Over the last few seasons, during bubble week I have focused on the format I know and that is a 25-team salary cap ($88.0 million) keeper pool with 27 players on each roster (20 active and seven in reserve, but all salaries count). As it is the off-season, we allow each team to carry 28 players if one of the players is an entry draft pick from 2024. Teams must get back down to 27 players on the roster the week before the start of the season.  Currently, there are 683 players on rosters over the 25 teams.

The point system is based on goals, assists, and plus/minus which are weighted differently for forwards (four fantasy points (FP) for goals and assists and two FP for plus/minus) and defensemen (five FP for goals and eight for assists and four for plus/minus). Goalies are rewarded for wins, overtime or shootout losses, shutouts and games played. There are no hits, blocks or PIM. Our league is capped at nine defencemen and three goalies with a minimum of five defence and two goalies.

The pool has an average salary of $3.975 million per forward and the average for FP was 190.08 (2.73/game). On defense, the average salary was $3.725 million with 179.72 FP (2.68/game). In goal, the average salary was $3.19 million with 213.45 FP (5.55/game).

This was the fourth year in a row where fantasy points increased with no scoring rule change.

Last year the top player at each position was Nathan MacKinnon (2nd overall) with 687 FP at forward, Quinn Hughes (1st overall) with 703 FP at defense and Alexandar Georgiev (33rd overall) with 403 FP in goal. There were 8 defenders and 12 forwards in the top 20 with the top three overall being Quinn Hughes, MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov (651).

This is a great exercise to look at if you're running your pool and want to check and see if your rules are still holding up after a few years. Goalies are not playing more than 55-60 games so their importance is dropping.

The top player on my fantasy team in 2023-24 was William Nylander (440 FP) who was the 24th highest fantasy producer in the pool. It is tough to be near the top without top-end fantasy players. Our winner of the pool had two players in the top six, Evan Bouchard (642 FP) and Cale Makar (617 FP). I finished sixth out of 25 teams.

My top defender was Miro Heiskanen (352 FP) (18th overall D) and top goalie was Jake Oettinger (362 FP) (8th overall G).

With only seven reserves on each team, 20 players count on a regular basis, so 500 players in the pool should be fantasy relevant.

Here are some available players in our pool, with some reasons on why they should or should not be picked up.

This list includes both Western and Eastern Conference players.

Ryan McDonagh (D) – Tampa Bay (35 years old) ($6.75 million AAV) (37th overall D)

McDonagh had 250 FP in 2023-24 which put him 152nd overall in our pool. He had a resurgent year with three goals, 29 assists and was a plus 19. 250 fantasy points was the most he had since he put up 416 in 2018-19 with Tampa Bay. He makes far too much salary for a player who is unlikely to duplicate in 2024-25. The only teams that could add him to their roster are likely teams who have the cap space because they are re-building.

Colton Parayko (D) – St. Louis (31) ($6.5 million AAV) (67th overall D)

Parayko is available for similar reasons to McDonagh in that he is too expensive for what he brings. In 2023-24 he had 183 FP which put him 242nd overall in the pool. His career high was 314 FP in his rookie year in 2015-16 and he has been above 250 three times in his career with the most recent being 2021-22.

Alex Pietrangelo (D) – Vegas (34) ($8.8 million AAV) (75th overall D)

Our pool uses salary and not the cap hit, so Pietrangelo is actually at $12.5 million for 2024-25. This is probably the first year that he has ever been on waivers in our pool since before he was a rookie. He had 169 FP in 2023-24 down from a very impressive 374 in 2022-23. He has had more than 300 FP eight times in his career. His 2.6 FP per game is at an all-time career low but I expect him to be picked up at some time in 2024-25.

Phillip Grubauer (G) – Seattle (32) ($5.9 million AAV) (39th overall G)

Grubauer peaked at 320 FP in his last year with Colorado in 2020-21. In his three years in Seattle, he has gone from 231 to 195 to 168 while his wins have gone from 18 to 17 to 14. He has played below average in Seattle and it appears that Joey Daccord (258 FP) has taken over the starting role with the Kraken. His salary isn't so high that a team won't add him to their roster sooner than later.

Semyon Varlamov (G) – NY Islanders (36) ($2.75 million AAV) (40th overall G)

Varlamov was just dropped in our pool in the past week or two. He matched Grubauer in FP with 168 in 2023-24 and made substantially less money. Unfortunately, that is the best fantasy season he has had since 236 FP in 2020-21. He hasn't won more than 14 games in any of the past three years even though his save percentage has been between 91.1 and 91.8. His career high was 435 FP in 2013-14 while with Colorado when he won 41 games and had a 92.7 save percentage.

Brayden Schenn (F) – St. Louis (32) ($6.5 million AAV) (175th overall F)

Schenn has had two down fantasy years in a row following a stellar 2021-22 when he had 294 FP. That was followed by 225 the year after and then 159 in 2023-24. He now finds himself on waivers in our pool. If he has a good start to 2024-25 he won't last long on the waiver wire.

Anders Lee (F) – NY Islanders (34) ($7 million AAV) (174th overall F)

Lee had his lowest fantasy output (159 FP) since 2015-16 when he had 157. He has only been above 200 FP five times in 10 years in the NHL and he peaked at 265 in 2018-19 when he had 28 goals, 23 assists and was a plus 20 in 82 games. He would be on an eight-year streak of scoring 20 goals or more in a season if he hadn't been injured and only played 27 games in 2020-21 (he did score 12 goals that year). He might not be worth the money he makes any longer.

Scott Laughton (F) – Philadelphia (30) ($3.875 million AAV) (182nd overall F)

Before doing this, I thought that Laughton had a bit of an off year in 2023-24 with 153 FP but that was the second most he has had in his career. His career high was 170 FP in 2022-2023 but he had been between 106-136 for all four years prior. I have a feeling that Laughton will be picked up and dropped a few times in 2024-25.

Ross Colton (F) – Colorado (27) ($4.1 million AAV) (183rd overall F)

Colton has played just three full NHL campaigns, two with Tampa Bay and 2023-24 with Colorado. He has had 174 FP as a rookie, 126 and then 151 with Colorado. On better, deeper rosters in the pool there just isn't room for a forward like Colton for the money he makes and the FP he provides. For the teams in the lower portion of the pool, there is no reason not to roster a player like Colton.

Hopefully, this helps a few people who might be considering some of these players in your pools which have salary caps. I believe the cap is one of the most enjoyable features that a pool can have and brings another level of complexity to building a roster.

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