8:07 PM
John Ray
While the NHL may be slow to change, the world of fantasy hockey has been evolving quickly. Just a few years back it seemed your only option was a rotisserie based league, which grew into head to head, auction drafts, etc. Just recently, I've started to get hooked on a new way of playing fantasy hockey: Daily Leagues. While it's no replacement for the grind, planning, trash talking, and ultimate reward of a season-long league, it does offer a great alternative with immediate benefit.
Here's how it tends to work: you go head to head with one opponent, or a room of opponents and draft a salary-based roster for one night's action. At the end of the day, stats are totaled and winner takes all. That's it. Immediate gratification.
There are a number of sites popping up that offer daily fantasy hockey. For me the best is Fantasy Factor. Most of these sites offer a few different options for hockey, along with NFL, NBA, and MLB. Perhaps the best part of sites like Fantasy Factor is that you can actually win cash every night, or play for free. When you sign up for a game, you pick what level you want to play at and who you want to play against.
As daily fantasy hockey continues to grow in popularity, fantasy players will have to change their mindset a bit when it comes to strategy. With this format, you no longer need to concern yourself with particulars, like whether Marty Turco will lose his starting job by February. All that matters is that you know who's starting tonight and who is likely to get hot.
The first strategy you need to master is identifying value in players. With a salary-based budget, it's critical to identify players who are undervalued, so you can free up cap space to spend on a guy like Malkin or Stamkos. In this format, defensemen are of little relative value, so your best bet is to spend the absolute minimum possible on this position. To start the season, guys like John Carlsson and P.K. Subban were very cheap. Their price tag is starting to rise, so you have to be watching for new cheaper options to pop up. On the forward end, some of the Flyer forwards will give a lot of value for little cost. Guys like Leino, Giroux, and Van Riemsdyk are currently undervalued.
Next, identify the 2 cheapest defensemen that have any hope of getting you points. In general, defensemen produce 1/2 as much in points as forwards, so you're wasting your money buy placing a mid to top level defenseman on your roster. One thing to look for at defense is penalty minutes. While points from the D are hard to predict, penalty minutes are more predictable.
After filling your crease and blueline, it's time to spend your money where it matters most, on offense. Start from the bottom up and identify one or two players you can tolerate at a lower pricetag. Next, add a couple of top end forwards to the mix. Finally, play around with the last couple of spots with what you have left. Once you've filled your roster, check how much cap space you have remaining. Take a look at your cheaper options one by one and see how much of an upgrade you make with what you have left.
Posted in: 
1 comments:
Fantasy hockey is a form of fantasy sport where players build a team that competes with other players who do the same, based on the statistics generated by professional hockey players or teams. The majority of fantasy hockey pools are based on the teams and players of the National Hockey League (NHL).
www.draftstreet.com
Post a Comment