ESPN's Top 300 Players Fantasy Hockey List: Where Devils' Players Rank

ESPN ranked its Top 300 players for the upcoming fantasy hockey season.  You can view the list here.  I decided to take a look at where any Devils' players ranked.


Zach Parise- #10
Among forwards: #9
Notes:  All seems pretty fair here, considering how this is mostly going by stats.  He still cracked the Top Ten on an ESPN list.  AND he's ranked ahead of Kovy.  Crazy stuff, man, crazy stuff (yet beautiful all the same).   

Ilya Kovalchuk (possibly)- #14
Among forwards: #12
Notes: I still think it's funny that he's ranked behind Parise.  Malkin and Datsyuk (also in front of him) are obviously looking to have bounce-back years.  It looks like this list took actual insight into account.  I'm impressed.

Martin Brodeur- #30
Among goalies: #4
Notes: Ranked behind Miller (#9), Luongo (#15), and Henrik Lundqvist (#23).  Were they trying to be funny with the #30 thing?  Miller deserves to be the number one goalie on this list.  I'd even say it's fair to rank Lundqvist ahead of Brodeur.  But Luongo ahead of him?  I'm not impressed anymore.

Travis Zajac- #57
Among forwards: #41
Notes: Ranked 25 spots behind Jonathan Toews.  Here's why that bothers me:  Last season they had the same number of goals (25), and Toews had one more point than him (68, as opposed to Zajac's 67).  Zajac was a +22 and had 6 power play goals, Toews was also a +22 and had 9 power play goals.  Zajac had 4 game-winning goals and 210 shots on goal, Toews had 3 game-winning goals and 202 shots on goal.  Zajac had a shooting percentage of 11.9% and Toews had a shooting percentage of 12.4%.  It's not a joke when I tell you that they had the exact same stat line.  But somehow, Zajac is ranked 25 spots lower than Toews.

Patrik Elias- #61
Among forwards: #44
Notes: He's getting older now and has clearly been a lot more injury-prone than in earlier years.  I agree with this ranking (although he still managed an almost point-per-game average last season, even through his injuries).

Jason Arnott- #102
Among forwards: #72
Notes: Also injury-prone and most likely won't stay healty all season, so I also agree with this ranking.  He'll be re-united with Elias (most likely), and if that ends up helping him he might be a steal if he's drafted around this ranking.

Jamie Langenbrunner- #107
Among forwards: #75
Notes: I don't know if I like him this far down.  He's good for around 60 points a season, he's getting older but he's never really been riddled with injuries at any point in his career, and he'll probably stay on a line with Parise and Zajac (he'll at least be a top-six forward, I think).  If he continues to produce the same way that he has the past few seasons he might also go as a steal this low.

Andy Greene- #182
Among defensemen: #44
Notes:  Considering how he's only had one good, stand-out season, being ranked #44 out of all defensemen is pretty good.

Henrik Tallinder- #271
Among defensemen: #77
Notes:  A lot of the defensive defensemen tend to go at the bottom of the draft, which makes sense, because fantasy hockey is all about stats.  No issues with this ranking. 

David Clarkson- #286
Among forwards: #171
Notes: This ranking makes sense for the most part.  Though, I think he might surprise some people if he's actually taken this low. 

Brian Rolston- #294
Among forwards: #175
Notes: If Kovalchuk ends up re-signing, I do agree with Rolston being ranked this low, as that would mean he'd probably be out of the top-six.  Rolston is really at his best when he's playing with other top-six forwards (such as Elias), and he probably won't put up good stats on the 3rd line.