Drafting a good team to kick things off in your fantasy hockey league is something that is very important. You may drop the ball and choose a high round bust or steal valuable players late. But one of the most important things to keep in mind is to spread out your picks across the positions. Some leagues split it up to just forwards, defensemen, and goaltenders, but others get more in-depth breaking the forwards down to centers, left wings, and right wings. However your league does it, you don’t want to start your draft with four centers for example, even if it looks like that is the best choice.
Draft Strategy for 2023-24 Fantasy Hockey
Set Your Fantasy Hockey Team Up for Success
Not every league has a lot of trading, so treat the early and middle rounds of your fantasy hockey draft as if your team is being set in stone. Before you start getting into bench players, make sure that all of your starting positions are filled or just about filled. This means not drafting 2-3 extra forwards before enough defensemen are drafted.
Speaking of defensemen, there is less room for error here. Most may not be extremely valuable offensively, but this is the position where you can bolster the more defensive categories like hits, blocked shots, penalty minutes, and even ATOI, and leave the softness and skill for the forwards. It doesn’t always have to be this way, but there are fewer defensemen in the league, which means there are fewer to draft and provide value to your fantasy team.
Utilizing the Queue in the Fantasy Hockey Draft
Utilizing the queue is very important. This means you aren’t scrambling to pick a player when your time to draft comes around and end up drafting someone without much thought. This can lead to acquiring the top-ranked player, even though the rankings don’t always tell the whole truth. This can give you an extra player at a position you didn’t really need yet or need at all.
When utilizing the queue, don’t just put one player there and hope he doesn’t get drafted. There is plenty of time between draft picks most of the time. This means there are minutes at a time when you can be scrolling down the rankings and finding gems in the rough that got lost in the shuffle. It’s a great idea to look at players from every position for 5-10 picks ahead. Some other fantasy owners will be doing similar things and sometimes even waiting on the right moment to strike on someone they found later than where they should be ranked. Take Erik Karlsson for example from 2022. Because of injuries and playing for the San Jose Sharks, he was ranked very low. Look how that turned out.
Related: 4 Good Fantasy Hockey Goalies on Bad Teams Worth Drafting
Even if players are taken from your queue, by the time it’s your turn to pick, there are easy options to draft that you have already scouted and determined would be good choices for your team. Don’t be opposed to reaching down the rankings a bit. Sometimes it can be a while between picks. Be aware of that too.
Takeaways to Bring to the Draft
Remember, don’t force yourself into a bad position. You don’t always have to draft the highest-ranked player if it doesn’t suit your team’s needs. Look far ahead in the draft, there’s lots of time to do so. Envision what your team might look like if you can draft your queue. Evenly distribute your higher picks so that there are elite players at each position. The later rounds are for taking chances. Draft low-risk, high-reward players that might have breakout seasons. If they don’t pan out, the waiver wire is a great place to find value to replace them. Unless you don’t manage, your fantasy team will change from the draft throughout the year. Prepare and if you don’t have time for mock drafts, the queue and average draft position becomes even more important.