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Crucial Fantasy Hockey Advice PDF Print E-mail
Fantasy Hockey Blog
Written by Administrator   
Thursday, 17 September 2009 12:22
You know the NHL season is about to begin when we’re worried about magic numbers in baseball, football season has just begun, and the leaves are starting to fall here in the Northeast.  With that in mind let’s take a look at a few questions that you might have this preseason in regards to your fantasy drafts.

1.    When do you draft a Goalie? 

There are quite a few things to consider here:
  • How many Goalies do you start?
  • How many teams in your league?
  • Are wins and shutouts given more weight than the other Goalie stats?

If your league only starts one goalie, than I would wait to draft one.  I would treat drafting a goalie the same way I treat drafting a quarterback in fantasy football.  I want a solid one, but I’d much rather spend my early draft picks on top wings who will fly off the board faster than take one of the best goaltenders.  Now if you’re starting two goalies that changes my thinking.  Then I would want at least one top of the line goaltenders which would force me to use my second or third round pick on a goaltender.  That being said, if you have a bottom pick in the second round and all of the goalies that you had ranked as the best are taken, I wouldn’t reach for one.  Take the next top scorer on your list and look to draft two solid goalies later on.  You always want a netminder that doesn’t have competition for the job, one who is going to play a majority of the time, and one who plays for a good team.  I am playing in a league that only has nine teams, we start two goalies, but in such a format, I will wait to draft a goalie until the middle rounds as only 18 goalies will be drafted.  On my draft list I have 12-15 goalies I wouldn’t mind having on my team, so I know I can afford to wait.  You should be doing the same thing.  Make up a list.  If you only have 6-8 goalies on your list that you want on your team, than you know you need to draft one earlier.  

2.    What to watch for in preseason? 

altWatching hockey in September can really mess with your mind.  Coaches are fiddling around with line combinations, so it can be extremely difficult to figure out who is going to play with whom.  Dany Heatley was just traded to San Jose, the first question on my mind was, who is he going to play with?  I knew Joe Thornton would line up as his Center, but the bigger question to me is will Patrick Marleau line up at wing or will he be moved to the second line?  Will Devin Setoguchi play with Marleau to even up the lines, or will he be moved to the top line to give the Sharks a power line that teams will have to game plan for.  These are questions that will need to be answered for almost every team.  The reason fantasy owners need to know this is simple.  Take Marleau for example, if he is playing on a wing with Thornton and Heatley, than his value is a top ten wing, whereas if he is centering the second line, than he is more of a top 15 Center.  That is a huge difference on where you would draft him.  How much power play time he would get is also something we need to know.  The second thing I look for in preseason is at players who were injured at the end of last season.  Are they playing?  Do they look good?  Will they start the season?  All of these questions need to be answered.  If they are going to miss time, then they would slip a little bit on your draft board.  The last thing I look for are the top rookies.  I’m not one who is a big believer in drafting a rookie, usually the hype is more than the impact they can make, but that being said, later on in my draft if I have an extra reserve spot on my team and there aren’t any players that excite me, I might take a shot at a rookies.  So I would want to see how they are playing, what line will they be playing on, and most importantly, will they make the team.  In keeper leagues of course I might draft a top rookie earlier if I think he can be a high impact player.  


3.    What to do about rookies? 

I mentioned in the paragraph above that I am not a big fan of drafting rookies.  There are very few players who are going to make an immediate impact in both the NHL and your fantasy team.  An Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, or Evgeni Malkin only come around so often.  Most rookies are going to bad teams, there is a reason these teams got the top players, it’s because there is not much talent there.  Take the New York Islanders who drafted John Tavares, the consensus number one pick and a player most scouts believe will be a perennial 40 goal scorer.  That’s all fine and good, but he’s not going to score 40 this season.  The Islanders have little in the way of offensive talent around him.  There will be a ton of pressure on him to score.  Plus he will have to get use to his teammates and the speed of the game at the NHL level.  In a keeper league is he someone to grab, of course, but in a re-draft league his value is as a reserve or someone to pluck off the waiver wire when you need a player.

4.    How will the Olympics affect the NHL and fantasy hockey? 

Besides the fact that there will be around a two week break in the middle of the season, teams will play more games in a short amount of time.  This means older players might be rested more.  Goalies may not play as many games as usual, especially if they will be playing in the Olympics.  Obviously players that are participating in the Olympics will be at further risk of injury.  I’m not sure I would adjust anything I would normally do because of the Olympics.  If I want to draft Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo in the second round, I’m not going to change my mind because he might be the starting goalie for Team Canada.  It will be in the back of my mind but in all likelihood wouldn’t make a difference to me.  I love having the NHL players in the Olympics.  I like having the best compete against the best.  Would I be upset if my first round pick tore up a knee playing for Team USA, of course, but that could’ve just as easily happened in the NHL.  Just something you have to live with.
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