Top 200 Cap League Skater Rankings – May 2021
Alexander MacLean
2021-05-25
I hope those of you with Quinn Hughes, Andrei Svechnikov, Cale Makar, and the rest of the tasty 2021 RFA crop were able to take advantages of those bargain contracts and win some championships. Hughes, Conor Garland, and the rest of my group carried me as far as the semis in my one cap league, and the finals in another, but I unfortunately wasn't able to bring home either prize. Back to the drawing board, and updating these rankings is the first place I start.
Lots of new names high up the list, but 2020 top-five ranked Adam Fox still has another year left on his ELC, so he stays atop the leaderboard. Rookies Jason Robertson and Alexis Lafreniere round out the top three as they look to build upon their short-season production over a longer campaign. Meanwhile, McDavid jumps up to #4 in the rankings, as his fantastic production this year just blows the competition out of the water, despite being on the largest contract in the league.
The numbers will change through the offseason as the future lineups and free agent market settles out, and new contracts are signed. Scoring projections are taken into account, and the future salaries for the UFAs/RFAs are estimated through my model, with free agent skaters currently rated based on their expected next contracts. Signing a bargain or an overpriced deal will greatly affect their ranking.
Standard pre-rankings note:
This isn't meant to be a be-all and end-all rating system for you to use without thinking and just trade your players for anyone above them on the list that you can find, but used with some foresight for managing salaries, I'm hoping that the list can help you mine value in trades, and at the draft table.
The assumed league setup is for points-only leagues, with a salary allotment of approximately $73 million per team (10% of the NHL's $81.5 million being allocated for goalies), for 12 forwards and six defencemen per roster, amongst a range from eight to 14 teams (completely covered by the top 200 list). Cap hit is used for the player cost, so if your league uses salary or AAV, please account for that, as it can greatly change the impact of rookies. The rankings are set up so as to provide the most value in the current season, while providing some value in future years, based on modeling for predicted salary increases and production growth.
For those of you with variations from this setup, whether in terms of number of teams, salary space, roster positions, or scoring categories, you can make your own personal tweaks to move players up or down as necessary. This list is made to be a baseline guide for player evaluation, and to promote discussion and understanding of how to optimize rosters in a cap league setting.
