Fantrax $$$ Leagues

[Pengwin7]

I know Vrbata put up good numbers last year... but I might consider waiting to see that he's still fit & top line.
If R.Strome is lining up with Tavares - I'd probably go with Strome for 2... instead of Vrbata for 2.

Nice for you to have WAS only playing 1 game.
One - because you are against TeamOV.
Two - because Nick Backstrom still a bit wonky.

I'm really tempted to "peak in" on your team occasionally - what do I have to do to get you to change & share password with me???

[dooley89]

I know Vrbata put up good numbers last year... but I might consider waiting to see that he's still fit & top line.
If R.Strome is lining up with Tavares - I'd probably go with Strome for 2... instead of Vrbata for 2.

Nice for you to have WAS only playing 1 game.
One - because you are against TeamOV.
Two - because Nick Backstrom still a bit wonky.

I'm really tempted to "peak in" on your team occasionally - what do I have to do to get you to change & share password with me???

PM

[maya has the knife]

Just joined a $250 league... yeah, I'm confident! Half these scrubs probably won't show up to the draft...

[Pengwin7]

Just joined a $250 league... yeah, I'm confident! Half these scrubs probably won't show up to the draft...

I was actually looking at that league!
Some advice I've been working on with the other guys - pick up NYR skaters with your last 4 rounds of picks.
Stepan, Brassard, Zucc, McDonagh.

These guys have five 4-game weeks in the first 8 weeks of H2H play.
It'll be a big advantage to slot in 4gp players... it also keeps them off other teams.
You only need perhaps 3 really incredible forwards and then your F4, F5 will probably be NYR forwards whenever they have a 4-gp week.
(NYR also has some 1 & 2-gp weeks... but that won't matter - it will be obvious to use your other guys that week.)

Also - Craig Anderson (OTT) is a guy I've seen going late in a lot of drafts.
OTT opens with 3 games in first 5-day H2H week.
Anderson may get all three with Hammond injured... maybe O'Connor gets one - I don't know.

If you go G/D heavy at start... value-draft some gritty/emerging forwards in 6-10 (esp. Kreider-NYR, and in 8/9/10 look to get guys like Hartnell/Lucic and especially Ryan Strome who could be this year's break-out player - but teams drafting mostly on last-year's stats won't consider him)... and nab the NYR forwards in rounds 11-16... you'll be in real good shape.

It's absolutely essential to get ONE workhorse G.
If you get a top 2 pick, I think OV/Crosby are the guys.
If not... I'd be looking to nab Karlsson if you are 3/4/5... or Price/Holtby/Lundqvist if you miss Karlsson.

I'd definitely advocate taking Buff in rounds 2 or 3.
I think he has huge value.

Good luck - let us know how it goes!!!

[butch]

2 spots left in the bronze 7pm draft.

not crazy about 45 seconds to make picks though , 90 is more reasonable if joining and kinda flying by seat of your pants

[maya has the knife]

Really excited... this is the first time I'm competing with a select few other GMs for $$$. These leagues will require a lot of attention to detail with only 192 players being drafted. Swapping out injured players or guys on cold streaks is essential to doing well. I will be taking a G with one of my first two picks depending where it falls, and probably a second with one of my next two picks (40% of the main cats are geared towards G). D are going to be relatively important, accounting for 30% of starters, but I probably won't consider any before round 5 or so. Working on getting my rankings in order now, weeding out 4700+ useless players haha.

[Pengwin7]

D are going to be relatively important, accounting for 30% of starters, but I probably won't consider any before round 5 or so.

I think that's a pretty big mistake.
Only the top 6-10 or so D put up enough stats to be justified in your line-up when only playing a 3-gp week.
And those guys will all be snapped up in the first 5 rounds.

D taken in rounds 6 and later... will not be more valuable than a 4-gp week waiver pick-up... so it feels like a waste of a round 6-10 pick.

That's just my opinion... but you do it your way and let us know how it goes.

[maya has the knife]

Would like one top d-man in the first five rounds... expecting guys like Weber, Doughty, Keith, Shattenkirk, Hedman, Byfuglien to be available in Round 4 at least. Other guys like Letang, Barrie, Klingberg, Green, Burns to be available later. Please explain otherwise, Penguin as I do value your advice!

