Top 10 Things Learned About Fantasy Hockey

Tom Collins

2016-04-25

Tom Collins posts 10 things that he's learned about fantasy hockey over the years…

 

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to fantasy hockey. What works well in one league might bomb in another. But there are some lessons you learn along the way that can help you in all your leagues. Whether it be from your drafting strategy to your trade talks, there's always things you can learn on how to build a contender. Here are the top 10 things I've learned about fantasy hockey.

 

10. Be careful when posting trades on social media

I learned this one the hard way this past season. I was pretty much out of the running early on in my points-only keeper pool, so I was trying to rebuild on the fly. Me and a fellow GM who was going for the win worked out a deal when I would trade Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, Kevin Shattenkirk, Kris Letang and a 2017 second-round pick for Connor McDavid, Alexander Galchenyuk, Sergei Bobrovsky, Jonathan Drouin, Seth Jones and a  2017 first-round pick. But I decided to get feedback on Twitter. Another GM who didn't know McDavid was available saw my Tweet and started sending trade offers to the other GM. Eventually, he sent John Tavares, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Patrice Bergeron, Justin Faulk, Ryan Suter, Mark Giordano, Ryan Miller and a second round pick for McDavid, Drouin, Derek Stepan, Paul Stastny, Seth Jones and Bobrovsky. My deal would have been finalized had I not tweeted the deal.

 

9. Don't feel like you need make a trade

Sometimes a GM will send you a trade offer for a specific player. There's some back and forth and the next thing you know, it's as if you are purposefully trying to trade that player away and are willing to take less than what you think he's worth. Don't feel like you need to trade that player. Remember that the other GM approached you. That's not to say you should never counter. But don't give away a guy for cheaper than you're comfortable with just to get a deal done.

 

8. Goalies can make and break your season

Where you draft goalies is a fluid thing. Where you are picking? What's the quality of the remaining goalies versus the remaining forwards and defensemen? But no matter what, your season will rest of your netminders. The right ones will bring you a championship. The wrong ones will have you feeling like the Calgary Flames. Goaltending wins championships, both in the NHL and in fantasy hockey.

 

7. There's always luck involved

Sometimes you lose a match on one measly blocked shot. Sometimes you trade for a guy who gets injured the very next day. And sometimes you can build the perfect head-to-head squad, only to lose in the finals to a lower seed because his Joe Colborne, Tom Kuhnhackl, Matt Cullen and Johan Larsson were better than your Taylor Hall, Vladimir Tarasenko, Corey Perry and Shea Weber during that championship week. That's just the way fantasy hockey goes.

 

6. Don't be scared to make that big deal

One of my keeper pools began in 2009. One GM won the first three seasons because he wasn't scared to trade away his top players. He dealt Steven Stamkos, both Sedins, Matt DucheneRyan Getzlaf, Mike Green, James Neal and Erik Karlsson in those three years. He's paying the price now as he has to rebuild. But in the seven years of our pool, we have some GMs who have never placed in the money because they would rather hold onto their superstars than go for the win.

 

📢 advertisement:

5. Don't be swayed by NHL offseason moves

We all like those big offseason moves. But rarely do they make much of an impact fantasy-wise. The biggest trades last offseason involved Phil Kessel, Patrick Sharp, T.J. Oshie, Brandon Saad, Martin Jones, Cam Talbot, Antti Niemi, Dougie Hamilton, Milan Lucic, Robin Lehner and Ryan O'Reilly. The top UFA signings were Andrej Sekera, Mike Green, Cody Franson, Antoine Vermette and Alexander Semin. Only Jones met expectations. Don't overpay in your fantasy leagues because of players switching squads in the summer.

 

4. You don't need to win the trade

You see it in the forums all the time. Members posting "Did I win this trade?" There doesn't need to be a winner and a loser. You just need to make your squad better. Losing a trade now that makes your team better next season is great. Or trading a better forward to solidify your goaltending is a smart move as well. All that counts is you made your team better, not whether you win the trade.

 

3. Don't overvalue rookies and prospects

This goes hand-in-hand with number two on this list. There's plenty of GMs who believe youth is better. But that isn't always the case. Proven over potential is the right call the majority of the time. Some of the top prospects five years ago were Brayden Schenn, Jack Campbell, Erik Gudbranson, Nino Niederreiter, Ryan Ellis and Cody Hodgson. If you traded proven vets for these guys, you set your rebuild back a long ways. Youth isn't always the answer.

 

2. Rebuilds shouldn't take more than a year or two

Some fantasy GMs like to blow up a team and start over from scratch. But a smart fantasy GM is always rebuilding on the fly. That way they are never a year or two away from contention. If five years ago, you traded away Alexander Ovechkin, Joe Thornton, Shea Weber and Henrik Lundqvist and rebuilt with Taylor Hall, Ryan Murray, Nail Yakupov and  Jack Campbell, where exactly are you in your rebuild? It's five years later and you are still waiting for those guys to equal what you traded away.

