New York Rangers: Are any players viable for fantasy hockey?

The New York Rangers figure to be amongst the league’s worst teams for the 2018-2019 season. Although the team’s record may be poor, the Rangers will feature a handful of interesting players for fantasy hockey.

In the heart of the hype for the buildup to fantasy football season, it’s time to fast forward an extra month ahead. Most fantasy hockey leagues won’t draft until mid September at the earliest, but it is never too early to start preparation. As a team that figures to create a ton of chances and give up just as many, the New York Rangers figure to be a team filled with potential bargain bin players for fantasy.

In the realm of fantasy sports, the goal is always targeting the lowest floor of a potential draft pick. Meaning that whatever a player’s worst case scenario for an entire season needs to be salvageable if a pick is used on them. So, for example, if Mika Zibanejad plays an entire season but for whatever reason doesn’t play up to his ability, he will likely scrape out 40 points. This is an extremely low level of production for a fantasy draft pick, and would likely force Zibanejad to the waiver wire as better players would be available on the waiver wire.

A unique feature of bad teams is their ability to produce quality fantasy players. Typically on the very bad teams, a big fish rises to the top of the small pond to produce at a high level at the expense of those around them. The New York Rangers are in a weird spot where their forwards will be decent but the defense will be a problem.

The Rangers always produce a handful of viable fantasy players to fill out the end of a roster or occupy bench spots. There are no Rangers worth a high round draft pick, but there are certainly candidates for roster spots.