Top 120 Keeper League Defensemen – May 2025

Dobber

2025-05-06

Here are the top 120 defensemen to own in your points-only dynasty leagues – May edition!

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As always, players rated between +/-5.0 rating points should be considered equal value and at that point become a matter of team need or personal bias. This month I rough-out the list based on projections (off the top of my head) for 2025-26 and beyond. Among other things, that pretty much means the players who were injured this season will get an injection of fantasy value, as well as some young players taking another step.

Def Rk	Player	Team	Rating	May	Apr	Change
1	Cale Makar	COL	192.3	11	6	-5
2	Quinn Hughes	VAN	156.6	27	24	-3
3	Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	136.4	35	40	5
4	Adam Fox	NYR	122.3	43	49	6
5	Evan Bouchard	EDM	115.0	55	39	-16
6	Lane Hutson	MON	106.5	66	61	-5
7	Josh Morrissey	WPG	104.5	69	70	1
8	Zach Werenski	CBJ	103.8	70	41	-29
9	Victor Hedman	TBL	92.9	89	72	-17
10	Miro Heiskanen	DAL	90.3	93	125	32
11	Shea Theodore	VGK	86.0	97	83	-14
12	Noah Dobson	NYI	83.8	101	118	17
13	Mikhail Sergachev	UTA	79.6	106	105	-1
14	Jake Sanderson	OTT	73.3	120	109	-11
15	Roman Josi	NSH	73.3	121	142	21
16	Jakob Chychrun	WAS	71.4	125	117	-8
17	Moritz Seider	DET	70.2	128	126	-2
18	Erik Karlsson	PIT	69.4	132	85	-47
19	Luke Hughes	NJD	69.0	134	130	-4
20	Vince Dunn	SEA	65.0	140	153	13
21	Thomas Harley	DAL	58.2	154	145	-9
22	Filip Hronek	VAN	57.8	156	203	47
23	Charlie McAvoy	BOS	55.7	164	195	31
24	Shayne Gostisbehere	CAR	55.6	165	147	-18
25	Dougie Hamilton	NJD	55.4	166	127	-39
26	Thomas Chabot	OTT	54.0	171	156	-15
27	John Carlson	WAS	51.5	175	151	-24
28	Seth Jones	FLA	47.8	181	197	16
29	Brandt Clarke	LAK	46.4	188	187	-1
30	Brandon Montour	SEA	45.5	189	164	-25
31	Bowen Byram	BUF	44.9	191	177	-14
32	Devon Toews	COL	44.4	193	155	-38
33	Simon Nemec	NJD	43.4	198	198	0
34	Owen Power	BUF	42.0	206	189	-17
35	Aaron Ekblad	FLA	41.0	209	173	-36
36	Noah Hanifin	VGK	40.1	213	208	-5
37	Cam Fowler	STL	39.3	215	253	38
38	Jackson Lacombe	ANA	39.0	216	190	-26
39	Zeev Buium	MIN	38.4	218	275	57
40	Artyom Levshunov	CHI	35.7	224	214	-10
41	Zayne Parekh	CGY	35.2	225	202	-23
42	Sean Durzi	UTA	35.1	226	317	91
43	Pavel Mintyukov	ANA	33.8	231	247	16
44	Jamie Drysdale	PHI	33.4	233	229	-4
45	Morgan Rielly	TOR	33.2	234	218	-16
46	Alexander Nikishin	CAR	31.7	240	240	0
47	Jake Walman	EDM	31.5	242	220	-22
48	Mackenzie Weegar	CGY	29.3	249	223	-26
49	Kevin Korchinski	CHI	27.8	258	260	2
50	David Jiricek	MIN	27.6	260	249	-11
51	Rasmus Andersson	CGY	26.7	265	287	22
52	Denton Mateychuk	CBJ	25.7	273	257	-16
53	K’Andre Miller	NYR	25.6	274	327	53
54	Brock Faber	MIN	24.8	276	314	38
55	Gustav Forsling	FLA	22.0	295	325	30
56	Drew Doughty	LAK	21.9	297	369	72
57	Neal Pionk	WPG	21.3	298	250	-48
58	Simon Edvinsson	DET	20.2	309	342	33
59	Ivan Provorov	CBJ	19.9	311	265	-46
60	Darnell Nurse	EDM	18.7	320	337	17
61	Jaccob Slavin	CAR	18.6	322	408	86
62	Alex Pietrangelo	VGK	18.5	323	285	-38
63	Samuel Girard	COL	18.3	326	303	-23
64	Ryker Evans	SEA	17.7	330	419	89
65	Rasmus Sandin	WAS	17.0	340	331	-9

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

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Olen Zellweger	ANA	Dante Fabbro	CBJ
Mason Lohrei	BOS	Axel Sandin Pellikka	DET
Scott Morrow	CAR	Logan Mailloux	MON
Nils Lundkvist	DAL	Seamus Casey	NJD
Mattias Ekholm	EDM	Tanner Molendyk	NSH
Jordan Spence	LAK	Alexander Romanov	NYI
Mike Matheson	MON	Braden Schneider	NYR
Kaiden Guhle	MON	Zac Jones	NYR
Tony DeAngelo	NYI	Carter Yakemchuk	OTT
Travis Sanheim	PHI	Cam York	PHI
Philip Broberg	STL	Timothy Liljegren	SJS
Darren Raddysh	TBL	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	TOR
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

Oliver Kylington	ANA	Tristan Luneau	ANA
Damon Severson	CBJ	Dmitry Orlov	CAR
Alex Vlasic	CHI	Hunter Brzustewicz	CGY
Alexandre Carrier	MON	Lian Bichsel	DAL
Brady Skjei	NSH	Mikey Anderson	LAK
Justin Barron	NSH	Brett Pesce	NJD
Emil Andrae	PHI	Anton Silayev	NJD
Matt Grzelcyk	PIT	Helge Grans	PHI
Owen Pickering	PIT	Henry Thrun	SJS
Luca Cagnoni	SJS	Justin Faulk	STL
Sam Dickinson	SJS	Torey Krug	STL
Colton Parayko	STL	Jake McCabe	TOR
J.J. Moser	TBL	Juuso Valimaki	UTA
Nick Perbix	TBL	Dmitri Simashev	UTA
Michael Kesselring	UTA	Ville Heinola	WPG

UPCOMING GAMES

	Jun 14 - 20:06	EDM	vs	FLA

Starting Goalies

View on GoaliePost App

Top Skater Views

	Players	Team
	CAREY TERRANCE	NYR
	ALEXIS LAFRENIERE	NYR
	CHRIS KREIDER	ANA
	MARCO ROSSI	MIN
	LANE HUTSON	MTL

Top Goalie Profile Views

	Players	Team
	FREDERIK ANDERSEN	CAR
	ALEX LYON	DET
	STUART SKINNER	EDM
	CAREY PRICE	MTL
	DAMIAN CLARA	ANA

LINE COMBOS

	Frequency	DAL Players
	23.2	TYLER SEGUIN MASON MARCHMENT MATT DUCHENE
	14.3	MIKKO RANTANEN ROOPE HINTZ MIKAEL GRANLUND
	13.1	JASON ROBERTSON MIKKO RANTANEN WYATT JOHNSTON

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