a lot of it is just practice and experience and being really into the league...you'll find it amazing how many players will start to stick in your head, what team they play for, where they lineup, who their linemates are, what their stats are like etc.

in the meantime these forums are a great asset of course, might as well lean on some folks here for info until you get familiar enough with it and by that time it will be YOU dispensing advice

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Thats me on the street with a violin under my chin, playing with a grin, singing gibberish.





P=1 DPts=1.2 +/-=.32 PIM=.08 PPP=.4 SHP=.6 S=.015 Blk=.2 Hit=.08
W=2 OTL=.8 GA=-.64 SV=.08 SO=3

Pro (23 keep 17)
C- Filppula,Turris,Stastny,Backstrom
D-Boyle,MDZ,Karlsson,Robidas,Goligoski,Schenn,Seiden berg
G-Anderson,Hiller,Rinne
LW-Malone,Parise,Rolston,Eriksson,Ruutu
RW-Alfredsson,Callahan,Setoguchi,Brown,Ryder,Vrbata

Farm (9 keep all, max 200 GP, 100 Goalies)
Colborne,Leblanc,Loktionov,Perreault,Tangradi,Blum ,Poulin,Markstrom

This thread should be marked down as a MUST READ for newbies on Fantasy Hockey. I am not shocked by the great advice but there are a few newer guys in this thread distributing very valuable advice.

Experience is the biggest thing but these other pointers are great.

Good Thread for Sure

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That's a good idea. I stickied it. I'm sure we can all come up with lots of additional good advice

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GO WINGS!

12 team H2H dynasty, most categories under the sun, incl. hits/blocks. Main team, farm

C: Kopitar Backstrom Stepan Cammalleri Little Bolland Laich Johnson
LW: Parise Lupul Erat McDonald Martin Silfverberg Nyquist Schwartz Morin Nieto Conacher
RW: PKane Doan Pominville Nash Clowe Lupul Rinaldo Stafford Rattie Stone Chiasson Ritchie
D: Green Suter Seabrook Dillon Beauchemin Schenn Letang Schultz Hamilton McNabb Rielly Harrison
G: Bryzgalov Pavelec Holtby Neuvirth Nihlstorp Lack CalPickard Andersen Stalock Sateri Eriksson
IR: Halak

funny as i was thinking the same thing when i got all those long winded, awesome posts...this is a must read for people in my situation....got drawn into a fantasy league, did pretty well (probably luck) but want to progress and get better....or you sucked so bad, you are determined to do better!

My places to get information:

1. Dobber - Read the articles/guides/ and search the forums for specific opinions.
2. HPG (statistically, worth the 20 bucks IMO. Especially if you are in multiple leagues)
3. ESPN Insider/Rumour central. I like it.
4. Hockeys Future
5. My Gut Instinct

In order to win, you gotta take risks sometimes. When making trades... you are going to look back and cringe at some of them... but for every 1 bad trade... there is probably 2-3 good ones.

Shoeless said it best awhile back.

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Follow me on Twitter! Renegade_H


16 Team Full Keeper FWD positioning. G,A,PTS,+/-,PIMs,Shots,PPP,SHP,GWG,W,SO,GAA,S%

Malkin,Parise,Datsyuk,RNH,E.Kane,Fleichmann,MacArt hur,Schwartz,
Ennis,Konopka,Turris,Brodziak

Karlsson,Kaberle,OEL,A.Larsson,Edler,Seidenberg

Bryzgalov
Vokoun

BENCH
SK and AK, Bishop, Strome,Caron

Another great source of info is team blogs. Those are sometime run by the team itself (LA Kings Insider) or by local fans across the league (Anaheim Calling is just one example). Also SBNation registers blogs for every team in the league. This can be very handy when looking at prospects who've been picked in entry drafts and what the team feels that player's role will be on the team (two-way = fantasy death ) and will also have local interviews with coaches that may also help with line combinations.

For example, the Detroit Free Press talked to Babcock and his line combinations are different than what Dobber himself has in the guide. (Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom, Franzen-Filppula-Bertuzzi, Hudler-Modano-Cleary). Little things like that about who is 2nd or 3rd line will make a big difference to how players perform for you.

Good luck, there has been alot of good advice already given to you so hopefully you can make use of it.

