There are always those NHL players who dominate the scoring charts – the league has its stars and they impress year in and year out. So far the 2013/14 NHL season has been no different with a number of big names scoring at a torrid pace.

While there may be a group of ‘usual suspects’ atop the NHL stat lists, fantasy hockey takes different categories into account and produces a different crop of top players. Washington’s Alex Ovechkin is #1 both in official scoring AND fantasy scoring (at least in our league), but he’s a pretty obvious player. Let’s see which guys are ripping it up in fantasy hockey and hopefully you drafted some of them.

The St. Louis Blues have been 8-1-1 over their last 10 games and center David Backes has been reaping the rewards from their exceptional play. Backes is currently second in fantasy scoring to Ovechkin. He’s racked up 8 goals and 12 assists so far, but also a huge amount of shots, hits, blocked shots as well as 4 power play goals and 1 goal while shorthanded. Backes is an immensely well-rounded player and will get points because of how much he does on the ice. If he’s not on your roster – make a trade.

This might seem like déjà vu but the Phoenix Coyotes are also 8-1-1 in their past 10, and a center on their team, Martin Hanzal is also having quite the fantasy year. Hanzal has 18 points, 25 penalty minutes, 5 pp points and 57 hits on the year – this guy is getting it done for the Coyotes and helping them win. A lot.

Sometimes you get tier-2 players on teams who are playing well leading the fantasy stats, and then you have a classic fantasy conundrum: a player you’ve never heard of who is in the top 10 in overall points. That’s because of penalty minutes and blocked shots mostly, like Tampa Bay defender Radko Gudas – currently 9^th overall in scoring. Gudas has one goal and five assists, but has racked up 61 penalty minutes (!) and 43 blocked shots – two rather contradictory stats as a defenseman, but who cares – we’re trying to win a fantasy league here! If the scoring picks up for Gudas he could be a fantasy star this year.

His New York Islanders may be struggling this year, but John Tavares is having quite the season. Tavares’ 11 power play points are among the best in the entire league and 25 points and 60 shots on goal are nothing to sneeze at as well. Whatever happens to the Islanders this year, it’s safe to assume that Tavares will keep putting up big numbers.

Finally we have Brandon Dubinsky who seems to have found himself in Columbus after being traded from the New York Rangers. Dubinsky has given the Blue Jackets’ fans something to cheer for with his 15 points and 2 shorthanded goals. His team may be in last place in the Metropolitan Division, but Dubinsky has some huge numbers in fantasy and is worth some serious consideration.

Finding the right guys for your fantasy team sometimes takes place outside of the big names in the NHL, but if you target solid players on winning teams, or guys that keep scoring no matter what, you could be in for a really awesome season.