While the goal of fantasy hockey is always to win a championship, many fantasy GMs won’t be competing any time soon as they are just starting or in the middle of a rebuild.
Many keeper leagues will be having their trade deadlines within the next few weeks, and this can be an important time to get those young players needed in a rebuild.
Below are 10 players under 26 years old that are great options for those rebuilding teams that you might be able to get for a cheaper price than you will in the future when they break out. The players on this list won’t necessarily be dynamite next season, but you’re buying in on the fact that they can be great fantasy assets two or three years from now.
Since many leagues allow for rookie keepers, we will concentrate on non-rookies for this list.

10. Alex Newhook
If you’re looking at rebuilding, you have to be willing to take risks on players who are struggling despite getting an opportunity. These are the players you might be able to get cheaper and hope they can reach the potential they had when they were drafted by their NHL squad. After the exodus of Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky in the offseason, Newhook was given a top-six opportunity early on but wasn’t able to do anything with it. While his production has dropped from a year ago, you can chalk some of that to the injuries Colorado has had. With Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Evan Rodrigues and Valeri Nichushkin all missing time, it has put Newhook’s most common linemates as Rodrigues, Logan O’Connor and Andrew Cogliano. Imagine how much better his season would be if he has some of those missing linemates, and then picture the much better linemates for next season and beyond.

9. Moritz Seider
I have to admit that acquiring Seider is going to be a long shot. I don’t think he is available in either of my two keeper leagues (in one of my keeper pools, the Seider owner is rebuilding and has directly told me that he is not available, and that was early on in the season when Seider was struggling). Your best bet would be if Seider is owned by a contending GM. However, your window to buy low may have already passed you by, which is why Seider is so low on this list as he has 15 points in his last 13 games. Maybe you can take advantage of an owner who doesn’t realize how great he’s been recently.

8. Seth Jarvis
One tip that might be helpful is to think back to preseason lists of popular choices for breakout seasons. Oftentimes, those breakout seasons can be delayed by a couple of seasons. Jarvis was one such popular pick last summer, but his season hasn’t turned out quite as well as many anticipated. With 24 points in 50 games, he’s on pace for 38 points, which is below the 48-point pace he put up as a rookie a season ago. He’s still on the top line, although he gets few power-play minutes. Whatever reasons you might have had six months ago that would have caused you to believe he could be a breakout player shouldn’t change after 50 games.

7. Dawson Mercer
Mercer has seen some time alongside Jack Hughes this year, but it’s usually due to injuries to others. Most of the time, he’s still on the third line. However, despite a drop of a minute per night in ice time (including a decrease of 40 man-advantage minutes per contest), his points-per-game mark has risen slightly from 0.51 points per game in his rookie season to 0.56 points per game this year. He still projects to be a top-six player, but it may take another couple of years to get there.

6. Spencer Knight
There won’t be many netminders on this list, as they generally don’t become fantasy relevant until they turn 25. Knight looks to be the exception, but he’s not yet a fantasy-relevant player, despite playing 60 games and being 21 years old. This season, Knight is 9-7-3 with a 3.05 GAA and a .906 SV%. For comparison, Jake Allen, Spencer Martin and John Gibson have more wins, and they’ve been considered to have disappointing seasons. It will still take a few years before Sergei Bobrovsky loses his Golden Boy status and Knight can take over the number one duties.

5. Alexis Lafreniere
Not all number one draft picks make an impact immediately. While we would like for them to all be great right out of the gate, that’s not the way it always works. For recent number one overall picks, Jack Hughes is probably the most similar to Lafreniere. Hughes had 52 points in his first two seasons (127 games) before a breakout in his third season. Lafreniere had 52 points in his first two seasons (135 games), but he’s not getting that third-year breakout. Part of that reason is that the Rangers are so deep that it’s tough for Lafreniere to get minutes. It will take a while before he does get that top-six role, so if you’re trading for him, you can’t expect Hughes-like production for another couple of years.

4. Bowen Byram
Byram is a special player, but he can’t stay healthy. It can be frustrating if you have him in a keeper or dynasty league as you have to believe it is also slowing his development. While he will never usurp Cale Makar, Byram can be a great 1B option. He still puts up a 40-plus-point pace, despite playing only 20 per cent of Colorado’s power-play minutes. On the bright side, his ice time is almost 21 minutes per night. You may never get him cheaper than you will get him now, but you’re taking on all the risk of whether he can stay healthy.

3. Evan Bouchard
The Oilers’ defenseman is having a poor season. His two points on Sunday were his first in 11 games, and he has only 20 in 54 contests this season. His ice time is down two minutes per night from a year ago while his shot rate is down half a shot per game from a year ago. However, the 23-year-old still projects as the Oilers’ defenseman of the future. Tyson Barrie has one more year on his contract after this season, but it’s not like he’s a must-keep for the Oilers, so there’s a chance he’s gone when his contract ends. If you trade for Bouchard, you need to be prepared to wait until the 2024-25 season for his breakout campaign.

2. Josh Norris
Is Norris available in your league? It’s possible, as he was on the trade block in one of my leagues after his most recent injury setback. In that deep 24-team salary cap league, he was dealt along with Artem Zub and a seventh rounder for Johnny Gaudreau, Noel Acciari and an eighth rounder. That’s pretty good value for the team acquiring Norris. He’s a top-six player when in the lineup, but it’s tough for a contending team to not want to improve their team by trading Norris. It may take a while for the 23-year-old Norris to recover from his shoulder injury, but that’s the risk a patient-rebuilding fantasy GM will take.

1. Kaapo Kakko
I may be a little biased in this one, as Kakko was part of a trade I made last week in a keeper league of mine (I won two of the last three years, but struggled this season and am trying to retool on the fly). His 11 goals and 28 points are already career highs, and he’s on pace for 43 points. If you’re a believer in the 200-game rule (80 per cent of average-sized players need 200 games before they hit their breakout threshold), then you should also be buying in on the Rangers forward. It’s easy to forget that he’s still young (he turns 22 years old on Monday), but he’s now at 210 games and has 10 points in his last 10 games.