Welcome to the first LeafsHQ fantasy hockey help/guide article! This is one where I’ll present a so far successful look at a great game called fantasy hockey. I’ll speak about draft strategy and look at the best sleepers available. So, for anyone that needs help with his/her team, this is the place to be. Keep in mind that this is primarily a 12 player recipe at yahoo.com, but can be used for other formats and sites as well. So, here goes.

DRAFTING

Draft is where you spend a majority of your thinking time in fantasy so important, as an adjective to describe the draft with, is an understatement. Drafting decides the majority of your success in fantasy leagues so let’s get this one right. First off, it’s good to notice that the position that has a real lack of talent in the NHL is LW. Also, since a majority of fantasy leagues values goaltender stats as most valuable, it’s wise to keep goaltending picks really high too. Your first pick should always be the BPA (best player available), so whatever your draft position is, you should always look to sign an offensive stud or a high end, elite and workhorse goaltender. This is fairly obvious, but I’ll point out some good ones just for kicks. The obvious first pick is Alexander Ovechkin. Don’t be fooled by Crosby being the best out there or Stamkos having a monster of a year last time around. Ovechkin is the BEST fantasy option there is. He covers the weakest (talent wise) position in the NHL, the LW, he will be the league leader in shots on goal, plus/minus and probably goals, he gets PIMs (penalty minutes) and will be amongst the leaders in PP points. All that should be more than enough to convince you. Naturally Sid comes in second. A virtual lock for 100 or more points, he is the best player in the NHL. Henrik and Daniel Sedin, N. Backstrom are all poised to have monster years. Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty and Mike Green are the only three defensemen you can justify taking as your 1^st overall pick since all three will repeat last season’s efforts. Besides, having that extra offense on the back end can easily be the difference from coming in first or second. The major criteria for goaltenders is how many games a year will they play, how good is a team they’re playing for and last but not least, their overall skill level and reputation. For example, I’ll always draft Roberto Luongo before Ryan Miller, just because I don’t believe that the Sabres defense is any good this year. Miller will still have great stats but Luongo’s win count will be better because of Vancouver’s strength and depth. There are some great goalies that can be had at later selections like Jonas Hiller, Antti Niemi, Marty Turco, Steve Mason and Kari Lehtonen but other than Hiller and maybe Niemi I don’t recommend any of them for the No1 slot. Number two is good, three is perfect. I managed to get Steve Mason or Kari Lehtonen with the last couple of selections as my No3 goalie in most of my leagues. Having a starting goaltender as your No3 minimizes the risk of gambling on Tukka Rask having a monster year yet again and drafting him with one of your early selections. Basically, what I’m looking for in a draft is good medium to low picks. You can’t go very wrong in picking among the top 40-70 players, barring injury, but what you do in later rounds often determines the outcome of your fantasy game. But let’s take care of a couple of my personal rules first. You MUST pick your starting top goaltender in the top four rounds of the draft. You MUST take at least two elite scorers in the top two rounds of the draft. You MUST identify your sleepers and make sure (either by doing mock drafts, or having multiple teams) that your sleepers are indeed sleepers. You MUST take the goal, goalie wins and the SO categories as your most important categories when choosing players.

SLEEPERS

Let’s start this section by identifying what exactly constitutes as a sleeper. It’s a player that very few people are aware of, and it’s your projection he’ll have a great year. But, because of the aforementioned few people, you can save him for one of your late picks and build other needed positions. Contrary to popular belief, good sleepers are not that hard to find. If you have a player like, oh I don’t know, Brad Boyes, who had a bad last year, but who’s still young, who’s playing on good team and a playoff contender and who has averaged 0.88 and 0.79 PPG, had 114 points in 164 games in the two seasons prior to last year then I’d say he’s a safe bet. Also, in my 8 leagues, Boyes has been picked only once with the last selection by one other player (besides me) and he’s on wavers in about 60-80% of the 12 player leagues. There are a number of other guys than can be taken late and are great assets to your team:

Tyler Bozak – never gets picked, could go as high as 60 points this year. Projected first line center on our Leafs, on an improved line.

Kris Versteeg – finally ready to play a top six role, he’ll relish in the challenge. Projected right behind Phil Kessel in goals for the Blue and White

Ryan Clowe – almost never gets picked, you can count on 55 points, good number of goals and a steady supply of PIMs. He also plays LW, which is a valuable position and plays on a Cup contending team that owns the regular season

Jiri Hudler – Mike Babcock said that he expects 70 points out of him. He’s a lock for PP minutes on a very strong Wings team and will get a chance to be a top six forward with the team. Babcock likes him and his skill level is very high. I have never seen him get picked in any of my 8 leagues.

