Sure, picking the correct players is the easiest way to dominate your draft, but there’s so much more that goes into having success on that fateful day. Below are some of the most important strategies to assist you in building the best team possible on draft day.
Target goaltenders early and often
I cannot stress this enough. There are only a handful of elite goalies in the NHL. Even the second and third tier of options are dwindling as more NHL teams adopt a committee approach. Having an anchor like Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers or Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets gives you a massive leg up in the competition. This is especially true in leagues with weekly lineup changes.
Look at it this way — you are late in your draft, and you are filling out the final spots on your bench. Do you really need to take someone like Frank Vatrano or Charlie Coyle or any skater whose production can largely be replaced in the waiver wire throughout the course of the season? Of course not. Instead, spend that pick on one of the timeshare goalies in hopes he runs away with the starting job early on. If it doesn’t work out, you just drop him.
Don’t draft your goalie’s backup
Drafting your running back’s backup is a very popular strategy in fantasy football. You draft both the starter and the backup, this way you are covered in the event of injury. It sounds great on paper, except the days of NHL goaltenders appearing in 70-plus games are gone.
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Heck, only three goalies (Juuse Saros, Alexandar Georgiev and Hellbuyck) appeared in 60 games last season. The odds of any backup goaltender turning into a true workhorse and fantasy star are overwhelmingly small. Make better use of your roster spot.
Avoid drafting prospect goaltenders
It’s very tempting to stick a top goaltending prospect like Jesper Wallstedt of Minnesota on your bench. At some point in the not-too-distant future, he is likely to be amongst the best in the world at his position. That said, too many things would have to go right for Wallstedt to be an immediate fantasy starter. He would need both Filip Gustavsson AND Marc-Andre Fleury to fail, and then take advantage of the opportunity. Could it happen? Sure, but the odds are strongly against it; thus, it’s a poor strategy when drafting.
(Note: Yaroslav Askarov, now of the Sharks and…