Advice for a Beginner?

[rbahensky]

Hello everybody,

I'm a bit of a beginner with the whole fantasy hockey idea and I was wondering if anybody could take a look at my team and tell me what they think. I don't want to make it seem as if I'm asking for you to make my whole team for me, so sorry about that, but if you have a tip or suggestion, I'd really appreciate it!

8-team head-to-head league where the categories are: G, A, PPG, GWG, and for goalies, W and SO.

I've generally been trying to avoid players who have high assists totals as every other team in my league is built primarily around assists. My goal is to get the other categories and beat them out where they lack strength.

My team:
F: Toews, Datsyuk, Pavelski, Nash, Neal, Filppula, Callahan, Oshie, and Jagr.
D: Weber, Timonen, Kronwall, Wideman
IR: Burns
G: Lundqvist, Quick, Crawford

I don't necessarily have any set bench players; we can change our lines every day so I simply bench whoever isn't playing that night.

Is there anybody that I should try to trade while they have value? If so, who should I try to pick up in return for them. Remember, my goal is to improve my G, PPG, and GWG. Assists have a category of their own, while Goals have three.

Some free agents that may have value: Kassian, Chris Stewart, Hodgson, Jeff Carter, Clarkson, Raymond, Ryder, Yakupov, Vrbata, Ladd?

If there are any ideas for trades, free agent pickups, or major changes, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks all!

[Pengwin7]

Hi! Welcome to the boards!

In this head-to-head league you have 6 categories, 4 for skaters, 2 for goalies.
In most weeks, shutouts will be a tie. We won't talk about that.

That means there are really 5 categories. So you are going for a 3-2 win every week.
In H2H, you have to think about winning the H2H playoffs.

This means you have to lock-down 3 categories that you can win consistently.
Here - the key ones are G,PPG,GWG.
If you get a team of really good shooters, you shouldn't lose in this league.

That means you stack your team with scorers.
As you've said... you want a team heavier on shooters than passers.

You also don't want to overvalue goalies, because in any given week... it's not a lock that your goalies are going to have a lot of wins.
I think of fantasy hockey like mutual funds.
If you have 10 skaters... you can have one or two guys have an off-week and still manage to win the skater cats.
If you have 2 starting goalies and one has an off-week, you might lose the goalie cats.
Therefore, invest in skaters.

My advice:
1. As you said, focus on goal-scorers. Try to trade Datsyuk for somebody that might score more goals, even if they are a lesser-name... like Phil Kessel or Bobby Ryan or Jordan Eberle (a personal favourite! if you can get Eberle for Datsyuk... brilliant!)

2. Move one of your goalies: Lundqvist or Quick. See if you can get a great forward as a return on your goalie!

3. Check your end-of-season H2H weeks schedule for all of your goalies. If this is a "daily" start league, you want to map out a full schedule of when your goalies play and see how many "conflicts" you have where all 3G play... but perhaps you only start 2G. You want to try to get as many goalie starts as possible in those final weeks - and sometimes getting a lesser goalie back (say Varlamov or Hiller) can be beneficial if they play on the "off-nights" to the other two goalies you keep.


As summary:
Winning H2H leagues is just about winning those playoff matches... your team doesn't have to be great, just better than whoever you play. Winning 3-2 in every match all year still amounts to a championship!

[horrorfan]

Welcome to the boards.

I don't have anything to add now, just to say that getting Pengwin to respond to your first post is a great way to begin your Dobberhockey journey. Great advice given.

Good luck.

[rbahensky]

Thank you so much Pengwin for the advice. I will surely take it into consideration and see if I can move some passers out for some higher-calibre scorers. Also, thank you horrorfan, it's always good to have an opinion backed up, and I will surely try to make some changes based on what Pengwin said.

Also, thank you Pengwin for briefing me on what I should look for, as well as not to overvalue the goalies. I'll take this into consideration!

One more thing if you don't mind, what is everyone's opinion on Rick Nash? He's on a better team than last year, he's got the linemates, but he seems to be the one putting up the assists rather than goals. Seeing as I'm aiming for G, PPG, and GWG, is Nash a good player to keep around or should I use his value to get me somebody more valuable as soon as possible? Thanks again!

[Nehithaw]

Some great advice given by Pengwin.

Nash: He is a goal scorer - It's only a few games in and things will eventually even out.

Hang onto him.