Victor Hedman

Hedman is coming off an uncharacteristically poor offensive season. He scored just nine goals and 49 points through 76 games. It was his lowest point total in a full season since the 2015-16 campaign. The 32-year-old blueliner tallied just 14 power-play points but set a new career high with 136 blocked shots. While Hedman should still maintain a top-pair spot, his ice time dropped from 25:05 to 23:43 last year while also seeing a smaller role with the man advantage. As one of the top fantasy defensemen in the league, he should rebound in 2023-24, but it's unlikely he'll get back to his point-per-game peak from the 2021-22 campaign.

His impending demise clearly massively exaggerated, Hedman bounced back this past season to the tune of 20 goals, 65 assists, and 85 points, all career-best marks. The driving force behind Hedman's bump in production was a whopping 38 points with the man advantage, five more than he had in any other past season, and a likely unsustainable number. Yet Hedman was so good a year ago that he could easily suffer a dip in production and still be a top-tier fantasy option. Hedman remains locked into a major role on one of the NHL's premier clubs. As a result, he likely deserves to be the No. 2 defender off the board in fantasy drafts this fall, behind Colorado's Cale Makar and ahead of the likes of Nashville's Roman Josi and the Rangers' Adam Fox.

Even in a "down" year based on Hedman's standards, he still scored 45 points and finished third in Norris Trophy voting. It was his fifth straight season finishing in the top-three in Norris voting but it was the first time since 2012-13 that he failed to reach the double-digit goal mark. Despite playing on a torn meniscus since the end of March, the Swedish blueliner still racked up another 18 points in 23 playoff games. Over the last five seasons, Hedman ranks third among all defensmen with 289 points. He's arguably the most reliable fantasy defensemen and he plays a huge role on one of the league's most dangerous teams making him well worth his price tag in drafts.

Hedman had a season to remember in 2019-20, totaling 11 goals, 55 assists, 22 power-play points and 155 shots in 66 regular-season games before adding 10 goals and 22 points in 25 postseason contests, leading Tampa Bay to its second Stanley Cup championship in franchise history while earning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs. The 29-year-old Swede has been one of the best fantasy options among blueliners for quite some time, and that's not going to change in 2020-21. Over the course of a full season, Hedman is a lock for double-digit goals, 40-plus assists and 20-plus power-play points, a level of production you rarely find with such a high level of consistency. There's a case to be made for a few other blueliners going ahead of him, but Hedman should be one of the first three rearguards off the board in all fantasy formats in this year's drafts.

Hedman followed up his 2018 Norris Trophy win with a nomination for the same hardware this past June. He may have finished third in voting behind Mark Giordano and Brent Burns, but his value to the Bolts only grew. Despite missing time due to injury, Hedman scored at the same pace as his Norris-winning season. He balanced his offensive and defensive gifts perfectly, knowing when to join the rush and when to fall back and shut guys down. Given the Bolts' incredible offense and power play, Hedman should easily be a top-five fantasy defender in 2019-20, and could continue to dominate for five or six more seasons. Three words: fantasy building block.

Hedman is the reigning Norris Trophy winner. He scored 17 goals and 63 points last season, leading the Bolts to within one win of the Stanley Cup Final. Hedman's skills are sublime. He has everything -- size, smarts, skill and skating. He defends better than he scores and is an absolute beast. In the thick of his prime at 27 years old, the Swede will be a dominant offensive defender and a top-rated fantasy pick for at least the next five years. Make Hedman the anchor to your blue line and he'll deliver it all.

Hedman absolutely exploded in 2016-17. He dominated offensively, picking up 72 points -- that's 17 more than his career best. He clicked with Nikita Kucherov on the power play and ended up leading all NHL blueliners in power-play production (33 points). Hedman is the complete package -- skating, scoring, defense and leadership. Those 72 points were second best from the blue line in 2016-17 and good enough for a tie for 14th overall in the NHL. Hedman's Norris Trophy nomination was well-deserved and shouldn't be his last.

