TWITSQUAD FANTASY HOCKEY PRIMER
So, you’re joining the twitsquad fantasy hockey league and you’re like “uh what” like pretty much everybody was on twitter. This is the most comprehensive thing I could have made in light of the fact that I’ve never made a primer for anything before and don’t know how to make primers, so here (thumbs up emoji)
In our case, I’m opening all the fantasy leagues on ESPN because they’re just easier there, more user-friendly and they’re the ones I’m most familiar with.
There’s a lot of technical bullshit I have to do as commissioner of the league when I first open it that you can msg me about if you want to open a different league with other friends, but since you guys are just joining it once it’s made, you don’t have to worry about it!
What the fuck is fantasy hockey?
Basically, the way it works is that it’s your job to fill a roster of 22 players – 17 active ones and 5 on the bench every night. On your active roster every day, you’ll have 9 forwards (centres, right wingers, and left wingers), 5 defensemen, 2 goalies, and 1 utility spot that can be filled by any forward or defenseman but not a goalie. You can change your lineups all morning/afternoon. Each player is locked (meaning you can’t put him into your roster or take him out if he’s already in) at official puck drop time for his game.
Your team is up against every other team in the fantasy league and your players get you points in 10 different categories. I’ll explain scoring in a later subheading. It’s cumulative as the season goes on. Person with the most points at the end of the regular season wins!
I’ll post the link to the league once I make it (aka as soon as ESPN lets me, which probably won’t be for another month or so), and you guys will all be able to join. There are a lot of us, so we’ll have to see how big the league caps out at. The maximum amount of teams we can have is 20. Think we can get a full 20-person league? That’d be awesome :D Basically, you’ll just click the link and it’ll walk you through making your team. You get to name it, and you can get as creative as you want! It’ll be interesting to see what we get.
So, I’ll schedule a draft day and time and you’ll all have to be at your computers/on the app at that time. DRAFTING IS SO IMPORTANT, Y’ALL. And I know for one league at least, we’re all just gonna be thirsting after our faves (looking at you, Eileen. If you take Geno from me, I will cut u). So basically this entire following list will only apply to the ppl that are also joining the semi-kind-of-competitive league.
1. Put aside your allegiances. (I mean, this doesn’t matter as much, since like most of our faves are top-10 fantasy hockey draft picks anyway). For lower-down-the-list players, tho, having them be on your favorite teams isn’t always going to make a good fantasy team.
2. Goal-scorers > playmakers. People like Patrick Sharp, who might play, say, on a line with Patrick Kane, will get less points for your team even if he has all the assists, because Kaner will get you points for both the goals and the shots on goal he takes. Obviously, if one is just the clear better player, take him, but if you’re in a deadlock as to who to draft in a tie between two, goal scorers are the safer bet over the assist man on the line.
3. Draft smart. You can’t necessarily make your team on draft day like a lot of people say you can, but you can definitely fuck it up permanently. Be smart about whom you pick and how they’re going to play a part in your team. Scoring comes from multiple statistics, not just goals and assists. Know your players.
There is a specific list of people on the ESPN fantasy hockey site called “undroppables”. Basically, if you have any of these players, you can’t drop them from your team like you can other players. The only way to get rid of these players (even though there’s no real reason other than injury you would want to, tbh) is to trade them. For convenience, here are the players for now. ESPN might change some of them by the time the 2015 season starts, but it’s a good guideline to have.
Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals (C)
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins (C)
Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks (C)
Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers (C)
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins (C)
Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks (C)
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (C)
John Tavares, New York Islanders (C)
Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings (C)
Rick Nash, New York Rangers (LW)
Patrick Sharp, Chicago Blackhawks (LW)
Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals (RW)
Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks (RW)
Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators (D)
Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens (G)
Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings (G)
Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins (G)
So, the draft interface looks something like this.
Obviously, this is a draft for fantasy football, not hockey, but the only difference in that and what ours is going to look like is the color (ours is red), the positions, and the statistics displayed. Otherwise, it’s pretty much the same. The statistics will look more like this.
(There’s also that nice little message board/chat at the bottom where we can talk shit to each other during the draft or scream at whoever the hell manages to draft Kaner and/or Jamie.)
So, you’ll have players’ stats handy when you’re drafting!
Draft order is randomized, and it goes from the first person in order to the last, then last to first. (So, let’s say we have 20 teams. It’ll go 1 to 20, then 20 back to 1, then 1 to 20 again, etc. Make sense?)
There’s a specific amount of time you have during your pick that you’re allowed to think about it before it just autodrafts you the highest ranked player available.
So you drafted your team! Now what?
The league goes throughout the entire regular season. You can drop players (except for the ^^ undroppables) from your team if you don’t like how they’re doing and pick up “free agents”, which are just players that aren’t currently on any team. Your players get you points, points get you the win. Simple.
Scoring is kind of weird in fantasy hockey, though. Basically, you’re being scored in how your players do in ten different categories.
For skaters (forwards, defensemen, and that utility spot):
- Average time on ice (ATOI)
- Power-play points (PPP)
- Goals against average (GAA)
Keep this all in mind when you pick your players.
The scoring system is called “rotisserie” scoring, and it works kind of like this.
Your team is matched against every other team in the league. Say we have a 20 person league. You’re getting ranked in each specific category. So if your team has the most goals compared to everyone, you get 20 points. If your team has the second-most goals, you get 19 points. Third-most, 18 points, and so on and so on. And you’re ranked this way. You don’t have to worry too much about adding or calculating the score, really, because the league calculations will do it for you.
The most important thing:
Have fun, guys. The point of this is really for all of us to have fun and yell about stupid hockey players being really hot and playing their game well. Also, draft day is going to be a bloodbath. Good luck <3
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