The NHL's Sophomore Class Is the Best Late-Round Value on Fantasy Hockey Boards

Fantasy hockey drafts have a reliable structural inefficiency, and it shows up every year in the same place. Managers spend picks on incoming rookies whose roles are unknown, and they skip past second-year players whose roles are already established and about to expand. With training camps roughly a month away, the 2026-27 sophomore class is where the value is hiding.

The list of candidates is deep enough that the group deserves attention as a category, not just as individual names.

Ryan Leonard is the headliner

Leonard put up a 20-goal, 45-point rookie season in Washington, which is a strong first year for a winger and an unusually stable foundation to build on. The comparison making the rounds is instructive: his rookie output was close to what Cutter Gauthier produced with Anaheim in 2024-25, and Gauthier then roughly doubled his goal total in his second season.

That is not a guarantee, and second-year leaps are not automatic. What makes Leonard a good bet rather than a hopeful one is that his production came without the deployment that typically drives scoring. Rookies who post 20 goals in secondary roles almost always see their power play time and quality of linemates improve in year two, and both of those inputs are more predictive of goal totals than shooting percentage is.

He should be drafted as a top-150 asset in standard formats, and in leagues that count shots and hits he belongs higher.

Cole Hutson and the defenseman discount

Hutson is the most underpriced player in this group, for a reason that has nothing to do with his ability. Fantasy managers apply a blanket discount to young defensemen, and it is generally correct, because most rookie blueliners take three years to become fantasy-relevant.

Hutson is not most rookie blueliners. He put up 32 points in 35 games in his second and final season at Boston University, joined Washington's lineup by mid-March, and closed the year with 10 points in 14 NHL games. A points-per-game rate near .700 in a late-season NHL audition is not a small sample curiosity. It is the strongest available indicator that a young defenseman is ready for power play responsibility.

The specific thing to watch in camp is whether he opens on the first power play unit. Defensemen who run a top unit are worth roughly double what second-unit defensemen are worth in fantasy terms, and the gap is larger than at any other position.

Anton Frondell and the Chicago question

Frondell produced 20 goals in 43 games before finishing his season in Chicago, where he added nine points in a dozen games. He profiles as the natural second scoring option behind Connor Bedard, which is a valuable place to be on a team that will need to score by committee.

The caution with Frondell is the same one that applies to any young forward on a rebuilding roster: the ice time will be there, but the linemate quality may not be. Players in that situation post inflated raw opportunity and deflated efficiency, which makes them better in leagues that reward shots and time on ice than in pure points formats.

The rest of the group

The broader sophomore class includes Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh in Calgary, along with Gabe Perreault, Igor Chernyshov, Michael Misa and Danila Yurov. Each carries a version of the same profile: a year of professional experience, a clearer role than any incoming rookie has, and a draft price set by last season's numbers rather than this season's opportunity.

Parekh in particular belongs in the same conversation as Hutson for anyone hunting offensive production from the blue line late in drafts.

The Verdexed model take

Our projections apply an explicit second-year adjustment that most public rankings do not, and it is built on a straightforward observation: the single largest year-over-year change in a young player's fantasy output comes from deployment, not development. Players who survive their rookie season and hold a roster spot almost always receive more even-strength minutes and more special teams time in year two, and those two inputs explain the majority of sophomore production gains.

The model therefore projects sophomores using their rookie per-minute rates applied to an increased minute projection, rather than simply regressing their rookie totals. That produces higher forecasts for this group than consensus rankings do, and the gap is largest for players whose rookie counting stats were modest but whose per-minute rates were strong.

Leonard, Hutson and Frondell all screen well on that basis. So does Parekh.

The market implication runs alongside it. Rookie-focused futures markets and season-long team totals both tend to be built around incoming draft picks and established stars, with second-year players occupying a blind spot. Team point totals for clubs relying on sophomore production, Washington and Chicago among them, are worth a look if the number reflects last season's results without accounting for the internal improvement coming from players already on the roster.

What to do in your draft

Three rules for the last five rounds of your fantasy hockey draft.

First, take the established sophomore over the unknown rookie every time the projections are close. Role certainty is worth more than upside at that stage of a draft, because a late-round pick that plays 14 minutes a night on the fourth line is a wasted roster spot regardless of pedigree.

Second, prioritize the second-year defensemen. The discount on that group is the most reliable market inefficiency in fantasy hockey, and Hutson and Parekh are the two names to target this year.

Third, wait for camp. Line combinations and power play units published in late September will tell you more than any preseason ranking, and the sophomores who confirm expanded roles at that point are the players who will win you the middle of your season.