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.

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. Rnk	Player	Team	BA	RC	LD	SL
1	Cale Makar	COL	1	1	1	1
2	Roman Josi	NSH	4	2	3	2
3	Quinn Hughes	VAN	2	3	5	4
4	Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	8	4	2	9
5	Evan Bouchard	EDM	3	5	4	8
6	Adam Fox	NYR	5	6	7	5
7	Victor Hedman	TB	6	8	6	3
8	Josh Morrissey	WPG	7	10	9	6
9	Noah Dobson	NYI	9	11	8	10
10	Miro Heiskanen	DAL	10	12	12	7
11	Dougie Hamilton	NJ	13	9	12	13
12	Charlie McAvoy	BOS	11	7	18	11
13	Moritz Seider	DET	14	14	11	14
14	Erik Karlsson	PIT	17	16	16	17
15	Morgan Rielly	TOR	12	19	10	12
16	John Carlson	WSH	15	18	17	15
17	Mikhail Sergachev	UTA	16	13	13	16
18	Drew Doughty	LA	18	17	20	18
19	MacKenzie Weegar	CGY	20	15	15	20
20	Brandon Montour	SEA	19	20	21	19
21	Vince Dunn	SEA	23	21	16	23
22	Devon Toews	COL	22	30	26	22
23	Kris Letang	PIT	24	28	24	24
24	Brent Burns	CAR	21	31	36	21
25	Zach Werenski	CBJ	27	35	11	27
26	Gustav Forsling	FLA	26	22	23	26
27	Shea Theodore	VGK	28	24	14	28
28	Mike Matheson	MTL	33	27	13	33
29	Alex Pietrangelo	VGK	31	32	19	31
30	Noah Hanifin	VGK	25	23	31	25
31	Luke Hughes	NJ	29	52	22	29
32	Brock Faber	MIN	35	29	35	35
33	Brady Skjei	NSH	34	33	30	34
34	Jake Sanderson	OTT	36	36	25	36
35	Thomas Harley	DAL	37	25	29	37
36	Shayne Gostisbehere	CAR	39	34	27	39
37	Seth Jones	CHI	43	26	38	43
38	Mattias Ekholm	EDM	30	39	40	30
39	Aaron Ekblad	FLA	32	40	44	32
40	Jakob Chychrun	WSH	41	42	32	40
41	Filip Hronek	VAN	38	45	34	38
42	Darnell Nurse	EDM	40	46	41	51
43	Thomas Chabot	OTT	42	48	28	42
44	Justin Faulk	STL	44	37	39	44
45	Rasmus Andersson	CGY	57	41	37	57
46	Travis Sanheim	PHI	53	38	33	53
47	Jacob Trouba	NYR	54	43	46	54
48	Sean Durzi	UTA	49	50	45	49
49	Bowen Byram	BUF	46	53	48	46
50	Neal Pionk	WPG	45	44	51	45
51	Jaccob Slavin	CAR	48	60	48	48
52	K'Andre Miller	NYR	51	54	54	42
53	Hampus Lindholm	BOS	NR	51	47	56
54	Cam Fowler	ANA	60	49	54	60
55	Pavel Mintyukov	ANA	47	NR	42	47
56	Owen Power	BUF	52	NR	49	52
57	Lane Hutson	MTL	50	47	43	NR
58	Brandt Clarke	LA	55	NR	53	55
59	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	TOR	58	NR	52	58
60	Dmitry Orlov	CAR	59	57	NR	59
61	Matt Roy	WSH	NR	NR	60	50
62	Cam York	PHI	NR	NR	50	NR
63	Radko Gudas	ANA	NR	56	NR	NR
64	Adam Larsson	SEA	NR	NR	59	NR
65	Colton Parayko	STL	NR	58	NR	NR
66	Kaiden Guhle	MTL	NR	NR	58	NR