Kicking off 2026: Here are the 120 top defensemen to own in your points-only dynasty leagues – January edition!

But first, the 18th annual Midseason Fantasy Hockey Guide will be out in just under ONE week! Look for it January 8, 2026 and you can pre-order it here (unless you bought the Ultimate Fantasy Pack or have the Gold/Platinum subscription – in which case you will already get it!)

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As always – players ranked within +/-5.0 ratings of each other should be considered equal. Click any name to be taken to his Frozen Tools fantasy profile page for more details. I customized those player pages to give me all the information I need to evaluate a player to draft, acquire or trade. Now I don’t click five different sites to gather all the info – it’s all there in one shot. Bookmark it!

Def. Rk	Player	Team	Rating	Jan	Dec	Change
1	Cale Makar	COL	202.0	9	6	-3
2	Quinn Hughes	MIN	149.6	27	28	1
3	Lane Hutson	MON	134.8	36	56	20
4	Evan Bouchard	EDM	126.1	40	42	2
5	Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	117.0	49	49	0
6	Zach Werenski	CBJ	117.0	51	57	6
7	Adam Fox	NYR	115.1	54	46	-8
8	Josh Morrissey	WPG	107.8	59	54	-5
9	Miro Heiskanen	DAL	102.3	66	90	24
10	Noah Dobson	MON	96.4	75	76	1
11	Moritz Seider	DET	85.0	87	112	25
12	Mikhail Sergachev	UTA	82.4	90	98	8
13	Jake Sanderson	OTT	80.9	95	86	-9
14	Jakob Chychrun	WAS	77.9	99	107	8
15	Shayne Gostisbehere	CAR	75.8	105	126	21
16	Matthew Schaefer	NYI	75.0	108	89	-19
17	Shea Theodore	VGK	71.9	113	110	-3
18	Erik Karlsson	PIT	68.7	120	131	11
19	Luke Hughes	NJD	68.3	121	123	2
20	John Carlson	WAS	63.7	130	137	7
21	Thomas Harley	DAL	62.3	134	106	-28
22	Charlie McAvoy	BOS	60.4	136	143	7
23	Artyom Levshunov	CHI	58.6	142	157	15
24	Victor Hedman	TBL	57.4	145	105	-40
25	Vince Dunn	SEA	56.1	148	152	4
26	Simon Nemec	NJD	53.2	152	149	-3
27	Seth Jones	FLA	48.9	162	201	39
28	Filip Hronek	VAN	48.4	164	156	-8
29	Brandt Clarke	LAK	47.2	168	171	3
30	Darren Raddysh	TBL	46.5	170	257	87
31	Bowen Byram	BUF	46.3	171	199	28
32	Jackson Lacombe	ANA	44.3	177	192	15
33	Rasmus Andersson	CGY	43.2	179	209	30
34	Thomas Chabot	OTT	41.1	185	180	-5
35	Jamie Drysdale	PHI	40.7	187	223	36
36	Morgan Rielly	TOR	40.4	190	194	4
37	Zeev Buium	VAN	40.1	193	187	-6
38	Zayne Parekh	CGY	39.8	194	203	9
39	Brandon Montour	SEA	38.2	204	182	-22
40	Roman Josi	NSH	37.8	206	148	-58
41	Axel Sandin Pellikka	DET	36.6	215	222	7
42	Denton Mateychuk	CBJ	34.7	220	237	17
43	Brock Faber	MIN	32.7	225	226	1
44	Alexander Nikishin	CAR	32.5	226	227	1
45	Cole Hutson	WAS	29.7	234	283	49
46	Noah Hanifin	VGK	27.8	238	300	62
47	Sam Dickinson	SJS	25.3	249	259	10
48	Mike Matheson	MON	24.9	254	245	-9
49	Jake Walman	EDM	24.3	257	235	-22
50	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	TOR	23.7	263	260	-3
51	K’Andre Miller	CAR	22.0	281	242	-39
52	Owen Power	BUF	21.9	282	232	-50
53	Devon Toews	COL	21.2	287	248	-39
54	Gustav Forsling	FLA	21.1	288	275	-13
55	Jordan Spence	OTT	20.8	293	292	-1
56	Sean Durzi	UTA	20.6	294	295	1
57	Aaron Ekblad	FLA	19.1	312	289	-23
58	Olen Zellweger	ANA	17.7	325	360	35
59	Simon Edvinsson	DET	16.6	345	305	-40
60	Carter Yakemchuk	OTT	16.6	346	350	4
61	Darnell Nurse	EDM	16.1	354	359	5
62	Rasmus Sandin	WAS	15.3	367	370	3
63	Mason Lohrei	BOS	15.3	368	284	-84
64	Pavel Mintyukov	ANA	15.1	370	392	22
65	Mackenzie Weegar	CGY	14.5	376	290	-86

The Next Group (gap between 66 and 90 is same as gap between 17 and 20 – i.e. they are pretty equal)

Ivan Provorov	CBJ	Kevin Korchinski	CHI
Samuel Girard	COL	Sam Malinski	COL
Mattias Ekholm	EDM	Nils Lundkvist	DAL
David Jiricek	MIN	Seamus Casey	NJD
Kaiden Guhle	MON	Justin Barron	NSH
Dougie Hamilton	NJD	Scott Morrow	NYR
Tanner Molendyk	NSH	Emil Andrae	PHI
Cam York	PHI	Ryker Evans	SEA
Travis Sanheim	PHI	Timothy Liljegren	SJS
Luca Cagnoni	SJS	Justin Faulk	STL
Philip Broberg	STL	J.J. Moser	TBL
Logan Mailloux	STL	Tom Willander	VAN
Lukas Cormier	VGK

Vets who can chip in, injury risks, prospects with varying degrees of upside and wait time, other defensemen with lower upside and expectations but can chip in at times

Tristan Luneau	ANA	Radim Mrtka	BUF
Michael Kesselring	BUF	Damon Severson	CBJ
Jaccob Slavin	CAR	Mikey Anderson	LAK
Hunter Brzustewicz	CGY	Anton Silayev	NJD
Alex Vlasic	CHI	Brady Skjei	NSH
Sam Rinzel	CHI	Nicolas Hague	NSH
Drew Doughty	LAK	Nick Perbix	NSH
Alexandre Carrier	MON	Cameron Reid	NSH
Alexander Romanov	NYI	Tony DeAngelo	NYI
Braden Schneider	NYR	Vladislav Gavrikov	NYR
Owen Pickering	PIT	Kris Letang	PIT
Cam Fowler	STL	John Klingberg	SJS
Dmitri Simashev	UTA	Colton Parayko	STL
Neal Pionk	WPG	Charle-Edouard D’Astous	TBL
Elias Salomonsson	WPG	Maveric Lamoureux	UTA