If you note a mistake, or have any further questions about the ranking system, please let me know. You can find me on Twitter here @alexdmaclean.
I'm not perfect, and the rankings won't be either. Comments help with optimizing the values.
We're sticking with the +/- 5.0 rating that Dobber uses on all of his rating schemes as the range for approximately equivalent value. The skater and goalie rankings are synched so that the value of a skater against a goalie can be compared, though the scale of the ratings has changed a little since the last update.
All salary info is courtesy of capfriendly. Without further ado, the rankings:
| Rank | Name | Age | Pos | Cap Hit | Yrs | Rating | Prev Rank |
| 1 | Adam Fox | 23 | D | $925,000 | 1 | 315.73 | 4 |
| 2 | Jason Robertson | 21 | F | $795,000 | 1 | 262.03 | 124 |
| 3 | Alexis Lafreniere | 19 | F | $925,000 | 2 | 235.12 | 15 |
| 4 | Connor McDavid | 24 | F | $12,500,000 | 5 | 233.95 | 18 |
| 5 | Martin Necas | 22 | F | $863,333 | 1 | 233.64 | 12 |
| 6 | Nick Suzuki | 21 | F | $863,333 | 1 | 225.76 | 7 |
| 7 | Quinton Byfield | 18 | F | $925,000 | 3 | 219.52 | 46 |
| 8 | Tim Stützle | 19 | F | $925,000 | 2 | 218.96 | 19 |
| 9 | Leon Draisaitl | 25 | F | $8,500,000 | 4 | 215.37 | 9 |
| 10 | Ty Smith | 21 | D | $863,333 | 2 | 212.44 | 190 |
| 11 | Carter Verhaeghe | 25 | F | $1,000,000 | 1 | 208.97 | 99 |
| 12 | Nathan MacKinnon | 25 | F | $6,300,000 | 2 | 206.81 | 17 |
| 13 | Tyson Barrie | 29 | D | 0 | 202.56 | 24 | |
| 14 | Cole Caufield | 20 | F | $880,833 | 2 | 201.54 | NR |
| 15 | Joel Farabee | 21 | F | $925,000 | 1 | 188.72 | 16 |
| 16 | Marco Rossi | 19 | F | $925,000 | 3 | 186.75 | 55 |
| 17 | Trevor Zegras | 20 | F | $925,000 | 2 | 185.58 | 41 |
| 18 | Jack Hughes | 20 | F | $925,000 | 1 | 182.60 | 10 |
| 19 | Dylan Cozens | 20 | F | $925,000 | 2 | 181.67 | 42 |
| 20 | Jonathan Huberdeau | 27 | F | $5,900,000 | 2 | 180.77 | 27 |
| 21 | Lucas Raymond | 19 | F | $925,000 | 3 | 178.64 | 64 |
| 22 | Joshua Norris | 22 | F | $925,000 | 1 | 177.51 | 188 |
| 23 | Oliver Wahlstrom | 20 | F | $894,167 | 2 | 177.08 | NR |
| 24 | Nikita Kucherov | 27 | F | $9,500,000 | 6 | 172.78 | NR |
| 25 | Shea Theodore | 25 | D | $5,200,000 | 4 | 172.78 | 43 |
| 26 | Alex Newhook | 20 | F | $908,333 | 2 | 172.67 | NR |
| 27 | Jakob Chychrun | 23 | D | $4,600,000 | 4 | 171.92 | 105 |
| 28 | Nils Hoglander | 20 | F | $891,667 | 2 | 170.83 | NR |
| 29 | Mark Scheifele | 28 | F | $6,125,000 | 3 | 170.42 | 36 |
