The offseason is here, and if you are sitting on your hands in your dynasty league right now, you are already losing. While the rest of your league is distracted by the NHL Draft, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and whatever chaos is unfolding in the transaction wire, the smart money is moving quietly — finding the players nobody is talking about yet, the ones roostered at 46% in Yahoo leagues when they should be at 90, the ones whose trajectories are so obvious you can see them from orbit.
Here are five players you need to add right now. Not tomorrow. Now. Go get them before your league-mates wake up.
1. Beckett Sennecke | RW | Anaheim Ducks | 46% Rostered
There is something genuinely criminal about the fact that Beckett Sennecke is sitting unrostered in 54% of Yahoo leagues. Criminal. The kind of thing that should result in a formal investigation.
Sennecke played all 82 games this season and delivered on every syllable of the hype that surrounded him when Anaheim took him third overall in 2024. He was named NHL Rookie of the Month for April after scoring seven goals and 15 points in 14 games, finished fourth in Calder Trophy voting, and had scouts across the league talking about a kid who looked more comfortable in the NHL with every passing month. He is 6-foot-3, 206 pounds, plays on a Ducks offence that is becoming one of the most dangerous young attacks in the entire Western Conference, and he did it all without missing a single game. Durability. Production. Upside. The complete package — and he is only going to get better.
This is a 20-year-old right winger who played a full 82 games in his rookie season, on a rising team, still available in more than half of all leagues. The window to get him quietly is closing fast.
Add him. Lock him in. Thank yourself in two years.
2. Will Smith | C/RW | San Jose Sharks | 68% Rostered
Let’s talk about what Macklin Celebrini’s offensive explosion means for the player skating beside him every night.
Celebrini finished the 2025-26 season with 45 goals, 70 assists and 115 points — one of the most remarkable sophomore seasons any player has had in recent memory. He led the Sharks in every offensive category by a distance. And through all of it, Will Smith was right there alongside him, quietly producing 24 goals and 35 assists for 59 points in just 69 games — second on the team in scoring despite missing 13 games to injury. His shot total jumped by 39 compared to his rookie year despite playing fewer games. His individual expected goals led the entire Sharks roster. His high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes placed him 16th in the entire NHL — ahead of Cole Caufield, ahead of Connor Bedard, just behind a list of names that includes Draisaitl, MacKinnon, and McDavid.
Smith is 21 years old. He is on the verge, as his own team’s analysts put it, of unlocking his true potential. Celebrini’s offensive gravity is going to pull defenders like a black hole, and Smith is the primary beneficiary. The Sharks are a better team next season than they were this year.
At 68% rostered there is still room on the wire in some leagues. Find it. Take it. Do not be the manager who watches this from the outside looking in.
The Celebrini effect is real. Smith is the weapon hiding in plain sight.
3. Jimmy Snuggerud | RW | St. Louis Blues | 44% Rostered
Nobody was paying attention to Jimmy Snuggerud. That is precisely the point.
While the hockey world fixated on Matthew Schaefer and Ivan Demidov and the glittering names at the top of the Calder Trophy race, Snuggerud quietly went out and scored 21 goals and 51 points in 70 games — third on the Blues in goals, tied for second in points — and finished fifth in Calder voting almost entirely without fanfare. The University of Minnesota alum was named Rookie of the Month for April, scoring seven goals and 15 points in 14 games while single-handedly keeping a struggling Blues team in the playoff conversation. Scouts rave about his puck control and hockey sense. His coach raved about his confidence. And the dynasty community has largely, inexplicably, looked the other way.
The Blues are rebuilding, yes. But Snuggerud is not a rebuilding player — he is a player on a rebuilding team, which is an entirely different thing. He already has the top-six role, the power play time, and the offensive instincts to produce regardless of the roster around him. When St. Louis gets better — and with three first-round picks in this draft, they are getting better — Snuggerud’s numbers go up, not down.
At 44% rostered, this is a free lunch. Take it before it disappears.
He flew under the radar all season. Make sure he doesn’t fly under yours.
4. Ryan Leonard | RW | Washington Capitals | 15% Rostered
Fifteen percent. Fifteen.
Ryan Leonard is rostered in fifteen percent of Yahoo leagues, and if that number does not make you physically uncomfortable, you are not paying close enough attention to what is happening in Washington. The Capitals are in the middle of the most significant transition in franchise history — the post-Ovechkin era is not coming, it is here — and Leonard is the player the organization has identified as the cornerstone of the next chapter. He came out of Boston College with 30 goals in 37 games in his sophomore season. He signed his entry-level deal and stepped directly into the Washington lineup. He scored power play goals. He threw 29 hits in 17 games. He showed the compete level of a player who was built for this moment.
RotoWire called him one of the players with the highest fantasy ceilings of any rookie in the league. Daily Faceoff noted he was coming off a massive month, scoring six goals and nine points — second among all rookies behind only Snuggerud. He is 20 years old, signed on an entry-level deal, on a team that needs him to be the guy, and available in 85% of leagues.
This is the kind of add that dynasty managers talk about for years — the buy-low moment that was so obvious in hindsight, so invisible in the moment. Leonard’s stat line is going to increase every single year from this point forward. The cost to add him right now is nothing. The cost of missing him is everything.
At 15% rostered, this is the most egregious oversight on any dynasty waiver wire in the game right now. Go get him.
5. Trevor Zegras | C | Philadelphia Flyers | 67% Rostered
Nobody who watched Trevor Zegras in Anaheim over the last three seasons could have predicted this. The talent was always there — the absurd hands, the creativity, the passing ability that made you stop whatever you were doing and rewind the clip three times just to confirm what you saw. The production was not. Injuries, a dysfunctional team environment, a roster that couldn’t support him — Zegras became one of the most frustrating what-if stories in recent hockey memory.
And then Philadelphia happened.
Zegras finished the 2025-26 season with 26 goals and a career-high 67 points in 82 games. He led the Flyers in assists. He played on a team that made the playoffs for the first time since 2020. He had more than zero postseason experience for the first time in his NHL career. The offensive player the hockey world always suspected he could be finally showed up — and he showed up in a market ready to embrace him, with a coaching staff that knew how to deploy him, and with teammates capable of finishing the plays he creates.
Zegras is 25 years old. He is in his prime. He is in a Flyers system that is only going to get better as Matvei Michkov continues to develop into one of the most terrifying offensive players in the league — because when Michkov commands the defensive attention he is going to command, Zegras is going to have more space than he has ever had in his professional career.
At 67% rostered, there is still room to get him in some leagues. The window is not wide, but it is open.
The comeback story is real. The 67-point season was not a fluke. Get in now before the price goes up.
The Bottom Line
Dynasty leagues are won in the offseason, in the quiet moments when your league-mates are not watching, when the moves that define your roster for the next three years are available for nothing more than the cost of paying attention. Sennecke, Smith, Snuggerud, Leonard, and Zegras are five players whose trajectories are pointing in exactly one direction. The only question is whether you are smart enough — or fast enough — to get there first.
The wire is open. The clock is ticking. What are you waiting for?
Roster percentages based on Yahoo Fantasy Hockey 12-team head-to-head points leagues as of June 2026. Statistics sourced from NHL.com, ESPN, RotoWire, and The Hockey News.