 

1. Always go for the championship when possible

Never fall into the trap of thinking that second place is good enough. There's only one champion in your league each year, but there's plenty of runners-up and also-rans. And you never know what will happen to your squad next year. I won the championship in my points-only keeper pool last year despite being 90 points out in January, overpaying for the likes of Nick Foligno and Mark Streit. I wouldn't have won if I had waited until this year, as Carey Price and Marc-Andre Fleury were injured, and Phil Kessel  and Jarome Iginla struggled. You never know when you might get the opportunity to win your league again. So go for gold while you can.

 

 

4 Comments

  1. finminer 2016-04-25 at 07:04

    My experience in my main league illustrates a few of these points. One of the reasons I don’t like H2H is that a team may only be lucky to win. Instead, I play in a roto league that has successful rules around maintaining parity. Last year, I won the league but was essentially forced to dismantle the team. However, I plan largely around goalies, and I’ve maintained a high position in the standings by having the top goalie tandem 4 years running. This planning allowed me to rebuild and have another very solid team this year. But luck wins out even in roto. I came in 2nd by 2 stinkin’ penalty minutes! To have that chance to win now, during the season I traded Jack Eichel, Connor Hellebuyck, Anthony Mantha & Noah Hanifin, among others.

  2. SB M 2016-04-25 at 08:13

    I would have phrased the comment on rookies/prospects differently. I would have said “don’t expect all your rookies/prospects to work out”. The key with acquiring prospects in a rebuild is to get enough of them so that even if half of them bust you still have a good, young foundation. I think people make the mistake of “rebuilding” by picking up just 2 or 3 prospects and they’re basically betting on all of them becoming all starts.

    • Tom Collins 2016-04-25 at 15:13

      I think your latter idea is the better way to rebuild. Just pick up a couple that you think will work out and let them slowly become your top guys. If they suck, it’s easier to drop and you still have a veteran team that can win for you. If you get too many prospects, then you’re screwing yourself over for a much longer period of time because there’s too much risk there that they won’t work out.

  3. larrylintz 2016-04-25 at 08:40

    #5 is a brilliant point worthy of its own column, as i was thinking all year about how we always get sucked into these guys traded to new situations with better linemates and it almost never pans out. There was a near feeding-frenzy in our league for Oshie this year.
    #1 is remarkable, i feel for you buddy, and often wonder if someone is spying on my social media comments despite the fake name.
    And #7, re luck, is a reminder to me that i NEVER want to be in a league with end-of-season playoffs. This is a JOKE!!!! It might be fun and all, and makes perfect sense to encourage participation and enthusiasm among people who don’t have a clue about how to draft a good hockey team. But to make the entire season’s results rest how players perform in the final two weeks, when superstars are being rested and bums playing for non-playoff teams are desperately trying to boost their stats for contract reasons, is an abomination. There are guys in my league who are hopelessly inept but who, if they were lucky enough to make it to the playoffs, could easily knock me off in any given week. A few years ago near the end of the season i traded Semin and a lesser d-man for Malkin and Shea Weber, the guy was obviously playing the schedule but i couldn’t resist getting two vastly better players, and my lead was strong enough that i just did the trade for the hell of it. But he “won” the deal in terms of points produced in those last 2-3 weeks. Imagine encouraging a format where at any given period of time a Semin owner beats a Malkin owner!!!

Leave A Comment

UPCOMING GAMES

Mar 19 - 19:03 DET vs CBJ
Mar 19 - 19:03 N.J vs PIT
Mar 19 - 19:03 PHI vs TOR
Mar 19 - 19:03 NYR vs WPG
Mar 19 - 19:03 BOS vs OTT
Mar 19 - 19:03 NYI vs CAR
Mar 19 - 20:03 NSH vs S.J
Mar 19 - 20:03 STL vs COL
Mar 19 - 21:03 EDM vs MTL
Mar 19 - 22:03 VGK vs T.B
Mar 19 - 22:03 L.A vs CHI
Mar 19 - 22:03 VAN vs BUF
Mar 19 - 22:03 ANA vs MIN

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
DANIIL MIROMANOV CGY
CONNOR MCMICHAEL WSH
CONNOR BEDARD CHI
EVGENY KUZNETSOV CAR
YEGOR SHARANGOVICH CGY

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
DUSTIN WOLF CGY
CHARLIE LINDGREN WSH
DANIIL TARASOV CBJ
JOEY DACCORD SEA
DEVIN COOLEY S.J

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency VAN Players
23.5 J.T. MILLER ILYA MIKHEYEV BROCK BOESER
14.0 PIUS SUTER ELIAS PETTERSSON NILS HOGLANDER
9.9 VASILY PODKOLZIN ELIAS LINDHOLM CONOR GARLAND

DobberHockey Podcasts

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

📢 advertisement: