10 bold fantasy hockey predictions for 2024-25

Credit: Apr 13, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros (74) awaits the face-off against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the second period at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports

The NHL season is days away. It’s peak prediction time. And it’s always fun to take swings on bold ones, particularly when it comes to fantasy hockey. If you stand by your hottest takes and hit on a couple of them, you’re bound to make major profit on certain players.

So, what unexpected scenarios will play out in 2024-25? Here are 10 on which I’m placing my chips. And remember – I will not get all of these right, so don’t come to me with receipts in April. These are bold predictions, not safe predictions, so the goal is to hit on a few. Last season, I was right on half, which I considered a strong batting average.

Here we go, in random order.

1. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have fantasy owners sweating in April as the Oilers load-manage their game totals.

McDavid and Draisaitl have combined for four Hart Trophies, six scoring titles, seven first-team All-Star selections and a Conn Smythe Trophy. They aren’t hurting for individual accolades. What they crave more than anything is a Stanley Cup after coming within one victory of one last season. The Edmonton Oilers may be maturing into the phase of their contention window during which they prioritize the playoffs and want to keep their stars fresh for the games that matter. It thus wouldn’t be a surprise if McDavid and Draisaitl’s game totals dipped into the mid-70s. The sample sizes will still be more than enough to make them top-three assets, but in head-to-head leagues, if the Oil have their playoff seed locked up early, might we see the superstars sit during a crucial juncture of the fantasy season?

2. Juuse Saros delivers a career year and finishes as the No. 1 fantasy goalie.

Saros’ volume has been elite for years now; no goalie has started more games over the past four seasons. From 2020-21 through 2022-23, only one goalie (min. 1,000 minutes) averaged more 5-on-5 goals saved above average per 60 than Saros. His play dipped last season, but he was dealing with an uncertain future; this offseason, the Nashville Predators inked him to a lucrative extension and traded his competition, Yaroslav Askarov. Saros is locked in as the Preds’ long-term starter and they’ve improved the team around him, adding Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei in free agency. Because he’ll start 60-plus games, Saros is a strong bet to lead the league in wins on what looks like Nashville’s best team on paper in years, and if his overall play rebounds to what it was just one season prior, he’ll be fantasy’s most valuable stopper.

3. Victor Olofsson delivers the cheapest 30 goals you can find on the 2024-25 fantasy draft board.

Relative to his shooting talent, Olofsson has been a disappointment for most of his career. But he has also never played for an NHL team besides the lowly Buffalo Sabres. Joining the Vegas Golden Knights, he lands in a great situation: on the first line with Jack Eichel, who was Olofsson’s center in Buffalo during his excellent rookie season in 2019-20. Olofsson is also playing on the top power-play unit at the moment. He scored just seven goals last year, but he’s only a season removed from sniping 28. Already showing good chemistry with Eichel in camp, Olofsson is primed not just for a bounce-back but for a career year. He’s going undrafted almost everywhere, available in 96 percent of Yahoo leagues. He’s a great final-round pick in redraft formats.

4. At least one rookie Colorado Avalanche forward has a meaningful fantasy season.

The Avs are currently without Valeri Nichushkin (suspension), Artturi Lehkonen (shoulder) and Gabriel Landeskog (knee) going into the season, meaning a surprise player will have to contribute in the top six to help keep the team afloat in October. It could end up being KHL import Nikolai Kovalenko, who debuted during the 2023-24 Stanley Cup playoffs. But right now it’s looking like Cal Ritchie, Colorado’s 2023 first-round pick, has the inside track on the second-line right winger job. He’s a hyper-intelligent forward who excelled with OHL Oshawa last year and has the maturity to stick full-time. He isn’t even available in certain fantasy formats yet as of press time, so you’ll have to monitor his status closely in the coming days before he’s added to the pool.

