If you're in a fantasy hockey league that counts hits, certain players need to be prioritized.

Counting hits as a fantasy category has become increasingly popular in recent years. Just look at the percentage of Yahoo leagues that use hits: this specific league format has grown from 26.5 percent in 2014 to 30.6 percent in 2015 to 33.0 percent in 2016 to 42.3 percent so far in 2017.

In addition to pre-ranking your players on Yahoo using NHL.com's top 250, hits-league fantasy owners should fill their draft queue with players who have produced well in the category in years past in terms of their hits totals and per-game averages.