Although it's too early for single-season drafts (at least in my opinion), many keeper leagues have started their entry drafts for 2024-drafted players. I had one league complete one recently, so I'll share the results. It's only a 12-player draft because it is a 12-team league with a one-round draft, so it may be smaller than your league draft. But it may give you a sense of who to target for your top picks.

1. Macklin Celebrini

2. Ivan Demidov

3. Zeev Buium

4. Artyom Levshunov

5. Tij Iginla

6. Cayden Lindstrom

7. Zayne Parekh

8. Berkly Catton

9. Beckett Sennecke

10. Cole Eiserman

11. Carter Yakemchuk

12. Sam Dickinson

After the Buium pick, this draft seemed fairly predictable with no real surprises. I won't say the players were literally autopicked, but where the player was drafted in real life should only be one factor. One of the league members who is interested in following prospects was very accurate in picking who would be drafted next, particularly in the later half. I think Jeff Marek was tipping him off.

I'm not sure I would have been bold enough to pick Buium at #3, but I admire new league member (and Dobber writer) Andrew Santillo doing his research for who he thought would be the player with the highest upside fantasy-wise. Buium went fifth overall in another one of my leagues, so there seems to be real interest from the fantasy community. Buium was drafted 12^th overall by Minnesota, so clearly his fantasy value is higher than his real-life value. Remember that GMs are drafting in the real-life realm and aren't trying to fill fantasy categories. In a few years, will we be second-guessing the GMs that passed on Buium?

What's also interesting is that both leagues I've mentioned here had the exact same group of 12 players drafted in the top 12, although not in the same order. The other draft was much longer (60 picks) and also included players available on the league's waiver wire. It seems hard to argue with the above list if you simply need a top 12. I'll give you a possible 13 and 14 of Konsta Helenius and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, as those were the next two picks in the longer draft. They seem to make the most sense here in terms of fantasy upside and NHL certainty.

Also, just because a player is being drafted high doesn't mean they are risk-free. I mentioned the word "risk" when referring to Parekh on X, which raised an eyebrow or two. Parekh has unquestioned high upside because of his ability to score, which is why his comparable in the Prospects Report is Quinn Hughes. However, his defensive game as it stands now needs work to the point where an NHL coach may not trust him to regularly patrol their blueline. Using a high pick on Parekh (9^th overall), the Flames will give him every opportunity to succeed, but that doesn't guarantee that he will.

I'm not picking on Parekh specifically. I'm just trying to promote a mindset of considering risk and not thinking in absolutes (ie. this player will 100% be a sure-fire NHL star!) By all means Parekh should be drafted at #7. I would draft him over someone like Dickinson, but Dickinson is also considered more of a safe pick. We just can't say what will happen five or ten years from now. Parekh could be the second coming of Hughes, or he could be another Shayne Gostisbehere or Tony DeAngelo (hopefully without the baggage) where he can score on the power play but is also a possible healthy scratch. That seems like risk to me, considering that the opportunity cost is quite possibly bypassing another player who turns out to be a star.

Let's just have fun making our choices and seeing how they play out. No pressure, right?

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Among our most commented work at DobberHockey is our various rankings, which you'll find here. For example, why is Player X ahead of Player Y? Sometimes a rebuttal takes more than just a one or two-sentence response in a comment window. That's why I'll take this opportunity to respond to a recent comment in the Top 100 Roto Rankings regarding Timo Meier being ranked well behind Roope Hintz. As always, I appreciate any feedback that is provided on the rankings.

The main reason that Hintz (#57) is ranked higher than Meier (#95) is that Hintz is a better scorer than Meier. That was the case last season, and it has been the case over the past few seasons. The proof shows in the Frozen Tools Player Comparison. The difference in scoring is also reflected in Dobber's scoring-only Top 300 Skaters ranking, where Hintz is #40 and Meier is #83. Hintz has reached 30 goals and 60 points for three consecutive seasons. While Meier has come close to that, his production has been more all over the map (more on that shortly).

Meier fell down the Roto Rankings due to a lackluster first three-quarters of the 2023-24 season. During that span, he registered just 28 points in 48 games. Then he turned it up in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 goals and 24 points in just 21 games. As the reader stated, that may have been tied to Tyler Toffoli being traded. Meier's overall icetime jumped nearly three minutes and his power-play icetime jumped over a minute from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. He also recorded more power-play points in the fourth quarter (10) than he had in the first three quarters combined (7). Meier was also battling injuries earlier in the season.

Although he was able to salvage something during what was the fantasy playoffs in many leagues, Meier didn't deliver as he could have, finishing with his lowest point total (52 points) in three seasons. From season to season, it's difficult to get a read on what kind of scorer Meier really is. Over the past four seasons, his point-per-game totals have been as low as 0.57 PTS/GP and as high as 0.99 PTS/GP. I took him too early in one of my drafts (14-team league, third pick, 31^st overall) and regretted it for most of the season. That might have factored into my lower placement of Meier.

Where Meier could catch up to Hintz and possibly surpass him is in peripheral categories. Meier had averaged over four shots per game in both 2021-22 and 2022-23, but he fell to three shots per game in 2023-24. That's still a better total than Hintz, who consistently averages less than three shots per game but at least two shots per game. Meier is also a much better hitter, as he is usually good for at least 100 hits per season, while Hintz has never reached 100 hits in a season.

The fantasy hockey community may have a tendency to overvalue Hintz as well. Hintz is ranked #53 in Yahoo, which might not seem like much of a difference compared to the Roto Rankings. But keep in mind that Yahoo's rankings also include nine goalies in front of Hintz, which increases the gap between our rankings and theirs. In comparison, Meier has a criminally albeit way-too-early preseason rank of #178 on Yahoo, although no ADP yet. That's something to jump on if you have an early bird single-season Yahoo draft. Someone in my recent mock draft did pick Meier, as Yahoo's Draft Scout Suggestions seems to be tied to its current ranking.

September's Roto Rankings will have a major shuffle, thanks to Bangers Fantasy Hockey. I have a feeling Meier's ranking will jump substantially with that, as they tend to rank peripherals coverage very high.

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