PK Subban – I expect a grand rookie season out of this guy, especially with what he showed in the last year’s playoffs. Take him low, as your No3 defenseman and expect numbers similar to those of Tyler Myers last year.

Patrick Sharp – Yahoo made a mess of the rankings with him. A very very low ranking makes him a fantastic steal during the later rounds especially because he’s dependable (65 points easily), plays dual position (LW/C) and you can use him to fill up.

David Krejci – Ok, not an elite guy, but if you have trouble at C this is your pick. I project around 60 points for this guy especially with the improved scoring of the Bees.

Jordan Eberle – Taylor Hall is a big gamble, but this guy could steal the rookie of the year race. He’s Canada’s golden boy, and for good reason. Over a point per game production in the AHL (14 points in 11 games) is nothing to sneeze at either. Of all the kids in Edmonton’s system right now, him and Parjaavi are the most NHL ready. The difference is, this kid will get top six minutes.

Jakub Voracek – poised for a breakout year. His points totals are on the rise every single season, his play in the last 30 games last year was stellar. We can expect for that to translate into a good 2010-2011 campaign, where consistency won’t be an issue.

Paul Martin – officially, the new PP quarterback of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not much more to say really.

Erik Karlsson – some very intriguing potential here. Could well bust the 40 points barrier.

Jamie McBain – will see some PP time with the Hurricanes and could have a 35-40 point year.

Wojtek Wolski – 65 points last year, 24 years old and improving. Also, the Coyotes believe in him, they gave him a chance to play a top line forward in the NHL. Look for him either to repeat those numbers or look for them to go up.

Jason Pominville – top line forward, high scoring line, had 88, 66 and 62 points in the last three seasons.

Joni Pitkanen – plays a ton, 46 points last year, plays on the PP and will be better than last year

Jonas Hiller – best sleeper goalie, followed closely by Antti Niemi, JS Giguere, Kari Lehtonen (if you’re willing to gamble on him staying healthy, will rack up wins and appearances though), Steve Mason (if you want to gamble on Columbus not being Swiss cheese this year)

Other good ones include Marc Savard (for some reason people are afraid to pick him but his 80 points are worth the concussion risk), Kyle Okposo (his goals are worth the terrible +/-), David Perron (poised for a breakout year), Mikael Samuelsson (plays the PP with the Sedins and had 30 goals last year, expect more with an improved Canucks team), Shane Doan (he’ll soon get back to 70 points range) and James Neal (good goalscoring numbers).

And finally, here’s an example of my draft picks from one of the yahoo.com’s mock drafts. I’ve used the mock draft because it mailed the results to my yahoo mail. I’ll show you one of my real teams in the end so nobody can say, well it’s just a mock draft heheh. Next to every player I’ve drafted I’ve written a note behind my logic why I drafted that particular player at that particular position in the draft. I had the 7^th pick (I thought it best to pick from the middle of the pack for my example). So, here it is:

MY DRAFTED TEAM

Round by Round results

Round 2
(1) Postman – Alexander Semin (Was – RW)
(2) Team 11 – Mike Green (Was – D)
(3) Oleh – Martin Brodeur (NJ – G)
(4) Team 9 – Henrik Lundqvist (NYR – G)
(5) Team 8 – Drew Doughty (LA – D)
(6) Xterratu – Duncan Keith (Chi – D)  it was between one of the best D or an elite G (I figured that an elite defenseman is tougher to get than a good G)
(7) MatthewS – Pavel Datsyuk (Det – C)
(8) Team 5 – Eric Staal (Car – C)
(9) Team 4 – Joe Thornton (SJ – C)
(10) Team 3 – Jonathan Toews (Chi – C)
(11) Russian Rocket – Ilya Bryzgalov (Pho – G)
(12) Tapir – Jimmy Howard (Det – G)

Round 3
(1) Tapir – Henrik Zetterberg (Det – C)
(2) Russian Rocket – Marian Gaborik (NYR – RW)
(3) Team 3 – Martin St. Louis (TB – RW)
(4) Team 4 – Patrick Kane (Chi – RW)
(5) Team 5 – Jarome Iginla (Cgy – RW)
(6) MatthewS – Rick Nash (Cls – LW,RW)
(7) Xterratu – Patrick Marleau (SJ – C,LW) Marleau fills the need at two positions C/LW and will probably get 40 + goals again)
(8) Team 8 – Jason Spezza (Ott – C)
(9) Team 9 – Ryan Getzlaf (Anh – C)
(10) Oleh – Vincent Lecavalier (TB – C)
(11) Team 11 – Jeff Carter (Phi – C)
(12) Postman – Mike Richards (Phi – C)