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XGL Commissioner - 16 Team, Points Only
$108M cap, 54+ Players
2x Reigning Champion

F: Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Kessel, Benn, Couture, Heatley, Steen, Landeskog, Brouwer, Doan, Peverley, Bonino
D: Subban, Yandle, Edler, Goligoski, Brodie, A MacDonald, Cowen, Tanev
G: Lundqvist, Smith, Allen
- - - -
Prospects:
F: Etem, Bennett, Killorn, Spooner, Hartikainen, Gaunce, Mk. Granlund
D: Clendening, Donovan, Lindell, Schmaltz, Forbort, Burlon

Heres a few links that I find helpful:
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pla...aspx?sport=NHL
good site for current player news
http://www.russianprospects.com/
russian player info
http://www.sportsnet.ca/bios/nichols_chris/archive/
A great blog
http://goaliepost.com/
goaltending news- Who's Starting!
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/nhl_organisation_rankings/
prospects site

Check Nhl.com nightly and look through the boxscores and quickly scan each game and look at the players stats, especially PP TOI and shots.

Get to know, Dobbers Fantasy Tools! I find the quick reports to be very useful.

Hope some of this helps.

Google players names you're curious about. Specific writers that cover one team can be pretty useful. When it comes to younger players, checkout their stats in previous leagues at hockeydb.com.

When it boils down to it though, this site is pretty much as good as it gets...

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16 tm pts only sal cap full keeper
F:Malkin, Parise, Kessel, Mueller, Turris, Silfverberg, Boyes, Perreault, Cammalleri, Shore, Backlund, Elias, Callahan, Burmistrov
D:MDZ, Carlson, Schultz, Josi
G:Fleury, Dubnyk
Farm: Jarnkrok, Dumba, Sproul
IR: Spezza

16 tm H2H keeper w/ contracts
G A +/- PIM STP GWG W SO GAA SV%
C: Benn[3], Ribeiro[1], Brassard[1], Shaw, Forsberg
LW: Ryan(LW)[4], Marleau[1], Schwartz,
RW: Sharp(C)[1], Bennett, Coyle(C)
D: Goligosk[4], Letang[3], Edler[2], Hamilton, Rielly
G:Rask[2], Bobrovsky[1], Fasth
IR: Spezza[2]

Great Advice guys.

One thing I want to add is to make sure you take advice and recommendations and deiced if they are right for your league. If you see something about a sleeper C who will get 50p - 60p upside this year and your league has 6 teams with only 2 C then that sleeper is probably is not worth looking at.

Calculate which stats and which positions are harder to come by, and which ones have the biggest differences. If you are in a roto/H2H league Goalies are really important because the few goalies you have will make up a lot of the scoring categories...unless your league is shallow and then you will be able to pick a over achieving goalie on the wire. Site's like hockeypoolgeek.com will help with this.

Exactly, knowing how much players are worth in your specific setup is crucial - no point in having high-end talent on the bench.

Of course, you are also at the mercy of the other GM's in the league's knowledge as well. For example, I made an offer to a GM in one of my leagues about 6 months ago that included as a part of it me offering Carter Ashton. The GM had never heard of him - "Who the hell is Carter Ashton?!" - even though he was a first-round pick the previous summer. Needless to say, no deal got done and he fired back some pretty rude messages because I had offered him a player he had never heard of (though anyone who follows hockey enough to be in a pool should know 1st rounders, you'd think). The guy was seriously upset and left the league soon after (I like to think I helped with that).

Finding a league with GM's of a certain hockey IQ is also very important - your knowledge and research of players means nothing if the GM's are like the one I described.

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16 Tm Dynasty,DailyH2H
3C,6W,4D,1G;G,A,PIM,+/-,STP,SOG,Hits,FOW,W,SO,GA,S
C-Kopitar,Carter,Zajac,Bailey
W-Perry,Parise,Neal,Oshie,JvR,Clarkson,M.Foligno,Sil vferberg,Chiasson
D-Yandle,J.Johnson,Carlson,Nikitin,Dillon,Barrie
G-Ward,Bernier
Fm-Holland,Shore,Pulkkinen,Teravainen,Jensen,Rundblad,Morrow,Barber io,Krug

10 Tm-8F,4D,2G Weekly
F-Stamkos,MSL,E.Staal,Toews,Seguin,Duchene,E.Kane,St epan,J.Staal,Brown,Silfverberg,Johansen
D-Keith,Seabrook,Voynov,Bogo,Wideman,Fowler
G-Price,Rask,Dubnyk
Fm-Tarasenko,Scheifele,Atkinson,Faksa,Smith,Orlov,Rie lly,Trouba,Markstrom