Hey all, i've never participated in a H2H league before, just wondering if theres anything you would do differently than your standard Roto draft? I've also never played with Faceoff's won before. How would you go about drafting and what positions would you prioritize first? (Obviously I know it is dependant on your draft position but for arguements sake lets say I draft 8th out of 12)

League Details

12 Teams

Roster Positions: C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, D, D, D, D, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN, IR, IR

Forwards/Defensemen Stat Categories: Goals (G), Assists (A), Plus/Minus (+/-), Penalty Minutes (PIM), Powerplay Points (PPP), Shots on Goal (SOG), Faceoffs Won (FW)

Goaltenders Stat Categories: Wins (W), Goals Against Average (GAA), Save Percentage (SV%), Shutouts (SHO)

Thanks!

Bluck

If you're hypothetically drafting 8th out of 12...I'd be targeting elite goaltending with my first pick (i.e. Lundqvist/Quick)...with 4/11 categories counting for goalies.

Also adding to that is the fact that your league rosters are pretty shallow for a 12 team league. Only starting two at each position and 4D is on the smaller scale for what I've seen in other 12 team leagues.

With regards to FOW as a category, your best bet is to try and snag guys who take faceoffs but can be played on your wing... like a Steve Ott type who can get you a ton of FOW, PIM, and a decent amount of points to boot.
More high profile guys that fit this bill are guys like Jamie Benn (C/LW) and Claude Giroux (C/RW). Obviously though this is dependent on your pool provider.

My two cents.

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.

Pengwin and bondon pretty much covered all the bases on the H2H drafting strategy, and I side more with Pengwin that goalies aren't as important since the league only starts 24 Tendys; if this was a 14 team league, goalies would be considerably more valuable...

As for dual eligibility guys that contribute FW from wing positions, don't sleep on David Backes. He should be good for 55-60 points (25-30 goals), great PIM and +/-, 225+ SOG, and 650+ Faceoffs -- (C,RW eligible). He is a STUD in your format, and I would be looking at him with maybe a 3-5th round pick. Great value there.

__________________
mounD: 2011-12 Champs // 2012-13 Champs
12 Team H2H Keeper (Keep 18)
3C, 3LW, 3RW, 3F, 6D, 2G, 5BN (IR)
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, SOG, FoW // W, Sv%, GAA, SHO

C: Getzlaf, Backes(RW),B. Richards,
LW: Parise, Hall, Kunitz, Ladd, Marchand(C,LW)
RW: Kessel, Neal(LW) Hossa, Burrows(Lw)
D: Karlsson, Chara, Burns, Boyle
G: Rinne, M. Smith
Bn: Jussi Jokinen(C,LW), Cammalleri(C,LW), Weiss(C), Timonen, Visnosky

Farm: Kadri, Coyle, Gallagher, Järnkrok - Barrie, Trouba, Vatanen - Khudobin

Wow Awesome post and thanks for all the responses , rep given to each of ya

Few questions..

I was set on taking a goalie with my 1st and 2nd picks so that advice is huge.. when you say you wouldn't take a goalie until round 5 ish.. lets say that there is a massive run on goalies as i expect there will be in the earlier rounds... would you grab a cam ward in round 3 or wait and grab a lesser caliber goalie in round 5? I'm just skeptical as to which goalies would be available by then?

With regards to Sunday starts.. does that mean you would rank players from ANH and CHI a bit higher on your draft list? And with regards to that Flex spot do you mean a player where i can add/drop on saturday for that sunday start?

The wingers that take face off's was something I overlooked, I will def try and target players with dual eligability.

Cheers

With H2H I find that your drafting strategy changes depending on what players are available when its your pick. Penguin is right you dont really need a stud goalie right off the bat and if there is a run on goalies it only means that there are great forwards ready for you to pick them up. If you can grab Neal at 8th and still have a high scoring forward like Kovy/Perry avail and only average goalies avail when its your 2nd pick you might want to grab Kovy/Perry.

You want to find out what wingers take a lot of draws, as their value goes through the roof.

__________________
Derek Reese - Future Hall of Famer
Studs N Duds - Sunday's

12 Team NHL Salary Cap Dynasty
H2H, Salary Cap 82mil, Player actual salaries
G,A,PTS,GWG,PIM,SOG,STP,HT,BL,+/-,W,GAA,SV,SO
Starters: 12 Forwards, 6 Defense, 2 Goalies

F - Stamkos, Perry, E.Staal, Voracek, J.Staal, Simmonds, Ott, Downie, J.Jokinen, Eller, Nielson, Prust
D - Martin, Faulk, Brodie, Ellerby, M.Weber, Stone
G - Bobrovsky, Halak
Bench - Brunner, Brodie, Strachan, Khudobin, Lindback, Neuvirth, Ramo

Prospects - Calvert, Forsberg, Etem, Namestinikov, Kreider, Cundari

Brilliant advice so far.