Round 4
(1) Postman – Tuukka Rask (Bos – G)
(2) Team 11 – Anze Kopitar (LA – C)
(3) Oleh – Corey Perry (Anh – RW)
(4) Team 9 – Bobby Ryan (Anh – LW)
(5) Team 8 – Tomas Vokoun (Fla – G)
(6) Xterratu – Craig Anderson (Col – G) – had to pick a goalie here since the elite ones are getting pretty scarce and Anderson will get a ton of playing time and he should perform
(7) MatthewS – Miikka Kiprusoff (Cgy – G)
(8) Team 5 – Jaroslav Halak (StL – G)
(9) Team 4 – Chris Pronger (Phi – D)
(10) Team 3 – Marc-Andre Fleury (Pit – G)
(11) Russian Rocket – Sergei Gonchar (Ott – D)
(12) Tapir – Marian Hossa (Chi – RW)

Round 5
(1) Tapir – Johan Franzen (Det – RW)
(2) Russian Rocket – Michael Cammalleri (Mon – LW)
(3) Team 3 – Dan Boyle (SJ – D)
(4) Team 4 – Pekka Rinne (Nsh – G)
(5) Team 5 – Dion Phaneuf (Tor – D)
(6) MatthewS – Cam Ward (Car – G)
(7) Xterratu – John Tavares (NYI – C) – should have drafted a RW here, but Tavares was available and I couldn’t pass him up as my second C, I believe he’ll have a great year, similarly to what Stamkos had last year
(8) Team 8 – Ryan Kesler (Van – C)
(9) Team 9 – Paul Stastny (Col – C)
(10) Oleh – Daniel Alfredsson (Ott – RW)
(11) Team 11 – Mark Streit (NYI – D)
(12) Postman – Zdeno Chara (Bos – D)

Round 6
(1) Postman – Marc Savard (Bos – C)
(2) Team 11 – Chris Stewart (Col – RW)
(3) Oleh – Tomas Plekanec (Mon – C)
(4) Team 9 – Phil Kessel (Tor – RW)
(5) Team 8 – Nicklas Lidstrom (Det – D)
(6) Xterratu – Nathan Horton (Bos – RW) I really need a RW bad right now, Horton, I was lucky to get him, he’ll be playing with Savard, 70 points + is the minimum projected for him, PIM’s also not bad
(7) MatthewS – Thomas Vanek (Buf – LW)
(8) Team 5 – Semyon Varlamov (Was – G)

(9) Team 4 – Niklas Backstrom (Min – G)
(10) Team 3 – Erik Johnson (StL – D)
(11) Russian Rocket – Christian Ehrhoff (Van – D)

(12) Tapir – Antti Niemi (SJ – G)

Round 7
(1) Tapir – Tyler Myers (Buf – D)
(2) Russian Rocket – Antero Niittymaki (SJ – G)
(3) Team 3 – Jonathan Quick (LA – G)
(4) Team 4 – Loui Eriksson (Dal – RW)
(5) Team 5 – Alexandre Burrows (Van – LW)
(6) MatthewS – Shea Weber (Nsh – D)
(7) Xterratu – Brian Rafalski (Det – D) – either a really good D man, or another top RW since I have a sleeper on LW/C, so it’s Rafalski, it was either him or Markov, but Markov is an IR risk
(8) Team 8 – Danny Briere (Phi – RW)
(9) Team 9 – Carey Price (Mon – G)
(10) Oleh – Patrik Elias (NJ – C,LW)
(11) Team 11 – Jonas Hiller (Anh – G)
(12) Postman – Marty Turco (Chi – G)