Hedman is always in the right place at the right time, regardless of the zone, and he always makes the right play. Calm, cool and collected – that's Hedman to a T. He led the Bolts in helpers (37) in 2015-16 and delivered a 47-point season. And he led the team with a plus-21 rating. Hedman also delivered four goals and 14 points in 17 postseason games, and that was good enough for third place among all NHL defenders in the playoffs. The latter is a truly remarkable total considering his job against the Isles was to shut them down (and he did). John Tavares got no points in the series' last four games. Wow. The Bolts have locked up the 25-year-old Hedman for eight more years and $63 million, and that $7.875 million annual cap hit is already looking like a bargain to the team. A special note to those of you in salary cap leagues. Hedman's contract kicks in for 2017-18, so he'll toil this coming year at a measly $4.25 million. That's a huge value play come draft day, depending on your league set up.

Hedman is a beast – there’s no other way to describe him. He's got that rare combination of size, speed and smarts, and he would have been in the Conn Smythe discussion if the Bolts had taken the Cup this past spring. He was brilliant, both offensively and defensively, in the postseason. Only injury – and maybe a lack of power-play time – prevented him from being in the Norris discussion last season, too. Hedman is Chris Pronger without the snarl, so he’s not about to deliver many PIM for your squad. But he should be one of the first defenders off the board at your keeper draft, behind perhaps only Erik Karlsson, Kevin Shattenkirk and a healthy Kris Letang … especially if he gets an increase in power-play time. Yes, he really is that good. Single-year owners should target him as a top-eight defender.

Hedman came of age last season, much to the surprise of most hockey pundits -- including us. Hedman proved that can actually think the game like a stud defender and promptly delivered career numbers in goals (13), assists (42), points (55), shots on goal (170) and power-play points (14). Those 55 points put him fourth on the list of scorers from the blue line, but his power-play production didn't even crack the league's top-20 defenders. We'd like to see him deliver more with the man-advantage, but that part of his game should start to grow with a healthy Steven Stamkos in the lineup. He'll also deliver you bonus shorthanded points -- he led the NHL last season with six helpers while a man down. While it doesn't look likely that he'll ever win a Norris, he will be a great fantasy performer for the next decade. Draft accordingly.

Is the gentle giant making progress? Well, let's just say, "maybe." Hedman's 20 points in 44 games in 2012-13 would have translated into 37 points over a full season. And that would have been a career best. But there's reason to believe he won't be the 50-plus point, number one defender we thought he'd be when the Bolts drafted him. Yes, he'll block shots and lay hits, but there seems to be concerns that Hedman just doesn't think the game well. And that will be an impediment to growing his offensive game. Still, he will likely deliver 40 points, 120 hits and 150 blocked shots in 2013-14, so draft him accordingly. Just don't expect much by way of special teams production -- that part of his game just hasn't developed thus far.

Hedman is a talent. But he spent most of last season being schooled by opposing players. Those lessons started to sink in toward the end of the year and he had 10 points and an even rating in his last 13 games. That's impressive considering he finished with 23 points and a minus-9 rating on the season. He's still a bit of a gentle giant, but skating with the newly arrived Matt Carle should help take him to the next level. Are 40 points possible? He should come close, courtesy of first-unit power-play time. He'll hit 50 points in two years time.

You know the theme music from 'Jaws?' You know, the one that foreshadows an impending sense of doom? Well that's not exactly what opposing forwards hear when Hedman comes their way. He's less of a shark-like predator and more of an octopus-like smotherer. But this season, he'll finally emerge as a dominant, top-pairing, 40-point, 90-PIM defender. He's never going to be a devastating hitter but he will be a formidable shut-down specialist who can elegantly transition into attack mode with a single step and pass. And in a couple of years, his point totals will spike into the mid-50s. Keeper leaguers rejoice.

Hedman is a future star who will definitely improve on a rather weak rookie season. There were times when he appeared lost on the ice last season but there were others when he seemed like a poised 10-year vet. It's easy to forget the 6-foot-6, 220-pound behemoth is just 19 so we shouldn't expect the world. But 35 points -- or maybe 40 -- on a vastly improved Bolts squad are within reach. And of course, keeper-leaguers should be moving him to near the top of their defense lists. Those Lidstrom comps may come true some day.

It’s boom or bust this season for the best all-round prospect from the 2009 NHL Draft class. He draws comparisons to Chris Pronger but he lacks the toughness to be a true parallel. He skates like a man six inches shorter and will someday come closer to the sublime Niklas Lidstrom than the Philly bully. But this year he’s either going to deliver a stellar 35 points or a struggling 20. He’s a keeper-league must but a single-year risk.