The 2025 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide is going to be released in less than one week! Dobber himself is at work on projections, the editing and writing teams have assembled their articles, and now the guide is being put together. It has the aforementioned projections, a draft list, team-by-team breakdowns, regression and breakout candidates, and a whole lot more. The Guide is available for pre-order here, and it can also be acquired through the Keeper Pack, which includes the 2025 Prospect Report. Help support what we do year-round while getting a big leg up on your league mates by ordering the Fantasy Guide or Keeper Pack today!

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My two articles for the Fantasy Guide includes my usual One-Way Contracts piece, and a new schedule piece (more on that in a minute). The One-Way Contracts piece highlights some fringe players who have earned one-way deals, and might be in a better position to succeed in 2025-26 as a result.

This year there are quite a few goalies highlighted, and if the Devils hadn't re-upped Jake Allen, then Nico Daws would have been profiled too. His one-way deal might make him a trade candidate, especially since he will require waivers to be sent down. There just aren't many holes in NHL lineups though, so there are always a few like Daws who sneak through waivers right before the season just due to the numbers game.

One interesting situation that bears monitoring is in Calgary, where the two goalies on the depth chart behind Calder finalist Dustin Wolf have less than half of the career games that Wolf does. Between Devin Cooley and Ivan Prosvetov, there could be 20-30 games available for a bubble playoff team. I give you my heavy favourite to win the Flames' backup position in the Guide.

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My other article for the Fantasy Guide is a new one, which highlights everything you need to know about the NHL schedule in order to plan H2H league strategies. It builds on Andrew Santillo's article with the overall season schedule details, and the details I've researched and included have a bunch of tips that I reference a lot myself during the year. I won't give away too much in terms of some of the notes and tips for in-season, but I will say that the Sharks are going to be a team that you want to get a piece of for the H2H playoffs, while the Rangers and Penguins have two of the most intriguing schedules as a fantasy manager.

As a result of the longer Olympic break this year, the schedule is much more compressed than the past few seasons, which shows itself in a few ways, and may mean that a little more attention to the schedule is needed this year for fantasy managers.

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Back when Tom Collins was running the top-10 column, one of my favourites was the annual “Top-10 picks from a Fantasy Draft” column, specific to the WHL fantasy league. Luckily for us, the WHL that Tom always discussed in that article is a league that I’m a part of as well. As a result, I took the time to interview each of our GMs who made the top-10 selections, to get their takes on their picks, and how they felt about each.

In this 24-team dynasty league, each of the teams are owned by a Dobber forum member, and our five-round prospect draft ran from July 15^th to the 20^th.

To give you some idea of our league, during the season, each team has three centers, three left wingers, three right wingers, three forwards, six defensemen and a goalie in an active roster spot. We have six reserve spots and 15 minor league spots. By the time the season starts, 960 players are already drafted. There are also four injured reserve spots.

We’re also a cap league, with a $100 million budget. It's a head-to-head league, with points assigned in each category. For instance, goals and assists are each worth one point, with a power-play point worth an extra 0.5 points. There are also points for plus/minus, blocked shots, shots, hits, PIM and faceoffs, but those are all much lower than the points scores. The goalies have their own categories and scoring that I won’t get into here because it’s not all that relevant.

Each week you match up against one other team, and whoever has the most points at the end of the games on Sunday wins the matchup. The top eight teams make the playoffs based on their win/loss records, with the bottom-16 fighting it out in their own consolation brackets for their change to bump their first round picks up a slot or two.

Now, let’s get to it:

1. James Hagens (C) – Maine Moose (GinFizz)

2. Michael Misa (C) – Maine Moose (GinFizz)

The first two picks were a little unexpected, but there is some sense to it. Hagens and Misa were the top two forwards on my draft list as well, though in reverse order.

