2026-27 Fantasy Hockey Keeper Calculator

What the calculator is measuring

Keeper value is the gap between what a player is projected to add to your lineup and what the pick you burn on him would have added instead. Both are measured above a replacement-level starter at his position in your format and roster shape, so the answer is one number with a sign on it. Positive means the keeper is cheaper than the market; negative means he is not. Goalies are priced on the same scale as skaters, which matters, because a starting goalie kept in a late round is often the best value on the sheet and a backup kept anywhere is often the worst. A player the league board does not seat at all, one who would not start for any team in a league of your size and shape, is worth exactly zero here, and keeping him costs the pick and buys nothing.

How the pick gets its price

The pick comes first: round three from slot six of a 12-team snake draft costs pick 30, because the odd rounds run the slots in order and the even rounds run them back. Then every player with both a current draft position and a MustDraft value goes on a curve, the players within a few picks of yours are averaged with the nearest weighted heaviest, and the curve is smoothed so a later pick never costs more than an earlier one. The range around that price is half a round either side, the smallest unit a keeper rule ever moves a price by. A firm keep or let go appears only when the keeper's value clears that range; overlap is a close call, and a player carried by one projection source never gets a strong verdict, only a lean. The strip under the table shows what each round buys on the same curve, so you can see at a glance where a keeper's round sits.

The round he costs, typed or derived

The common convention in office pools is that a keeper costs the round he was drafted in last year, often one round earlier each season he is kept. Type the round you will actually forfeit and the math holds. Leave it on his draft position and the calculator charges what a fresh draft would: the round his current average draft position falls in. That reading answers a different question, whether the market agrees with the projection, and a keeper priced this way lands near zero surplus when the two agree. A player nobody is drafting yet has no draft position, so he cannot be priced until you type a round; the sheet says so rather than guessing at one.

Categories change the currency, not the method

Under the points format the value is measured in points: six for a goal, four for an assist, 0.9 for a shot, and the rest of the format's weights. Switch to categories or roto and the same player is worth his summed z-scores, how far he moves each category against the projected pool. The method does not change, the units do, and it matters for the specialists. A defenceman who blocks 180 shots and lands 200 hits carries two categories on his own and hardly registers in points, so his verdict can flip from let go to keep when you change the format chip. The category cells beside each keeper are the reason: a keeper with two deep green cells and four quiet ones is a two-category player, and whether that is worth his round depends on whether those two columns are ones you intend to win. Set the picker to your pool's real categories before you read a verdict.

Punting before you decide

A manager who has decided to concede hits should not pay for hits in a keeper. The punt toggle beside each category takes it out of every value on the sheet, the league board is re-seated on the adjusted sums, and the pick curve is refitted, so both sides of the comparison move together. A hitter kept in round ten can be a keep on the full board and a let go on a board without hits; the same toggle on the category rankings shows the same player fall the same way, because both pages read one value. Try the punt before you lock a keeper, because a keeper you cannot use in your build is a pick you spent on someone else's plan.

The goalie kept in round eight

Goalies are where hockey keeper math stops resembling football. A league that starts two goalies on twelve rosters seats 24 of them, and most clubs split the crease, so the replacement goalie is somebody's 1B. A true number one is priced against that man. If you drafted him in round eight as a platoon goalie who won the job by Christmas, keeping him at round eight is the best decision on your sheet. The reverse is sharp too: a backup who lost the job is seated in no lineup in your format, and an unseated player is worth exactly zero here. Under categories the four goalie columns are four of the ten, and a workhorse on a good club carries as much weight as a first-line winger, which the cells will show. The goalie tandem guide says who actually gets the crease.

When the answer is let him go

The classic let-go is a player kept at a price set the year he broke out, whose projection has come back to earth while the round has not. In hockey that is usually a winger who rode a first-line centre for one season and has since been moved down. When the surplus sits within a point or two of zero, the decision belongs to your roster and your league's rules rather than to a curve. Dynasty, rookie-only and auction keeper formats are outside this version. Once your keepers are locked, the printable cheat sheet ranks the rest of the pool for the slots you have left, and the mock room lets you rehearse the draft that follows.