The best of the best in the current forward class have cleanly set themselves apart from the rest, but the difference between elite and great, then great and good, gets blurrier the further down you go. To help you better sort through your options up front, I've separated forwards into tiers. What you'll find below is meant to be representative of each forward's expected value for 2026-27 assuming standard fantasy categories.
There's nuance within each tier, and I'll go into that while evaluating each tier below: Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon McDavid, Kucherov and MacKinnon finished first, second and third in regular-season points last year, and no other player was particularly close. On top of that, each of them surpassed the 40-goal mark. Of course, they're not just at the top of the list for having amazing 2025-26 campaigns.
Combining the past five regular seasons, they rank in the top three for league scoring, with McDavid leading the pack at an eye-popping 646 points in 387 outings. These three also represent the three most recent Hart Trophy winners among forwards (goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is the only other player to win the Hart in the past four years). They're all also still in their prime, with only Kucherov creeping towards the end of it after turning 33 in June.
Getting any of these three on your team would be an amazing starting point. Macklin Celebrini, David Pastrnak, Leon Draisaitl For each member of this trio, there is only the smallest reason to exclude them from Tier 1. Draisaitl was limited to 65 regular-season outings in 2025-26, which brought an end to his run of four straight campaigns with at least 40 goals and 100 points.
Pastrnak hit the century mark for the fourth straight campaign, but his goal scoring dipped to 29, which marked the first time he finished below 40 since 2018-19 and 30 since 2015-16, excluding the shortened 2020-21 campaign. Meanwhile, Celebrini broke out with 45 goals and 115 points in 82 outings last season, but for as much promise as he has, he's still not quite as established as McDavid, Kucherov and MacKinnon. Nevertheless, if anyone in Tier 2 ended up winning the Hart, no one would be shocked.
The risk in Tier 2 is slightly higher, but the offensive upside is comparable to Tier 1. Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Martin Necas, Jason Robertson, Kirill Kaprizov, Mikko Rantanen, Jake Guentzel, Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther If you end up having to wait until late in the first round for your opening pick, then you'll probably miss out on everyone from Tiers 1 and 2. Fortunately, there's a lot to love in Tier 3.
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