Why Tomas Hertl, Luke Hughes could be hidden fantasy hockey gems in 2026-27

As NHL teams prepare for training camps, fantasy hockey fans are mapping out their player rankings as they prepare for the 2026-27 season.

Earlier this week, Daily Faceoff’s Brock Seguin released his Top 300 Fantasy Hockey Rankings for the upcoming season. While the usual names of Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov sat at the top of the list, it’s further down the board that Seguin revealed where to get the best value.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by Seguin to discuss where fantasy hockey fans can find the hidden gems in their respective drafts.

Brock Seguin: The New Jersey Devils were snake-bitten across the entire roster, last year, and I expect a lot of those guys to improve this year.

Luke Hughes was the most unlucky defenseman. Thirty-six goals below expected while on the ice last year, and that’s just outrageous. He scored below the expected on a personal level, as well. I expect the assists and goal totals to improve dramatically, even if that’s just modest lucky.

On draft day in fantasy hockey, you’re still paying a price for what they did last year, and if those numbers improve like they did last year, there’s going to be massive bargains. Luke Hughes isn’t even being drafted in a third of fantasy hockey leagues, yet I have him ranked at 26th.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Can you give us a couple of other late-round targets that you’re really high on this year?

Brock Seguin: Tomas Hertl is somebody that the data last year just absolutely loves. The center position is usually a lot deeper than on the wing, so if you go with a lot of wingers and defenders early on, you could grab someone like Hertl in the later rounds.

The only player who had more expected-goals on the power play than Herttl was Wyatt Johnston. He was pretty snake-bitten. Both Hertl and Hughes are players I would take in every single draft.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episodes here…