Best Draft Strategies

[Tim]

I thought I'd start this up as we are getting closer to fantasy hockey season and people begin to plan for their league.

What strategy do you use when drafting? Like which position do you take first and which do you wait on until later? From what I've seen the most popular way of drafting is taking a couple of elite forwards first, then a goalie, then defenseman. I've always used this strategy too, but really haven't been that successful with it. I've noticed that in almost all of my leagues every year the winner is somebody with an elite goaltender, above average defense, and decent forwards. Normally their forward group isn't that amazing but it's capable of going on huge hot streaks. So I'd just like to see how everyone else goes about their draft and the results they've gotten.

[UK Rob]

Trying to steal all of our plans before the draft eh?

[Mike]

trying to steal all of our plans before the draft eh?

hahahahaha

[Mike]

What strategy do you use when drafting?

It can vary for me depending on scoring systems, but I normally look to get elite goalies up front. Definitely one in the first round, sometimes a 2nd in the second round (depending on which pick I have). I feel more confident finding good forwards after round 2 than I do finding goalies.

For example, I feel that everyone last year would have likely had the same list of Top 5-6 goalies (more or less), so I find that to be a harder position to get who I want/need. Whereas with forwards, I had very different opinions of who worked best for my team last year (didn't aim high for Corey Perry, but knew I wanted David Backes).

[internalprime8]

Another thing to consider is when to draft centers. It seems like their are disproportionately more elite centers than wingers and some wingers have dual eligibility. I will sometimes consider drafting a lower rated winger above a higher rated center because of the steep drop-off in stats for that position compared to centers. I find there are more quality centers left in the later rounds that are not all that far behind the ones picked earlier.

Certainly not a sure-fire rule but always one extra thing to consider when you are picking.

[Tim]

Trying to steal all of our plans before the draft eh?

You caught me lmao

[UK Rob]

It can vary for me depending on scoring systems, but I normally look to get elite goalies up front. Definitely one in the first round, sometimes a 2nd in the second round (depending on which pick I have). I feel more confident finding good forwards after round 2 than I do finding goalies.

For example, I feel that everyone last year would have likely had the same list of Top 5-6 goalies (more or less), so I find that to be a harder position to get who I want/need. Whereas with forwards, I had very different opinions of who worked best for my team last year (didn't aim high for Corey Perry, but knew I wanted David Backes).

My drafting strategy is pretty similar to Mike's. I missed last year's draft but the 2 years before that I locked up Lundqvist with my 1st pick at around #5 and then watched the other picks to see who I could pick up of the highest value to my team at the time. Drafting 2 elite goalies is probably not going to happen too often unless the league is pretty poor but it's possible to pick up 1 elite goalie and another starter who could run you through the whole season.

I also like to draft young players in late rounds who might have some potential should bigger players go down to injuries. That strategy has served me really well in the past but I'm not mentioning who I drafted.

[Tim]

Yeah I think I'm gonna go goalie first this year unless I get one of the top 3 picks or so. Varies by league of course

[flubber]

Yeah I think I'm gonna go goalie first this year unless I get one of the top 3 picks or so. Varies by league of course

I find it varies by draft position and league size. IN a shallow small league you may be able to afford to wait on goalies while in a deep large one it can be fatal.

BUt my strategy is always the same regardless in that I try to identify players that I value more highly than the pundits rankings and grab players at of before the conventional wisdom position . IF I draft someone has less to do with position and more to do about whom from my wish list I expect might be available . Oe draft last year it worked beautifully and I got almost everyone I wanted and romped to first . THree days later with similar settings in a different league, it seemed EVERBODY i wanted was going 4 to 6 picks before my pick. I felt like I was off rythym with the draft the whole time and wasn't surprised that the team faltered

I also do value wingers over centres due to positional scarcity and make the often incorrect assumption that I can find a late round dman steal


Last year though I didn't do any "new" drafts though -- They were all keeper teams-- two I took over as a replacement pre draftand 1 was my continuing keeper. So all my strategizingwas really only good for rounds starting at 4, 9 and 13 respectively

[Flames89Champs]

I agree.. it all depends on what someone thinks is important.. I usually go for a goalie within the first 3 rounds... depending on what pick I'm at. If I have first pick.. I take the best player available... if I have last... I take a goalie or forward.