Daily Fantasy Hockey Strategies
The strategies involved in creating a winning Daily Fantasy Hockey team are different from the old NHL fantasy hockey pool strategies that you grew up with.
There are different factors to consider when creating a daily fantasy lineup and we have broken down for you the top Daily Fantasy Hockey Strategies that you should implement when setting a lineup at a daily fantasy sports site.
Know who is playing That Night
NHL players get injured. Some get the night off occasionally because of back to back games and most importantly, goalies get a night off out of the blue. There is nothing worse than setting a lineup and finding out later that a player is off that night. Many teams will announce a goalie change early in the afternoon so keep an eye out on some popular fantasy sports update sites. Alternatively, if you are a Twitter follower, get to know hockey reporters that follow the NHL teams in each city - they will tweet on game days with lineup changes that could affect your fantasy roster selections. This is an important winning tip that will help you make more money.
Know the scoring system For Each Site
Every NHL fantasy hockey site is different in some way with their scoring system. Some will give you points for plus/minus, some give you points for penalty minutes, others may not let you pick individual goalies but simply the team goalie. These small differences matter when trying to decide who to draft in your NHL fantasy lineup. A high scoring defenseman may not be worth as much as a goon defenseman that will rack up a lot of penalty minutes in a particular game. A forward may lose points in a high scoring game because he was on the ice for too many goals losing plus/minus points. An important strategy is to earn the scoring system for your favorite daily fantasy hockey site and adapt to it.
Pick your goalie first
A goalie in daily fantasy hockey is like a pitcher in fantasy baseball - they can make or break your fantasy team on any given night. Goalies can get you points for every shot they stop which can average 30 shots a night and a win can net you good points. If you get a shutout you can probably cash in your winnings that night. All other positions rely on the players scoring, but a hot goalie can get you a boat load of points and it doesn’t matter what the rest of the team does. Focus on a good goalie playing a defensive minded or under .500 team. You may not get as many points for shots on goal, but you should get the win and improve your odds of a shutout.
NHL Defensemen are like NFL kickers
The highest priced defenseman usually gets close to the same amount of points as a lower end defenseman. Defensemen don’t always score (even the high scoring ones) and could lose points if they are on the ice for too many goals against. Alternatively, a good "stay at home" defenseman may get some penalty minute points and some plus/minus points to help fill the stat sheet. In other words, focus on the goalie or forward positions and then fill in your defense with the lower cost options. As the season progresses you will see who has consistent value on a daily basis. This daily fantasy hockey strategy may make or break your bankroll.
Pick Players Playing In High Scoring games
If you know the top two scoring teams are playing against each other, it may make sense to load up on players from both teams. One great tip is to keep an eye on the Vegas over/under numbers to help you predict these games, but in general if you follow NHL hockey regularly you will know when a game is anticipated to be a 6-5 offensive outburst as opposed to a goalie duel that results in a 2-1 score. Focus your attention on picking players (especially forwards) from these games and the top fantasy points will follow.
Know your opponent
If you play against some NHL fantasy hockey owners often enough, you can anticipate how they will set their lineup. You can use this strategy to your advantage by either picking some of the same positions to negate their value, or go the opposite way when making your picks. Everyone has a different opinion on this, but if you can guess at what your opponent’s lineup will be, you can at least have an advantage to create your own daily fantasy hockey strategy.
Who’s on the Power Play
Here are some NHL power play stats: 21% of all NHL goals are power play goals which means that a typical game will have at least 1 goal out of the average total of 5 scored on the power play...each team will average 3.3 power play chances each game. Every NHL team has their own core of power play guys that will be out there for almost every opportunity. That means they will have more chances at shots on goal and more chances to score or assist on a goal. You want players that are given the best opportunities to score you fantasy points and power play guys are usually the ones that get the most chances and the most playing time.
These are some of the daily fantasy hockey strategies that the top NHL fantasy owners are using to make a living winning at daily fantasy hockey.
Try them out at a site like FanDuel and watch the money roll in each night.