| 30 | Brad Marchand | 33 | F | $6,125,000 | 4 | 166.85 | 44 |
| 31 | Mikko Rantanen | 24 | F | $9,250,000 | 4 | 165.15 | 40 |
| 32 | Roope Hintz | 24 | F | $3,150,000 | 2 | 165.09 | 186 |
| 33 | Jordan Kyrou | 23 | F | 0 | 164.48 | 26 | |
| 34 | MacKenzie Weegar | 27 | D | $3,250,000 | 2 | 163.55 | 150 |
| 35 | Aleksander Barkov | 25 | F | $5,900,000 | 1 | 162.98 | 35 |
| 36 | Jake Guentzel | 26 | F | $6,000,000 | 3 | 161.93 | 29 |
| 37 | Filip Zadina | 21 | F | $894,167 | 1 | 161.45 | 48 |
| 38 | Cale Makar | 22 | D | 0 | 159.93 | 2 | |
| 39 | Bowen Byram | 19 | D | $925,000 | 2 | 159.06 | 57 |
| 40 | Nicholas Robertson | 19 | F | $821,667 | 3 | 159.01 | NR |
| 41 | David Pastrnak | 25 | F | $6,666,666 | 2 | 157.07 | 28 |
| 42 | John Klingberg | 28 | D | $4,250,000 | 1 | 156.18 | 62 |
| 43 | Jamie Drysdale | 19 | D | $925,000 | 2 | 156.11 | 75 |
| 44 | Quinn Hughes | 21 | D | 0 | 155.86 | 1 | |
| 45 | Drake Batherson | 23 | F | 0 | 155.72 | 32 | |
| 46 | John Carlson | 31 | D | $8,000,000 | 5 | 154.32 | 31 |
| 47 | Max Comtois | 22 | F | 0 | 154.27 | 68 | |
| 48 | Victor Hedman | 30 | D | $7,875,000 | 4 | 153.32 | 33 |
| 49 | Cole Perfetti | 19 | F | $894,166 | 3 | 151.48 | 91 |
| 50 | Kaapo Kakko | 20 | F | $925,000 | 1 | 151.46 | 21 |
| 51 | David Perron | 32 | F | $4,000,000 | 1 | 150.29 | 38 |
| 52 | Jack Roslovic | 24 | F | $1,838,362 | 1 | 149.00 | 89 |
| 53 | Adam Boqvist | 20 | D | $894,167 | 1 | 148.64 | 30 |
| 54 | Alex DeBrincat | 23 | F | $6,400,000 | 2 | 148.61 | 112 |
| 55 | K’Andre Miller | 21 | D | $925,000 | 2 | 148.01 | 82 |
| 56 | Filip Hronek | 23 | D | 0 | 147.91 | 8 | |
| 57 | Evan Bouchard | 21 | D | $863,333 | 2 | 147.54 | 80 |
| 58 | Mitch Marner | 24 | F | $10,903,000 | 4 | 146.48 | 74 |
| 59 | Elias Lindholm | 26 | F | $4,850,000 | 3 | 146.26 | 67 |
| 60 | Morgan Rielly | 27 | D | $5,000,000 | 1 | 146.17 | 51 |
| 61 | Kirill Kaprizov | 24 | F | 0 | 144.70 | 5 | |
| 62 | Daniel Sprong | 24 | F | $725,000 | 1 | 144.69 | 187 |
| 63 | Mike Reilly | 27 | D | 0 | 144.50 | 126 | |
| 64 | Johnny Gaudreau | 27 | F | $6,750,000 | 1 | 143.64 | 100 |
| 65 | Mason Appleton | 25 | F | $900,000 | 1 | 143.62 | 185 |
| 66 | Pavel Zacha | 24 | F | $2,250,000 | 1 | 143.54 | 178 |
| 67 | Auston Matthews | 23 | F | $11,640,250 | 3 | 141.82 | 87 |
| 68 | Morgan Frost | 22 | F | $863,333 | 1 | 141.74 | 53 |
| 69 | Yegor Sharangovich | 22 | F | 0 | 140.30 | NR | |
| 70 | Mika Zibanejad | 28 | F | $5,350,000 | 1 | 140.07 | 54 |
| 71 | Kirby Dach | 20 | F | $925,000 | 1 | 140.02 | 79 |
| 72 | J.T. Miller | 28 | F | $5,250,000 | 2 | 139.48 | 52 |
