Alexander Ovechkin Top Forward in NHL Fantasy Player Rankings

It probably comes as no surprise that National Hockey League MVP Alexander Ovechkin is the top forward in the exclusive Sportstwit.com fantasy hockey player rankings for 2007-2008.

The winner of the Hart, Art Ross, and Lester B. Pearson awards last season, the 22-year-old Russian finished well ahead of center Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and winger Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames.

Detroit teammates Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg rounded out the top five.

The 2006-07 top forward, Sidney Crosby, suffered through an injury plagued season and slipped to number 30 in the annual rankings.

The Sportstwit player rankings, developed by Sportstwit editor Joe MacDonald, is a computerized ranking system that evaluates players in a number of different categories.

For forwards, the categories used are games played, goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, plus/minus, shots on goal, special team points, ice time, and points per game.

Here are the Top 100 fantasy forwards for 2007-08:

RNK	Player	Points	GP	G	A	PTS
1	Ovechkin, Alex LW WAS	83.95	82	65	47	112
2	Malkin, Evgeni C PIT	78.10	82	47	59	106
3	Iginla, Jarome RW CGY	77.44	82	50	48	98
4	Datsyuk, Pavel C DET	77.02	82	31	66	97
5	Zetterberg, Henrik LW DET	75.93	75	43	49	92
6	Thornton, Joe C SJ	72.48	82	29	67	96
7	Spezza, Jason C OTT	72.06	76	34	58	92
8	Kovalev, Alexei RW MON	71.95	82	35	49	84
9	Getzlaf, Ryan C ANA	70.52	77	24	58	82
10	Lecavalier, Vincent C TB	70.48	81	40	52	92
11	Alfredsson, Daniel RW OTT	69.79	70	40	49	89
12	Heatley, Dany RW OTT	69.43	71	41	41	82
13	Staal, Eric C CAR	68.16	82	38	44	82
14	Gaborik, Marian RW MIN	67.80	77	42	41	83
15	Sundin, Mats C TOR	67.29	74	32	46	78
16	Kovalchuk, Ilya LW ATL	67.21	79	52	35	87
17	Morrow, Brenden LW DAL	66.89	82	32	42	74
18	Richards, Mike C PHI	66.86	73	28	47	75
19	Doan, Shane RW PHO	66.40	80	28	50	78
20	Roy, Derek C BUF	66.08	78	32	49	81
21	Pominville, Jason RW BUF	65.84	82	27	53	80
22	Ribeiro, Mike C DAL	64.95	76	27	56	83
23	Savard, Marc C BOS	64.63	74	15	63	78
24	Nash, Rick LW CLB	64.53	80	38	31	69
25	St. Louis, Martin RW TB	64.13	82	25	58	83
26	Sedin, Daniel LW VAN	64.05	82	29	45	74
27	Jagr, Jaromir RW NYR	63.67	82	25	46	71
28	Arnott, Jason C NSH	63.24	79	28	44	72
29	Jokinen, Olli C PHO	62.96	82	34	37	71
30	Crosby, Sidney C PIT	62.73	53	24	48	72
31	Sedin, Henrik C VAN	62.39	82	15	61	76
32	Kopitar, Anze C LA	62.29	82	32	45	77
33	Gomez, Scott C NYR	61.89	81	16	54	70
34	Plekanec, Tomas LW MON	61.16	81	29	40	69
35	Stastny, Paul C COL	60.65	66	24	47	71
36	Sharp, Patrick C CHI	60.30	80	36	26	62
37	Parise, Zach C NJ	60.18	81	32	33	65
