The NHL season is about to begin and fantasy hockey leagues are about to begin as well. As fans build their teams, they will be looking for quality players or sleepers, to fill out their last few selections. A sleeper is someone who could punch above their weight in terms of their draft position. Some may experience a bounce-back season, others may reach their potential. 

Those players could be the difference between a middle-of-the-road fantasy league finish or having a chance at bragging rights in your office fantasy league. Here are 5 potential fantasy league sleepers 

Pavel Zacha, Center, Boston Bruins  

With Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci both retiring this summer, they leave a massive hole up the middle in Boston. This leaves Zacha as the Bruins’ top center. The former New Jersey Devil sixth overall draft pick is finally starting to hit his stride, he’s coming off a strong season, where he notched 21 goals and 57 points playing in all 82 regular season contests. Zacha will get lots of ice time on the top line, and the top power play unit with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. That alone should see his point totals rise. 

Ivan Barbachev, Left Wing, Vegas Golden Knights 

It’s rare to see a top-line winger on a championship team be drafted in less than 30% of Yahoo Fantasy leagues, this is why Barbashev will be a strong contender for top sleeper pick heading into this season.  

Barbachev is coming off of a 16 goals and 45-point regular season while averaging 16 minutes of ice time per game. Seems underwhelming right? However, that is deceiving. Once he joined the Golden Knights on Feb. 26, he scored 13 goals and 34 points in 45 games (both regular season and playoffs) finding chemistry with Marchessault and Eichel on Vegas’ top line. A line he is going to continue to play on, which gives him more time on the PP, meaning his ice time will shoot up and with it his point totals 

Andreas Athanasiou, Left Wing, Chicago Blackhawks

Why leave a good situation? That’s the answer as to why Athanasiou signed another contract with Chicago, that and the $4.25 million per year. More importantly, he is in a great situation on the ice. Because of his speed, he is likely to play significant amounts of time with the newest NHL phenom, Connor Bedard. While it would be foolhardy to expect Anthanasiou to be a sleeper pick that can bring you a fantasy league title, a healthy season can easily net a GM 25 goals and 50 points, several of those on the PP, where some leagues provide extra points for PP goals. 

Kirby Dach, Center, Canadiens

It will be a hard decision all season long as to where Dach will line up. Will it be as a top-six center or on a line with Suzuki and Caufield who, in their short time as a trio last season, were able to light up a scoreboard. 

Dach had a career-high of 38 points last season but missed several games due to injury. However, Dach is an interesting young player. At 22 years old, he still isn’t even in his peak years and scored at a 53-point pace playing almost 19 minutes per game. That experience gave him confidence, something he was missing in his game when he was with Chicago. This may be a breakout season for the former Blackhawks’ 2019 third-overall draft pick. 

Jared McCann, Left Wing, Kraken 

McCann will slip in many drafts for the fact that he is expected to be a big regression candidate. He is coming off a 40-goal and 70-point season, yes, 40-goals. This was fueled by a massive 19% shooting percentage from a career 12.1% shooter. He will continue to get second-line ice time and will be given a shooting role on the PP so a 30-goal season is easily attainable. Based on that alone, it would be worthwhile to select him in the later rounds of your fantasy draft.