5. Matt Boldy busts out as a top-tier fantasy contributor.

You can’t spell Boldy without BOLD, baby. Three seasons into his career, Boldy already has a 31-goal season and a 69-point campaign to his name. But that isn’t his ceiling. From the USA Hockey National Team Development Program to Boston College to the AHL, Boldy was a big-time scorer at every turn and, at 23, he’s still young enough to level up in a big way. His Minnesota Wild teammates talk him up as someone with a 100-point season coming. That’s too big of an ask this year, but Boldy has a 40-45-85 type of season in him. He’s currently week to week with a lower-body injury but might not miss the start of the year, so I’m not afraid to buy.

6. Alexis Lafreniere stacks another breakout on top of last year’s breakout.

The 2020 NHL Draft’s top pick wore a bust label for his first couple seasons. But he was part of the COVID draft class and went almost a calendar year without playing a hockey game before debuting in 2020-21. A few years later, he’s starting to realize his potential. He clicked on a line with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck and delivered career highs across the board with a 28-goal, 57-point season. In the playoffs, Lafreniere was even deadlier, notching eight goals and 14 points in 16 games. Under the hood, his 5-on-5 play-driving metrics exploded last season, suggesting his breakout is sustainable. I’m expecting him to cross the 30-goal and 70-point thresholds this season…at worst.

7. Matvei Michkov blows away the competition and is easily the top fantasy rookie.

When Michkov, who was perceived by most as a top-two scoring talent in the 2023 Draft, fell to the Philadelphia Flyers at seventh overall, the perception was that he wouldn’t debut for two seasons given his KHL contract expired after the 2026-27 season. But he had his deal with SKA Saint Petersburg terminated in June and will debut in 2024-25. His scintillating offensive upside was never in doubt, but he has also wowed in camp with his dogged work ethic, which should endear him to coach John Tortorella and ensure a major role as a rookie. In terms of pure upside, Michkov may already be the most talented forward on the team. No other rookie has the ceiling he has this season.

8. Pyotr Kochetkov usurps Frederik Andersen in Carolina and becomes a top-10 goalie.

Andersen enters the season as the presumed starter, having sparkled across his 16 healthy regular-season games last season, going 13-2 with a 1.84 goals-against average and .932 save percentage. But he’s 34, a pending UFA, he dealt with a major blood clot scare last season, and he wasn’t good enough in the postseason. The door is open for Kochetkov, who is 25, signed through 2026-27 and has increased his SV% in each of his NHL seasons to date. His share of the starting pie has increased from two to 24 to 40 over the past three years. Andersen still has the inside track on the 1A work heading into the season, but so many factors are working against him that Kochetkov is a strong bet to win the job eventually. If he does, he’ll be the starter on a stingy Stanley Cup contender, which will make him a prime fantasy asset.

9. Dougie Hamilton bounces back from injury to be a top-five fantasy defenseman.

A pectoral injury ended Hamilton’s season after just 20 games last year. The season prior, he was a fantasy force with the New Jersey Devils, compiling 22 goals, 74 points and 275 shots. He enters 2024-25 healthy and set to log a vital role as a top-pair blueliner and power-play quarterback on a Devils team that pretty much everyone expects to bounce back in a big way after last season’s flop. Hamilton is clearly an injury risk, but he’s going off the board as the 10^th defenseman on average, so I would argue the risk is priced in. The boom potential is just as big as the bust potential.

10. Will Smith delivers more fantasy value than fellow Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini.

Reigning No. 1 overall pick Celebrini’s real-life outlook is extremely promising, just to be clear. But he’s a hardworking, conscientious leader in the making, someone who does so many little things well at both ends of the ice that he might become more of a real-life asset than a fantasy asset, at least in the earlygoing. Smith is a year older and his game skews a bit more toward pure offense than Celebrini’s does, so it’s possible Smith puts up more points as a rookie this season, and chances are you’ll be able to wait an extra round to draft him since he doesn’t have the No. 1 pick hype attached.

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