Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Breakout NHL Fantasy Players

09/23/2014 at 11:28am EDT

from Pete Jensen of NHL.com,

Targeting breakout candidates in your fantasy draft can go a long way in building a championship-caliber roster. Here are five players I believe will take the jump from household name to superstar in 2014-15. Matt Cubeta's five breakout candidates can be found here.

1. Nathan MacKinnon, C/RW, Colorado Avalanche

Thanks to a monster second half (39 points over final 42 regular-season games) as a rookie, MacKinnon won the Calder Trophy in 2013-14 and took it a step further in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (10 points in seven games). He's on everyone's radar, but not high enough in Yahoo leagues. His average draft position is 35.4 (late third/early fourth round) -- way too low for a player who's moving to his natural position with a chance to exceed 80 points as a sophomore. The 19-year-old reportedly added 12-13 pounds of muscle to his blazing speed this offseason, so don't underestimate his fantasy value and room for improvement....

2. Cory Schneider, G, New Jersey Devils

Based on Schneider's stellar save percentage over the past four seasons (0.928), this 28-year-old is more than deserving of a starting role. He has weathered the storm in timeshare situations with Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur and will finally have the crease to himself for the Devils, who had the League's fewest shots on goal allowed per game and top penalty kill unit last season. There are questions surrounding his defense after the departure of Mark Fayne and Anton Volchenkov, but those vacancies mean the Devils can finally develop 'D' prospects Eric Gelinas and Adam Larsson at the NHL level. The team also added goal scorer Mike Cammalleri to fill a top-line need and is in position to contend....

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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