Fantasy Hockey: New Jersey Devils Will Be Huge Bargains Across The Board
By Nick Villano
The fantasy community is seriously underrating the New Jersey Devils players.
It is very early to start talking about fantasy hockey. Honestly, maybe this should wait until we actually know what the NHL is doing with its season, but NHL.com is talking about fantasy hockey and we have opinions.
They did a mock draft for the entire league, so the obvious thing to do is see where everyone lands on said mock draft. We did a quick page search for “NJD” to see where the New Jersey Devils players land. We expected them to be largely overrated based on how last year went, but nothing could prepare us for this.
One player made the mock draft. One. And honestly, it’s probably not the one player you would think would be drafted. And he was taken 192nd overall. There were 192 players drafted. Nikita Gusev was the only player that anyone drafted.
So that means that Kyle Palmieri, Mackenzie Blackwood, and Nico Hischier were only worth honorable mentions. Those three were puzzling, but at least in terms of Hischier, it can make sense. With Blackwood and Palmieri, it doesn’t make much sense at all. Palmieri scored 143.3 points according to CBS Sports scoring. That’s better than Johnny Gaudreau (62nd in 2020 fantasy rankings), Tom Wilson (61st), Jake Guentzel (40th, but he was hurt), Gabriel Landeskog (47th), and Tyler Seguin (114th). There’s a lot of others, but the point is Palmieri was good last season and could be even better in a contract year. Nobody is saying he should be that high on the board, but for him to be off the board entirely is preposterous.
As for Blackwood, maybe the Corey Crawford signing hurts his value. However, last season Blackwood was the ninth-best goalie in fantasy and he’s still clearly the starter. Also, just about every team will be working with something of a tandem except maybe teams like the Winnipeg Jets and Philadelphia Flyers.
The best deal on this list is Jack Hughes. If he’s going undrafted this year, then he is going to be the best value buy for anyone in the final round. Although, this is only one mock draft. There aren’t a lot of other mock drafts out there. However, Hughes deserves to be drafted. Kirby Dach was drafted, and he had only a slightly better season in terms of points than Hughes while being ranked a lot lower going into the draft.
Obviously, there are other Devils who could be on the radar as the season continues. P.K. Subban seems like he’s good for a bounce-back flier pick. There’s no way he could be as bad as he was last season, right? Jesper Bratt and Andreas Johnsson need to know where they fall with linemates before their value is clear. Will Butcher and Damon Severson could be good fantasy options depending on the opportunities they are given. The same goes for Ty Smith, but he’s not worth drafting until that becomes clear. Still, draft the Devils. They are great values right now, especially if you draft in a league that isn’t a lot of Devils fans.