Let’s start with a Matthew Tkachuk update. According to Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, Tkachuk said he is undecided about undergoing surgery for a torn adductor muscle before the season, but confirmed that he’ll miss the first 2-3 months of the season if he chooses the surgery. This indecision puts fantasy leaguers drafting early in a tough spot on what to do, although my recommendation would be to err on the side of caution. If Tkachuk decides to play through the injury, then he could still opt for the surgery during the season or not be as effective playing through an injury.

Yahoo doesn’t have ADP data yet after opening its fantasy leagues very recently. Tkachuk is currently ranked 19 over there. In the mock draft I participated in recently (more on that coming up), Tkachuk was picked 20th overall. You’re probably best to let someone else draft him in that spot, although a healthy Tkachuk could be drafted even higher than 19 or 20.

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As for my mock draft itself, yes, Yahoo fantasy hockey is back. Shortly after it reopened, I participated in my first mock draft of the season. Nothing has really changed from last season. The mock draft had standard Yahoo categories (G, A, +/-, PPP, SOG, HIT, W, GAA, SV%, SO) with 2 C, 2 LW, 2 RW, 4 D, 2 G, and 4 BN. You can choose the number of teams (8, 10, 12, 14), from which I can choose 12.

For full mock draft results, go to my personal blog Goods Fantasy Hockey. I hope to participate in more mock drafts through the offseason, keeping in mind that I may adjust my Top 100 Roto Rankings based on what I discover.

One debate entering the season will be who should be drafted first overall. Connor McDavid has been the consensus first overall pick the past few seasons, but I don’t think his grip on that spot is quite as strong. Nikita Kucherov has won back-to-back Art Ross Trophies while McDavid has missed a combined 21 games over the past two seasons. The top tier (at least in my mind) consists of four players in no particular order: McDavid, Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, and Leon Draisaitl. In this draft, the order went McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, and Kucherov. The pick I like the most out of that group is Kucherov at fourth overall. Maybe that’s the sweet spot in this year’s fantasy drafts.

Numbers below represent round and overall pick. I was one of the last drafters to arrive, selecting the 10th overall slot.

1-10 – Mikko Rantanen – At this point, I felt like I had to decide between him and Auston Matthews as potential top 10 scorers. With all the instability last season, Rantanen still put up 88 points, while his upside is still over 100 points. I’m genuinely concerned about Matthews without Mitch Marner. If I’m wrong, I could be passing up on 50 goals. In hindsight, Brady Tkachuk was another possibility for multiple categories. Landing the right first-round pick won’t necessarily help you win your league, but selecting the wrong first-round pick could lead you down the path to defeat if you don’t nail some other picks.

2-15 – Jack Eichel – Here’s another tough choice for me, this one being between Eichel and Kyle Connor. I went with the higher upside with Eichel, but the potential higher reward also means higher risk. In 2024-25 Eichel reached 70 games for the first time since way back in 2018-19. Connor has only missed at least 10 games in a season once since his first full season of 2017-18. In the last Roto Rankings, I have Eichel at 12 and Connor at 13.

3-34 – Alex Ovechkin – Another debate: This one between Ovechkin and Jason Robertson. I simply felt like I’d be putting my eggs in one basket by drafting two Stars with the first three picks. It’s a risk that could pay off in a larger league, but I like to diversify in the beginning. Ovechkin might be projected to finish well down the points race, but remember that he can still fill the shot and hit categories. Age is now a concern, as Ovechkin will be 40 years old once the season starts.

4-39 – Sebastian Aho – Robertson was still there! But I went with the same philosophy as the previous round. Robertson was a steal at #44 for whoever got him there. This is a mock draft, so the only consequences are my reputation in this article. As for my own pick, Aho is a dependable player who has hovered in and out of the point-per-game mark for much of his career.

5-58 – Lane Hutson – I picked four forwards in the first four picks, so I should really think about drafting a defenseman. More notable than this pick was the fact that Noah Dobson was drafted six picks before Hutson. Someone was reaching here, as Dobson is ranked 87 by Yahoo and Hutson is ranked 53. I’d have to assume Hutson receives PP1 for the Habs, but that’s not a guarantee. This will be a story to watch during training camp and early in the season.

