2023-24 Fantasy Hockey: Draft tips to keep in mind when you're on the clock

By Jon Litterine, RotoWire

Special to Yahoo Sports

Knowing these basic tips and tricks will give you a significant leg up on the competition on draft day.

Study before your draft

This one would appear to be straightforward, but you wouldn’t believe how many people enter a fantasy draft without having done any research. Now, this doesn't mean you need to devote hours to draft preparation, but spending even 15-20 minutes prior to Round 1 is important. You can get an idea of where players are being drafted, who may have suffered an injury during training camp and which players saw an increased role in exhibition games, or in the early season.

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That could be the difference between winning and losing. The more time and energy you devote to managing your team — both before and after the draft — the better your chances of success.

Know your settings

Not all fantasy leagues are created equal. The type of format in which you play, and which statistics are positively and negatively valued, change from league to league. The obvious example is leagues which value hits and blocks. Brady Tkachuk was roughly a top-15 player in most formats before the season. In leagues which value hits, he was a top-five option.

Sure, Connor McDavid was the unquestioned No. 1 pick regardless of format, but there’s far more variance than you’d think depending on your league settings.

Go with your gut instinct

You've printed up a nice cheat sheet of rankings and are ready to go. You find yourself on the clock and you lean toward Player A despite the fact your rankings sheet has Player B listed higher. In these situations, I think it’s important to trust your gut. If the two players are generally being drafted in the same range, go with your first instinct. Just don't let fandom push you in that direction. Speaking of which ...

Leave your fandom at the door

Simply put, you can't put together a successful fantasy team if you are constantly reaching for guys who play for your favorite team. On top of the obvious lack of value such picks would provide, you'd be severely hampering yourself in the event your favorite team plays poorly. Go get McDavid or Leon Draisaitl even if you're a fan of the Flames or Canucks. Again, this seems obvious, but it's a trap countless people will fall into on draft day.

Constantly update your queue during the draft

The reason for this is two-fold. First, if your internet suddenly goes out and your connection drops, you can rely on your pre-established queue to take the reins while you reconnect. Maintaining an updated queue throughout will also give you the ability to break the draft down into segments, providing you with a smaller group of players to choose from when each pick approaches, making it easier to identify potential value.

Always target goaltenders early and often

Each NHL team dresses 18 skaters per game. That's a lot of options for your fantasy team. Goaltenders? Not so much. The few elite ones cost a pretty penny and are almost always worth it. The guys that begin the season as the top netminders in the league almost always finish there.

There aren't enough of these guys to go around. In the rare event you end up with too many good goalies, there will almost certainly be a fantasy manager willing to take one off your hands in a trade.

Age and injury risk is real

Father Time catches up with everyone. Now, that doesn't mean you should fade older players entirely. Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby are still excellent players. It’s just important to understand that advanced age generally means additional risk in fantasy hockey.

On the injury front, Crosby's Pittsburgh teammate Evgeni Malkin is a perfect example. Malkin played in all 82 regular-season games for the Penguins a year ago. In contrast to that outlier, he had failed to hit the 69 games-played mark in all but one of the prior 10 campaigns. Just know the risk and reward for each player before you select them.

Use the “tier” method when drafting

The most successful way to build a fantasy team is to divide your players up into tiers. For example, your top defensive tier might include Cale Makar, Roman Josi, Erik Karlsson, Rasmus Dahlin, Dougie Hamilton and Adam Fox.

With your “top tier” of blueliners established, you’ll be prepared to avoid missing out on your preferred No. 1 defensive options on draft day — simply track the status of those six players during your draft and prioritize stepping in and securing one of them with your next pick if the options begin to dwindle.

If you do draft prospects, don’t be afraid to cut bait

Everyone loves prospects. Heck, you routinely saw 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard going ahead of guys like Andrei Svechnikov, Nico Hischier and Kevin Fiala in fantasy drafts. But the truth of the matter is most rookies aren’t useful fantasy commodities right from the start. Tage Thompson of the Sabres had 18 goals and 35 points in his first 145 NHL games. In his last 156 games (prior to season's start), he has 85 goals and 162 points. If you drafted Thompson in those early years, he wasn’t helping you. If you do take the plunge on a rookie on draft day and he isn’t providing useful production early on, don’t hesitate to send the youngster packing to the waiver wire in exchange for a more useful asset.