Welcome to the first-ever “Fitz’s Fantasy Corner” where I’ll give you all the tips and tricks that I know to help you bring in the wins in your fantasy hockey league. I know you’re probably thinking, “Why should I listen to this jabroni?”. Well, you’re already here so you might as well keep reading, but I’ll give you some reasons anyway.
I’ve been killing it in fantasy hockey for 6 years now. Over those 6 seasons, I’ve managed 15 teams (at least 2 per season, I’m pretty obsessed). I’ve been to 12 fantasy championships and I’ve won 8. That’s a 75% win rate when I make it to the finals and over a 50% championship win rate when I play. I’ve had one perfect season with no losses in regular-season matchups and always finish in the top 4 at the end of the regular season. I’ve managed on just about every fantasy platform there is Yahoo, ESPN, and FleaFlicker.
I’m here to tell you what’s what, even if you’ve never played fantasy before, I’ll have you be the envy of every GM in your league. The only thing I won’t help you do is to come up with a killer team name (you’re on your own with that). Feel free to send any questions you have to me on Twitter @Fitzthecoop and I’ll be sure to answer, either directly to you if it’s specific to your team or as an article if I think it can help others.
Drafting
Know The Rules: Know your league rules and scoring categories. There are all sorts of different fantasy hockey leagues: points only, bangers, keepers, roto, etc. Most leagues are slightly different. Some count +/-, faceoff wins, and PIMs, others don’t. You have to KNOW your rules to draft a good team.
Organize: Organize before your draft, you don’t just want to go off the pre-draft rankings. Make a list of your preferred players. I like to use the NHL.com stats page to sort for players that are top in different stats from the past year. I try to build my teams in a way where I’ll have the best players from the previous year mixed in with great bounce-back or breakout candidates based on my league’s scoring rules.
Watch The Schedules: Consider scheduling. Some teams play way more off nights than others (Anaheim Ducks are always good for that). If all your stars are on similar schedules, you’ll have a lot of points left useless on your bench after being forced to choose who to start. Spread your weekly schedule out so you get those Wednesday and Sunday games.
Leave The Net Open: Never draft a goalie in the first round. Don’t do it. Seriously. Goalies can be so hit or miss, not to mention, if your 1st round goalie pick gets injured, you wasted an opportunity to get an ELITE high-scoring forward/defenseman. I like to target the 3-6th rounds of the draft for my first goalie. Depending on draft position and scoring categories, you may want to grab a stud like Vasilevskiy in the 2nd round.
Don’t Be a Ryne: I don’t care if your favorite team is the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Ottawa Senators (RIP). You absolutely, positively NEVER ever try to draft as many of your favorite team’s players as you can. Ryne once drafted 6 Flyers for his fantasy team, only 3 maybe 4 were fantasy relevant. He finished dead last that year.
Line Stacking: Kind of countering rule 5, you can do TREMENDOUSLY with a proper line stack (two players on the same line from the same team). If you can get a duo like Benn/Seguin, Bergeron/Marchand, Scheifele/Wheeler/Connor, they’ll net you extra points often. But be careful not to break rule 5 and overload from one team. A pair like Toews and Kane is good on paper but they’re only really together on the PP.
General Rules
Leave a Spot Open: Depending on your weekly add/drop limitations, I suggest keeping at least one roster spot available for a streamer. I’ve won many a matchup based on getting an extra few goalie starts in during the week, even if that streamed goalie lost I still picked up some extra points. I’ve also seen quite a few waiver wire picks net hattys and win weeks.
Don’t Be Afraid to Trade: As long as you know your team/league and their tendencies, you can get great deals and steals from other managers. I shipped off Jamie Benn and Brent Burns very early in the season for Nikita Kucherov and Morgan Rielly (when other teams had played like 3-4 more games than the Lightning so Kucherov hadn’t scored much yet.) ((Ryne still hates that he accepted that trade)).
Watch The Game: It’s insane how many GMs only watch their favorite team(s) play. Try to watch as much hockey as you can to improve your knowledge of the league. You might see a guy you haven’t even heard of flying around the ice like a madman, making all the right plays, but not getting great bounces. I think Anthony Cirelli is gonna be a gem this year for the Lightning, and he’s not really a fantasy-relevant player most of the time. Even if you’re not super serious about your fantasy team, watching more hockey is fun!
Have fun: If you’re stressing out from the beginning, it’s not gonna be a fun season for you and you’ll give up midway. Fantasy hockey is a game that’s supposed to add just a bit more excitement to watching the sport we all love, don’t let it consume your life if your team is underperforming. Even if there’s money on the line, one game, one matchup doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
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