For the final 22 years (13 with The Hockey Information) Dobber has reviewed every group from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.
The twenty third annual assessment will seem right here on DobberHockey all through the summer season. This isn’t a assessment of the possible efficiency on the ice or within the standings, however within the realm of fantasy hockey each for the season forward in addition to the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the group carry out? Are there loads of depth choices worthy of proudly owning in keeper leagues? What about over the following two or three years? These questions are what I think about when wanting on the depth chart and the participant potential on that depth chart.
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For full group breakdowns, projections, category-specific choices, and an entire lot extra, decide up a duplicate of the 2025-26 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Information at present! Will probably be up to date all via the offseason and coaching camps, and is on the market now within the Dobber Store.
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Gone: Radek Faksa, Ryan Suter, Zach Bolduc, Nick Leddy
Incoming: Logan Mailloux, Pius Suter, Nick Bjugstad
Affect of Adjustments: For fantasy functions, not an entire lot actually modified. St. Louis’ complete top-6 ahead combine returns, or top-7 if we embody Jimmy Snuggerud, and Leddy was given bottom-pair utilization in 2024-25. Most fantasy-relevant gamers are in the identical spot they had been final 12 months.
Leddy and Suter each leaving opens a everlasting position for guys like Tyler Tucker, Matthew Kessel, and Mailloux. Tucker might be an enormous peripheral choice (100 PIMs, 100 blocks, 200 hits) if he can play a full season, so he is somebody to bear in mind for multi-cat codecs.
If there may be one huge distinction, the additions of Suter and Bjugstad make the Blues at the least three traces deep up entrance. They’ve their top-7 forwards, Suter, and Bjugstad to comprise their prime three traces and that’s excellent news for the goaltenders. It additionally provides coach Jim Montgomery numerous choices to mix-and-match up entrance, which might be a headache for fantasy managers; one recreation, Jake Neighbours is on the highest line with Robert Thomas, and the following recreation he is on the third line with Suter. It additionally lessens the lack of Bolduc and Faksa, who each had good years for the Blues in 2024-25, and permits Montgomery to experiment to discover a fourth line that works.
Prepared for Full Time: Jimmy Snuggerud
Snuggerud completed his school profession at Minnesota and performed seven common season and 7 playoff video games, totaling three targets and eight factors alongside the way in which. Within the postseason, he was the Blues’ sixth ahead by even-strength ice time share, and first by power-play ice time share. That was with Dylan Holloway injured, however Snuggerud performs the fitting aspect and Holloway the left, so a wholesome Holloway is extra of a menace for Neighbours’s EV and PPTOI than he’s to Snuggerud.
In Dobber’s newest prospect rankings, he had Snuggerud 14th within the league. He ought to preserve top-6 deployment in St. Louis and if he holds onto that priceless power-play time, he might very nicely end within the top-3 for Calder Trophy voting on the finish of the season.
Dalibor Dvorsky is one identify to observe. Proper now, St. Louis would not actually have room on the roster for him, so he could also be headed again to the AHL to start out the season. If he picks up the place he left off final 12 months and retains constructing, he will not be within the AHL all season. He might be on the Frank Nazar timeline the place he spends a pair months within the AHL earlier than shifting to the NHL in December or January.
Fantasy Outlook
There is not a first-round fantasy decide on this roster, however there may be lots of fantasy goodness. The 2025-26 Dobber Fantasy Information has the group with seven totally different 20-goal scorers (and Suter is projected for 19), three forwards projected for at the least 70 factors, and 5 defencemen projected for at the least 30 factors. There isn’t any Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, or Zach Werenski on this roster, however there are many guys value taking between picks 50-150.
How excessive the ceiling is will depend upon the play of the triumvirate of Holloway, Snuggerud, and Philip Broberg. Holloway and Broberg each had breakout seasons and Snuggerud appeared the whole lot he was billed as being in his transient NHL stint. If these three could be pretty much as good, and even higher, in 2025-26, then this roster might have a pair 30-goal scorers in Holloway and Jordan Kyrou, and several other 60-point forwards like these two, Thomas, Snuggerud, and Pavel Buchnevich. There may be additionally lots of banger worth from guys like Neighbours, Holloway, and Brayden Schenn.
The defence is a bit suspect. Broberg appears to be like like the true factor and Colton Parayko ought to be his common stellar self. After that, they want a repeat of Cam Fowler‘s resurgence, Justin Faulk‘s decline to decelerate, and the bottom-pair choices in Tucker, Kessel, and Mailloux to not get crushed. These final three names have 168 complete common season NHL video games between them, and none has greater than 90, so the third pair is totally unproven. If they do not step up, there will be lots of unhealthy minutes from this blue line. However relying on the fantasy format, they might have as many as 5 fantasy-relevant choices in Parayko, Broberg, Fowler, Faulk, and Tucker.
Jordan Binnington had a stable sufficient season with a .900 save proportion and 28 wins in 54 begins. He stays the group’s beginning goalie, however Joel Hofer has 61 appearances (55 begins) during the last two years with a .909 save proportion in that stretch. Hofer shall be a serviceable streaming goalie in 12-team fantasy leagues however ought to Binnington’s unhealthy aspect rear its head because it did in 2021-22, 2022-23, and the primary two-thirds of 2024-25, Hofer might be in line for an enormous second half. Then once more, if Binnington holds his personal, then it is possible not a lot totally different from final 12 months.
Fantasy Grade: B (final 12 months was a B-)
*For the remainder of the Offseason Fantasy Grades collection, simply click on right here.
