Whether you're a seasoned vet or a newcomer to fantasy hockey, understanding draft principles is essential to success. In this guide, we'll explore proven strategies, tips and techniques to help you maximize your draft pick value and dominate your league. From preparing with thorough research to understanding the importance of goalies, these insights form a perfect primer for fantasy hockey drafting.

Fantasy Hockey Draft Strategy: A Complete Guide

Navigating the complexities of a fantasy hockey draft can challenge even experienced players. However, the right strategy can help you build a winning team for a season-long league.

There are a few key things to keep in mind when preparing for your fantasy hockey draft. We’ll run through those with this fantasy hockey draft guide.

How to Create a NHL Fantasy Draft Strategy: 10 Tips

1. Do Proper Research

Doing research for anything should be one of your first steps, and that’s extremely important when it comes to your fantasy hockey draft. 

Don’t go into your draft without player rankings, mock drafts, a few sleepers, and one or two different strategies you can choose from depending how the selections pan out. Pre-draft preparation is a huge differentiator.

2. Understand Your League’s Settings

You might be the biggest hockey fan in the world and an experienced fantasy hockey player, but none of that matters if you don’t fully understand your league’s settings. 

Is it a head-to-head league? Is it head-to-head based on categories or points? Do you simply get a win for winning more categories or does each category earn you a victory? Knowing the type of league is crucial.

3. Know Your Leagues’ Scoring and Roster Size

You need to know the scoring and roster settings for your league. Perhaps you overlook a player in some leagues that would be valuable in other leagues depending on the scoring settings. 

Roster settings are also important to see how many of each position you need compared to others.

4. Participate in Mock Drafts

Mock drafts are never the end-all-be-all for preparing for a fantasy hockey draft, but they give you a decent view of how things might shake out. Try entering mock drafts with different draft positions and different strategies. You might be able to find an angle that you otherwise would’ve overlooked.

Be sure to enter mock drafts with similar settings and roster size to your actual league. And while it’s easy to go through the motions with a mock draft, try to take it seriously as if it were the real thing.

5. Seek Fantasy Hockey Sleepers

Everyone knows the big names in the NHL when preparing for a fantasy hockey draft. You may even know the top 100 or so players. However, late in the draft is when leagues are won.

When other managers might be checked out and taking the safest player to fill out their bench, you should be looking to grab a sleeper with high-upside. You can always drop them for someone on the waiver wire if they don’t pan out.

Make sure to do your research on sleepers and players to watch, including rookies entering the league for the first time. Download the Sleeper app for up-to-the-minute NHL news and player updates. 

6. Monitor Player Injuries

Knowing which players may be dealing with an injury is important in your fantasy hockey draft for a few reasons.

First, if a player is going to miss a significant amount of time you’ll want to move him down your rankings. That isn’t to say that you should rule him out entirely, though, as other managers may be taking him off their board completely and you may be able to scoop him up with a late-round draft pick.

Additionally, if a key player is injured, especially a goalie, it’s important to know who will be gaining more playing time in that player’s absence. 

7. Give Goaltenders the Importance They Deserve

The most important position in a fantasy hockey draft is goaltender. While most NHL teams have multiple forwards and defensemen viable for your fantasy hockey roster, there is only one starting goalie on each of the 32 teams.

Making sure you get at least one top goalie is crucial to winning your fantasy hockey league. There are plenty of teams that go with tandems in net nowadays which places even more importance on the stud goalies across the NHL.

8. Take a Chance on Top Prospects

The team you have at the end of your fantasy hockey draft will not be the one you finish the league with. You will be making transactions throughout the fantasy hockey season, so it doesn’t hurt to take a chance on a top prospect. If he pans out, you get a steal. If not, you can cut bait and find someone on the waiver wire.

9. Draft With a Plan

No matter which you choose, you should go into your draft with a clear plan for what kind of team you want to build. Don’t necessarily be stubborn with that plan, however, as players may drop or get scooped up earlier than expected. Draft with a plan but be flexible.

10. Use Your Brain, Not Your Heart

Remember that you’re entering a fantasy hockey league. Sure, you may want to be able to root on the players of your favorite NHL team and fantasy hockey team at the same time, but that’s rarely a recipe for success. 

If you are between two or three similarly-tiered players and want to take a hometown guy, go for it. But don’t reach for your favorite players too early.

Fantasy Hockey Draft: Frequently Asked Questions

What order should I draft each position in fantasy hockey?

As stated above, goaltenders are one of the most important positions in fantasy hockey. However, that doesn’t mean you should draft them with your first few picks.

Make sure to get a good balance of forwards early on, especially if your league separates left wingers, centers, and right wingers. But don’t forget to grab one of the top-half of goalies and another before the run on them happens.

Should I prioritize forwards, defensemen, or goalies in the draft?

Forwards are going to be the position scoring most of your fantasy hockey points so it’s important to prioritize them. But don’t overlook some of the top defensemen in the league as well. There are only a small handful of top-tier defensemen and grabbing one of them will set you up for success on the blue line.

Who should I draft with late picks?

Make sure to stay locked in all draft long. In the latter rounds, target players with high ceilings rather than players with high floors. This is an all-year league after all and you’ll be able to pick up and drop players as you see fit.

Sleeper: Your To-Go Source for DFS and Hockey News!

Stay up to date with the latest news and hockey results on sleeper. Join by signing up on the website or downloading the app.

Get insights and fantasy strategy sent straight to your inbox with the Sleeper Newsletter. Sign up below for timely updates, fantasy news and exclusive analysis using Sleeper proprietary data.