We will return to the playoffs once the first round is concluded, but for this week we are moving on with part two of our Most Valuable series. Last week we reviewed the center position and this week we will be taking a look at right wings.

As a reminder here is some context for the data below from last week's article.

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 right-wing position for the 2023-24 season. We start with basic player information on the left (name, position, 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).

Name	Pos	Team	GP	PTS	Average ADP	Fantasy Points	%PP	TOI
NIKITA KUCHEROV	R	T.B	81	144	8.7	515.4	86.1	21:39
DAVID PASTRNAK	R	BOS	82	110	4.3	475.4	78	19:56
MIKKO RANTANEN	R	COL	80	104	7.4	417.8	83.1	22:54
SAM REINHART	R	FLA	82	94	103.8	401.2	69.4	20:18
WILLIAM NYLANDER	R	TOR	82	98	25.6	398.4	72.9	19:55

Like with last week these names aren't terribly unexpected. Sam Reinhart and William Nylander certainly were not on this list last year, so we will touch base with them quickly.

For Reinhart, 2023-24 marks the second very solid season in the past three years, with 'just' a good season sandwiched in the middle. 2021-22 was boosted by an unsustainable bump in team shooting percentage and even though he saw a big time on ice boost in 2022-23 Reinhart's point pace dropped below point per game. He put up 94 in 2023-24 by mostly keeping the time on ice, but also seeing a huge increase in his personal shooting and team shooting percentages (his personal production probably somewhat contributing to the team one). His overall 24.5 shooting percentage is certainly too high, though he did do a lot of damage on the power play this year, so it might not be quite as unsustainable as it looks at first glance.

WIlliam Nylander put up a 98-point pace, has been point per game or higher for the past three seasons and honestly, everything just looks good. His points percentage on the power-play is maybe a touch higher than usual, but other than that, it all looks good. He saw a bump in overall ice time, increased his shot rates, and power-play points while maintaining pretty reasonably underlying numbers.

Moving on to the value part of the equation. Like last week: In addition to total fantasy points 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.

Name	Pos	Team	GP	PTS	Average ADP	Fantasy Points	%PP	TOI	Expected Value	Difference
NIKITA KUCHEROV	R	T.B	81	144	8.7	515.4	86.1	21:39	317.66	197.74
DAVID PASTRNAK	R	BOS	82	110	4.3	475.4	78	19:56	320.87	154.53
PHILIPP KURASHEV	R	CHI	75	54	447.5	151.2	65.7	19:01	-2.23	153.43
SAM REINHART	R	FLA	82	94	103.8	401.2	69.4	20:18	248.33	152.87
BROCK BOESER	R	VAN	81	73	176	315.6	72.7	18:36	195.70	119.90

Nikita Kucherov and David Pastrnak are not that surprising here, like with some of our top centers last week they just performed so well they were going to outrun the expected value equation.

We already touched on Reinhart, so let's take a look at Philipp Kurashev. He is by far the lowest man on this list and certainly was not always rosterable – even in deep leagues. The main reason he is on this list at all is that he was essentially expected to do absolutely nothing, so any fantasy points were a bonus. He did put up a nice 59 actual-point pace, though, and when Connor Bedard was healthy he went on a couple nice little runs. He saw 19 minutes of ice time overall and almost three minutes on the power-play. It led to career highs across the board. The name of the game was Bedard, though. If Kurashev wasn't with Bedard at even strength and on the power play, he wasn't worth rostering.

Brock Boeser on the other hand, was found money in 2023-24. He wasn't drafted in a ton of leagues because of some mediocre previous seasons, but anyone who grabbed him after a hot start was laughing as he put up his best season to date. His value was largely on the back of his first 40-goal season and as we might expect some of it came because of inflated shooting percentages (both his and team). Even if we were to regress him a few goals, it would still have been one of his most productive seasons to date.

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 with a games-played threshold.

Name	Pos	Team	GP	PTS	Average ADP	Fantasy Points	%PP	TOI	Expected Value	Difference
BRANDON TANEV	R	SEA	66	16	169.1	70.2	1.3	14:35	200.73	-130.53
CONNOR BROWN	R	EDM	71	12	181.4	63.6	7.4	12:48	191.76	-128.16
DAWSON MERCER	R	N.J	82	33	155.3	118.6	29.7	17:13	210.79	-92.19
RICKARD RAKELL	R	PIT	70	37	114.2	164.6	45	16:31	240.75	-76.15
ANDREI KUZMENKO	R	CGY	72	46	111.1	172.4	62.6	14:53	243.01	-70.61

So we are two for two in terms of a Seattle Kraken making the disappointing list. I am not entirely sure why Brandon Tanev was drafted there on average. I can't really imagine it was for his offense, as a half point per game is his best season to date. That leaves peripheral contributions, but even there he disappointed with essentially the worst shot and hit numbers of his career.

Connor Brown is an easy one. There was off-season hype and hope that he would play with Connor McDavid. It didn't pan out. Dawson Mercer falls in this kind of grouping too. He had a good 2022-23, but then the Devils went and added a few players and he played a lot on a third line and without top power-play time.

The reason for Rickard Rakell's drop is also pretty clear. In 2022-23 he had a pretty solid season usurping Bryan Rust for top line, top power-play deployment. In 2023-24 he lost about two minutes on average overall and a minute on the power-play. It resulted in almost a full lost shot per game, and a relatively big drop in expected goals. He also had just a touch of back luck helping to round out his disappointing season.

Andrei Kuzmenko was probably the most predictable player on this list. There were so many articles warning about his low shot rates and high shooting percentage, but folks still over-drafted him anyway. He did have a decent end of the season once he got traded with 19 points over his final 19 games. Calgary was more willing to roll him out on their top power-play unit and to give him time at even strength. While he was in Vancouver, though, he was inconsistently used in good places and without dramatic shooting percentage he wasn't able to maintain the goal pace.

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

Name	Pos	Team	GP	PTS	Fantasy Points	%PP	TOI
GUSTAV NYQUIST	R	NSH	81	75	265.2	56.8	17:45
ALEXIS LAFRENIERE	R	NYR	82	57	236.8	27.3	17:16
BLAKE COLEMAN	R	CGY	78	54	236.4	18.6	17:08

I am not going to dig into these guys too far but Gustav Nyquist being on this list is definitely not a surprise. He was great for basically the entire season on the top line and top power-play in Nashville. Alexis Lafreniere was a little more hot and cold throughout the year but finished pretty strong with 18 points in his last 20 games. He saw more time on ice, shot more, and put up more points than at any previous point in his career. Perhaps we are finally seeing the skill the Rangers had hoped for?

Perennial fringe candidate Blake Coleman was finally worth a hold for a chunk of the year. He has spent a lot of his recent career going on roster-worthy hot streaks and then going ice cold, but in 2022-23 he managed almost a 60-point pace to go along with his peripherals.

That is all for this week.

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