| 73 | Denis Gurianov | 23 | F | $2,550,000 | 1 | 139.22 | 184 |
| 74 | Mikhail Sergachev | 22 | D | $4,800,000 | 2 | 138.50 | 85 |
| 75 | Tyson Jost | 23 | F | 0 | 138.40 | NR | |
| 76 | Sebastian Aho | 23 | F | $8,460,250 | 3 | 137.72 | 114 |
| 77 | Moritz Seider | 20 | D | $863,333 | 3 | 137.56 | 177 |
| 78 | Samuel Girard | 23 | D | $5,000,000 | 6 | 136.80 | 63 |
| 79 | Devon Toews | 27 | D | $4,100,000 | 3 | 136.66 | 125 |
| 80 | Rasmus Dahlin | 21 | D | 0 | 135.98 | 13 | |
| 81 | Gabriel Vilardi | 21 | F | $894,167 | 1 | 135.87 | 37 |
| 82 | Dougie Hamilton | 27 | D | 0 | 134.28 | 23 | |
| 83 | Nikolaj Ehlers | 25 | F | $6,000,000 | 4 | 134.01 | 76 |
| 84 | Troy Terry | 23 | F | $1,450,000 | 2 | 133.83 | 109 |
| 85 | Kris Letang | 34 | D | $7,250,000 | 1 | 133.40 | 139 |
| 86 | Alexander Romanov | 21 | D | $925,000 | 2 | 132.74 | NR |
| 87 | Darnell Nurse | 26 | D | $5,600,000 | 1 | 132.56 | 77 |
| 88 | Brayden Point | 25 | F | $6,750,000 | 1 | 132.52 | 58 |
| 89 | Alexander Wennberg | 26 | F | 0 | 132.40 | NR | |
| 90 | Brock Boeser | 24 | F | $5,875,000 | 1 | 132.37 | 102 |
| 91 | Nicolas Hague | 22 | D | $791,667 | 1 | 132.30 | 50 |
| 92 | Artemi Panarin | 29 | F | $11,642,857 | 5 | 132.27 | 83 |
| 93 | Chandler Stephenson | 27 | F | $2,750,000 | 3 | 132.24 | 175 |
| 94 | Kevin Fiala | 24 | F | 0 | 132.07 | 88 | |
| 95 | Ryan Strome | 27 | F | $4,500,000 | 1 | 132.02 | 93 |
| 96 | Erik Brannstrom | 21 | D | $863,333 | 1 | 131.91 | 136 |
| 97 | Vitali Kravtsov | 21 | F | $925,000 | 1 | 131.55 | NR |
| 98 | Oliver Bjorkstrand | 26 | F | $5,400,000 | 5 | 130.75 | 20 |
| 99 | Jared McCann | 24 | F | $2,940,000 | 1 | 130.30 | NR |
| 100 | Patrick Kane | 32 | F | $10,500,000 | 2 | 130.27 | 73 |
| 101 | Kyle Connor | 24 | F | $7,142,857 | 5 | 130.12 | 72 |
| 102 | Tomas Hertl | 27 | F | $5,625,000 | 1 | 130.10 | 95 |
| 103 | Kasperi Kapanen | 24 | F | $3,200,000 | 1 | 129.71 | 166 |
| 104 | Noah Dobson | 21 | D | $894,167 | 1 | 129.70 | 45 |
| 105 | Mathieu Joseph | 24 | F | $737,500 | 1 | 129.64 | 146 |
| 106 | Nicolas Beaudin | 21 | D | $863,333 | 2 | 129.17 | NR |
| 107 | Mark Stone | 29 | F | $9,500,000 | 6 | 129.06 | 98 |
| 108 | Pavel Buchnevich | 26 | F | 0 | 128.55 | 49 | |
| 109 | Sidney Crosby | 33 | F | $8,700,000 | 4 | 128.35 | 65 |
| 110 | Neal Pionk | 25 | D | 0 | 127.74 | 25 | |
| 111 | Jason Spezza | 37 | F | 0 | 127.47 | 138 | |
| 112 | Tyler Toffoli | 29 | F | $4,250,000 | 3 | 127.30 | 127 |
| 113 | Sean Couturier | 28 | F | $4,333,333 | 1 | 127.27 | 66 |
| 114 | Connor McMichael | 20 | F | $863,333 | 3 | 126.96 | 169 |
| 115 | Jakub Vrana | 25 | F | 0 | 126.82 | 94 | |
