This article is part of our Draft Kit series.
Welcome to the third annual Maingot's Draft Manifesto. This concept is geared more for rotisserie players in 12-team leagues with the traditional nine statistical categories: five categories for skaters -- goals, assists, power-play points (PPP), penalty minutes (PIMs) and plus-minus -- and four categories for goalies -- wins, goals-against average (GAA), save percentage (SV%) and shutouts.
It's a checklist of 10 important tips to follow on draft day, based on patterns that I have noticed doing numerous mock drafts online. As a five-time winner of the Yahoo! Friends & Family league over the past nine years, some of these tips have served me well previously, especially tip No. 8. While directed more at roto players, some of these points will prove salient also for head-to-head players, as they often address valuation disparities that may exist and can be exploited.
Drafting well is more important than ever. In fact, one of my oldest, most competitive leagues, recently reduced the total transactions from 100 to 50. As I've always been a high-volume guy this author couldn't help but feel the squeeze. I followed this drafting template/philosophy last year to an experts title, and I've tweaked it somewhat for those who don't like as much maintenance on their roster. The only two caveats are that backup goalies require maintenance and you need to draft multi-positional forwards if you want to roll the dice and play tip No. 8.
1. Draft Carey Price, Henrik Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne, Braden Holtby, Jonathan
Welcome to the third annual Maingot's Draft Manifesto. This concept is geared more for rotisserie players in 12-team leagues with the traditional nine statistical categories: five categories for skaters -- goals, assists, power-play points (PPP), penalty minutes (PIMs) and plus-minus -- and four categories for goalies -- wins, goals-against average (GAA), save percentage (SV%) and shutouts.
It's a checklist of 10 important tips to follow on draft day, based on patterns that I have noticed doing numerous mock drafts online. As a five-time winner of the Yahoo! Friends & Family league over the past nine years, some of these tips have served me well previously, especially tip No. 8. While directed more at roto players, some of these points will prove salient also for head-to-head players, as they often address valuation disparities that may exist and can be exploited.
Drafting well is more important than ever. In fact, one of my oldest, most competitive leagues, recently reduced the total transactions from 100 to 50. As I've always been a high-volume guy this author couldn't help but feel the squeeze. I followed this drafting template/philosophy last year to an experts title, and I've tweaked it somewhat for those who don't like as much maintenance on their roster. The only two caveats are that backup goalies require maintenance and you need to draft multi-positional forwards if you want to roll the dice and play tip No. 8.
1. Draft Carey Price, Henrik Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne, Braden Holtby, Jonathan Quick, Tuukka Rask, Sergei Bobrovsky, Corey Crawford, Ben Bishop or Marc-Andre Fleury in rounds 1-3. If you take Devan Dubnyk, it's hard to fault you, but his sample size is but one (amazing) season in Minny.
This is the most important point of all -- take a stud goalie early at their proper valuation. It's almost guaranteed there will be a goalie run in your draft, and some managers will panic and take certain goalies way too early. This will create bargains at the other positions you can take advantage of.
A relevant case in point is the experts league draft I had Sunday night. I grabbed Rinne in round 2, ahead of the goalie run, and another owner felt compelled to reach for Cory Schneider at 37th overall as the dreaded goalie run made its mark (and took its victims).
2. Draft a LW in the first 3-4 rounds (Alex Ovechkin, Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, Rick Nash, Max Pacioretty, Zach Parise, Taylor Hall, Logan Couture).
3. Draft a RW in the first five rounds (Alex Ovechkin, Tyler Seguin, Claude Giroux, Evgeni Malkin, Corey Perry, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Rick Nash, Ryan Johansen, David Backes, Nathan MacKinnon).
4. Draft a potential 50-point D-man by end of round 5 and another by rounds 9-10. If possible, take Erik Karlsson, P.K. Subban, Shea Weber, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Burns or Kris Letang by pick No. 55. Around pick 70, Keith Yandle will go off the board as will the likes of John Carlson and Roman Josi, and, if you can ignore the negative plus-minus, embrace Oliver Ekman-Larsson around pick 77. Other 50-point potential D-men include Tyson Barrie, Mark Streit, Justin Faulk, Mike Green (injury risk) and, possibly, John Klingberg.
Remember, certain stud D-men in real hockey (Drew Doughty, Duncan Keith, Alex Pietrangelo) are not quite as good in fantasy yet remain ranked quite high based on their "real" greatness.
5. Draft a second goalie by round 7 (Jaroslav Halak, Frederik Andersen, Semyon Varlamov, Ryan Miller).
6. You can hold off drafting a pure center (C) until later in the draft. Case in point, Sunday during my experts league draft I took C/RW Seguin in the first round (took Rinne in the second round) then grabbed Johansen in the third round, but I intend to play both center-eligible forwards at RW so I later picked up Eric Staal (105th overall), Derick Brassard (149th) and Paul Stastny (171st) to be my three centers. Staal is still a 60-point guy with 70-point upside; Brassard centers the Rangers' No. 1 line alongside Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello; Stastny will center Vladimir Tarasenko and Alex Steen. Getting No. 1 centers from good teams late could work for you too!
7. Draft at least one of Corey Perry, David Backes, Wayne Simmonds, Milan Lucic, Evander Kane, Chris Kreider, Scott Hartnell, Brandon Dubinsky, Radko Gudas, Antoine Roussel or Steve Downie for PIMs. Ideally grab one of the first seven mentioned. Other players less "known for providing PIMs" but still providing them include Dion Phaneuf, Subban, Weber, Burns, Letang, Gabriel Landeskog and Andrew Ladd.
8. Draft a "proven backup goalie" from a good team by round 12 or 13 (Antti Raanta in N.Y., Scott Darling in Chicago, Thomas Greiss in Brooklyn, Alex Stalock in San Jose or Darcy Kuemper in Minnesota).
You can pad your team goalie stats by carrying an extra goalie from a top team. The key is to draft really good forwards who can play at least two positions, thereby reducing your need for forwards on your bench.
9. Target D-men in late rounds: Erik Johnson (discounted value due to last season's injury-shortened campaign), Anton Stralman, Alex Edler, Christian Ehrhoff, Alex Goligoski, Justin Schultz, Marek Zidlicky, Andrej Sekera, Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers, Jack Johnson, Mathew Dumba, David Savard.
10. Target these forwards after the first 99 picks: (Gustav Nyquist, Jiri Hudler, Marian Hossa, Jarome Iginla, Radim Vrbata, Chris Kunitz, Eric Staal, Jeff Carter, Ondrej Palat, Patric Hornqvist, Ryan O'Reilly, Bobby Ryan, Jonathan Huberdeau, Tyler Ennis, Tyler Toffoli).
11. Centers to possibly target after nine rounds: Jason Spezza, Derek Stepan, Joe Thornton, Bryan Little, Derick Brassard, Tomas Plekanec, Tyler Toffoli, David Krejci, Evgeny Kuznetsov.
12. This happened at my draft and it makes great sense if you can pull it off -- take both St. Louis goalies or both Detroit goalies. Again, there will be some maintenance required -- each team will have some sort of timeshare -- but you control a playoff team's goalie situation. The Blues have the better defensive unit while the Wings' offence, when fully healthy, has more depth and firepower. Better to own the grinding beasts that are the Blues, but the Wings should be fun to own as well.
Happy hunting.
