Savvy fantasy general managers will keep an eye on the playoffs to get a sense of how players are being utilized, whether that’s contributing to a production boost, and try to determine if that player can keep up that boost next season.

However, for many fantasy GMs, it may be too late to acquire that player at a cheaper price. A player’s value can sometimes increase thanks to a strong postseason. Unfortunately, there are a lot of clever GMs out there, so they know you’ll have to pay more for that player than you would have two months ago.

Usually, this list is littered with names that are lower-tiered fantasy hockey players, but this year, a lot of the bigger names are experiencing a boost in the postseason.

10. Tyler Bertuzzi

Bertuzzi being traded to the Boston Bruins may have been the best thing for him. He had 16 points in 21 regular season games after the trade and followed that up with 10 points in seven postseason games. He led the Bruins in PIM (26) and was tied for first for goals (five), points (10), power-play goals (three) and power-play points (six). That’s pretty good for his playoff debut. He had great chemistry with David Pastrnak, and if he re-signs with Boston, expect his value to increase even more.

9. Akira Schmid

Vitek Vanacek was excellent for the Devils in the regular season, finishing with 33 wins, tied for seventh-highest in the league. Going into the postseason, this seemed one of the least likely situations for a goalie controversy, but Vanacek was rocked in his first two games against the Rangers. Vanacek’s struggles led to the team pivoting to Schmid. All he did was win four of the next five games against New York; two of those wins were by shutout and in the other two wins he allowed one goal each. He did struggle against Carolina, but he’s already put some doubt into the minds of Vanacek owners. Can the 23-year-old Schmid steal some regular season starts next year? The possibility seems more certain now than it did five weeks ago.

8. Jonathan Marchessault

Marchessault is one of the more underrated fantasy hockey players. He’s put up at least a 62-point pace in each of the last three seasons while averaging three shots per night. He’s reached another level in this postseason, with 16 points in 16 games while upping his shots per game to 3.8 per contest. He also has 14 points in his last nine games. Surprisingly, he only has two postseason points with the man advantage. Part of the reason for the success is his chemistry with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev on the top line, which is outscoring opponents 11-4 so far in these playoffs.

7. Adin Hill

I have Hill in a dynasty league where we can only keep two pro netminders (a goalie with more than 40 career games and over 25 years old is considered a pro netminder in this league). Besides Hill, I have Frederik Andersen, Alex Nedeljkovic and Ivan Fedotov. My original plan was to keep Andersen and Nedeljkovic, with Hill becoming an easy drop, but his recent play has me questioning that. I know I can’t be the only one in this situation. Hill has been great this postseason, with six wins in 10 games, and even in his two recent losses has looked great. His .932 SV % is second among goalies with at least one start, while his 2.30 GAA is fourth.

6. Matthew Knies

He had only one assist in three regular season games, but the postseason was his coming-out party. He had four points in seven games, but it feels as if he was more productive than that, or maybe that was just the Canadian media focusing on him constantly. He played excellent alongside Auston Matthews, his most frequent even-strength linemate. Knies had the primary assist on the first-round series-clinching goal, and then scored in the first game of the second round. Getting knocked out of the rest of the series in game 2 with a concussion deprived us of seeing if he could continue his momentum, but he’ll be a top Calder candidate this fall thanks to the postseason.

5. Morgan Rielly

I’ve said before in this column that it feels as if Rielly should be a lot more productive than he is. Despite ample ice time, power-play time and an offensive zone starting percentage of around 54 per cent, it’s quite shocking that he only finishes with an 82-game pace of 52 points. To put that in perspective, Justin Faulk and Erik Gustafsson finished at the same pace this past season. This postseason was different for Rielly. He was the best Leaf player through both rounds and only had two games where he failed to record a point. He was second on the team in assists and points, and first in even-strength points and plus/minus.

4. Roope Hintz

Hintz has back-to-back 70-point-plus seasons with the Stars, and his first point-per-game campaign this past season, but it still feels like he doesn’t get the love that many others do. This postseason is going a long way to changing that. Dallas has had quite a few surprises this postseason, but Hintz has to be one of the biggest. His 24 points are tops in the league and his 10 goals are second-most. He leads the Stars in goals, assists, points and shots, is tied for first for power-play points and is second in plus/minus. He even has a short-handed goal.

3. Evan Bouchard

Just how good was Bouchard’s postseason? His 17 points are tops by a defenseman by five points. The next highest defensemen that are still in the playoffs are Miro Heiskanen, with 12 points, and Brandon Montour, who has nine. Maybe more amazingly, 15 of Bouchard’s 17 postseason points were with the man advantage. Heiskanen has nine power-play points these playoffs, and no other defenseman has more than four. Bouchard’s value should already be high as he had 19 points in 21 regular season games after the Tyson Barrie trade, but this postseason puts it into another stratosphere.

2. Matthew Tkachuk

You wouldn’t have thought his value could have gotten any higher before the playoffs began. He was coming off his second 40-goal campaign and a career-high 109 points. Add in his high plus/minus, PIM, shots, and power-play points, and he’s almost the perfect fantasy player. Even though his points-per-game is slightly lower in the postseason, it’s his continuing dominance that is projecting his value higher. He’s just coming off a third-round sweep over Carolina where he scored three game-winning goals and had the primary assist on the other one. He’s only been held scoreless in three of 16 postseason games and is the face of the Panthers heading into the finals.

1. Sergei Bobrovsky

For fantasy leagues, it wouldn’t be surprising if fantasy general managers in keeper leagues were going into the playoffs with every intention of dropping Bobrovsky. After all, Alex Lyon was the netminder who started the playoffs for Boston, and there’s still the issue of Spencer Knight being the Panthers’ netminder of the future. In the regular season, Bobrovsky had a 24-20-3 record with a 3.07 GAA and a .902 save percentage. Compare that to the postseason, where he is 11-2 with a 2.21 GAA and a .935 save percentage. Now, Bobrovsky is no longer an easy summer drop, and could be a sought-after commodity instead.