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

As I do every year, the August edition is the one that is fully audited. Each player’s 3YP and upside has been adjusted. Prospects who were missing from July’s edition were found and added. This season’s projections were used, rather than tweaking estimates.

Before we get to it, though – my 21st annual Fantasy Hockey Guide is on sale now and fully updated! Analytics, line combos, injury notes, observations, advice and a draft list. Pick it up here. Pick up the Keeper League pack here (includes the Prospects Report). Or subscribe here, so you can grab them as soon as they’re released each year.

As always, players ranked between +/-5.0 ratings points should be considered equal value and at that point become a matter of team needs or personal bias.

Click any player name to be taken to his customized fantasy player profile page to see who his best linemates were, how often they played with them, his ice time trends and even compare him to other players with a quick click. BOOKMARK IT!

Def Rk	Player	Team	Rating	Aug	Jul	Change
1	Cale Makar	COL	178.2	15	15	0
2	Quinn Hughes	MIN	169.1	20	18	-2
3	Evan Bouchard	EDM	165.5	22	21	-1
4	Lane Hutson	MON	149.7	35	34	-1
5	Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	141.4	40	38	-2
6	Zach Werenski	CBJ	140.5	41	42	1
7	Adam Fox	NYR	109.9	64	77	13
8	Matthew Schaefer	NYI	96.0	78	74	-4
9	Josh Morrissey	WPG	91.3	82	76	-6
10	Mikhail Sergachev	UTA	90.4	84	82	-2
11	Miro Heiskanen	DAL	87.0	88	80	-8
12	Jake Sanderson	OTT	86.9	89	96	7
13	Shea Theodore	VGK	86.5	91	111	20
14	Moritz Seider	DET	81.0	102	101	-1
15	John Carlson	TBL	78.5	105	140	35
16	Noah Dobson	MON	76.9	106	97	-9
17	Darren Raddysh	TOR	74.9	113	114	1
18	Jakob Chychrun	WAS	74.1	116	108	-8
19	Charlie McAvoy	BOS	71.8	121	119	-2
20	Jackson Lacombe	ANA	71.7	123	144	21
21	Bowen Byram	CHI	70.5	127	131	4
22	Cole Hutson	WAS	69.6	130	129	-1
23	Erik Karlsson	PIT	66.7	136	123	-13
24	Luke Hughes	NJD	61.9	153	148	-5
25	Shayne Gostisbehere	CAR	61.3	154	162	8
26	Thomas Harley	DAL	59.7	157	145	-12
27	Simon Nemec	CGY	59.1	158	188	30
28	Brandt Clarke	LAK	58.2	161	166	5
29	Vince Dunn	SEA	55.5	165	147	-18
30	Zayne Parekh	CGY	52.9	172	209	37
31	Filip Hronek	VAN	51.8	176	172	-4
32	Roman Josi	NSH	50.4	179	185	6
33	Brock Faber	MIN	48.8	185	169	-16
34	Victor Hedman	TBL	47.7	189	141	-48
35	Artyom Levshunov	CHI	47.0	190	175	-15
36	Jamie Drysdale	PHI	41.7	207	191	-16
37	Axel Sandin-Pellikka	DET	41.0	213	203	-10
38	Owen Power	BUF	40.0	215	229	14
39	Alexander Nikishin	CAR	39.6	217	219	2
40	Denton Mateychuk	CBJ	36.6	224	205	-19
41	Chase Reid	SEA	35.1	228	246	18
42	Zeev Buium	VAN	34.7	231	227	-4
43	Rasmus Andersson	VGK	33.6	234	216	-18
44	Carter Yakemchuk	OTT	30.6	242	317	75
45	Sam Dickinson	SJS	26.6	259	266	7
46	Noah Hanifin	VGK	26.6	261	236	-25
47	Jackson Smith	CBJ	24.8	276	559	283
48	K’Andre Miller	CAR	23.8	282	269	-13
49	Jordan Spence	OTT	22.4	290	288	-2
50	Dougie Hamilton	NJD	21.6	296	268	-28
51	Pavel Mintyukov	ANA	20.4	306	339	33
52	Mike Matheson	MON	19.8	310	275	-35
53	Seth Jones	FLA	18.7	314	248	-66
54	Xavier Villeneuve	CHI	18.4	317	333	16
55	Thomas Chabot	OTT	17.5	325	257	-68
56	Philip Broberg	STL	17.3	326	356	30
57	Mattias Samuelsson	BUF	16.8	335	261	-74
58	Olen Zellweger	BUF	16.7	339	344	5
59	Sam Malinski	COL	16.0	349	436	87
60	Ryan Ufko	NSH	15.8	351	489	138
61	Travis Sanheim	PHI	14.1	376	377	1
62	Sean Durzi	NYR	14.0	378	264	-114
63	Carson Carels	CGY	12.6	394	418	24
64	Logan Mailloux	STL	12.2	401	423	22
65	Simon Edvinsson	DET	12.2	402	406	4

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

Alberts Smits	NYR	J.J. Moser	TBL
Brandon Montour	SEA	Cam York	PHI
Seamus Casey	NJD	Charle-Edouard D’Astous	TBL
Ivan Provorov	CBJ	Keaton Verhoeff	SJS
Mackenzie Weegar	UTA	Tony DeAngelo	NYI
Rasmus Sandin	WAS	Darnell Nurse	SJS
Kaiden Guhle	MON	Michael Kesselring	SJS
Emil Andrae	TOR	Dmitri Simashev	UTA
Devon Toews	COL	Wyatt Kaiser	CHI
Tom Willander	VAN	Alexandre Carrier	MON
Ryker Evans	SEA	Alexander Romanov	NYI
Jake Walman	EDM	Elias Salomonsson	WPG
Scott Morrow	NYR

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

Hunter Brzustewicz	CGY	Bryce Pickford	MON
Eric Pohlkamp	SJS	Adam Jiricek	STL
Timothy Liljegren	WAS	Morgan Rielly	TOR
Aaron Ekblad	FLA	Leo Sahlin Wallenius	SJS
Henry Mews	CGY	Alex Vlasic	CHI
Mason Lohrei	BOS	Owen Pickering	PIT
Sam Rinzel	CHI	Ty Nelson	SEA
Luca Cagnoni	SJS	Cameron Reid	NSH
Mattias Ekholm	EDM	Cam Fowler	STL
Thomas Bleyl	NSH	Tanner Molendyk	NSH
Kevin Korchinski	CHI	Adam Engstrom	MON
Tristan Luneau	ANA	Radim Mrtka	BUF
Gustav Forsling	FLA	David Jiricek	PHI
Lukas Cormier	VGK	Tyson Jugnauth	SEA
Kashawn Aitcheson	NYI	Neal Pionk	WPG

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

	Players	Team
	RYAN LEONARD	WSH
	NAZEM KADRI	COL
	OWEN TIPPETT	PHI
	ROOPE HINTZ	DAL
	SAM BENNETT	FLA

Top Goalie Profile Views

	Players	Team
	JAKUB DOBES	MTL
	JET GREAVES	CBJ
	KAREL VEJMELKA	UTA
	LINUS ULLMARK	OTT
	JESPER WALLSTEDT	MIN

LINE COMBOS

	Frequency	NSH Players
	22.3	STEVEN STAMKOS RYAN O'REILLY COLE O'HARA
	19.9	MATTHEW WOOD FILIP FORSBERG LUKE EVANGELISTA
	16.6	OZZY WIESBLATT REID SCHAEFER TYSON JOST

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