Fantasy hockey defenseman rankings – Six players expected to rise

Sean Allen, Special to ESPN.comDec 5, 2023, 01:00 PM ET

CloseSean Allen is a fantasy analyst for ESPN.com. He was the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hockey Writer of the Year. You can tweet him @seanard.

After an exercise exploring the fantasy defense rankings very early this season, I promised we’d come back to the concept at the end of November.

Here we are… or, close enough to it anyway.

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On Oct. 24, I did a dive into how rankings tend to unfold over a season, using defense to drive the narrative. At that time, I went over how, after less than a month of hockey in the 2022-23 campaign, 11 of the top 25 fantasy defenders ended up staying in the top 25 by the end of the season. I also noted that, at the end of November in that season, 16 of the top 25 fantasy blue-liners were established and would stay there.

I used that information to look at the top 25 fantasy defensemen at the time and take a guess at how things might unfold from there in the current season.

A quick recap of how the top 25 fantasy defense looked just over two weeks into this season, including their Oct. 24 ranking (then), their current ranking (now) and their projected ranking (later) at the end of the campaign (which factors in remaining games).

Cale Makar, D, Colorado Avalanche (then: 1, now: 1, later: 1)

Moritz Seider, D, Detroit Red Wings (then: 2, now: 7, later: 5)

Jaccob Slavin, D, Carolina Hurricanes (then: 3, now: 47, later: 45)

Shayne Gostisbehere, D, Detroit Red Wings (then: 4, now: 46, later: 40)

Evan Bouchard, D, Edmonton Oilers (then: 5, now: 10, later: 8)

Noah Dobson, D, New York Islanders (then: 6, now: 2, later: 2)

Rasmus Dahlin, D, Buffalo Sabres (then: 7, now: 5, later: 10)

Jacob Trouba, D, New York Rangers (then: 8, now: 4, later: 3)

Shea Theodore, D, Vegas Golden Knights (then: 9, now: 32, later: 38)

Victor Hedman, D, Tampa Bay Lightning (then:…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/fantasy/hockey/story/_/id/39048002/fantasy-hockey-top-defenseman-rankings-predictions-outlook-trends

Author : Sean Allen

Publish date : 2023-12-05 17:44:48

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