For some context, coming into the offseason, Maine had picks at 2, 6, 8, 16, 19, 23, and 24 in the first round of this year's prospect draft. Also, something to keep in mind is that 'The #Moose' (as he likes to call his team) are in their first true year of a rebuild. Here's what he had to say about his first picks:

"I was lucky to acquire Zayne Parekh, Zeev Buium, Molendyk, Gabe Perreault, Rutger McGroarty, Carter Yakemchuk and Berkley Catton during last year's sell off. With being the worst team in the league, I was snake bitten when it came time for the draft lottery, as I pulled the #2 slot instead of the #1 slot which went to the Thornhill Rebels.

Being a Bruins fan, my thought process was always to take Hagens at #2 (draft with your heart not with your brain), BUT then I was able to trade my #6 and Denton Mateychuk for the #1 pick. I proceeded to take Hagens at #1 and Misa at #2 which hopefully turns out to be the right selections. Passing on Schaefer was difficult, but I already had three star defence prospects."

3. Matthew Schaefer (D) – Fresno Firebirds (Pit Bulls)

Getting the first overall pick in the draft usually means you have the first overall pick, but often when that player is a defenceman, fantasy players will let the Dman fall a few picks, and lean towards the forwards. Sometimes that works, like with Owen Power, and sometimes it doesn't work as well, like with Rasmus Dahlin. Fresno is hoping this case is more of the latter. Here's what he had to say:

"After dropping from 2nd to 3rd due to the NHL lottery (bad) luck, I knew I was going to miss out on either Misa or Schaefer and had resigned myself to be picking between Hagens and Martone. I finally landed on Hagens as I felt he was in a better position with BOS than Martone was in PHI. When the Moose GM picked Hagens and Misa, it was a no brainer to pick Schaefer. Especially after I traded Parekh for McTavish before our trade deadline."

4. Anton Frondell (C) – Hamilton Steelheads (Dennis)

The beginning of a clear tier at the top of the draft is always a tough spot to be and can lead to some overthinking. Hamilton managed to avoid that here, and he shared what helped make that decision easier:

"Frondell is a goal scorer and more pro-ready than most in his class, two things I like in my top fantasy picks. Combine that with his strong play all over the ice and potential future in Chicago and I was swayed to pick Anton over several tempting options here."

5. Porter Martone (RW) – Fort Frances Muskies (Burgundy)

With Martone likely one-and-done in college, this could turn out to be a great pick in the short and long term, as Martone may be one of the first draftees to make a real fantasy impact in the NHL. Here's what the Muskies had to say about the pick:

"Picking fifth I knew that Misa, Schaefer and very likely Hagens would be gone so I mostly focused on Frondell and Martone. RW is a weakness for my team and I really liked Martone’s profile, projection, and place on an up & coming Philly team, so I hoped he would still be available when it was my turn to draft. I had numerous trade offers to move down from fifth, but once the pick came up and Martone was there I was happy to snag him."

6. Jake O'Brien (C) – Thornhill Rebels (this was my selection)

After lucking out and moving up from #10 on the back of the NHL draft lottery (which we tie our picks to as our own draft lottery) I was afforded the flexibility of going a few different ways with the top pick. Had I kept the pick I likely would have selected Misa, though Schaefer was a debate as cheap producers on the back end are rare. In the end, as I'm looking to compete now, I moved down to the back end of where I viewed there to be a tier, with the #6 pick, and netted Mateychuk as the sweetener. This got me a high-end forward prospect, and a cheap defenceman to boot.

With the pick, I took O'Brien, though I would have been happy with any of those top six players. O'Brien was fourth on my final list, and I was expecting him to be the player left to me at my pick. I like him as the size, vision, and smarts should all translate well to the pro ranks, and another hugely productive season in Hamilton will keep his trade value high this year if I don't keep him. The questions with his skating I think are more fixable than the issues some other prospects have, especially since O'Brien has grown so much in the last couple of years and may just need time to get used to the new size. I had some very minor questions about Frondell's consistency and offensive upside, as well as Martone's struggles as more of a perimeter player, which landed me with O'Brien.

