Developing a draft strategy for any fantasy league is always tough. Almost no two leagues are identical in their scoring categories or point distribution. For example, ESPN uses W, GAA, SV% G, A, +/-, PIM, ATOI, SOG, and PPP scoring categories in both H2H and Roto standard leagues. However, Yahoo uses W, GAA, SV%, SHO, G, A, +/-, PIM, SOG, and PPP for standard leagues. This means ESPN is giving a boost to not only skaters, but especially defensemen, with the ATOI category. Whereas, in Yahoo leagues the lack of ATOI and added SHO category makes goalies extremely valuable. CBS Fantasy Hockey uses Short Handed Goals as a standard category, which is not something you see in many standard leagues.

2014 Fantasy Hockey Draft Preperation – Part One

Knowing your league’s scoring system well is one of the most important things you can do to prep for a fantasy draft. This will save you from overvaluing a player based on name alone. Often someone will look at a guy like Anze Kopitar and think he should be ranked higher in most leagues based on his Points, ATOI, or +/-. But you need to take notice of how few SOG he generates compared to other first line centers. If you’re going to reach for a player, make sure he’s strong in at least the majority of your league’s scoring categories, and isn’t just a great real life player.

While most leagues use the categories mentioned above as a base for their scoring system, you’ll see a lot of leagues using additional scoring categories. Always check to see how these additional categories will affect your player’s scoring. Often in leagues that score Hits or Saves with partial points, you’ll find that one league values these at .3 of a point, while another league might not value them as highly. These categories can make guys like David Backes and Milan Lucic or Semyon Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier, much more valuable because they’re going to be near the league lead in Hits or Saves. Always check to see how valuable these are compared to the other scoring categories in your league.

Being aware of who the NHL leaders are in each scoring category for your league will not only help you to prepare for your draft, but It will also help you when you’re struggling to pick between two similarly ranked players. During your draft preparation, and when doing mock drafts, you can see where players are generally being picked. However, mock drafts will be using standard scoring systems to rank players and auto-pick. Knowing that a guy you’re targeting is generally falling to the 12th or 13th round in mock drafts, but with your league’s scoring system should be going in the 9th or 10th round can be used to your advantage.

Mock drafts are great and can help you a lot in preparing for your draft. However, if the entire mock draft lobby leaves and just has the CPU auto-picking then it tends to defeat the purpose of doing them. Try to get a few other people to mock draft with you if possible. Even if they’re in the same league as you, this will help you. If you’re worried about someone stealing your sleeper picks based on mock drafts, then don’t pick those players until the actual draft. Mock drafting may help you pick up on someone’s draft strategy if you do a few mock drafts with them.

When your draft day does finally come, it’s normally a good idea to grab a solid goaltender in the first two rounds and one of the premier defensemen by the 6th or 7th round. The number of truly offensive defensemen and quality goaltenders is limited. Make sure you get one of each before you’re stuck with second tier players. This means it’s important to have at least one at each position before other owners start doubling up on them.

At the forward positions, centers obviously dominate the scoring around the league and in most fantasy scoring systems. You shouldn’t have trouble getting at least one good center in the first three or four rounds of the draft. How you fill out your roster with forwards will depend on weather your league just lists forwards as a whole, or forces you to pick C, RW, and LW roster spots. If you have to pick LW and RW to fill your roster and you’re trying to decide between players at each wing position, always pick the LW first. There are far more quality RW’s than LW’s to be found later in the draft.

The first few rounds of the draft are the easiest, as it’s obvious who most people will pick and who the best players in the draft are. However, there are definitely players in the early pre-season rankings who are being over or undervalued. Today we’ll look at a few of the players that are probably ranked a little too low. We should see some of the current rankings change as we move closer to the season, but for now there are some good players not getting the credit they should be given in the fantasy rankings.

Wayne Simmonds, PHI RW – Currently ranked 88th by ESPN and 61st by Yahoo, Simmonds is going to be a steal if he falls this low. In the last two full seasons Simmonds has 28 and 29 goals respectively. He lead the Flyers in not only goal scoring, but also PP goals. The Flyers lead the NHL with seven 20 goal scorers as a team. The team can put the puck in the back of the net, and Simmonds should be leading the charge again. Simmonds also racks up PIM’s and won’t hurt you in Shots or Assists.

Kyle Okposo, NYI RW – Okposo was in the top five of NHL scoring for part of last season before he got injured and missed the last month of the season. Playing with a healthy John Tavares on an improved Islanders team, Okposo should finish the season with much better numbers than people are estimating for him currently. Don’t be surprised to see him break 35 goals this year.

Jason Pominville, MIN RW – Did anyone else have a quieter 30 goal season last year than Pominville? This season he’ll once again be playing with Koivu and Parise in Minnesota. If those two can stay healthy all season, Pominville’s numbers could be even better. Both of his linemates missed at least 15 games last year.

As of this writing, there appears to be an error in ESPN’s rankings. If you’re drafting soon, you may be able to take advantage of this. There is a Tyler Johnson listed at #135 overall who is a FA Center. However, the Tyler Johnson that plays for Tampa Bay, who you want, isn’t listed until 2224th. So make sure you don’t grab the wrong Tyler Johnson. Also, ESPN has a few other depth players and backup goalies listed 1000-2000 overall when they should be higher in the rankings. Make sure you check the team listings as well as the overall rankings.

Next week we’ll take a look at some of the potential busts and sleepers this coming season. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave a message in the comments section below.

Thank you for reading. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and@LWOSworld – and “liking” our Facebook page.

For the latest in sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.

Have you tuned into Last Word On Sports Radio? LWOS is pleased to bring you 24/7 sports radio to your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. What are you waiting for? GO!

Main photo: