Expert fantasy hockey mock draft: Rounds 4-6

Matt Larkin
Matt Larkin(MLarkinHockey)
Expert fantasy hockey mock draft: Rounds 4-6
Credit: Cole Caufield (© David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports)

The mock fantasy draft: deceivingly useful to read. On the surface, it might appear skippable. Why should you care about my draft? But mocks in many cases can help you more practically than reading rankings can. A mock gives you a look inside the trenches, helps you identify moments when you might see runs on certain positions. If you know your own draft slot in advance, you can follow along with whoever picks in that same spot for a sense of who might be available to you at each turn.

That’s why I’ve decided to share the results of a fantasy mock draft in which I’m currently participating. Yes, currently. It’s a “slow draft,” with a minimum of just one pick made per day. The field: a murderer’s row of fantasy hockey experts. FTN Network’s Chris Meaney played the role of Nick Fury, assembling the team.

Here are the players, in order of draft slot:

1. Eric Young, FTN Network
2. Pete Jensen, NHL.com
3. Nick Alberga, NHL.com/Daily Faceoff
4. Kenneth Lee, FTN Network
5. Anna Dua, NHL.com
6. Matt Larkin, Daily Faceoff
7. Neil Parker, Sportsbook Review
8. Jesse Blake, SDPN Sports
9. Shayna Goldman, The Athletic
10. Chris Meaney, FTN Network
11. Dom Luszczyszyn, The Athletic
12. Dimitri Filipovic, The Hockey PDOcast/EP Rinkside
13. Michael Clifford, DobberHockey
14. Drew Livingstone, SDPN Sports

The format: Head-to-Head, with the following scoring categories: Goals, Assists, PPP, SOG, Hits, Blocks, Wins, GAA, SV%

The roster breakdown:

C
C
C
LW
LW
LW
RW
RW
RW
D
D
D
D
Skater
G
G
Bench x 4

The writeup for Rounds 1-3 can be found here.

Next up, we look at picks in Rounds 4-6.

ROUND 4

43. Linus Ullmark, G
44. Dougie Hamilton, D
45. Clayton Keller, LW/RW
46. John Tavares, C/LW
47. Roope Hintz, C
48. Zach Hyman, LW/RW
49. Miro Heiskanen, D
50. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C/LW
51. Quinn Hughes, D
52. Connor Hellebuyck, G
53. Nico Hischier, C
54. Brad Marchand, LW
55. Connor Bedard, C
56. Sebastian Aho, C

Overall thoughts

Positional scarcity played a role here. Hintz and Aho should not have fallen this far. But with only three starting centers to roster and six total winger spots to fill, it appears the drafters began to pivot away from “best available” in Round 4. That includes me. I was so tempted to make a statement and snatch Connor Bedard 51st overall, but I wanted to diversify after taking two forwards who qualified at center with my previous three picks.

My pick: Quinn Hughes, D, Canucks (51st overall; My top 300 rank: 40th overall)

I often harp on Quinn Hughes when assessing his fantasy value for category leagues. He really doesn’t help much in the peripheral banger stats. But he belongs on the short list of D-men capable of leading the league in scoring at their position. Hughes is the fastest blueliner in NHL history to reach 200 assists. He doesn’t get enough credit for how otherworldly his offensive skill is. He probably has a 70-point floor…but a 90-point ceiling. Getting a blueliner with that type of upside outside the top 50 felt criminal.

ROUND 5

57. Jake Guentzel, LW
58. Ilya Samsonov, G
59. Victor Hedman, D
60. Kevin Fiala, LW/RW
61. Mikhail Sergachev, D
62. Cole Caufield, LW/RW
63. Dylan Larkin, C
64. Josh Morrissey, D
65. Bo Horvat, C
66. Alex Tuch, RW
67. Moritz Seider, D
68. Jordan Kyrou, RW
69. Stuart Skinner, G
70. Johnny Gaudreau, LW

Overall thoughts

Call it the “If ____, then ____” round. So many of us grabbed players from picks 57-70 who could perform more like top-40 assets if things break their way. If Jake Guentzel ends up missing no games; if Moritz Seider returns to his rookie form; if Stuart Skinner holds off Jack Campbell; you’re turning a monstrous profit at these draft positions. I feel the same about my own pick in this round…

My pick: Cole Caufield, LW/RW, Canadiens (62nd overall: My top 300 rank: 45th overall)

Hell yeah. I don’t see the season-ending shoulder injury; I see a 22-year-old whose body should bounce back. I see the young man who has 48 goals in 83 games since Martin St-Louis became his head coach. I see a sniper who trails only Auston Matthews and David Pastrnak in 5-on-5 goals per 60 over the past two seasons. If the Habs can find a power-play rhythm? Caufield scores 50 and delivers a huge profit similar to what Tage Thompson did last season. If not: if Caufield can even play 70 games, he’s a 35-goal scorer.

ROUND 6

71. Matt Boldy, LW/RW
72. Claude Giroux, C/LW/RW
73. Filip Forsberg, LW
74. Charlie McAvoy, D
75. Adrian Kempe, LW/RW
76. Alex Pietrangelo, D
77. Jonathan Huberdeau, LW/RW
78. John Carlson, D
79. Evander Kane, LW
80. Evgeni Malkin, C
81. Vince Dunn, D
82. Zach Werenski, D
83. Kris Letang, D
84. Patrik Laine, RW

Overall thoughts

Specific team needs seemed to be the theme in this round. Several squads opted to shore up their bluelines with lower-end D1s. Others grabbed goal-scoring wingers. Adrian Kempe feels undervalued to me. He has 35 goals, 240 shots and 115 hits or more in back to back seasons. The big swing of Round 6, of course, is Jonathan Huberdeau. His 60-point drop between 2021-22 and 2022-23 was the biggest in NHL history. We all expect a course correction this season, but will that mean a return to superstardom or merely a return to shallow-league relevance?

My pick: Evander Kane, LW Oilers (79th overall; My Top 300 rank: 66th overall)

After taking the pint-sized Hughes and Caufield in the previous two rounds, I needed to beef up my banger-stat contributions. Evander Kane remains a category-buffet monster. In his 84 regular-season games with the Oilers, he’s compiled 38 goals, 64 points, 298 shots and 259 hits. An off-brand Brady Tkachuk, available 69 picks later? Nice. The injury absence last year doesn’t worry me because a skate cut is a freak occurrence rather than, for instance, a nagging and recurring injury like Mark Stone’s back problem.

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