With 2024 officially coming to a close in a couple days, let’s take a look back at the very best in fantasy hockey for the calendar year 2024. We’ll take a look at the highest-scoring players in terms of goals, assists, shots, hits, and blocks.
These numbers will take into consideration the regular season from January to April in 2023–24 and the regular season between October and December 27 in 2024–25 to determine the very best players in each category.
Goals
| Player | Goals | Goals/Game |
|---|---|---|
| Kirill Kaprizov | 56 | 0.75 |
| Sam Reinhart | 56 | 0.68 |
| Brayden Point | 51 | 0.72 |
| Auston Matthews | 51 | 0.71 |
| Leon Draisaitl | 48 | 0.59 |
The usual suspects—Auston Matthews and Leon Draisaitl—make an appearance in the top five as expected, but it’s Kirill Kaprizov and Sam Reinhart who lead the way at the top, with 56 goals apiece since January 1, 2024. Reinhart, in particular, deserves a ton of credit. Coming into the 2023–24 season, he was an afterthought in most drafts, getting drafted in the middle rounds. Now, as we close out 2024, he’s one of the league’s premier goal scorers and an elite fantasy asset.
In terms of the best production per every appearance on the ice, Kaprizov takes the crown. His 0.75 goals per game in 2024 was tops in the league, scoring 56 goals in just 75 games. Alexander Ovechkin also deserves a mention here, sporting 39 goals in only 63 games for a 0.62 goals per game in 2024—better than Draisaitl. This season, he leads the entire NHL in goals per game at a ridiculous 0.83 with 15 goals in 18 games.
Assists
| Player | Assists | Assists/Game |
|---|---|---|
| Nikita Kucherov | 100 | 1.35 |
| Connor McDavid | 99 | 1.32 |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 96 | 1.17 |
| Quinn Hughes | 74 | 0.93 |
| Mitch Marner | 71 | 1.00 |
No surprises at the top here with Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid. Kucherov has had a remarkable 2024 and remains a top-five fantasy asset. After tying McDavid for first in the NHL with 100 assists in 2023–24, Kucherov is second in the NHL in assists per game this season with 35 in only 30 games. All said, he’s the only player in the NHL to hit the century mark for assists in 2024.
Rounding out the top five is arguably the best fantasy defenceman in the NHL in Quinn Hughes. There’s a reason Hughes was drafted as high as he was despite playing on the back end. The Vancouver Canucks captain can outproduce almost every forward in the NHL when it comes to assists, posting 74 in 2024 to beat out a plethora of elite forwards. Mitch Marner also deserves a mention here, with 71 assists in only 71 games in 2024. If it weren’t for injuries, he’d easily be fourth overall.
Shots
| Player | Shots | Shots/Game |
|---|---|---|
| Nathan MacKinnon | 385 | 4.7 |
| David Pastrnak | 352 | 4.19 |
| Brady Tkachuk | 347 | 4.18 |
| Auston Matthews | 327 | 4.54 |
| Filip Forsberg | 323 | 3.99 |
Nathan MacKinnon and Matthews are the first players to show up on multiple lists, both producing shots at an elite rate in fantasy. MacKinnon, in particular, was on another level in 2024, posting 4.7 shots per game with no one else particularly close. His 385 in only 82 games is astounding production in the shots department.
Matthews deserves a mention here with his 4.54 shots per game in 2024. If it weren’t for injury, he almost certainly would’ve been second behind MacKinnon. He currently leads the NHL in shots per game in 2024–25.
There’s a reason Brady Tkachuk is a CATS monster, and one of those is his ability to produce shots at an elite rate, trailing only MacKinnon and David Pastrnak in 2024. Shoutout Nazem Kadri as well, who ranks 11th league-wide for shots in 2024 but flies under the radar in fantasy due to his situation on a low-scoring Flames team.
Hits
| Player | Hits | Hits/Game |
|---|---|---|
| Jeremy Lauzon | 355 | 5.22 |
| Garnet Hathaway | 331 | 4.09 |
| Kiefer Sherwood | 320 | 4.64 |
| Brady Tkachuk | 310 | 3.73 |
| Luke Schenn | 283 | 3.49 |
No one can touch Jeremy Lauzon when it comes to hits. He posted a ridiculous 355 hits in 2024 in only 68 games, resulting in an absurd 5.22 hits per game. He was the only player to cross the five-hits-a-game mark in 2024.
With that said, Kiefer Sherwood may be coming for his crown sooner than later. Sherwood wasn’t a major player last season, but so far in 2024–25, he’s been on a different level. He’s already posted 200 hits in only 34 games for a wild 5.88 hits per game. For context, the next closest player in terms of hits this season has only 138. Sherwood is your odds-on favourite to earn the hits title in 2025 right now.
Once again, Tkachuk is the best player in the NHL at covering categories across the board. We already touched on him finishing top five for shots, but he also finished top five for hits at 3.73 per game in 2024. The other names on this list are grinders and depth players, but Tkachuk is a top-of-the-lineup star, and it’s what makes him such a unicorn and valuable asset in fantasy.
Blocks
| Player | Blocks | Blocks/Game |
|---|---|---|
| Colton Parayko | 219 | 2.64 |
| Chris Tanev | 216 | 2.81 |
| Moriz Seider | 209 | 2.61 |
| David Savard | 205 | 2.63 |
| MacKenzie Weegar | 194 | 2.43 |
Blocks don’t get as much attention as the other categories, but they’re still a valuable asset in fantasy, especially when players can produce them on top of other categories. Case in point, three of the five names in the top five are valuable fantasy assets in other categories, too.
Moritz Seider and MacKenzie Weegar, in particular, are high-value fantasy assets because they can contribute so many blocks while also being highly valuable players in other categories. No offence to Chris Tanev or David Savard, but producing only blocks isn’t worth much outside of a late-week stream. Alec Martinez also deserves a shoutout here, producing an NHL-best 2.84 blocks per game in 2024 across his 50 games played.