| 116 | Jeff Petry | 33 | D | $6,250,000 | 4 | 126.72 | 110 |
| 117 | Joe Thornton | 41 | F | 0 | 126.71 | 165 | |
| 118 | Alexander Holtz | 19 | F | $925,000 | 3 | 126.57 | NR |
| 119 | Thomas Chabot | 23 | D | $8,000,000 | 7 | 125.95 | 107 |
| 120 | Brandon Hagel | 22 | F | 0 | 125.78 | NR | |
| 121 | Rasmus Sandin | 21 | D | $894,167 | 1 | 125.05 | 92 |
| 122 | Bryan Rust | 29 | F | $3,500,000 | 1 | 124.84 | 69 |
| 123 | Mathew Barzal | 23 | F | $7,000,000 | 2 | 124.00 | 132 |
| 124 | Grigori Denisenko | 20 | F | $925,000 | 2 | 123.99 | NR |
| 125 | Torey Krug | 30 | D | $6,500,000 | 6 | 123.77 | 104 |
| 126 | Charlie McAvoy | 23 | D | $4,900,000 | 1 | 123.54 | 122 |
| 127 | Eeli Tolvanen | 22 | F | 0 | 123.02 | 181 | |
| 128 | Teuvo Teravainen | 26 | F | $5,400,000 | 3 | 122.48 | 164 |
| 129 | Matthew Tkachuk | 23 | F | $7,000,000 | 1 | 122.17 | 151 |
| 130 | Jesse Puljujarvi | 23 | F | $1,175,000 | 1 | 122.09 | 161 |
| 131 | Anthony Duclair | 25 | F | 0 | 121.82 | 108 | |
| 132 | Seth Jones | 26 | D | $5,400,000 | 1 | 121.67 | 59 |
| 133 | Jordan Greenway | 24 | F | $2,100,000 | 1 | 121.48 | 120 |
| 134 | Dominik KubalÃk | 25 | F | $3,700,000 | 1 | 121.30 | 84 |
| 135 | Alex Barre-Boulet | 24 | F | 0 | 120.96 | NR | |
| 136 | Andrei Svechnikov | 21 | F | 0 | 120.72 | 6 | |
| 137 | Ryan O’Reilly | 30 | F | $7,500,000 | 2 | 120.46 | 157 |
| 138 | Ian Mitchell | 22 | D | $925,000 | 2 | 120.03 | NR |
| 139 | Elias Pettersson | 22 | F | 0 | 120.02 | 3 | |
| 140 | Travis Konecny | 24 | F | $5,500,000 | 4 | 119.76 | 103 |
| 141 | David Farrance | 21 | D | $925,000.00 | 1 | 119.68 | NR |
| 142 | Shane Pinto | 20 | F | $925,000 | 2 | 119.25 | NR |
| 143 | Barrett Hayton | 20 | F | $894,167 | 1 | 119.07 | 70 |
| 144 | Andre Burakovsky | 26 | F | $4,900,000 | 1 | 118.88 | NR |
| 145 | Roman Josi | 30 | D | $9,059,000 | 7 | 118.73 | 78 |
| 146 | Thomas Harley | 19 | D | $863,333 | 3 | 118.61 | NR |
| 147 | Andrew Mangiapane | 25 | F | $2,425,000 | 1 | 118.54 | 172 |
| 148 | Michael Bunting | 25 | F | 0 | 118.32 | NR | |
| 149 | Jonathan Marchessault | 30 | F | $5,000,000 | 3 | 118.22 | 194 |
| 150 | Kieffer Bellows | 22 | F | 0 | 118.18 | NR | |
| 151 | Pius Suter | 25 | F | 0 | 118.07 | 160 | |
| 152 | Ondrej Palat | 30 | F | $5,300,000 | 1 | 117.99 | 189 |
| 153 | Max Pacioretty | 32 | F | $7,000,000 | 2 | 117.97 | 174 |
| 154 | Eric Robinson | 25 | F | $975,000 | 1 | 117.81 | NR |
| 155 | Victor Olofsson | 25 | F | $3,050,000 | 1 | 117.67 | 61 |
| 156 | Pierre-Olivier Joseph | 21 | D | $863,333 | 1 | 117.57 | NR |
| 157 | Mario Ferraro | 22 | D | $925,000 | 1 | 117.52 | NR |
| 158 | Conor Garland | 25 | F | 0 | 117.18 | 11 | |
