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2024-25 Fantasy Hockey Consensus Defensemen Rankings

We’ve all heard the saying, defense wins championships. This applies to fantasy hockey as well. Ironically, you want to draft defensemen who can generate a good amount of offense. We’re seeing plenty of that in hockey nowadays, with four defensemen scoring over 80 points this past season. With those thoughts in mind, the top hockey analysts at FantraxHQ put their heads together and hashed out their Consensus Defensemen Rankings for 2024-25 Fantasy Hockey.

I mentioned that you want defensemen who can score, and a big component of offense is power-play usage. You typically want to draft defensemen who anchor the top power-play unit for their team. More power play minutes with the best forwards will lead to more fantasy points. Our rankings take this into heavy consideration, so defensemen who have joined a new team this season, and thus will have an increase or decrease in opportunity, will be reflected in their ranking.

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I’ll go over a few examples. Mikhail Sergachev was traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Utah Hockey Club. While Sergachev won’t have talents like Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point anymore, he also doesn’t have to compete with Victor Hedman for that top power play role. It isn’t a guarantee that Sergachev will get that role in Utah either, but there is an easier path for him now.

Brandon Montour left the Florida Panthers to sign with the Seattle Kraken. Vince Dunn has been Seattle’s offensive blue liner, so will that remain the same, or will Montour get more opportunity? You can see in our rankings that it’s close between the two. Montour’s departure should also lead to better opportunities for Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling.

The Vegas Golden Knights acquired Noah Hanifin from the Calgary Flames last season. I’ll be curious to see how it plays out between Hanifin, Shea Theodore, and Alex Pietrangelo over the course of a full season. It’s a similar scenario with the Buffalo Sabres, having three quality defensemen in Rasmus Dahlin, Bowen Byram, and Owen Power. I think all three of them each have more to give in terms of fantasy production.

Cale Makar is the unanimous top-ranking defenseman. While Quinn Hughes won the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman last year, Makar’s pedigree and ability to eclipse a point-per-game over the course of his career makes it too difficult to pass on him. In saying that, I caution against drafting defensemen too high. In most leagues, it’s generally best to take a forward with your first pick. There are a number of defensemen who are capable of having great fantasy production, so don’t let the fear of missing out cause you to reach for defense too early. Just make sure that when you draft defense, that you consider how their opportunity will impact their fantasy ranking.

Meet the Rankers

In order to conserve space the table below uses the initials of the analysts. They are as follows:

BA = Brandon Altomonte – @Brandon_Alto

RC = Rob Couch – @RobCouch555

LD = Logan Doyle – @doylelb4

SL = Spencer Lazary – @SpencerLazary23

Fantasy Hockey Defensemen Rankings for 2024-25

The Defense Rankings below are based on the following scoring categories: Goals, Assists, Power Play Points, Plus/Minus, Hits, and Shots on Goal.

Cons. RnkPlayerTeamBARCLDSL
1Cale Makar COL1111
2Roman Josi NSH4232
3Quinn Hughes VAN2354
4Rasmus Dahlin BUF8429
5Evan Bouchard EDM3548
6Adam Fox NYR5675
7Victor Hedman TB6863
8Josh Morrissey WPG71096
9Noah Dobson NYI911810
10Miro Heiskanen DAL1012127
11Dougie Hamilton NJ1391213
12Charlie McAvoy BOS1171811
13Moritz Seider DET14141114
14Erik Karlsson PIT17161617
15Morgan Rielly TOR12191012
16John Carlson WSH15181715
17Mikhail Sergachev UTA16131316
18Drew Doughty LA18172018
19MacKenzie Weegar CGY20151520
20Brandon Montour SEA19202119
21Vince Dunn SEA23211623
22Devon Toews COL22302622
23Kris Letang PIT24282424
24Brent Burns CAR21313621
25Zach Werenski CBJ27351127
26Gustav Forsling FLA26222326
27Shea Theodore VGK28241428
28Mike Matheson MTL33271333
29Alex Pietrangelo VGK31321931
30Noah Hanifin VGK25233125
31Luke Hughes NJ29522229
32Brock Faber MIN35293535
33Brady Skjei NSH34333034
34Jake Sanderson OTT36362536
35Thomas Harley DAL37252937
36Shayne Gostisbehere CAR39342739
37Seth Jones CHI43263843
38Mattias Ekholm EDM30394030
39Aaron Ekblad FLA32404432
40Jakob Chychrun WSH41423240
41Filip Hronek VAN38453438
42Darnell Nurse EDM40464151
43Thomas Chabot OTT42482842
44Justin Faulk STL44373944
45Rasmus Andersson CGY57413757
46Travis Sanheim PHI53383353
47Jacob Trouba NYR54434654
48Sean Durzi UTA49504549
49Bowen Byram BUF46534846
50Neal Pionk WPG45445145
51Jaccob Slavin CAR48604848
52K'Andre Miller NYR51545442
53Hampus Lindholm BOSNR514756
54Cam Fowler ANA60495460
55Pavel Mintyukov ANA47NR4247
56Owen Power BUF52NR4952
57Lane Hutson MTL504743NR
58Brandt Clarke LA55NR5355
59Oliver Ekman-Larsson TOR58NR5258
60Dmitry Orlov CAR5957NR59
61Matt Roy WSHNRNR6050
62Cam York PHINRNR50NR
63Radko Gudas ANANR56NRNR
64Adam Larsson SEANRNR59NR
65Colton Parayko STLNR58NRNR
66Kaiden Guhle MTLNRNR58NR
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