What is your winning draft strategy?

[Pengwin7]

This is a helluva thread.

I've been doing various forms of fantasy hockey drafts since 1986 when I did my first newspaper box pool selection.
One thing is for certain - there is NO singular strategy that applies to all pools.
So, without context of size & set-up... no point in discussing.

As broadest example:
I've seen 16-team H2H leagues with a start 1G and 3 goalie cats... that's only 16 goalies in play and if they are only collecting 3 categories - just go full-boat on skaters to win majority of categories.
I've seen 16-team Roto leagues with a start 2G and 5 goalie cats... that's 32 goalies in play and there's only 32 NHL teams - so getting starting goalies is critical because there's only a finite number of NHL goalie starts & wins.


So... this thread... yeesh.
But props to those that covered the impossibility of trying to offer some tips!

[2014olympicgold]

Ya it's very league, team, and GM dependent. For me I have a few things I try and do:

- Learn my scoring set up. This will determine if owning a certain position is needed or not. Like others have said, this inflates or deflates goalies, defense or centers values. Knowing this before setting up your draft strategy is step 1. You need this before even moving forward. Know the league settings.
- Next is know the other GMs. This is a bit harder if you're starting a league with people you don't know. But if you know other GMs tendencies you can adjust your draft based on this.
- Learn to change your strategy mid-draft. This is big and difficult to do for some. If out of nowhere there's a run of D and you know it's not worth it for you to chase, adjust. If there's a run of a position, that typically means players have dropped.
- At a certain point in the draft, go for home runs. If you constantly go safe in a draft, you can be stuck with guys who are "should I drop?" guys, and you'll be slow on the pickups. You're going to access the WW, draft knowing this. This is however dependent on league set up (limited adds/yr and such).

I know the above is more tips vs strategy, but you can't go into a season rigid. You need to be flexible, and that means having multiple roads to the championship and adapting to the speed bumps.

My normal strategy is heavy emphasis on defense, even forward keepers (try not to top load if it doesn't make sense), goalie is an afterthought. I've invested in Knight as a goalie keeper in a league and that's really only because I haven't seen a way to get someone else that has as high of a ceiling. Keeping Knight lets me have potential, but also not strap me into needing to use him. Weird thought path, but it works for me because the goalie cats in that league are weighted player strong.

But I'm in a keeper league thats weekly starts, 2G, 16 teams, points league. So you need 2 goalies. The top 15 goalies are gone by round 5. You need to invest in a goalie to have a chance. My keepers are MacKinnon and Matthews, but my first picks will need to be goalies. It's all league dependent really.

[saucelife90]

My winning draft strategy is pretty simple actually... draft the best team possible

[Stifler]

This is a helluva thread.

I've been doing various forms of fantasy hockey drafts since 1986 when I did my first newspaper box pool selection.
One thing is for certain - there is NO singular strategy that applies to all pools.
So, without context of size & set-up... no point in discussing.

As broadest example:
I've seen 16-team H2H leagues with a start 1G and 3 goalie cats... that's only 16 goalies in play and if they are only collecting 3 categories - just go full-boat on skaters to win majority of categories.
I've seen 16-team Roto leagues with a start 2G and 5 goalie cats... that's 32 goalies in play and there's only 32 NHL teams - so getting starting goalies is critical because there's only a finite number of NHL goalie starts & wins.


So... this thread... yeesh.
But props to those that covered the impossibility of trying to offer some tips!

this thread isn't meant to give tips to me on my draft strategy. It was merely a question on how you draft your winning team. what do you pay attention to when you draft. Are there certain tips/secrets you use to go about your draft. Any advice given can be used or left aside depending on what other people's league set ups are. Even if your league has different categories, I can still determine value when I apply them to my own.

[Miro The Hero]

I have been participating in Fantasy Hockey most of the years since my teen years which for me has been sometime now. I am 35 years old now, so I guess I have accumulated some experience with the draft and have tried to accommodate a style over the years. I also think that going into a draft you must first look at your leagues scoring settings before getting into what your draft strategy is going to be. Different league scoring is going to determine a different draft strategy. Most of the time for me when entering a draft, I in the 1st round always go with the best player available. Once that is completed, then I fill out my roster accordingly. If my roster is D heavy, I will usually select a D with my 2nd pick if I already did not with my 1st selection in Hedman or Makar. Then there comes a time to select the goalies. In a 2 start goalie league, I always select 2 goalies. I rarely pick one of the top goalies like Vasi or Shesterkin in the first 2 rounds. I will wait for the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th round to pick my first two goalies. Then my third goalie I will wait till like the 15th or 16th round to select that player. The rest of the draft, I will gauge how the players are being selected by the others teams and what positions are being taken off the board quickly to draft accordingly in each round. That is my strategy from year to year. It is nothing really fancy or do I have a huge amount of lists and charts sitting in front of me during draft time. It is all pretty easy for me.

[Caps Crazy]

#1. Figure out the league scoring and the best beneficial players that would work in that format.
#2. Rank players at each position and importance of where these players should be drafted within the draft.
#3. Draft a Forward, Defense, and Goalie each within the top 4 rounds.
#4. Attempt to have a well balanced team at each position by drafting players according throughout the draft.(do not overload at one position)
#5. Always have those sleeper picks for the end of the draft to fall to.

[Invictus]

I bring free drinks for all! Ensure their cups are always full and good food they will be plenty happy and love you for it!
The more fun they have - less concentrated on their picks