Originally Posted by Pengwin7

Roster spots are fairly shallow here at 2/2/2/4/2.
Teams that get to draft top 5 have a nice advantage since they'll be able to grab Malkin (C/RW) or Giroux (C/RW) and pop that player on the wing to take FOW.

To compete, you definitely need ONE of TWO players in your wing slots that take face-offs to compete in that category.

Regarding goalies - I don't invest to highly in them in H2H.
(I'll have to disagree with bondon on this one.)

Why? Well... week-to-week, a goalies stats can fluctuate highly.
In the H2H playoffs, a guy like Lundqvist could have a week where he has 3 games, say Wed @ VAN, Fri @ CGY, Sat @ EDM. Perhaps he starts Wednesday & loses 4-2, then he'll only start one of the back-to-back games on Fri/Sat. That's maybe just one win for Lundqvist and less than spectacular GAA. Last year, I remember Mike Smith and Brian Elliott were good down the stretch and won team's championships... but I don't recall any teams in my leagues winning H2H with Lundqvist. (ROTO yes, heck... I won my ROTO with Lundy... but H2H is different with the "playoffs")

Just saying, week-to-week goalie-stats fluctuate and one bad week will lose you a playoff match, so don't make a goalie your 1st or 2nd round pick in H2H with only 12 teams.

In a 12-team league, I'm taking forwards with probably five of my first six spots.
In the 4th/5th/6th rounds you should try to grab either/both of Jamie Benn (C/LW) DAL & Pavel Datsyuk (C/LW) DET.
Those are two guys that could hook you up with FOW from the LW.

At the #8 spot, I'd be taking one of:
*John Tavares
*James Neal
*Corey Perry
probably in that order.

Tavares could be elite this year, he rakes FOW, which you need your C to do.
I took Tavares #6 overall in two consecutive leagues that count FOW. One is H2H, one is roto.


My other key tip in H2H: Scratch & Claw for every category.
Typical H2H leagues go Monday-Sunday. Last day of games each week is Sunday.
This means you want to be able to have Sunday players.
If your league has daily starts, you may want to have a flex spot where you grab a player(s) for that Sunday match.
Chicago & Anaheim both have lots of Sunday games this year - so those players can be helpful in DAILY league.
By the current schedule, Toronto does not have ANY Sunday games all year... not that anybody would want to have a Leaf on their roster! {zing}

Oh, and if it is a Daily-start league, you'll also want 3 goalies.
If one of which is from CHI or ANA, you will find that you have very few conflicts with other two goalies (assuming the NHL keeps its current schedule from Nov-onwards).

Good luck.