Week Twelve of the NHL season is upon us and so it’s time to once again update our Fantasy Hockey rankings. These rankings reflect a standard ESPN.com league that uses “Goals, Assists, Plus/Minus, Average Time on Ice, Penalty Minutes, Power-play points, Shots on Goal, Wins, Save Percentage, and Goals against Average.

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Forwards:

Moving Up:

Jeff Carter- Los Angeles Kings (Last Week’s Ranking: 57, This Week: 41): The 28-year-old Carter has 17 points through 24 games — a 0.71 point-per-game rate. The pace at which the former first-round pick is producing is the best he has put forth since his age 24 through 26 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers. The native of London, Ontario is skating on the first line with Anze Kopitar and Dwight King. The big 6’4 210 pound forward has five points (including two power-play points) in his past three games.

Jeff Skinner- Carolina Hurricanes (Last Week’s Ranking: 80, This Week: 44) The 21-year-old Skinner has now potted nine goals in his past nine games and has 21 points in 23 games. Skinner, a native of Markham, Ontario is skating with Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu on Carolina’s number one line. Perhaps the most impressive breakthrough for the youngster is the fact that he is planting seeds of a two-way game. Skinner has a plus-3 rating this year after a minus-21 the year prior.

Mike Ribeiro- Phoenix Coyotes (Last Week’s Ranking: 89, This Week: 61) The 33-year-old native of Montreal, Quebec has eight points in six games in the month of December. He is a plus-2 during the month. The former second-round pick now has 28 points in 32 games. The small concern is that in four of those six games, Ribeiro skated fewer than 18 minutes, including a game against the Edmonton Oilers during which he skated 13 minutes and 51 seconds.

Reilly Smith- Boston Bruins (Last Week’s Ranking: 86, This Week: 67) The 22-year-old Smith was the secondary player in the big trade that sent Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley to the Dallas Stars. The primary player coming back for Boston was Loui Eriksson. While Eriksson has been hurt much of the year, it’s arguable that Smith, when given the same role that Eriksson was in, has been better than the 28-year-old Swedish winger. Smith has six points in his past five games (including the game against Pittsburgh on December 7th, during which Eriksson was injured in the first period) thanks to skating alongside Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. 

Moving Down:

John Tavares- New York Islanders (Last Week’s Ranking: 7, This Week: 12) Tavares is still an elite player but his shots rate and goal pace have declined since the acquisition of Thomas Vanek. That fact and his declining plus-minus rating (due to the dearth of defensive talent on that team) is why Tavares has moved to the bottom end of the elite tier.

Andrew Ladd- Winnipeg Jets (Last Week’s Ranking: 42, This Week: 51) Ladd, the captain of the Jets has just six points in his last 12 games. The 28-year-old from Maple Ridge, British Columbia set a career high with 0.96 points-per-game last season, but he has regressed this year to what he has been for most of his career. Ladd has sat around 0.60 points per game for his career — a number he is hovering around right now, with a 0.65 point-per-game mark this year.

Jiri Hudler- Calgary Flames (Last Week’s Ranking: 45, This Week: 63) The 29-year-old Czechoslovakian is skating a career high 19:10 per game, which is in accordance with his 0.91 point-per-game pace (also a career best). Hudler is still not shooting enough to be a trusted Top-50 fantasy option, but he’s got substantially more upside than any other players in his ranking range (mid 60’s).

Defense:

Moving Up:

Dan Boyle- San Jose Sharks (Last Week’s Ranking: 15, This Week: 9) The veteran defenseman has been jumping into the rush a lot lately. It has led to five points in his last three games.