7. Caleb Desnoyers (C) – South Carolina Stingrays (BlackhawksFan)

Into the next tier now, there was a varity of different styles of players available, though the floor/ceiling combos on these guys were lacking in one aspect or the other compared to those selected in the six picks before. Here's what the Stingrays GM had to say about why he took Desnoyers over the others:

"At 7th overall, I was going for the best player available. I was targeting O’Brien at this spot, but he was taken at 6th overall. With O’Brien gone, it was between Desnoyers, McQueen, and Eklund. I opted for the “safe” pick in Desnoyers, as I think his floor is the highest of the three, albeit his ceiling a bit lower than the other two. Plus, he should be a legit center in the NHL, and our league counts FOW."

8. Roger McQueen (C) – Maine Moose (GinFizz)

Compared to Desnoyers who is coming from the QMJHL, which is a league that players recently have struggled to translate offence to the higher levels, McQueen would have been the more intriguing selection for me, even in spite of the well-documented back issues. Here's another #Moose thought on his third pick in the top-10:

"For the eighth pick, I shrugged my shoulders and took a flier on Roger McQueen, I was torn between him or Victor Eklund and only time will tell if I made the right decision."

9. Victor Eklund (LW) – Valley Wildcats (Axeman33)

Rounding out the higher upside players, Eklund fell to ninth, though it wasn't as far as his drop in the NHL draft. I think NHL teams will regret letting him pass, though the WHL GMs seem to have slotted him in at just about the right spot. Here's what Axeman had to say about his pick:

"In my opinion, this draft wasn’t really an exciting one outside the first three or four picks but knowing there was nine or 10 decent prospects in this draft, I felt there was going to be getting a solid player at nine after dropping one spot in the lottery results. I had a feeling I was looking at someone like McQueen, Eklund or Maxim Shabanov [A Russian signee who was also eligible for our prospect draft] at the nine-spot. To be honest, Shabanov was the wild card. I was hoping he’d go earlier and push someone like Desnoyers down a bit further too, but it didn't happen. I was somewhat surprised that McQueen went at eight as he was really the guy I was figuring I’d be drafting at the nine spot but when he went at eight and I had a choice of Shabanov or Eklund, I had to make a choice.

I had the opportunity to drop back a couple spots and still get Shabanov (the GM right behind me at 10 also had 11 so he was trying to move his 11 for my nine and would guarantee he wouldn't take Shabanov had I made the trade). He clearly wanted Eklund himself, but I ended up keeping the pick and grabbing the best winger left on the board. Centers and defencemen are plentiful in this league so it made more sense to keep the pick and grab the winger."

10. Brady Martin (C) – Vancouver Voodoo (GoNucks)

As a Nashville fan myself I was disappointed in the Martin pick on draft day, as I was hoping for Hagens or O'Brien, or at least someone with more upside, despite the risks. Martin though does have some decent offence, and a very high floor as an overall player and workhorse. He should be a solid player like a Sam Bennett or Philip Danault type player in fantasy, which definitely has great value too. Here's what Vancouver had to say about his pick:

"Having only traded for the 10th overall pick the day prior to our draft, I did so with the assumption that one of Eklund, Desnoyers, or Martin would likely be the best remaining prospect available in that spot. With my team heading towards a rebuild, I was very keen to trade for a top-10 pick in this draft. I was content with whichever player fell to me at 10. I like Martin for his multi-cat ability, but also that he is grounded and humble, best shown by him working on his family farm during his draft day. I am confident Martin will be a key contributor for my team down the road!"

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As always, a very fun draft to be a part of, and it's always great to open a bit of a window into what people are thinking with regards to the draft, their picks, and some of the reasons they select one player over another.

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Thanks to Ian for covering me this past week. See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky @alexdmaclean.