Unlimited Add/Drops League Strategy

[PenguinHunter]

A buddy of mine has decided to take on the commissioner role of a new league and he asked me to look over the rules. I have tried to explain to him that having unlimited add/drops is going to make it so the most active GMs will run away with the league. He has challenged me to 'prove it'. So I am taking him up on the challenge.

Basic Settings:

- 12 teams
- categories H2H league
- G, A, SOG, PPP, SHP, HITS, BlOCKS
- Wins, SV %, GAA, SO


Roster:

3 C
3 RW
3 LW
2 F
6 D
2 G

6BN

My Strategy - To fill out my forwards and goalies first (and grab a D like Burns that covers all the categories if their is great value). Later in the draft I will have a few well-rounded D but I will leave the bottom 3 D spots open until the end of the draft. I will fill my bench with forwards and a goalie.

In the last three rounds I will draft 3 D men that play on opening night. Then all year I will just keep rotating those three D out to maximize blocks and hits from those spots... ensuring that I have 3 D going every night. And these D will not be anything special... they will be the 5/6 D on teams... but they will be guys like Gubrandson, Polak, J. Johnson... that are not going to score many points but will help me with hits and blocks significantly.

My Question : Is this the best strategy... or do you see any holes it in?

[mounD]

I guess my opinion on the whole thing is: (1) you’re clearly correct that maximizing games played gives active GMs a large advantage on the fringes in formats with unlimited adds/drops, but (2) I think that it’s good to reward active managers.

[lucafen4]

i find even 4 claims a week rewards active managers & provides ample opportunity to waiver churn.
active managers also get rewarded by being able to snipe the breakout players off the wire before anyone else.

[Dr.Brad]

In 2 years in my ESPN (no keepers) league, I’ve used the 5 weekly drop/adds, changed to 4 last year, and I win at least 2 (3??) extra weeks per year just by activity. For 23 weeks - you tell me - what’s the difference between 12-11, or 15-8 ? (Ok, ok, first year with 5 adds per week I was 19-4, second year a few other managers were as active as I, and I finished 15-8.)

Your theory WILL hold up!

Brad

[LawMan]

Your buddy is an idiot but good for you for exploiting the rules.

With regards to skaters the key is to determine which stats are easily available on the waiver wire and which are not.

To that end I would focus my skater drafting exclusively on PPP and G. PPP are simply not found on the waiver wire very often and certainly not found consistently when streaming. I would outright ignore Hits and Blocks, and to a lesser extent SHP. I would treat your draft like a points only league, a guy like Patrick Kane gains a ton of value in this setup because you don't need him to put up Hits or Blocks because your 3 streaming spots x 7 nights = 21 man games of streaming will put up huge numbers.

Goalies are a different dilemma. You have 2 ratio stats 1 counting stat in Ws and another kind of counting stat in SO. I say kind of counting because obviously more starts gets you a chance at more SO but they are still fairly rare. I think my goal would be to lock down a "traditional" goalie setup of 2 quality starters. Each week I would start with an aim of winning the peripherals, however as soon as you fall behind pivot to streaming goalies every night in an effort to: secure Ws and SO as well as hail mary your way to an improvement in peripherals.

I would be interested in calculating the exact "tipping point" of when a player is worth holding vs. becoming a streaming player. i.e. your average skater will get 3.xx games per week. Your average streamer will get around 6.xx (Saturdays you will have benched players) obviously your starts are going to produce more in 3 GP then a streamer spot but at some point a streamer spot scores more. I would anticipate streaming around 6-8 spots every day would be the optimal play.

[lucafen4]

One thing I caution on this strategy.

If you stream too many roster spots too early in the season - your gig will be up and you'll see several teams start to copycat you
Smart play is to start with 1-2 spots... maybe not stream every day.
you ramp up as the season progresses & based on standings need.
by the time the NHL trade deadline hits your 1-2 spots are 3-4.
playoffs hit - 5+
it'll be too late for teams to catch up - you'll have the top 50 on the wire memorized.

[butch]

I hope theres money involved if your going to roll the sleeves up and stream often

[als_revenge]

Your theory doesn't work if 11 other people are following it...

And if the other 11 people are into fantasy hockey, and hockey in general, why wouldn't they also be streaming?

[j0hn_d0e]

A buddy of mine has decided to take on the commissioner role of a new league and he asked me to look over the rules. I have tried to explain to him that having unlimited add/drops is going to make it so the most active GMs will run away with the league. He has challenged me to 'prove it'. So I am taking him up on the challenge.

Basic Settings:

- 12 teams
- categories H2H league
- G, A, SOG, PPP, SHP, HITS, BlOCKS
- Wins, SV %, GAA, SO


Roster:

3 C
3 RW
3 LW
2 F
6 D
2 G

6BN

My Strategy - To fill out my forwards and goalies first (and grab a D like Burns that covers all the categories if their is great value). Later in the draft I will have a few well-rounded D but I will leave the bottom 3 D spots open until the end of the draft. I will fill my bench with forwards and a goalie.