38	Briere, Daniel C PHI	60.08	79	31	41	72
39	Kane, Patrick RW CHI	60.01	82	21	51	72
40	Rolston, Brian C NJ	59.61	81	31	28	59
41	Backstrom, Nicklas C WAS	59.52	82	14	55	69
42	Horton, Nathan C FLA	59.51	82	27	35	62
43	Langkow, Daymond C CGY	59.48	80	30	35	65
44	Hossa, Marian RW PIT	59.46	72	29	37	66
45	Prospal, Vaclav LW TB	59.32	80	33	38	71
46	Huselius, Kristian LW CGY	59.23	81	25	41	66
47	Hemsky, Ales RW EDM	58.70	74	20	51	71
48	Dumont, J.P. RW NSH	58.57	80	29	43	72
49	Vanek, Thomas LW BUF	57.82	82	36	28	64
50	Drury, Chris C NYR	57.76	82	25	33	58
51	Sykora, Petr RW PIT	57.32	81	28	35	63
52	Sturm, Marco LW BOS	56.91	80	27	29	56
53	Kariya, Paul LW STL	56.73	82	16	49	65
54	Zherdev, Nikolai RW CLB	56.62	82	26	35	61
55	Richards, Brad C DAL	56.60	74	20	42	62
56	Michalek, Milan RW SJ	56.58	79	24	31	55
57	Bouchard, Pierre-Marc C MIN	56.49	81	13	50	63
58	Boyes, Brad C STL	56.48	82	43	22	65
59	Knuble, Mike RW PHI	56.47	82	29	26	55
60	Brown, Dustin RW LA	56.41	78	33	27	60
61	Elias, Patrik LW NJ	56.40	74	20	35	55
62	Carter, Jeff C PHI	56.37	82	29	24	53
63	Whitney, Ray LW CAR	56.31	66	25	36	61
64	Antropov, Nik C TOR	56.02	72	26	30	56
65	Perry, Corey RW ANA	55.95	70	29	25	54
66	Stillman, Cory C FLA	55.75	79	24	41	65
67	Frolov, Alexander LW LA	55.75	71	23	44	67
68	Koivu, Saku C MON	55.67	77	16	40	56
69	Malone, Ryan LW TB	55.50	77	27	24	51
70	Gionta, Brian RW NJ	55.38	82	22	31	53
71	Vrbata, Radim RW TB	55.22	76	27	29	56
72	Kozlov, Viktor C WAS	55.13	81	16	38	54
73	Modano, Mike C DAL	54.83	82	21	36	57
74	Higgins, Christopher C MON	54.61	82	27	25	52
75	Tanguay, Alex LW MON	54.58	78	18	40	58
76	Tkachuk, Keith LW STL	54.41	79	27	31	58
77	Cole, Erik LW EDM	54.26	73	22	29	51
78	Hejduk, Milan RW COL	54.24	77	29	25	54
79	Naslund, Markus LW VAN	54.23	82	25	30	55
80	Toews, Jonathan C CHI	54.22	64	24	30	54
81	Lang, Robert C CHI	53.84	76	21	33	54
82	Blake, Jason LW TOR	53.44	82	15	37	52
83	Kunitz, Chris LW ANA	53.31	82	21	29	50
84	Vermette, Antoine LW OTT	52.69	81	24	29	53
85	Erat, Martin LW NSH	52.48	76	23	34	57
86	Radulov, Alexander RW NSH	52.33	81	26	32	58
87	Kostitsyn, Andrei RW MON	52.26	78	26	27	53
88	O'Sullivan, Patrick C LA	52.10	82	22	31	53
89	Brind'Amour, Rod C CAR	52.03	59	19	32	51
90	Shanahan, Brendan LW NYR	52.01	73	23	23	46
91	Mueller, Peter C PHO	51.96	81	22	32	54
92	Brunette, Andrew LW MIN	51.91	82	19	40	59
93	Hartnell, Scott LW PHI	51.78	80	24	19	43
94	Demitra, Pavol C MIN	51.71	68	15	39	54
95	Comrie, Mike C NYI	51.13	76	21	28	49
96	Fisher, Mike C OTT	50.96	79	23	24	47
97	Hecht, Jochen LW BUF	50.83	75	22	27	49
98	Penner, Dustin RW EDM	50.49	82	23	24	47
99	Umberger, R.J. C CLB	50.36	74	13	37	50
100	Horcoff, Shawn C EDM	50.35	53	21	29	50

In part two of our three part series, we'll have a look at the Top 100 defensemen.