[dooley89]

First step:
Go into the league, click players, type out the totals that players are sorted by.
I want to see how close they are to these:

590pts Price (MON) *Top Goalie
475pts Ovechkin (WAS) *Top Forward
350pts Karlsson (OTT) *Top Forward


Second:
Count down to the "fringe" player at each position. (The last counting player -or- last likely "held" player)
#24G from last year's stats (2 per team to be drafted/held)
#72F from last year (5 starters per team, but 6 will be held by each team, probably not dropped)
#48D from last year (3 starters per team, but 4 will be held by each team, probably not dropped)

I have:
#24G @ approx. 325pts
#72F @ approx. 265pts (mine are pro-rated for injured players, Fantrax should be much lower)
#48D @ approx. 180pts (mine are pro-rated for injured players, Fantrax should be much lower)


That information... creates draft strategy.
The absolute most key strategy is the "Weekly Lock"... you can't invest in time-share goalies in this league.
You gotta have a bonafide #1 workhorse for both 2G slots.


So, when deciding on a player, it's all straight subtraction (relative difference)

590pt Price is a +265 on the fringe (325pt) goalie.
475pt Ovechkin is a +210 on the fringe (265pt) forward.
350pt Karlsson is a +170 on the fringe (180pt) defenseman.

That said...
The higher-end forwards drop-off VERY fast.


The Fantrax list usually can also be sorted by "Point-Per-Game".
The value is in the defensemen... drafting them for relative difference... even though they sort "lower".

A good team is going to value-draft high relative-value D-men as late as possible.

Starting goalies is absolutely critical this year.
With all the time-shares in the NHL (CGY, DAL, DET, STL, WPG, SJ) and several just pure junk teams (CAR, TOR, BUF, ARI)... that leaves 20 solid NHL #1s.
You MUST get two of those goalies.


I would imagine that several of these $$$ guys have joined EVERY league.
Thus, getting your hands on PRABA's round-by-round list could be VERY helpful.
If possible, we should see if we can get a GM-list from praba.

As I mentioned in another thread yesterday, fantasy hockey is still a small (niche) cult group.
There will be the same BIG players over-and-over.
If you have a draft list that they were... you can also be able to predict their draft tendencies... and this will help your reach/side decisions!!!


Between praba/you... there might be some "Intangibles" value we can work in.

This should help.
Essentially with only 3D you want to make sure they are GOOD every week and that free agents arent outperforming them, if you can land 3 of Karlsson, Buff, Subban, Burns, OEL, Yandle, Letang, Doughty, Weber they will ALWAYS do better than available free agents will.

[dooley89]

Maya, how did your draft go?

[butch]

these leagues arent deep enough .

some stiffs that dont show for draft / autopik can probably win with a bit of luck

[maya has the knife]

Maya, how did your draft go?

Draft is Tuesday night. The league just filled up and it looks like I have the #1 pick... welcome, OV! The swing pick at 24/25 is gonna be interesting.

[Pengwin7]

Draft is Tuesday night. The league just filled up and it looks like I have the #1 pick... welcome, OV! The swing pick at 24/25 is gonna be interesting.

Wow - getting OV will be great.

A starting note: dooley told me that the first "week" of H2H match-ups is just the NHL WED-SUN... that's 5 NHL days and Was (OV) only has ONE game.
So even though he might get 6 points per game... you'd be better off with a 3 point-per-game player playing 3 times in those 5 days (which you'll get by late drafting one of Stepan/Brassard/Zucc).

Since you have a Tuesday draft, your line-ups will need to be set immediately - so draft a couple NYR players late.

[dooley89]

My claims for Zuccarello and Brassard went through.

Other claims by managers:
Dropped Craig Smith for Morgan Rielly
Dropped Jason Pominville for Michael Del Zotto
Moved Datsyuk to IR and picked up Andrew Shaw

[maya has the knife]

2 hours till crunch time... I'll post the results probably tomorrow, unless I'm so embarrassed that I "forget" to...