Fantasy: 5 players to target on the Chicago Blackhawks

With your fantasy draft just around the corner, theScore's Ian McLaren and Darren Kritzer take a look at five players you should consider drafting this season.

Top Targets

Patrick Kane

Kane was averaging a point per game last season prior to missing the final three weeks due to injury. At that point, he was on track to set a career high in goals with 34, and would have been close to matching his personal benchmark of 88 points set in 2009-10.

According to theScore's composite rankings, Kane sits ninth among all forwards. If healthy, he possesses the ability to finish top-five in both goal scoring and total points, making him a steal if managers are able to draft him in late in the first or even early in the second round of fantasy drafts.

Duncan Keith

The beauty of the reigning Norris Trophy winner is that he's rarely called upon to shut down the opposition's top guns, as head coach Joel Quenneville entrusts Johnny Oduya and Niklas Hjalmarsson with that role. 

As such, Keith is freed up to put his offensive skills on display, resulting in a 61 point season a year ago.

According to our composite rankings, Keith is the fifth-highest defenseman, behind only Erik Karlsson, P.K. Subban and Shea Weber. While his overall production may drop off a touch, 50 points isn't out of the question, and, if he improves on a shooting percentage of three percent, his goal totals should actually rise.

Keith should be considered a number one defenseman on any fantasy team.

Jonathan Toews

The captain isn't going to blow anyone away with his offensive numbers, but what he does bring to the table is consistent production. With 440 points in 440 career games, Toews is good for 75 points for every 82 games, giving fantasy managers close to 33 goals, 42 assists and 200 shots on goal.

Toews will always come on the positive side of the old plus/minus ledger, chips in the odd penalty minute, and wins faceoffs like crazy, if you league is in to that kind of thing.

He may not be a fantasy stud per se, but he's as reliable a workhorse as you can find on draft day.

Proceed With Caution

Patrick Sharp

The other Patrick led the Blackhawks in scoring last season with 34 goals, 44 assists, 25 power play points and a whopping 313 shots, a number topped only by Alex Ovechkin. 

Since 2006-07 (and minus a down 2013), Sharp scored 208 goals in 533 games, good for an average of 32 over the course of a full 82-game season.

So why proceed with caution? At 32, Sharp is the third-oldest forward on the roster, and after fading a bit in the playoffs (five goals and five assists in 19 games), Quenneville may opt to give more time to the likes of Andrew Shaw and Brandon Saad in order to keep him Sharp fresh down the stretch.

Take A Flier On

Corey Crawford

Chicago's goalie doesn't pop off the screen as an elite fantasy option, and, to be honest, that's fair. Over the last two seasons, Crawford ranks 11th among the league's most used goalies in terms of five-on-five save percentage (.928).

The thing is, you know Crawford's win total will be high, given the fact he'll make between 55-60 starts for the Blackhawks. If he can match his numbers from 2013, where he posted a seventh-ranked five-on-five save percentage (.931) with an overall number of .926, managers could get great value from the 10th ranked goalie this season.

If you miss out on the likes of Rask, Lundqvist, Price, Bishop or Bobrovsky, Crawford's as good an option as any.