I'm a bit in between bondon and Pengwin's advice when it comes to goalies. Given that you have two ratio categories, one regular counting one and one fluky counting one that is usually a draw per week, I would not leave it too late to grab a good goalie. If there were saves then I would lean a bit more towards Pengwin's advice for your #2, but I would still want an anchor. That's personal preference. You can do well with both strategies.

I wouldn't pick one in the first round unless I had the last pick of a snake draft, as an inevitable goalie run could leave me scrambling. Depending how much risk you are willing to take you could wait but depends on whether you want a middle of the road goalie as your starter. There are lot of good value offensive players in the later rounds that on a weekly basis can help you, especially in a relatively shallow league for starters, so I don't feel that you should go all offense early necessarily. I would secure one goalie, probably in round two or three, and then adjust as the rounds go on to decide on when the second one should come. Perhaps fourth, maybe fifth, sixth or even later depending on who's left.

Agree about the value of wingers who take faceoffs, and move them up the draft as that'll be key to remaining strong in that category. I would even look at some later round guys for your bench that could help you there e.g. Little, especially if you facing a strong FOW opponent that week. This is especially important if the other managers are also on the ball in picking up FOW heavy wingers earlier and you miss out a bit.

I think given your setup that defensemen can be left a little bit later, as there is pretty good depth in the middle rounds. But try to go for guys that shoot a bit more - they may not all guarantee you consistent offense each week but could contribute to more categories more regularly.

__________________
All I've got...all I've got is insane!

1. Personally, I have no problem waiting a few more rounds. Let's say all 11 teams select 2 goalies before you do. This year the 23rd/24th/25th/26th goalies are being drafted as: Dubnyk (EDM), Crawford (CHI), Pavelec (WPG), Brodeur (NJ). Personally, I have no problem rolling with this group of goalies in a H2H league. The thing is - you are BUYING them at a price of a 23rd/24th/25th/26th best goalies... but the odds are they'll outperform a few of the top 22 goalies. Additionally, the randomness of their week-to-week stats will win you GAA or SV% sheerly by having a "good" week or some weak opponents in a given week.

2. In "daily" roster-set leagues... yes, I do personally bump up value of players on "off-night" teams. Last year Anaheim had a completely wacky schedule and I drafted Getzlaf & Ryan & Hiller in multiple leagues and never had conflicts. In fact, Hiller (despite a poor year) was on my H2H multi-cat team (finished 3rd/12) and my ROTO multi-cat team (finished 1st/11). Of course, this theory only occurs in "DAILY" leagues. There is no advantage to these teams if your league uses "weekly starts".

3. By a "flex" spot, I mean that I usually save one spot on my roster than I FORCE myself not to attach myself to. Week-to-week, think of it this way:

What's better:
A 20 goal scorer playing 4 games in a week.
or
A 25 goal scorer playing 3 games in a week.

When I consider players in "daily" leagues, I'm often looking at their schedules. How many games do I get out of a guy in the next 7 days, the next 15 days? When I see a break in his schedule (like 1 game in 5 nights), I'll drop him for another schedule-heavy player. [Note: Sometimes this doesn't work in a maximum-starts league, but usually there are injuries to compensate for.]

If you allow yourself a flex player, you can consistently grab weaker players that play more games in a week & yet still give yourself better statistics.

I just want to echo this sentiment about grabbing guys like Little (C,RW) in the later rounds. He could contribute 50-ish points, 160+ SOG, and 700+ FW. That's huge being able to add a guy like that in the waning rounds of your draft. I generally avoid sub-200 SOG players, but little's dual eligibility and massive FW numbers trump that consideration.

Good luck.

__________________
mounD: 2011-12 Champs // 2012-13 Champs
12 Team H2H Keeper (Keep 18)
3C, 3LW, 3RW, 3F, 6D, 2G, 5BN (IR)
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, SOG, FoW // W, Sv%, GAA, SHO

C: Getzlaf, Backes(RW),B. Richards,
LW: Parise, Hall, Kunitz, Ladd, Marchand(C,LW)
RW: Kessel, Neal(LW) Hossa, Burrows(Lw)
D: Karlsson, Chara, Burns, Boyle
G: Rinne, M. Smith
Bn: Jussi Jokinen(C,LW), Cammalleri(C,LW), Weiss(C), Timonen, Visnosky

Farm: Kadri, Coyle, Gallagher, Järnkrok - Barrie, Trouba, Vatanen - Khudobin

Bryan Little won't factor into this pool often.
There are only 12 teams with 6F (2C/2LW/2RW) spots, total 16 players per team.

So there's roughly 72F in play.
With bench, maybe 100F in play.

horrorfan is commish of a 12-team H2H league that counts Hit/BkS/FOW.
Little didn't go until the 18th round, as a comparison.

But - as a final round pick, 16th round... not a bad idea.