Round 8
(1) Postman – Bryan McCabe (Fla – D)
(2) Team 11 – Patric Hornqvist (Nsh – RW)
(3) Oleh – Simon Gagne (TB – LW)
(4) Team 9 – Tomas Kaberle (Tor – D)
(5) Team 8 – Dustin Penner (Edm – LW)
(6) Xterratu – Kari Lehtonen (Dal – G) – this is the best position to get your quality No2 goalie, so I’m taking Lehtonen or Mason, but in my situation had to be a goalie since the last two good starters are gonna be picked sooner or later (Lehtonen is on a better team, but an IR risk, and Mason = Columbus), I opted for Lehtonen cause potential injury impacts less then your starter getting pummeled every night
(7) MatthewS – Alex Goligoski (Pit – D)
(8) Team 5 – Peter Mueller (Col – C,LW)
(9) Team 4 – Zach Bogosian (Atl – D)
(10) Team 3 – David Booth (Fla – LW)
(11) Russian Rocket – Andrei Markov (Mon – D)
(12) Tapir – Derek Roy (Buf – C)

Round 9
(1) Tapir – Niklas Kronwall (Det – D)
(2) Russian Rocket – Alexander Frolov (NYR – LW)
(3) Team 3 – Scott Hartnell (Phi – LW)
(4) Team 4 – Ryan Smyth (LA – LW)
(5) Team 5 – Ales Hemsky (Edm – RW)
(6) MatthewS – Teemu Selanne (Anh – RW)
(7) Xterratu – Patrick Sharp (Chi – C,LW) – my sleeper pick, probably could have gotten him in the 10th, but won’t risk it, fills both needs at LW and C + he’s a guarantee for 65 points +
(8) Team 8 – Mason Raymond (Van – LW)
(9) Team 9 – Joe Pavelski (SJ – RW)
(10) Oleh – Kimmo Timonen (Phi – D)
(11) Team 11 – Steve Mason (Cls – G)
(12) Postman – Milan Lucic (Bos – LW)

Round 10
(1) Postman – Jakub Voracek (Cls – RW)
(2) Team 11 – Andrei Kostitsyn (Mon – LW)
(3) Oleh – Brian Campbell (Chi – D)
(4) Team 9 – Tobias Enstrom (Atl – D)
(5) Team 8 – Michael Del Zotto (NYR – D)
(6) Xterratu – Brad Richards (Dal – C) – BPA – you can’t pass up on a player like B. Richards or Matt Duchene in the 10th round
(7) MatthewS – Nikolai Zherdev (Phi – RW)
(8) Team 5 – Sheldon Souray (Edm – D)
(9) Team 4 – Brenden Morrow (Dal – LW)
(10) Team 3 – Niclas Bergfors (Atl – RW)
(11) Russian Rocket – Nik Antropov (Atl – C)
(12) Tapir – Lubomir Visnovsky (Anh – D)

Round 11
(1) Tapir – Tomas Fleischmann (Was – LW)
(2) Russian Rocket – Tomas Holmstrom (Det – RW)
(3) Team 3 – Jay Bouwmeester (Cgy – D)
(4) Team 4 – Ryan Whitney (Edm – D)
(5) Team 5 – Mark Giordano (Cgy – D)
(6) MatthewS – Victor Hedman (TB – D)
(7) Xterratu – Shane Doan (Pho – RW) – it’s getting really bad as far as the RW position is concerned, I believe he’ll be back to his best in 2010-2011. Samuelsson is always an option but I’ll believe I’ll get him anyway – if he isn’t available, then it’s Hudler or Pominville
(8) Team 8 – David Backes (StL – RW)
(9) Team 9 – Mathieu Carle (Mon – D)
(10) Oleh – Keith Yandle (Pho – D)
(11) Team 11 – Stephane Robidas (Dal – D)
(12) Postman – Nikita Filatov (Cls – LW)

Round 12
(1) Postman – Mikko Koivu (Min – C)
(2) Team 11 – Ed Jovanovski (Pho – D)
(3) Oleh – Pavel Kubina (TB – D)
(4) Team 9 – Jack Johnson (LA – D)
(5) Team 8 – Erik Karlsson (Ott – D)
(6) Xterratu – P.K. Subban (Mon – D) – a breakout in the playoffs is a sign of things to come, expect a fantastic rookie year
(7) MatthewS – James Wisniewski (NYI – D)
(8) Team 5 – Anton Stralman (Cls – D)
(9) Team 4 – Dennis Wideman (Fla – D)
(10) Team 3 – Brent Seabrook (Chi – D)
(11) Russian Rocket – Alexander Edler (Van – D)
(12) Tapir – Ryan Suter (Nsh – D)

