It depends if you are playing a small-entry or mass-entry pool.
If you are asking for advice... you are probably thinking about "how do I get an edge over everybody else?" and you are asking because you are doing a mass-entry pool.
Generally, either league, yes, you want to pick the highest scoring players. Easier said than done.
If you look at any past playoff scoring, probably 8/10 of the top scorers are from teams that made the FINAL.
And the other two, probably the most dynamic players that lost in the Conference FINAL.
You are obviously looking for a goalie with 12-16wins, so you have to hit on one of the goalies that gets to the FINAL.
So... what's the difference between "small entry" and "mass entry".
If you are doing "small entry" pool, say 10-20 people... then simply having a good set of picks will do.
If you go EDM vs. BOS prediction, load up on those players, and those teams meet... you probably win.
You've got McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, RNH, Pastrnak, Marchand, Bergeron, Krejci, McAvoy, etc....
Fine.
[The obvious thing - whichever goalie you pick, you are probably taking 4/8 forwards and at LEAST one defense from that same team and hope they are the CUP winner with lots of goals.]
In "mass entry", 100-1000 or more teams... there's going to be 50+ people with those same key players.
So you pretty much HAVE to find that special player that should break-out that others won't pick.
Do you stay loaded with Bruins and make that final forward... Pavel Zacha?
Or... do you switch back to a strange Conference Final top scorer like... Bo Horvat.
Personally, mass entry... I never bother with the top teams.
If there's 10,000 people in the pool. I don't want to fight it out with the 1000 that picked the EDM-BOS final... or the 1000 that picked the EDM-TOR final... or the 1000 that went COL-BOS.
Then you are fighting over the what-you-did-differently... and that's just not good odds.
Like... I'll go DAL-NYI. If 10,000 people are in a pool... I'd say it's 5-20, maybe, that pick that combination for a final.
Then, if both of those teams go to final - I'm probably a top 10 team... I don't need to worry if everybody else has those players... nobody else went DAL-NYI.
That's the difference between pool size.
If you ever look at fantasy football - it's always the pros that win those "Top Place" mass-entry pools... because they know how to stack a line-up and include that one outlier that's not in the "commoners" lineup.
And the commoners win too... but they'll split it with 15 other teams that had the same top end players and that one obvious discount guy.
^Oh... if you are doing a 1-player per team draft, there are some quirks.
Issue with MacKinnon (COL) is that inside of her picks - assuming it is snake draft, one team may go Rantanen-Makar... another may go Georgiev-Nichushkin.
It's actually quite difficult to draft from the #1 spot in a playoff pool because of the wait and all the good high-end players on best teams.
Yeah - if #1 leads with MacKinnon... then they probably NEED to commit to two more Avs on their picks at 22/23.
On their 4th/5th round picks (44/45) - they could double-down on some other inferior team... Horvat/Sorokin(NYI) or Barzal/Sorokin(NYI)... maybe.
I'd definitely be loading up on THREE good players all-in on one team out of the #1 spot.
Hopefully she can draft a couple of Nichushkin/Compher/Lehkonen/D.Toews on her 2nd/3rd pick.
[If the team taking Rantanen, Georgiev, and Makar are all different teams, taking just ONE Av... then she can probably just go with two Avs... but if any of them take TWO Avs - then she needs to be "stronger"... by taking three.]
Assuming W=2pts, then Ullmark (16w=32pts) or Georgiev (16w=32pts) are pretty solid picks.
Issue with not taking a goalie out of the #1 spot... it's almost guaranteed that 5-6 best goalies go in picks 2-11, then reversing 12-21.
That's a tough, tough pick spot, #1.
Good luck - let us know how it goes.
(I apologize, on your original OP I just assumed it was a "box" type pool where you could select whoever you wanted.)
Playoff pool strategy
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