In the last three rounds I will draft 3 D men that play on opening night. Then all year I will just keep rotating those three D out to maximize blocks and hits from those spots... ensuring that I have 3 D going every night. And these D will not be anything special... they will be the 5/6 D on teams... but they will be guys like Gubrandson, Polak, J. Johnson... that are not going to score many points but will help me with hits and blocks significantly.

My Question : Is this the best strategy... or do you see any holes it in?

Yeah its a great strategy if you play in a league with unlimited transactions(which im not) especially to gain on counting stats like hits and blocks is a great one. You are calling that ''rewarding GMs who are more active'' which is right in a way but at least if there is some limitation to the moves it would be better.Like 4 a week or 5 at most. More than 5 is giving some managers exactly that kind of cheap way to win a league( just my personal opinion on this. Nothing against you)Its kind of too much when someone makes 6 or 7 moves every week and take advantage of other who for some reason cant be that active.

[PenguinHunter]

thanks everyone for the help:

This is the team I ended up with

C - John Tavares
C - Mark Scheifele
C - Sean Monahan

LW - Jamie Benn
LW - Filip Forsberg
LW - Gabriel Landeskog

RW - Mikko Rantanen
RW - Claude Giroux
RW - Mike Hoffman

F - Vincent Trochek
F - Rickard Rakell

D - Brent Burns
D - Dustin Byfuglien
D - Rasmus Ristolainen
D - Ryan Pulock
D - Cody Ceci
D - Brayden McNabb

G - Marc Andre Fleury
G - Connor Hellebuyck

Bench:

Ryan Johansen
James Van Riemsdyk
Patrick Hornqvist
Kyle Palmieri
Pavel Buchnevich
Arturri Lehkonen

Ceci and McNabb were my last two picks, and I picked them because they both play opening night.

[LawMan]

Unlimited moves or not that is a solid team. Who do you have in net?

[lucafen4]

thanks everyone for the help:

This is the team I ended up with

C - John Tavares
C - Mark Scheifele
C - Sean Monahan

LW - Jamie Benn
LW - Filip Forsberg
LW - Gabriel Landeskog

RW - Mikko Rantanen
RW - Claude Giroux
RW - Mike Hoffman

F - Vincent Trochek
F - Rickard Rakell

D - Brent Burns
D - Dustin Byfuglien
D - Rasmus Ristolainen
D - Ryan Pulock
D - Cody Ceci
D - Brayden McNabb

Bench:

Ryan Johansen
James Van Riemsdyk
Patrick Hornqvist
Kyle Palmieri
Pavel Buchnevich
Arturri Lehkonen


Ceci and McNabb were my last two picks, and I picked them because they both play opening night.

Nice. That off night schedule is going to be of the utmost importance to you this year. On the off nights... there will be some F bangers much more valuable than D -- just don't get stuck on position. Take BPA when churning if it's a slow game night. Might even find a solid G - spot start a few times this season

[PenguinHunter]

Nice. That off night schedule is going to be of the utmost importance to you this year. On the off nights... there will be some F bangers much more valuable than D -- just don't get stuck on position. Take BPA when churning if it's a slow game night. Might even find a solid G - spot start a few times this season

You bet... I don't expect Lehkonen to be on my roster for very long!

[PenguinHunter]

Unlimited moves or not that is a solid team. Who do you have in net?

Thank you.

It was a really easy draft... people were passing over scorers to get hits and blocks big time.

My goalies a Hellebuyck and Fleury.

I traded 1.3 (McDavid) and my 6th and 8 for 1.12, 2.2 and 3.11.

Then I was able to trade down several more times in the draft and still get the players I wanted... I don't think the group that the commish rounded up is very experienced.

It was almost too easy... even before the unlimited moves strategy.

[j0hn_d0e]

thanks everyone for the help:

This is the team I ended up with

C - John Tavares
C - Mark Scheifele
C - Sean Monahan

LW - Jamie Benn
LW - Filip Forsberg
LW - Gabriel Landeskog

RW - Mikko Rantanen
RW - Claude Giroux
RW - Mike Hoffman

F - Vincent Trochek
F - Rickard Rakell

D - Brent Burns
D - Dustin Byfuglien
D - Rasmus Ristolainen
D - Ryan Pulock
D - Cody Ceci
D - Brayden McNabb

G - Marc Andre Fleury
G - Connor Hellebuyck

Bench:

Ryan Johansen
James Van Riemsdyk
Patrick Hornqvist
Kyle Palmieri
Pavel Buchnevich
Arturri Lehkonen

Ceci and McNabb were my last two picks, and I picked them because they both play opening night.

Thank you.

It was a really easy draft... people were passing over scorers to get hits and blocks big time.

My goalies a Hellebuyck and Fleury.

I traded 1.3 (McDavid) and my 6th and 8 for 1.12, 2.2 and 3.11.

Then I was able to trade down several more times in the draft and still get the players I wanted... I don't think the group that the commish rounded up is very experienced.

It was almost too easy... even before the unlimited moves strategy.

Great team you drafted!

bold - it makes sence why Also trading McDavid for 3 players in the first 3 round gives me the answer how you ened up with so many top players. (clap) btw how many teams are in this league?