Fantasy football and fantasy baseball have been a popular hobby for many men and women over the years. Fantasy Hockey has been making a push for the third most popular sport for fantasy goers. We fantasy fanatics call them the big four for fantasy sports. Basketball being the fourth, hockey and basketball maybe interchangeable but that’s here nor there. Lets take a look at some draft strategies for Fantasy Hockey dominance.

Like all fantasy pools, know your formats you’re going to be drafting; Head to Head categories total the stats for the week in all your categories at the end of the week to win that match-up. In Head to Head points , if you gain more total points for your team for the week over your opponent you win that match-up. Secondly, the format like real hockey is Head to Head. One Win, W-L-T, still uses, same as categories, you total the number of stats for the week most stats compiled you win that match-up, your standings will be 1-0-0 for week one.

One simple example of what not to do if penalty minutes is not a stat, don’t waste a pick on a goon, but at the same time if hits and blocks are a stat you can draft a defenseman who will go in the corners and stand in front of shots like he has no fear in the world, or the 4th line guys who goes out there and just trys to take out an opposing player to stop them from making an offensive threat to score on the other team.

This one sounds weird cause lots of managers love the excitement of the first round, yes 1st overall pick is great pick Connor McDavid enough said, don’t worry so much other than that you’re still gonna get an elite scorer, possibly 85+ points and likely in the vicinity of 300 shots on goal. Now, as far as the end of the first round, if you know you are picking last and you are then picking with the first pick in the second round, grab a high scoring forward then grab the best defenseman there is you’ll have at least one top D-man and an offensive scoring threat.

It is actually the later rounds that drafting gets tricky. I’m not jumping to the later rounds just yet (when you picking a goalie?) you’re in the third round now, if nobody has taken a goalie yet, if you see Igor Shersterkin, Ilya Sorokin and maybe Connor Hellebuyck, definitely grab Igor or one of the other two.

However if you see these guys taken which would be odd for them all to be gone by the third round grab some more high scorers it can’t hurt, there will still be other goalies left; Jeremy Swayman of BOS, Juuse Saros of NSH, Jake Oettinger, DAL, or Thatcher Demko, VAN all are go to guys.

Lastly about goalies remember most leagues have 2 goalies on their roster. I do this sometimes even as a last pick most likely the goalie you picked backup is there, grab him every night you’ll be guaranteed one of those starts. Two goalies and bench goalie, remember to watch to see which goalie off the real life team is in net that night. https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/teams is a great site for line combinations and of course starting goalies.

Middle rounds is a coin toss and preference, you can alternate between your forwards and D-men, or some tend to wait on D-men and load up on scorers. Plus/Minus is an important category, If you’re on the ice when your team scores you get a plus and if your team gets scored on you’ll get a minus. This category means you should grab the players on real life good teams.

Last little bit I want to discuss is like format, its the type of league you are in. If its a keeper league, dynasty league or basic redraft league.

Keeper and dynasty leagues mean you keep players from your current rosters to carry over to the next season, and redraft means a draft that you draft just for the current season.

Draft strategies should and will be different based of the type of leagues you are in. Do not put your faith and stock in rookies and “reach” for the next big thing in Redraft leagues. Reaching means drafting too early. Redraft leagues are typically smaller rosters and more for fun. I mean fantasy sports is for fun, but some bigger and Dynasty/Keeper leagues are fun but very competitive.

Dynasty/Keeper leagues should be deeper rosters with deep benches, including NA spots (NA spots will be reserved for prospects) Dynasty leagues allow you to keep all or most of your players from season to season. Trading players and future draft picks are allowed for most or all of the year. Dynasty season never ends !!!

My DYNASTY LEAGUE draft strategy is simple and opinions vary; I do “reach” and am not afraid to reach quite a bit, we have the NA spots and deep benches for a reason, load up on the youth and stash even more youth with the NA spots, dynasty leagues are a marathon not a sprint. Do not be afraid to start slow or even not make the playoffs out of the gate. You will reap the rewards soon and for a very long time building a team that will compete for a very long time.

REDRAFT strategy, pick the sure things, why not… don’t reach for rookies and waste time waiting on them to get comfortable/ready… stream stream stream use as many moves as your league allows, especially in the points formats.

Hope you find this interesting/useful. Whatever format you play in, have fun and good luck.

Photo Credit; Adobe Stock, Last Word on Sports, Fantrax HQ,

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.