Round 13
(1) Tapir – Steve Downie (TB – RW)
(2) Russian Rocket – Olli Jokinen (Cgy – C)
(3) Team 3 – Travis Zajac (NJ – C)
(4) Team 4 – Matt Duchene (Col – C)
(5) Team 5 – Stephen Weiss (Fla – C)
(6) MatthewS – Jonas Gustavsson (Tor – G)
(7) Xterratu – Mikael Samuelsson (Van – RW) – huge pick if you can get him at 13th, PP minutes with a very rich Vancouver team and a solid solid goalscorer
(8) Team 8 – Pascal Leclaire (Ott – G)
(9) Team 9 – Mike Ribeiro (Dal – C)
(10) Oleh – Michael Leighton (Phi – G)
(11) Team 11 – Tim Connolly (Buf – C)
(12) Postman – Chris Mason (Atl – G)

Round 14
(1) Postman – Joni Pitkanen (Car – D)
(2) Team 11 – Guillaume Latendresse (Min – LW)
(3) Oleh – Mike Knuble (Was – RW)
(4) Team 9 – Taylor Hall (Edm – LW)
(5) Team 8 – Claude Giroux (Phi – RW)
(6) Xterratu – Dan Ellis (TB – G) – BPA on either LW/G, my flexibility is good with Sharp, Marleau so I can have a third G if any good ones remain – Dan Ellis a very good sleeper goalie, one who will most probably win a starting job in Tampa
(7) MatthewS – Jamie Langenbrunner (NJ – RW)
(8) Team 5 – Alexei Ponikarovsky (LA – LW)
(9) Team 4 – Ville Leino (Phi – LW)
(10) Team 3 – Brooks Laich (Was – LW)
(11) Russian Rocket – Wojtek Wolski (Pho – LW)
(12) Tapir – Jordan Staal (Pit – C)

Round 15
(1) Tapir – Kris Versteeg (Tor – LW)
(2) Russian Rocket – Jason Pominville (Buf – RW)
(3) Team 3 – Rene Bourque (Cgy – RW)
(4) Team 4 – Kyle Okposo (NYI – RW)
(5) Team 5 – Devin Setoguchi (SJ – RW)
(6) MatthewS – Jordan Eberle (Edm – C)
(7) Xterratu – Paul Martin (Pit – D) – my sleeper pick at D is gone (Pitkanen) so I can opt either for my second one –  Paul Martin or take a big gamble on John Carlson. Kyle Quincey isn’t a bad option either
(8) Team 8 – David Krejci (Bos – C)
(9) Team 9 – Wayne Simmonds (LA – RW)
(10) Oleh – Scott Gomez (Mon – C)
(11) Team 11 – Dustin Brown (LA – RW)
(12) Postman – John-Michael Liles (Col – D)

Round 16
(1) Postman – Brian Gionta (Mon – RW)
(2) Team 11 – Kevin Bieksa (Van – D)
(3) Oleh – Jussi Jokinen (Car – LW)
(4) Team 9 – Kris Letang (Pit – D)
(5) Team 8 – Chris Kunitz (Pit – LW)
(6) Xterratu – Ryane Clowe (SJ – LW) – LW to cover the position switch of Marleau etc. I can take my pick really comfortable now since I have a dream team – I can either go for PIMs + points (Clowe), goalscoring (Perron, Neal) or take a flyer on a really good Calder candidate Tyler Ennis who has dual position eligibility
(7) MatthewS – Tyler Ennis (Buf – C,LW)
(8) Team 5 – Kurtis Foster (Edm – D)
(9) Team 4 – Tim Thomas (Bos – G)
(10) Team 3 – Brent Burns (Min – D)
(11) Russian Rocket – Brian Elliott (Ott – G)
(12) Tapir – Ian White (Cgy – D)

Now remember this was just a mock draft, so expect the drafting to be much tougher in a real draft, but you can still get a really good team from a medium to low draft selection as presented here (I held the 9^th pick):

Last but not least, DON’T be afraid to go after your guys. I won my league last year because I had the balls of taking Tyler Myers and sticking with him. I won my other league because I had the balls to trade Evgeni Malkin and Alex Goligoski for Anze Kopitar and Shea Weber. Remember, it was just the start of the season. I had a hunch about Kopitar and I traded. Even if there is a seemingly better player on waivers than your guy, don’t fall for it. There was a reason behind why you wanted that exact player. You had an idea about his performance. Stay with your convictions. It’s that much more rewarding when you win that way, and looking like a genius never hurt anyone. Also, if you miss, you can’t just blame it on THN projections or TSN fantasy picks. The responsibility is all yours. Good luck and most importantly, have fun!

Mislav “Xterratu” Jantoljak