| 159 | Miro Heiskanen | 21 | D | 0 | 117.15 | 14 | |
| 160 | Christian Fischer | 24 | F | $1,000,000 | 1 | 117.13 | NR |
| 161 | Henri Jokiharju | 21 | D | 0 | 116.84 | NR | |
| 162 | Zach Werenski | 23 | D | $5,000,000 | 1 | 116.73 | 96 |
| 163 | Jesper Bratt | 22 | F | $2,750,000 | 1 | 116.72 | 199 |
| 164 | Matt Grzelcyk | 27 | D | $3,687,500 | 3 | 116.68 | NR |
| 165 | Colin Blackwell | 28 | F | $725,000 | 1 | 116.62 | NR |
| 166 | Kailer Yamamoto | 22 | F | 0 | 116.38 | 34 | |
| 167 | Liam Foudy | 21 | F | $863,333 | 2 | 116.11 | NR |
| 168 | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | 28 | F | 0 | 115.13 | 117 | |
| 169 | Kale Clague | 22 | D | 0 | 114.98 | NR | |
| 170 | Anthony Beauvillier | 23 | F | 0 | 114.64 | 86 | |
| 171 | Robert Thomas | 21 | F | 0 | 114.35 | 39 | |
| 172 | Anders Bjork | 24 | F | $1,600,000 | 2 | 114.29 | NR |
| 173 | Vince Dunn | 24 | D | 0 | 114.22 | 111 | |
| 174 | Justin Schultz | 30 | D | $4,000,000 | 1 | 114.07 | NR |
| 175 | Brady Tkachuk | 21 | F | 0 | 113.95 | 22 | |
| 176 | Alexander Radulov | 34 | F | $6,250,000 | 1 | 113.73 | NR |
| 177 | Alexander Volkov | 23 | F | 0 | 113.58 | NR | |
| 178 | Gabriel Landeskog | 28 | F | 0 | 113.32 | 60 | |
| 179 | Owen Tippett | 22 | F | $863,333 | 1 | 113.06 | NR |
| 180 | Alex Ovechkin | 35 | F | 0 | 113.01 | 81 | |
| 181 | Cody Glass | 22 | F | $863,333 | 1 | 112.75 | 47 |
| 182 | Jesperi Kotkaniemi | 21 | F | 0 | 112.65 | 119 | |
| 183 | Mike Hoffman | 31 | F | 0 | 112.36 | 163 | |
| 184 | Scott Perunovich | 22 | D | $925,000 | 1 | 112.16 | NR |
| 185 | Vincent Trocheck | 28 | F | $4,750,000 | 1 | 111.97 | NR |
| 186 | Justin Holl | 29 | D | $2,000,000 | 2 | 111.69 | NR |
| 187 | Bo Horvat | 26 | F | $5,500,000 | 2 | 111.66 | 142 |
| 188 | Jack Studnicka | 22 | F | $769,167 | 1 | 111.63 | NR |
| 189 | William Nylander | 25 | F | $6,962,366 | 3 | 111.62 | 173 |
| 190 | Sean Walker | 26 | D | $2,650,000 | 3 | 110.96 | NR |
| 191 | Peyton Krebs | 20 | F | $863,333 | 3 | 110.89 | NR |
| 192 | Calle Jarnkrok | 29 | F | $2,000,000 | 1 | 110.63 | 162 |
| 193 | Jaret Anderson-Dolan | 21 | F | $747,500 | 1 | 110.33 | NR |
| 194 | Jake Bean | 22 | D | 0 | 110.18 | NR | |
| 195 | Aaron Ekblad | 25 | D | $7,500,000 | 4 | 109.56 | 121 |
| 196 | Craig Smith | 31 | F | $3,100,000 | 2 | 109.49 | NR |
| 197 | Wyatt Kalynuk | 24 | D | $925,000 | 1 | 109.46 | NR |
| 198 | Evander Kane | 29 | F | $7,000,000 | 4 | 109.24 | NR |
| 199 | Nolan Patrick | 22 | F | 0 | 108.88 | 168 | |
| 200 | Brett Pesce | 26 | D | $4,025,000 | 3 | 108.71 | NR |
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