Top 120 Keeper League Defensemen – March 2026
Dobber
2026-03-04
Here are the top defensemen to own in your points-only dynasty leagues – March edition!
But first – out in early April (April 10) and updated right up until the playoffs, Dobber’s 20th (20!!) annual Interactive playoff draft list! Use Dobber’s own picks, or run your own playoff scenario using the brackets provided and print your own list! Preorder it here.
As always, players rated +/-5.0 ratings of each other should be considered equal value and at that point become a matter of team needs and/or persona bias.
Click any player name to be taken to his fantasy hockey player profile, which we custom designed for the fantasy owner – all the info you need is right there, from analytics, to trends, to line combos to pre-NHL history, to contract data!
| Def Rk | Player | Team | Rating | March | Feb | Change |
| 1 | Cale Makar | COL | 187.7 | 12 | 11 | -1 |
| 2 | Quinn Hughes | MIN | 165.8 | 19 | 20 | 1 |
| 3 | Evan Bouchard | EDM | 160.4 | 21 | 33 | 12 |
| 4 | Zach Werenski | CBJ | 152.9 | 28 | 31 | 3 |
| 5 | Lane Hutson | MON | 151.2 | 30 | 26 | -4 |
| 6 | Rasmus Dahlin | BUF | 128.0 | 39 | 41 | 2 |
| 7 | Miro Heiskanen | DAL | 96.7 | 72 | 74 | 2 |
| 8 | Darren Raddysh | TBL | 96.0 | 74 | 87 | 13 |
| 9 | Jake Sanderson | OTT | 93.4 | 77 | 83 | 6 |
| 10 | Noah Dobson | MON | 90.3 | 81 | 82 | 1 |
| 11 | Matthew Schaefer | NYI | 87.9 | 84 | 93 | 9 |
| 12 | Josh Morrissey | WPG | 87.0 | 87 | 57 | -30 |
| 13 | Adam Fox | NYR | 84.6 | 91 | 85 | -6 |
| 14 | Mikhail Sergachev | UTA | 82.4 | 92 | 91 | -1 |
| 15 | Moritz Seider | DET | 80.9 | 95 | 95 | 0 |
| 16 | Jakob Chychrun | WAS | 80.6 | 97 | 102 | 5 |
| 17 | Shayne Gostisbehere | CAR | 76.7 | 105 | 107 | 2 |
| 18 | Charlie McAvoy | BOS | 74.5 | 107 | 117 | 10 |
| 19 | Erik Karlsson | PIT | 64.6 | 120 | 124 | 4 |
| 20 | John Carlson | WAS | 63.7 | 123 | 126 | 3 |
| 21 | Roman Josi | NSH | 60.9 | 133 | 155 | 22 |
| 22 | Thomas Harley | DAL | 59.8 | 136 | 145 | 9 |
| 23 | Shea Theodore | VGK | 58.2 | 141 | 119 | -22 |
| 24 | Jackson Lacombe | ANA | 57.6 | 142 | 158 | 16 |
| 25 | Vince Dunn | SEA | 57.4 | 143 | 144 | 1 |
| 26 | Luke Hughes | NJD | 55.3 | 146 | 147 | 1 |
| 27 | Artyom Levshunov | CHI | 50.0 | 155 | 151 | -4 |
| 28 | Brandt Clarke | LAK | 47.2 | 161 | 163 | 2 |
| 29 | Filip Hronek | VAN | 47.1 | 162 | 154 | -8 |
| 30 | Bowen Byram | BUF | 46.3 | 164 | 164 | 0 |
| 31 | Victor Hedman | TBL | 43.8 | 169 | 165 | -4 |
| 32 | Simon Nemec | NJD | 40.8 | 176 | 169 | -7 |
| 33 | Brock Faber | MIN | 40.4 | 179 | 188 | 9 |
| 34 | Jamie Drysdale | PHI | 39.9 | 182 | 189 | 7 |
| 35 | Zayne Parekh | CGY | 39.8 | 183 | 190 | 7 |
| 36 | Rasmus Andersson | VGK | 37.7 | 192 | 180 | -12 |
| 37 | Axel Sandin Pellikka | DET | 35.6 | 203 | 206 | 3 |
| 38 | Morgan Rielly | TOR | 33.7 | 210 | 203 | -7 |
| 39 | Denton Mateychuk | CBJ | 33.5 | 211 | 211 | 0 |
| 40 | Seth Jones | FLA | 33.4 | 212 | 183 | -29 |
| 41 | Alexander Nikishin | CAR | 32.5 | 215 | 216 | 1 |
| 42 | Zeev Buium | VAN | 30.5 | 219 | 219 | 0 |
| 43 | Cole Hutson | WAS | 29.7 | 221 | 228 | 7 |
| 44 | Thomas Chabot | OTT | 27.1 | 234 | 238 | 4 |
