2014 MeFi NHL Fantasy League is open

September 3, 2014 6:49 AM

Registration for the 2014 MetaFilter fantasy NHL league is now open.

We have plenty of open spaces. I am also interested in finding someone to serve as co-commissioner this year. See my profile page for the link to share if you want to pass this along to anyone in memail.

Go Blues!

posted by cgk to MetaFilter-Related at 6:49 AM (19 comments total)

This is awesome, thanks for doing this.

I can't wait for the Avs to stomp to death all the predictions they're going to regress. . . GO AVS.

(I'm a little anxious about the Blues this year.)
posted by barchan at 8:40 AM on September 3, 2014

I'm a Leafs fan. I can't handle more than one NHL fantasy team at a time, thank you very much.
posted by Kabanos at 8:59 AM on September 3, 2014 [7 favorites]

I'm back in as Cory's Better, and I can probably help out with the commissioner stuff if you need it.
posted by hobgadling at 9:04 AM on September 3, 2014

This year I am staying away from Rick Nash and that alone will be sufficient to propel me to the top.
posted by Hoopo at 9:33 AM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's hard enough being a Sharks fan without the cognitive dissonance that would be required to potentially cheer for an opposing player (God forbid a Kings player) while they're playing the Sharks! Especially given how much every other team in the Pacific has improved this off-season and the Sharks have picked up John Scott...
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:05 AM on September 3, 2014

But John Scott scored more goals last year than Ville Leino!
posted by troika at 11:49 AM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

He may have taken a few more penalties too (just maybe)
posted by TwoWordReview at 12:07 PM on September 3, 2014

Seriously you guys dropped some really good players to waivers last year. I am hoping this trend continues.
posted by Hoopo at 1:54 PM on September 3, 2014

Excited! I'm really bad at hockey fantasy but I want to get better since I enjoy the sport a million times more than football, where I've had a bit more fantasy success.
posted by lownote at 3:33 PM on September 3, 2014

Don't want to trashtalk too early, but it's only fair to warn you guys that now that I know what all the score categories mean, the Super Absorbent Pads will be unstoppable!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 5:21 AM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Freaks and Dekes is back, ready to assemble another team of players who should by all accounts be fantastic, yet fail spectacularly to produce before being removed to IR indefinitely. :-(
posted by specialagentwebb at 5:46 AM on September 4, 2014

Ok, I may be able to handle the pressure upon mature reflection ! I'm in, where do I sign?
posted by TwoWordReview at 7:35 AM on September 4, 2014

I could be down.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:39 PM on September 4, 2014

Is a roster of headless players an option? Seeing as my Blues are already spoken for....
posted by riverlife at 1:39 AM on September 5, 2014

I should have probably asked this last year, but does anyone have any pointers or links for the newish fantasy hockey leaguer, or draft strategies? In drafts, are people actively trying to put together productive lines, or just picking their favorite players, or getting as many members of their favorite team as they can? Should the draftee try to balance their teams between conferences or divisions, to prevent players from cancelling out one another's points should their actual teams play? Maybe I should take this to AskMe...
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:21 PM on September 5, 2014

AskMe'd
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:16 PM on September 5, 2014

If there's interest, I can set up an NHL Wins Pool as well. MeMail me with your email if interested.
posted by reenum at 6:52 PM on September 7, 2014

Alvy I think generally you want to just go for the best guy available for the most part, which is easy to follow until the 5th or 6th round of the draft if you follow along with a "top fantasy players" list like the ones at dobber hockeyor whatever.

Regarding linemates, it really depends. People often say don't do this intentionally. Don't take a mediocre guy just because he's playing with Getzlaf and Perry or something, but if you can get Getzlaf and Perry somehow you'd be nuts not to. Favorite teams? Mine is Ottawa so that can be a recipe to lose. So that depends too.

General things to keep in mind--decent centres are easier to come across than wingers, defensemen, and goalies so don't load up on C in the first couple of rounds uses there's some really, really good ones available. Give a bit of extra weight to wingers, and especially ones that are eligible to play 2 positions.

For the later rounds it's sort of a crapshoot at the best of times, but there's no shortage of suggestions online for "sleepers" so if you're in doubt take cues from them.

Finally, there's a cheat sheet you can use that will rank players according to your league's stat categories based on how they did in past years. I think they give you 24 or 48 hours as a free trial so you can get in and get out with a spreadsheet to follow on draft day. It's called "fantasy hockey geek." Took me like 20 minutes last year and I wound up winning the pool I'm in for money. Not the most user friendly site but it worked great once I got it working. This year I'm working blind because, well, like a lot of people I can't afford to drop money on make believe hockey and I've already used my free trial last year.

So now that I've typed this up I expect to be completely screwed on draft day by everyone knowing the same things I do.
posted by Hoopo at 8:44 AM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

I joined!

I don't know what I'm doing at all but maybe it will make me actually have something to look forward to since the leafs are probably doomed again.
posted by captaincrouton at 11:07 AM on September 15, 2014 [1 favorite]