Win Your Fantasy Hockey Playoff Pool
If you are entering a fantasy hockey playoff pool for the first time, or an annual office pool you need to approach choosing your players in a much different manner than you would for a regular season pool. Simply drafting the highest scoring player in each box, or round is a sure fire recipe for failure. To win in the playoffs you need a different strategy and this guide holds the keys to help you reign victorious over the competition.
The trouble with choosing the best or highest scoring player from the regular season that is available is if that player only plays in one round between four and seven games, then the overall amount of points they will be able to contribute is limited.
For example, if you have to choose players from a box and your options are Johnny Gaudreau, John Tavares, or Chris Kreider whom should you pick? It depends on whom you predict to play more games. While it may be tempting to choose either Tavares or Gaudreau based on their season stats, if you don’t believe they will advance to the second round they will only play a few games. So while Kreider may not be the most prolific scorer from your choices, he will play the most games assuming the New York Rangers have another long run, and therefore will produce the most points.
Similarly if you are in a draft and you choose first would you take Alex Ovechkin?
Again that depends if you believe that the Washington Capitals will make it past the Islanders, and will they finally win more than one round.
Step one is realizing that you need to choose teams that you believe will go deep in the playoffs. Step two is deciding what teams to choose and how many. We recommend choosing four teams, two from the East, and two from the West. The four teams you believe will face each other in the conference finals.
Choosing your roster will require several decisions, but none more critical than this; we can’t stress this point enough. The four teams you choose to be in the Conference finals will make, or break your team. Having all your eggs in one basket means you will either strike out in three, or grand slam knock it out of the park! Of the four teams you decide to choose from if you have one or two you feel particularly strong about then by all means load up on those guys. This particularly applies to leagues where players can only belong to one team. If your league runs a draft and you believe that the Pittsburgh Penguins will win it all, and then pick as many Penguins as you can, even if you are choosing Chris Kunitz over Rick Nash!
You probably enter the draft not knowing where you will pick and may have your teams preselected, for example Chicago and the Rangers. But you need to be prepared if you draw and pick at the bottom of the draft that the top players from those teams may be long gone. Be prepared with a plan B and react accordingly, maybe you pick Ovechkin and Backstrom back-to-back in the snake draft. While we emphasize the need to load up on players from the same teams it is important to come out of the first round with as many points as possible because everyone will lose players and the goals tend to dry up beyond the first round.
Once you decide what teams to draft from, it is on to step three; choose players to fill out your roster. In order to do this you must understand the scoring structure of your league, as they are all different. The reason for this is to draft the players based on the value of their position based on your leagues scoring structure. What stats are worth points, and how do the points break down. If forwards and defense both score a point for goals and assists than forwards are worth more because they score more.
If you have a roster requirement of so many defensemen then they gain value, as If you have a roster requirement of so many defensemen then they gain value, as there are only so many scoring blue liners. If you are in a sophisticated league that tracks hits, blocked shots, shots, etc. then players such as the New York Rangers Dan Girardi gains more value. Goalies often are critical components to winning a playoff pool as wins are very valuable and teams often ride just one goalie for every game.
It is a good idea to apply your leagues scoring structure to the regular season stats, or last year’s playoff scoring leaders to get a clearer idea of when to choose players based on their value. And finally try to load up on as many players that you can who play on the power play.
The fourth and final step is to sit back, cheer on your team and hope your playoff beard grows long and victorious. Good luck!