| 45 | Sam Dickinson | SJS | 25.3 | 248 | 255 | 7 |
| 46 | Mike Matheson | MON | 24.9 | 250 | 257 | 7 |
| 47 | Oliver Ekman-Larsson | TOR | 23.7 | 262 | 256 | -6 |
| 48 | K’Andre Miller | CAR | 22.0 | 277 | 279 | 2 |
| 49 | Owen Power | BUF | 21.9 | 278 | 280 | 2 |
| 50 | Brandon Montour | SEA | 20.8 | 288 | 268 | -20 |
| 51 | Sean Durzi | UTA | 20.6 | 289 | 288 | -1 |
| 52 | Mattias Ekholm | EDM | 19.1 | 305 | 339 | 34 |
| 53 | Jordan Spence | OTT | 18.7 | 308 | 309 | 1 |
| 54 | Aaron Ekblad | FLA | 18.6 | 310 | 310 | 0 |
| 55 | Justin Faulk | STL | 18.3 | 316 | 386 | 70 |
| 56 | Noah Hanifin | VGK | 17.9 | 318 | 235 | -83 |
| 57 | Jake Walman | EDM | 17.8 | 321 | 321 | 0 |
| 59 | Dougie Hamilton | NJD | 17.7 | 325 | 324 | -1 |
| 60 | Devon Toews | COL | 17.3 | 330 | 294 | -36 |
| 61 | Carter Yakemchuk | OTT | 16.6 | 339 | 338 | -1 |
| 62 | Olen Zellweger | ANA | 15.3 | 357 | 359 | 2 |
| 63 | Mason Lohrei | BOS | 15.3 | 358 | 360 | 2 |
| 64 | Gustav Forsling | FLA | 15.1 | 361 | 363 | 2 |
| 65 | Pavel Mintyukov | ANA | 14.7 | 366 | 368 | 2 |
| 66 | Mackenzie Weegar | CGY | 14.5 | 367 | 369 | 2 |
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 | Jaccob Slavin | CAR | |
| Kevin Korchinski | CHI | Sam Malinski | COL | |
| Simon Edvinsson | DET | Nils Lundkvist | DAL | |
| Kaiden Guhle | MON | Darnell Nurse | EDM | |
| Seamus Casey | NJD | Alexandre Carrier | MON | |
| Tanner Molendyk | NSH | Scott Morrow | NYR | |
| Tony DeAngelo | NYI | Emil Andrae | PHI | |
| Travis Sanheim | PHI | Timothy Liljegren | SJS | |
| Cam York | PHI | Logan Mailloux | STL | |
| Ryker Evans | SEA | J.J. Moser | TBL | |
| Luca Cagnoni | SJS | Tom Willander | VAN | |
| Philip Broberg | STL | Lukas Cormier | VGK | |
| Rasmus Sandin | WAS |
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
| Dante Fabbro | CBJ | Michael Kesselring | BUF | |
| Damon Severson | CBJ | Radim Mrtka | BUF | |
| Hunter Brzustewicz | CGY | Matt Grzelcyk | CHI | |
| Henry Mews | CGY | Wyatt Kaiser | CHI | |
| Alex Vlasic | CHI | Mikey Anderson | LAK | |
| Sam Rinzel | CHI | David Jiricek | MIN | |
| Drew Doughty | LAK | Adam Engstrom | MON | |
| Ryan Ufko | NSH | Brady Skjei | NSH | |
| Justin Barron | NSH | Warren Marshall | NYI | |
| Alexander Romanov | NYI | Kashawn Aitcheson | NYI | |
| Samuel Girard | PIT | Braden Schneider | NYR | |
| Tyson Jugnauth | SEA | Owen Pickering | PIT | |
| Cam Fowler | STL | Kris Letang | PIT | |
| Neal Pionk | WPG | Leo Sahlin Wallenius | SJS | |
| Elias Salomonsson | WPG | Dmitri Simashev | UTA |
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| ALEX LAFERRIERE |
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| LUKE HUGHES |
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| OWEN TIPPETT |
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L.A
| |
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CBJ
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| |
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| 18.4 | CONNOR MCMICHAEL RYAN LEONARD HENDRIX LAPIERRE | |
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| 16.0 | TOM WILSON ILYA PROTAS ALIAKSEI PROTAS | |
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