Best Value NHL Mid Round Fantasy Picks 2026-27

Pick 51 to pick 100 is where drafts are made and broken. None of these players will single handedly win you your league, but nailing these picks will give you a baseline that will allow your stars to do what they do best. This is where draft strategies can shine. Whether you are taking lots of risks on rookies like Martone and McKenna or a zero G strategy where goalies won’t see your roster until the very end of this range, these mid round picks form the identity of your draft. Regardless of strategy, there are still players that need to be on your radar simply due to their great value relative to their ADP (average draft position).

All analysis is based on a Yahoo points league on default settings.

HM2: Filip Forsberg

Filip Forsberg is a great player, his only drawbacks are his age and his team. Last year he was the 23rd best fantasy forward in the entire league, putting up 40 goals and 75 points making him a dependable top player that you can confidently rely on. This was not particularly out of the ordinary with him finishing as a top-30 forward the year before and a top 10 overall player in the 23-24 season. A player who can score reliably and hasn’t missed a game in the last 3 seasons is reason enough for me to draft this guy high.

The concerns that deter some are the aforementioned age and team. He is 32 which does mean that his fall off will likely be coming up sometime in the next few years, but the age that players really start to risk this fall off is 34 meaning that there is another year or two of elite hockey for him to be played. The other concern is that Nashville is completely lost as a team that is perpetually stuck in the mushy middle. There is hope with them bringing in a lot of depth that should make them a bit better, and we have seen Forsberg’s production be above his price even with a very disappointing team.

My Rank: 37 (-19.1 vs ADP)

HM: John Carlson

John Carlson is old and there is nothing that can be done about it. He is also on the same team as all time great defenseman Victor Hedman who may steal time from Carlson. None of this should stop you from drafting an elite power play defenseman who will be scoring alongside players like Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel. Carlson was a top 20 defenseman last year despite missing 11 games and being traded at the deadline. He has put up good numbers for the past decade, and even if age starts catching up to him he will still be a very strong defenseman.

The biggest concern is his role as the defenseman on power play 1. However, in both Anaheim and Washington he played alongside elite defenseman (LaCombe and Chychrun accordingly) on a double defenseman power play. The only way that he doesn’t get power play 1 chances is if Hedman returns to his peak after a difficult previous year AND they decide to not run the double defense powerplay. The risk is there but he is being priced as if this is likely as opposed to the ~15% chance I see it as.

My Rank: 44 (-39.6 vs ADP)

5: Beckett Sennecke

So technically, Sennecke doesn’t qualify for this list because his ADP is >100. When I started writing this he was getting picked higher so I am counting it. My list, my rules.

Two years ago Cutter Gauthier was 20 and put up 20 goals, 44 points over his season. Last year Gauthier’s teammate Beckett Sennecke put up 23 goals, 60 points at the young age of 19. I am not saying that he will put up 41 goals next year like Gauthier did, but seeing these second year players have a good showing in year 1 then explode in the second is not that rare. Last year he was 127th overall as a player, but this is a bet on upside, and comparing him to other similar bets.

Gavin McKenna and Cole Hutson are both getting drafted before this star having never played an NHL game. Alex Ovechkin is getting drafted earlier despite being 40 and falling off a scoring cliff last year. Ivan Demidov is going 20 picks earlier despite having less goals and only 2 extra points and being on a more crowded forward group. There are plenty of high risk picks with lower ceilings and lower floors that are being drafted earlier than Sennecke, making him one of the best upside picks in his range.

My Rank: 48 (-57.3 vs ADP)

4: Noah Dobson/Brock Faber

Wow, look at me breaking all of the rules! I might as well have called this “People Who Play Hockey” at this point. Think of this as a BOGO deal on fantasy knowledge.

Nobody who knows hockey will look at you with a straight face and tell you Noah Dobson is not an elite defenseman. His biggest issue is that he doesn’t play powerplay 1 and has no clear path of getting there. So surely this guy is a fantasy bum who doesn’t do anything right? No. Last year he was the 13th best fantasy defenseman in the league, putting him in between Miro Heiskanen and a white hot Erik Karlson. This isn’t a super sexy pick that has the possibility of challenging Makar for the top of the table, but getting a great number 2 defenseman at this placement feels amazing.

