We won't be covering the NHL playoffs blow by blow in this column, though we will touch on teams a bit as they get knocked out in each round. For this week, and for several upcoming weeks, we will be taking a look back over full season data and find out which players provided the most, and best value at each position.

'Most Valuable' is a tricky term that is going to be completely dependent on the league specific context. For the purposes of this article, we are going to use standard Yahoo point scoring to calculate the total fantasy points for each player. This year the stats include goals, assists, power-play points, shots, blocks and (unfortunately) plus/minus. Obviously, this means there might be some general deviations to your league, based on your settings, but it is at least a good starting point. In order to grab all of this data I am exporting the Multi-Category and Big Board Reports for the full season, and doing a bit of rearranging so I can have only the pertinent fields.

The table below contains the top five total fantasy producers at the center position for the 2023-24 season. We start with basic player information on the left (name, positon, team) then get into some production stats (total points, and then total fantasy points), and finally a couple of contextual stats (percent of total power play, and average time on ice).

There isn't a lot to discuss here really. We have mostly who we expected to see. JT Miller clocking in at number five is probably the most noteworthy, but what strikes me the most about this list is just the absolute domination from Nathan Mackinnon. His 576 fantasy points is 86 higher than second place and about 100 higher than third. Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid are clearly not chopped liver either as there is a pretty sizable drop off after them. By the time we get to the 10th ranked center we have dropped all the way to 300 fantasy points. The spread here is just enormous between the elite centers at the top and the rest of the field.

In addition to total fantasy points though I have also pulled average draft position data (ADP). These ADPs are based on preseason drafts so don't take into account leagues and drafts that started part way through the season. The idea here is that if we compare the draft position to the end of year fantasy points for all players, we can get an equation that lets us say, 'on average a player with X draft position would be expected to get Y fantasy points'. Once we have that we can compare that expected number to the player's actual number and see who performed the best based on their draft position. The ADP data below is compiled (averaged) from ESPN, Yahoo, and Fantrax ADPs for the 2023-24 season.

Our next table contains the players who provided the most value once we account for where they were drafted. I have included their ADP data, the fantasy points that were expected given that ADP and then the difference between those numbers.

As was implied above the top three centers overall (MacKinnon, Matthews, and McDavid) are still represented here. They were just such outliers even at the top of the draft that they still provided plenty of excess value. There are a couple of interesting names here though in Sean Monahan and William Karlsson.

Monahan started the season on the top power play in Montreal and generally just kicked off the season with a bang. He put up 13 points in his first 15 games before going ice cold for nine games, and then rattling off another 21 points in 25 games. Basically, if you caught him on a hot streak it was great, but the off weeks came with reasonable frequency. Overall, he actually played the most consistently through the third quarter, even initially on his trade to Winnipeg, but eventually a smaller role caught up with him with only three points over his final six games. In total, he put up 59 points in 83 games (he got an extra because of the trade). It was a good season with increased power play and time on ice averages, and consistent shot and expected goal numbers. The problem for next season is going to be his landing place, and that he hit these productive marks with some inflated numbers, both his personal and his team shooting percentages were too high and will likely come back down next season.

William Karlsson put up 60 points in 70 games (good for a 70-point/82-game season pace). He increased his power-play time by almost a minute on average and upped his shot rates to 2.5 per game. He, like Monahan, was drafted very late and was likely available to folks in free agency at some point during the year, so clearly provided some great value. The trouble is he did it in a pretty unsustainable way. In a lot of ways, it looks like the 2017-18 season where he put up 43 goals and a 78-point pace. There is also a concern that if Vegas has a healthy lineup ever, particularly with Hertl now in the fold the increased ice time he got in 23-24 might not be repeatable.

Now we move on to the least valuable. These guys all underperformed their draft slot by significant margins. I tried to eliminate the most dramatic injury impacts (like there is only so much to say about Kirby Dach's two games played – clearly that is why he didn't perform to his expectation).

Even with a games-played cut off, Josh Norris and Tomas Hertl were still impacted by injuries. The low games played number accounts for a chunk of the underperformance, but not all of it. Hertl had a reasonable season personally, but the lack of talent surrounding him in San Jose certainly showed as his point pace and expected goal numbers dipped a bit. Norris didn't have a lack of talent problem but can't seem to string together another complete season. His underlying numbers were much closer to his 50-point pace from 2020-21 rather than his 68-point pace from 2021-22 that we were all hoping he would build off of. If he can get healthy maybe he builds on that.

What a season for Pierre-Luc Dubois. How quickly he wore out a welcome in LA. There is really no surprise here as to why he missed his mark. He lost almost three minutes of total ice time per game, a minute on the power play, and a full shot on goal per game. Sure, there are a couple of marks that are maybe a touch low indicating maybe he deserved a couple of points better, but that could also just be the new normal for a player on the outs with yet another organization.

Matty Beniers's 39-point pace is certainly not the sophomore campaign managers were hoping for. The underlying numbers were kind of a mixed bag for Beniers. He saw an increase in his overall ice time, but a drop in his points participation. He saw a slight increase in power-play time, but a slight decrease in his shot rates and expected goal numbers. The biggest change though came with shooting percentages. His personal shooting percentage dropped to 11.4 percent (which is still a pretty reasonable place generally) but the biggest change came from the shooting percentage of the team while he was on the ice. It went from 11.8 percent (very high) to seven percent. That is kind of the storyline of the Kraken's last two seasons. In 22-23 they had great depth scoring, and a crazy high team shooting percentage (part of the season for the depth scoring for sure). In 23-24 they lost a little depth and absolutely cratered in team shooting. For Beniers it is a classic case of too hot then too cold. It looks to me like both 22-23 and 23-24 should have been closer to 50-point seasons. To break that mold he really needs a bump in ice time and to shoot the puck a bit more.

Finally, I will wrap the column with a few names. These are the guys who weren't drafted but provided the most fantasy points.

I am not going to dig into these guys too far, but Mikael Granlund saw a big jump in deployment with a very sparse San Jose roster and ended up being worth a roster spot for most of the season. Nick Paul got some great deployment opportunities at times in Tampa and occasionally that turned into rosterable results. Nick Bjugstad saw career high time on ice, shot rates, and shooting percentage. Additionally, he finished the season with Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. The result was a career high in point pace and was worth a roster at times as well – particularly in multi-cat leagues that included face-off wins and hits.

That is all for this week.

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