Oilers have 3 players ranked in top 20 fantasy options for 2024-25

Whether you're a fan of fantasy sports leagues or not, there's no denying what a significant part of the culture it is these days, including fantasy hockey. As such, there was a certain amount of intrigue after ESPN released their complete fantasy projections for the 2024-25 NHL season.

What stood out most from an Edmonton Oilers perspective, was that Connor McDavid 'only' ranked second in ESPN's fantasy projections. First place went to Matthew Tkachuk, of the Florida Panthers.

On a surface level, this would seem to make no sense, with McDavid ahead of Tkachuk in all noted categories for both last season and projections for the coming campaign. However, we acknowledge things work a little differently in the world of fantasy hockey, with ESPN writing: ''Tkachuk is worth pouncing on if he is available at any sort of discount in fantasy drafts this coming season''.

The funny thing though, is that even within the realm of fantasy hockey, if you take away the actual rankings, ESPN's comments on McDavid compared to Tkachuk, would have you believe they had placed him at number one. Referring to the Oilers superstar, they write: "Simply put, McDavid is the best player in the NHL. ... (He's had) video game numbers. There's more elite talent in the league than ever before, but they all trail McDavid, who is the no-doubt first-round fantasy pick in all formats once again this year."

At the end of the day though, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? I mean, yes it does if you're going to be partaking in a fantasy hockey league for the 2024-25 season, but you get the point. (And in fairness, back in the real world, Tkachuk and the Panthers did beat McDavid and the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final.)

Draisaitl right behind McDavid

Regardless, it's interesting to then see Leon Draisaitl ranked next at number three overall. ESPN has projected his points to improve from last season, as they write: "There's no concern regarding Draisaitl moving forward, as at 28 years of age and attached to the hip of the best player in the league, the big German once again has a case to be a top-10 player off the board in fantasy drafts in 2024-25."

Sometimes there can be a tendency to overlap the actual game of hockey and the fantasy version. In this respect, it's noteworthy that the NHL Network recently ranked Draisaitl as the fourth-best centre in the league, behind McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews respectively.

However, back in the world of fantasy hockey, Draisaitl is considered a better option compared to MacKinnon and Matthews. In this respect, ESPN ranks them at fourth and 10th respectively.

Another couple of Oilers well-ranked

The other Oiler to make it into ESPN's top 20, is Evan Bouchard at number 13. And even though they project the blue liner to have a slight points regression in 2024-25, they still write: "Bouchard's hit (71) and blocked shot (105) totals last season are middling for a defender, but that's irrelevant when you're scoring at this pace. Bouchard is a No. 1 fantasy defender in all formats heading into the upcoming season."

We won't go over the rest of the Oilers rankings in this article, but lastly we would like to note Zach Hyman is next, at number 26. He's coming of his best season yet, finishing third in the league with a career-high 54 goals. (He also led all players in the playoffs with a salary-cap era best tally of 16 goals.)

As with Bouchard, ESPN projects Hyman to suffer a slight regression this coming season, although 48 goals would still be a damn good total for the Oilers. They write: "Hyman is a lock for high-end production given his role on Edmonton's top power-play unit, but keep in mind his 18.6 percent shooting percentage last season was his highest mark since the 2019-20 campaign. If that number regresses to the mean in 2024-25, Hyman is likely in line for closer to 40 goals than the 54 we saw in his breakout campaign."

Overall, whether it's the real world or fantasy hockey, the Oilers are well-placed with their talent stock. Of course ultimately, we trust Edmonton sport fans won't care that much about how their fantasy teams do, as long as their beloved Oilers take that last step and win the Stanley Cup this time around.

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