Forwards are the most important aspect of fantasy hockey teams, as they account for the vast majority of offensive stats. It's imperative to come away with a strong forward group on draft day, and one way to do so is to break the position into tiers. The best values in the draft are often the last few forwards left in a tier before a dropoff, and conversely, it's always a good time to fill a hole at another position right after a forward tier has been exhausted. Of course, the most important aspect of a tiered approach to valuing forwards is building the tiers themselves, and that's what I'll be doing below using Yahoo! average draft position (ADP) as a guide.
TIER 1 – The no-brainers
Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, Artemi Panarin, Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Patrick Kane
All of these players except Ovechkin easily exceeded a point per game last year, and Ovie came just one point shy of that mark while tying for the league lead with 48 goals. None of them come into 2021 with any injury concerns, and while many of the players in the tier below have comparable ceilings, every member of this group of established stars offers both safety and upside in spades. Eichel is the only Tier 1 member without a 40-goal or 90-point season under his belt, but the 24-year-old has 160 points over the last two seasons and will have
