The best way to build a team is to choose your players based around what categories your specific league uses in its stat recording. This seems totally obvious–and to a large extent, it is–but you have to realize that a lot of less experienced managers out there do their drafting and player acquisitions based very heavily on name value. You can take advantage of this rather easily. It’s much more efficient to draft based on what types of players at whatever positions will help you the most in a relative sense. If your league categories lean more towards defensemen, for those that have specific categories for offense from D-men, then you may be better off drafting a really good D-man significantly earlier than you would in another league that has much less emphasis on D. This difference can be rather profound depending on the league settings.
To draw a clearer picture, imagine you are in a 10 team head to head league. Take a good look at the stat categories, especially the ratio of offense : goalie scoring categories. In a default Yahoo! public fantasy hockey league, the ratio is heavily skewed towards goalies with a 6:4 ratio of offense : goalie stats. Now, when you account for the total roster size and who can start on a regular rotation in your particular league, the ratio of categories should heavily weigh in on your initial drafting strategy and subsequently your everyday add/drop and also trade decisions. If you’re in a standard Yahoo! public league then you’re starting 6 forwards total, 4 D, and only 2 goalies.
When you take into account who is on your bench (most people hold extra forwards), a fantasy league like in this example puts a very high premium on goalies. Goalies account for a much higher percentage of stats recorded per player than compared to the other positions. Basically each individual goalie will count for a bigger chunk of production than each skater will individually. If you also factor in the fact that goalies are much more sparse in general around the NHL with there being only 30 potential full time starters. With stuff like injuries, platooning, and inconsistent play that affect goalie starts, you should be able to see why goalies are so important here. Basically, if you have a forward go down to injury in this league you can replace their production a LOT easier than if one of your starting goalies went down. A lot of this discussion draws many parallels to another of my articles on creating a solid fantasy hockey league.
Now, to take advantage of the situation and get the most bang for your buck, you’re going to want to draft high quality goalies early on, before they all get snatched up. The nature of the league will most likely dictate the scarcity of the players. Assuming you’re in a league with even just halfway competent managers, goalies will be highly coveted and thus will be drafted early. You yourself should get in on the action as well, before it’s too late. Don’t count on being able to trade your way out of a jam, that’s usually wishful thinking, unless you’re prepared to overpay through the roof to the point where it’s not even funny.
This is where some drafting savvy and strategy will come into play. Any type of pre-draft rank list driven autopick draft is really unpredictable with regards to getting the best team possible because too many things are out of your control and you cannot adjust as you go. A live draft is really where it’s at, for sure, and the best drafters will inevitably come out with the best rosters. There are several key factors that go into having a good draft and it starts with general knowledge of the teams and players out there; since most people have that, it will come down to secondary factors like intuition, ability to anticipate, risk management, adaptation skills and also being able to read what your opponents are thinking.
A live draft is all about calculated risks and timing, that’s why it’s so damn fun. You have to be able to anticipate your competitors moves and act accordingly and be able to adjust to “runs” on certain positions and maybe start them yourself if you so choose. Runs are a lot of times dictated by draft position so you have to be aware of your opposition and what positions they may draft based on what their pick number is. A lot of times in a typical snake draft, a manager with really close or even back to back picks will take two players of the same position.
For example, if I have the last pick in a 10 team league with a 6:4 ratio as stated earlier, unless someone like Crosby or Ovechkin falls to me at pick #10 (ridiculously improbable) I am almost guaranteed to pick two goalies back to back with my 1st and 2nd round picks. Not only does this set me up in goal with two high quality players at an important position for the league with respect to stat categories, but there may also be a “run” or at least the perception of one at the goalie position because of the two successive picks. It’s quite possible that several of the next picks for the following rounds will be goalies. In a standard snake draft you’ll be waiting a while until your 3rd and 4th round picks, but hopefully you’ll have created the perception of scarcity for the goalie position, thus having some quality skaters dropping spots so you can grab them with your later picks, where you otherwise shouldn’t have been able to.
Again, it’s crucial that categories are taken into account. Have this play heavily into your draft strategy. For another draft example, if I was to again possess the 10th pick in a 10 manager league, but in this league, the ratio is much different and skaters are more heavily emphasized, then I wouldn’t be drafting two goalies back to back. Whether or not you choose to focus on a position or if you want to go with the traditional BPA (best player available) method is up to you and the complexion of your specific draft.
You need to break down and separate every single stat to see who would help you the most. Does your league place emphasis on goals vs. assists? PIMs or specialty stats like shorthanded points? If you’re in a points-based league then the answer is cut and dry but it’s sometimes less obvious if you’re in a roto or an H2H league where a lot of categories can be discrete. Careful study of categories used in your league will yield the best strategy for drafting certain players at certain times. Sometimes it’s a good idea to grab a goon in a round over a decent offensive player purely because of the way the categories are structured.
Clearly, this isn’t meant to be a comprehensive draft guide. It is important that more people, especially the newer fantasy players out there, start taking into account basic strategies such as the ones discussed above. The better the average managers are, the better the best will have to be, and that makes it all the more fun for everyone involved.
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