We are a little over one week away from the beginning of the 2019/2020 regular season, which means that you likely have a draft for your fantasy league coming up this week! Before you draft, you may want to check this article and ensure that you're dragging some of the players listed below into your draft queue if you're hoping to nab a couple of steals and sleepers!
It's safe to say that the top 10 rounds are fairly easy to draft, but rounds 11- on can be a bit of a challenge, as you start to focus more on filling positional holes on your roster rather than picking the best player available on the draft board.
After completing 10 mock drafts (for a 10 player league), I have gone over the draft lists to find the most common steals and sleepers that you may be able to nab in the middle rounds of your draft. I'll give my opinion on some possible under-the-radar steals as well.
Spoiler alert: If you were hoping to get Rantanen, Point, Tkachuk, Connor or Laine late, don't count on it. Only Kyle Connor made it past round 6 (10th round). The rest of the above-mentioned players left the board by round 5 in each of the 10 mock-drafts.
William Nylander - RW
Willie had a tough go last year, following contract negotiations that had Nylander on the sidelines until December. As a result of missing training camp and the first third of the season, Nylander's performance was lacklustre at best. Given Nylander's history, prior to last season, of having great chemistry with Auston Matthews and the knowledge that Willie will be flanking Matthews this season, you can count on a huge bounceback season for Nylander. Possibly even a career year. I was able to grab Nylander to fill a RW spot in round 12 (4 times out of 10) and round 11 (3 times out of 10), giving you a 70% chance of having the young Swede available after the 10th round.
Teuvo Teravainen - RW/LW
I don't know why Teravainen is even on this list. He scored 76 points on a very good Carolina Hurricanes last season, and with the youth and skill on that team, they're only going to get better. Surprisingly, I was able to draft Teravainen in the 12th round (4 times), the 13th round (twice) and the 14th(!!) round (once). Even with a regression down to 70 points, that's about as big a steal as you're going to get in the middle of the draft. At a 70% chance that he's available in the 12th round, this isn't even a gamble. This is a no-brainer.
Mathew Barzal - C
I realize that there are a lot of quality centremen in the NHL, but I should NOT have been able to get Mathew Barzal so late in these drafts as many times as I did. The 22-year-old Barzal did have a bit of a sophomore slump last season with 62 points in 82 games, down from the 85 he scored in his rookie campaign, but the Islanders are not a bad team and the Coquitlam, BC native is one of the most dynamic young pivots in the league and stands a pretty good chance of bouncing back this season. Surprisingly, Barzal was available 4 times in the 13th round, twice in the 14th round and twice in the 15th round!! With an 80% chance that he is available at round 13, you should feel comfortable enough to leave a C spot open and select a high caliber goalie, winger or defenseman earlier in the draft with this 80+ point caliber centreman available so late.
Travis Konecny - RW
The Philedelphia Flyers are poised for a big year this year and the newly-signed Travis Konecny should be a big reason why. Konecny has steadily improved every season and is coming into his 4th year in the National Hockey League. The one draw-back is that Konecny has not had a lot of powerplay time over his first 3 years in the league. With Kevin Hayes in the fold, Konecny should line up to his right on the 2nd PP unit, which may help increase his point totals to around 55-65. Considering he was available in the 16th round 6 out of 10 times, I think that gives him plenty of potential to be a great late pickup. The feisty winger also contributes around 40-50 PIMs and averages about 85 hits per season which should give the winger some added value if your league includes these stat categories.
Josh Morrissey - D
This one is really surprising to me. Josh Morrissey is going to be the beneficiary of the mass exodus that the Jets' blueline experienced this offseason. Morrissey was always a talented young defenseman, but with Trouba and Buff eating up all the powerplay time, Morrissey didn't really stand a chance of producing like a #1 or #2 dman. With Trouba gone to the Rangers and Byfuglien's future up in the air, there will be no shortage of ice time in all situations for the 24-year-old Morrissey, who enjoyed a breakout season last year, scoring 31 points in 59 games. It may surprise you to know that Morrissey was available in the 15th round a whopping 8/10 times.
Since these mock drafts don't go beyond round 16, I can't accurately predict how rounds 17-22 could look, but I will include some names to target in the later rounds of your draft:
Nikolaj Ehlers (LW/RW)
Mikhail Sergachev (D)
Jake DeBrusk (LW/RW)
Alex Galchenyuk (C/LW)
Andrea's Johnsson (LW/RW)
Samuel Girard (D)
Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C)
Vitali Kravtsov (RW)
Nikita Gusev (LW)
Jonathan Drouin (C)
Colin White (C/RW)
Pierre-Luc Dubois (C/LW)