My Rank: 49 (-45.1 vs ADP)

Brock Faber is nearly the same story. An elite offensive defenseman who is overshadowed by an even more elite player who steals power play 1 (Quinn Hughes in this case). Everything that I said about Dobson applies here, the only difference is that Quinn Hughes may leave the team returning Faber to quarterback the power play. He is drafted ~10 picks earlier to account for this which feels fair, he had his best year next to Hughes so there is a bit of additional risk with this guy. Once again, this guy maybe isn’t the best as your number 1 defenseman, but having him as number 2 will feel amazing.

My Rank: 57 (-24.1 vs ADP)

3: Moritz Seider

Moritz Seider has recently emerged as a bit of an internet darling when it comes to early round steals causing his ADP to increase slightly. It isn’t even close to being high enough. Moritz Seider finished as a top 5 defenseman last year and has never missed an NHL game in his entire career. There is no competition for power play 1, the risk for injury is as low as it gets, and he has just entered his prime at the age of 25. As always, check your league scoring and ensure that hits and blocks count as that is where Seider really separates.

There is a risk here though, and that is of team implosion. The Red Wings have been one of worst run franchises in the league for the past few years and there is a significant risk of them pulling a Canucks and collapsing after a few games. I don’t want to entirely discount that possibility, but even then he will still block a trillion shots and throw hits like a mad man. Every pick has some risk, I see Seider as being one of the most likely players to at least match expectations in the entire league.

My Rank: 29 (-24.3vs ADP)

2: Alex Tuch

Fresh off of a great season where Tuch put up 33 goals and 33 assists, Alex Tuch got traded in a sign and trade to the Washington Capitals. For some reason everyone took this information and said “You suck, go into the tier of players that could maybe be good if you are lucky!” Last year Tuch had the 33rd most fantasy points and has put up similar point values the previous 3 seasons. Some people think he is old. He is 30. Some people think he is a playoff choker, which may be true, but is irrelevant in fantasy. I feel like I am missing something, but there is just no real reason that he should be so low. Maybe people think the Capitals will be terrible? I just don’t see them being worse than last year where they had 95 points (same as Vegas) and have added Tuch, Kyrou and have a full year of Ilya Protas, Ryan Leonard, and Cole Hutson.

Ultimately, there is not a ton to say about this pick. This is one of the few great value forwards in an area of the draft that is full of steals on D. He has everything that you would expect to see from a 5th round pick except for the fact he is getting picked way later.

My Rank: 56 (-35.2 vs ADP)

1: Jakob Chychrun

The only player I haven’t been drafting consistently on this list is Mortiz Seider, because Jakob Chychrun is drafted at the same point and is just better. Last year Chychrun was playing alongside John Carlson for the first ~60 games, he was defenseman 5. Now he is free from the competition (yes they were both PP1) and on a team that got substantially better (see above). He is tied with Darren Raddysh for defenseman 7 which, ignoring the Raddysh placement, is reasonable. His ADP is 51, which is just not reasonable. He outscored about half of the forwards that are getting drafted ahead of him AS A DEFENSEMAN. This guy is the epitome of elite, and he only has 1 real risk…Cole Hutson. Cole Hutson is a rookie defenseman picked in the second round, but is the brother of Lane Hutson and seems to be following in his footsteps. In order for Hutson to steal Chychrun’s job he will just simply have to become one of the greatest rookie players of all time. Schaefer had a record tying 23 goals last year, setting a record. Chychrun had 26. Even if this does happen, the Capitals have still ran a 2 defenseman powerplay as recently as last year. This guy is just priced incorrectly.

There is a small strategy point I do want to make here surrounding Chychrun and Seider, and it is to greed. Grabbing this guy as a late third rounder is good value, however, because you have 2 great steals right around ADP 50, waiting until a bit later is generally worth it because the odds that there are 2 players in your draft that are going to jump up significantly to steal both Seider and Chychrun is much lower than if there was only 1 player here. Don’t be afraid to wait unit your pick in the 40s to grab these guys.

My Rank: 25 (-26.9 vs ADP)