NHL 21 has been out for about two months, and the past few weeks has given us some time to take a good hard look at the Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) market. Building a strong HUT team can take quite a bit of time, but it can pay off big dividends if done correctly. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of players that you should consider acquiring in Hockey Ultimate Team.
So, with that said, let’s go over our picks for the best HUT cards to target for December.
Left Wingers
We’ll start off with the best left wingers to target. Let’s take a look at which wingers we think are the best on the market:
- Dynamic Duos Daniel Sedin – 91 OVR
- Halloween Teuvo Teravainen – 89 OVR
- Lit vs. Grit Artemi Panarin – 89 OVR
- Kellogg’s Marian Gaborik – 89 OVR
- Kellogg’s Taylor Hall – 88 OVR
- Team of the Week Alex Ovechkin – 88 OVR
- Kellogg’s Luc Robitaille – 87 OVR
Out of all the cards listed above, we would focus on acquiring Hall and Robitaille. Both of those wingers have fantastic shootings stats, to go along with impressive skating attributes. Additionally, both Hall and Robitaille’s budget-friendly prices help out as well.
Now while all of these cards would be fantastic, the items mentioned above are also costly. Because of that, we will also go over some cheaper options that you might want to consider, should you be on a budget. So, let’s go over some cheaper options that you should take a look at:
- Dynamic Duos John LeClair – 86 OVR
- Team of the Week Jake Guentzel – 86 OVR
- Dynamic Duos Charlie Simmer – 85 OVR
- Legend Johnny Bucyk – 85 OVR
- Legend Luc Robitaile – 85 OVR
Centermen
There are many good centermen out on the market, but unfortunately, most of these players are either extremely expensive or are in sets that are tough to complete. Still, if you have the coins or the time, here are some powerful cards that should be worth the price:
- Past Meets Present Mario Lemieux – 91 OVR
- Past Meets Present Wayne Gretzky – 91 OVR
- Halloween Marcel Noebels – 90 OVR
- Winter National Jack Eichel – 90 OVR
- Winter National Leon Draisaitl – 89 OVR
- Kellogg’s Connor McDavid – 89 OVR
- Winter National Akil Thomas – 88 OVR
- Dynamic Duos Eric Lindros – 88 OVR
- Kellogg’s John Tavares – 88 OVR
- Prime Time Sidney Crosby – 88 OVR
If we had to pick one of the cards above that you should prioritize, it would be Lemieux, regardless of whether you have the regular 89 OVR version, or the Past Meets Present 91 OVR card. as #66 has arguably the two best synergies in the game (Distributor and Howitzer). Draisaitl, Thomas, and Crosby, should also be on your shortlist, as the three cards mentioned above have the coveted Distributor synergy.
If you don’t have the coins to get any of the cards above, here are some cost-effective options:
- Legend Marcel Dionne – 87 OVR
- Base Sidney Crosby – 87 OVR
- Base Connor McDavid – 87 OVR
- Legend Joe Sakic – 87 OVR
- Past Meets Present Denis Savard – 87 OVR
- Legend Mats Sundin – 86 OVR
- Base Nathan MacKinnon – 86 OVR
- Team of the Week Steven Stamkos – 86 OVR
Right Wingers
Now let’s move back to the wingers. The past couple of weeks have been kind to the wingers in NHL 21, especially when it comes to right wingers. So, let’s go over our picks for the best right wingers in HUT for this month:
- Winter National Mats Zuccarello – 92 OVR
- Winter National Jakub Voracek – 92 OVR
- Fantasy Hockey Mark Stone – 91 OVR
- Kellogg’s Jarome Iginla – 90 OVR
- Lit vs. Grit William Nylander – 89 OVR
- Legend Guy Lafleur – 88 OVR
- Team of the Week Patrick Kane – 88 OVR
- Legend Teemu Selanne – 87 OVR
Related: NHL 21: How to complete all HUT Winter National master sets
One option that you should highlight out of this bunch is Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur. Lafleur, who’s arguably the cheapest option on this list, can be obtained (albeit randomly) through the Icons sets, and his speed and scoring ability are second to none in HUT right now.
But, in case you don’t have the coins to get one of these players right now, let’s go over some other options:
- Team of the Week David Pastrnak – 86 OVR
- Base Nikita Kucherov – 86 OVR
- Legend Martin St. Louis – 86 OVR
- Dynamic Duos Dave Taylor – 85 OVR
- Legend Mike Gartner – 85 OVR
- Legend Yvan Cournoyer – 85 OVR
Defensemen
There are many high-rated defensemen circulating in HUT, thanks to the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Fantasy Hockey, and Past Meets Present promos that have dropped in recent weeks. As far as which of those cards you should take a look at (should you have the coins), here are our picks:
- Kellogg’s Drew Doughty – 91 OVR
- Dynamic Duos Roman Josi – 90 OVR
- Fantasy Hockey Cale Makar – 90 OVR
- Lit vs. Grit Miro Heiskanen – 90 OVR
- Halloween John Carlson – 89 OVR
- Past Meets Present Phil Housley – 88 OVR
- Team Of the Week Brent Burns – 87 OVR
- Prime Time Erik Karlsson – 87 OVR
- Prime Time Zach Werenski – 86 OVR
As far as other cost-effective cards go, here are some of our cheaper picks:
- Legend Ray Bourque – 87 OVR
- Legend Paul Coffey – 87 OVR
- Team of the Week Victor Hedman – 86 OVR
- Legend Chris Chelios – 86 OVR
- Team Building Larry Murphy – 85 OVR
Goalies
As we wrote back in October when we went over the best base goaltenders, overalls, for the most part, don’t really matter. When picking a goalie to roll with, you should prioritize synergy, height, and speed, but that doesn’t mean just go with a low overall goalie just to check boxes. Ideally, you will want a goalie with an overall equal or greater than 83 OVR and has all the traits mentioned previously.
So, let’s go over some goalies that you should target:
- Team of the Week Braden Holtby – 87 OVR
- Base Andrei Vasilveskiy – 86 OVR
- Legend Jacque Plante – 86 OVR
- Icons John Davidson – 85 OVR
- Icons Martin Brodeur – 85 OVR
- Base Sergei Bobrovsky – 84 OVR
- Primetime Ben Bishop – 83 OVR