6-63 – Brandon Hagel – He was the only queued player I had left in the previous group where I drafted Hutson. Hagel broke through to the point-per-game mark for the first time in his career in 2024-25, so if he can maintain that scoring, this would be one of my better picks. I probably wouldn’t draft Hagel in the first four rounds because he doesn’t have that elite track record, but I really like him in this spot.

7-82 – Logan Thompson – I don’t think I’m going full Zero G by definition, but I haven’t made goaltending a priority. Although Thompson seemed like the best goalie available, I think I would have picked either Jacob Markstrom or Linus Ullmark if I could have a do-over. Dobber has all three as Tier 2 goalies, so maybe this isn’t a bad pick. I figured I should pick a goalie because there are plenty of defensemen I had my eye on in the Rounds 7-8 turnaround of the draft.

8-87 – Mikhail Sergachev – I might have Sergachev a bit high in the Roto Rankings at 53, but I still think he’s solid value here. PP1 with 50+ point projection. At least I like Sergachev better than Dougie Hamilton, Brandon Montour, and Miro Heiskanen, who were appearing as other possible D picks. Top-10 level d-men were all gone by about Round 5, which is something to store for the future.

9-106 – Timo Meier – Because we have only 30 seconds (I believe) to pick in a mock draft, I had to think fast between him and Tom Wilson, who was a bit lower down the rankings. Now seems like a great time to address multiple categories at this point. I decided to bump Meier down the Roto Rankings a bit due to his lack of scoring (53-point average over the past two seasons), but remember that you’ll receive plenty of shots and hits to make up for that.  

10-111 – Tom Wilson – Sure enough, Wilson was waiting for me five picks later. Andrei Svechnikov was also available, so he would have been a great fallback option and debatable whether he is a better option. Wilson dominates the hits category, and he just reached 30 goals for the first time in 2024-25.

11-130 – Andrei Svechnikov – Drafting too many forwards may not be the wisest move when I still have two D slots and a G slot open, but I still can’t pass up multicategory value in the middle rounds after targeting scoring early. Also, I found a player that I had targeted in a previous round still available. Now I’ll search for power play D options… I think.

12-135 – Pyotr Kochetkov – I have to think about goalies again, and I decided to go with consecutive Canes picks. Other goaltending options included Joey Daccord and Lukas Dostal, so I went with the better team. Frederik Andersen is also available, but I’d have to think he doesn’t play as many games as Kochetkov.

13-154 – Tony DeAngelo – I sorted by projected power-play points and DeAngelo came out on top. I was looking at Morgan Rielly and Zeev Buium, but they got scooped up right before. I know I will have DeAngelo on multiple teams this season, as I’ll mention in the upcoming Bubble Keeper Week, so I won’t use up much digital space in this spot.

14-159 – Rasmus Andersson – if he is traded to Vegas, I doubt Andersson is on the top power play. But with Calgary, at least he has a shot. I really could have done better with my defense picks, so I might have to think about making them earlier the next time around.

15-178 – Dylan Holloway – I thought he was the best player available. I actually had Lukas Dostal queued up as a third goalie, but he was picked a few spots before me. Not to worry, as I have Holloway in the Top 100 Roto Rankings, so he could pay off in this spot.

16-183 – Frederik Andersen – Now I have the goaltending tandem of a very good team, although I haven’t made an effort to target goalie tandems in years. Andersen might be the better goalie of the two, but injury time seems inevitable, so Kochetkov should be the higher ranked of the two in my humble opinion.

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Both Bubble Keeper Week and our Offseason Fantasy Grades articles start this weekend! We might still be in the middle of summer, but you can still get your fantasy hockey fix here.

Don’t forget about the Fantasy Hockey Guide as well.

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Follow me on X @Ian_Gooding and Threads @goodsfantasyhockey and Bluesky @goodsfantasyhockey.bsky.social