Top 3 Capitals players to keep an eye on for fantasy hockey in 2022
Believe it or not, hockey season is right around the corner. While everyone is talking about and preparing for their fantasy football drafts, what about hockey?
Well if you’re a Washington Capitals fan and play fantasy hockey and like to draft players on your own team as best as you can, here’s three Caps players to keep an eye on for the upcoming fantasy season.
#3 John Carlson
John Carlson had a breakout season last year and if you’re looking for a defenseman who can guarantee you a point or at least a couple every night, look no further.
Carlson recorded a career high 17 goals and also had 54 assists for 71 points. What does that average out to, about 2.3 points per 60 minutes which includes 0.5 goals per game and 1.7 assists per game.
Out of Carlson’s 17 goals, seven of them came on the power play. That power play had been hit or miss all season long as a whole unit but it’s not really Carlson’s fault that it was still lackluster.
This season I could see Carlson skating on the top pair once again alongside young buck Martin Fehervary. Hopefully their chemistry can improve the possession metrics from start to finish. It got bad in the middle of the season but Fehervary also will have had another year under his belt.
#2 Alex Ovechkin
Alex Ovechkin is number two on this list. He can still put up numbers but we won’t quite know until well into the season as the great eight turns 37 in September.
Will this be the year Father Time catches up to Ovi? Or will Ovi continue to put up numbers like he did the last few seasons?
Let’s bank on him having another 50 goal season like last year. If he does that your fantasy team will be golden. Even if Father Time does catch up to Ovechkin, a 44 goal season would still be pretty darn good.
Last season Ovechkin averaged 3.4 points per 60 minutes.1.9 in the form of goals which is pretty good almost two goals a game. 1.5 coming from assists.
16 of Ovechkin’s goals came from the power play while the other 33 were from even strength. He also had a shorthanded goal. His rate on the power play is out of this world.
Last season Ovechkin averaged 2.6 power play goals per 60 and 2.1 assists. That comes out to 4.8 power play points per 60 minutes.
With 780 goals in his career, Ovechkin could very well pass Gordie Howe and move into second place all time this upcoming season. He needs just 22 goals to pass him.
#1 Evgeny Kuznetsov
Because we don’t know what exactly to expect from the great eight, it could be risky putting him at number one. That’s why I went with Evgeny Kuznetsov who bounced back last season in a big way and looks for even more success this year for the Caps and your fantasy team.
Statistically Kuznetsov had his second best season. But it was a huge bounce back from the season before. Last season he had 24 goals and 54 assists for 78 points. That’s a big improvement from just nine goals scored during the COVID shortened 2021 season.
But how good was Kuznetsov per game per 60 minus. He averaged nearly a goal per 60, coming out to 0.9. He also averaged 2.0 assists per 60 coming out to 2.9 points per game.
I think Kuznetsov is due for an even bigger year and he’s still go some years left in him as he just turned 30 earlier in the offseason. We all know what he did during the 2017-18 Cup run and if he can be like that all season long, there’s no doubt Kuznetsov could reach 30 goals for the first time in his career.
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Those are your top 3 Caps players to keep an eye on for fantasy hockey this season. May the odds be in your favor at your drafts.