 336 | 454 | 118 |
| 58 | Travis Sanheim | PHI | 18.6 | 346 | 383 | 37 |
| 59 | Ty Smith | NJD | 18.6 | 347 | 340 | -7 |
| 60 | Jared Spurgeon | MIN | 18.5 | 349 | 299 | -50 |
| 61 | Jonas Brodin | MIN | 17.4 | 365 | 382 | 17 |
| 62 | Cam Fowler | ANA | 16.9 | 373 | 288 | -85 |
| 63 | Oliver Kylington | CGY | 15.8 | 390 | 367 | -23 |
| 64 | Braden Schneider | NYR | 15.5 | 395 | 503 | 108 |
| 65 | Juuso Valimaki | CGY | 15.0 | 402 | 386 | -16 |
The Next Group (gap between 66 and 90 is same as gap between 17 and 20 – i.e. they are pretty equal)
| Matt Grzelcyk | BOS | Victor Soderstrom | ARI | |
| Vladislav Gavrikov | CBJ | Ethan Bear | CAR | |
| Jake Bean | CBJ | Brady Skjei | CAR | |
| Jordan Spence | LAK | Brett Pesce | CAR | |
| Mattias Ekholm | NSH | Kaiden Guhle | MON | |
| Ryan Pulock | NYI | Alexander Romanov | MON | |
| K’Andre Miller | NYR | Alexandre Carrier | NSH | |
| Nils Lundkvist | NYR | Cameron York | PHI | |
| Colton Parayko | STL | Pierre-Olivier Joseph | PIT | |
| Erik Brannstrom | OTT | Jake Muzzin | TOR | |
| Mike Matheson | PIT | Nicolas Hague | VGK | |
| Rasmus Sandin | TOR | Nate Schmidt | WPG | |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | VAN |
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
| Josh Mahura | ANA | Kevin Shattenkirk | ANA | |
| Hampus Lindholm | ANA | Janis Moser | ARI | |
| Henri Jokiharju | BUF | Jacob Bryson | BUF | |
| Ryan Graves | NJD | Mattias Samuelsson | BUF | |
| Dante Fabbro | NSH | Caleb Jones | CHI | |
| David Farrance | NSH | Nicolas Beaudin | CHI | |
| Robin Salo | NYI | Max Gildon | FLA | |
| Zachary Jones | NYR | Alex Goligoski | MIN | |
| Jake Sanderson | OTT | Justin Barron | MON | |
| Rasmus Ristolainen | PHI | Mattias Norlinder | MON | |
| Marcus Pettersson | PIT | Jeff Petry | MON | |
| Ryan McDonagh | TBL | Luke Hughes | NJD | |
| Timothy Liljegren | TOR | John Marino | PIT | |
| Jack Rathbone | VAN | Mario Ferraro | SJS | |
| Dmitry Orlov | WAS | Ville Heinola | WPG |
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