Draft Strategies in Hockey Leagues: Tkachuk, Kucherov, and More

Analysis of a Fantasy Hockey Draft in a Four-Team League

Welcome to the first edition of the analysis of a four-team fantasy hockey draft! Our experts faced the challenge of designing strategies and evaluating the results in this growing league format. In addition, they addressed a key question that many fans have considered: when to choose the injured star Matthew Tkachuk? The Florida Panthers are expected to be without Tkachuk (injured) until at least December, and before the injury, he was ranked in the top 10. If your league has injured reserve spots, you could place him there, which would give you an extra roster spot until his return. This draft featured the participation of Victoria Matiash, Pierre Becquey, Sachin Dave Chandan, and Sean Allen. The scoring is based on ESPN’s standard H2H system. Below are the participants’ comments and how the rounds unfolded.

Sean Allen, fantasy hockey analyst, commented: “Now I understand the appeal of four-team leagues. A quick draft, every pick is a star, without having to sift through less prominent players. I ended up with five of my top-ranked defensemen, including Thomas Harley on a bench spot. Obviously, I need these defensemen to compensate for a slightly weaker group of forwards, but to make up for it, I prioritized players with high potential instead of safe players: Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard, Dylan Guenther, Wyatt Johnston, and Dylan Holloway”.
Sean Allen

Allen went on to explain that, although some of those selections might be risky compared to safer options in a standard-sized league, all bets are made in a four-team format. The statistics of a replacement-level player skyrocket in this format due to the smaller amount of available talent. Alex DeBrincat, Jordan Kyrou, Nico Hischier, and Bo Horvat are available on the waiver list!

Pierre Becquey, editor of fantasy sports, said: “I focused on several high-level goalkeepers because it was a way to gain an advantage in one of the positions, and the draft lent itself to securing goalkeepers. With a limit of four per team, having half of the top 8 on my team means I should be able to maximize quality starts each week, while managing forwards and defenders as needed”.
Pierre Becquey

Becquey also added that everyone was playing at the limit with Tkachuk and that he was willing to let it go that far. He added him directly to his injured list, which allowed him to choose another player and, when he returned, he would have an additional “first-round player” to deploy in the final stretch and, hopefully, in the playoffs.

Victoria Matiash, fantasy hockey analyst, commented: “I’m more of a veteran of deeper leagues with more than 10 teams, and I’m a little impressed by the quality of my team. And everyone else’s! There’s certainly a fun novelty in challenging a small group of opposing fantasy managers with my own selection of the best against their also high-quality group”.
Victoria Matiash

Matiash, suspecting that there might be an early selection of top-tier goalies, opted to immediately target the elite heavyweights up front. MacKinnon, Pastrnak, and Kucherov, oh my God! Now we’ll see if his solid collection of defensemen (fingers crossed that Roman Josi stays healthy and active) and a group of good goalies can live up to their weight in fantasy while the best forwards in the business cook as only they know how. I admit I was disappointed to lose Tkachuk as a reserve on the injured list, hoping for a draft round of more. Keeping up with waiver options, particularly at the goalie position, will be a priority once the game begins. If one of your starters falters early, the goal will be to quickly replace this year’s Darcy Kuemper or Logan Thompson. Having Juuse Saros, Thompson, Jordan Binnington, Thatcher Demko, and a self-proclaimed in-form Stuart Skinner available to be picked up offers a safety net in that regard.

Sachin Dave Chandan, fantasy hockey editor, commented: “As in most drafts, my goal is to take the ‘best player available’ and then figure out the positions later. In doing so this time, I chose perennial fantasy MVP candidate Connor McDavid, as well as a couple of elite goalies in current fantasy points leader Connor Hellebuyck and Igor Shesterkin. As my forward roster continued to develop, the middle rounds exposed a large gap in available defensemen, so I had to choose five defensemen in my last eight picks, each of whom would be happy in a ten-team league.”
Sachin Dave Chandan

Chandan added that what excites him most about a four-team league is that each position on the roster will go to a star-quality player, which means higher-scoring matchups. As the others mentioned, it’s intriguing how many quality starters are left on waivers.

Draft Results

Here’s the draft selection list, round by round:

Round 1
1. Nathan MacKinnon (Matiash)
2. Auston Matthews (Becquey)
3. Connor McDavid (Chandan)
4. Cale Makar (Allen)
Round 2
1. Leon Draisaitl (Allen)
2. Connor Hellebuyck (Chandan)
3. Jake Oettinger (Becquey)
4. David Pastrnak (Matiash)
Round 3
1. Nikita Kucherov (Matiash)
2. Andrei Vasilevskiy (Becquey)
3. Brady Tkachuk (Chandan)
4. Kirill Kaprizov (Allen)
Round 4
1. Macklin Celebrini (Allen)
2. Artemi Panarin (Chandan)
3. Filip Forsberg (Becquey)
4. William Nylander (Matiash)
Round 5
1. Kyle Connor (Matiash)
2. Mikko Rantanen (Becquey)
3. Jack Hughes (Chandan)
4. Jack Eichel (Allen)
Round 6
1. Sam Reinhart (Allen)
2. Igor Shesterkin (Chandan)
3. MacKenzie Weegar (Becquey)
4. Roman Josi (Matiash)
Round 7
1. Kirill Marchenko (Matiash)
2. J.T. Miller (Becquey)
3. Alex Ovechkin (Chandan)
4. Rasmus Dahlin (Allen)
Round 8
1. Zach Werenski (Allen)
2. Cole Caufield (Chandan)
3. Sergei Bobrovsky (Becquey)
4. Filip Gustavsson (Matiash)
Round 9
1. Brayden Point (Matiash)
2. Moritz Seider (Becquey)
3. Jake Guentzel (Chandan)
4. Tim Stutzle (Allen)
Round 10
1. Sidney Crosby (Allen)
2. Jason Robertson (Chandan)
3. Victor Hedman (Becquey)
4. Quinn Hughes (Matiash)
Round 11
1. Evan Bouchard (Matiash)
2. Elias Pettersson (Becquey)
3. Tage Thompson (Chandan)
4. Mitch Marner (Allen)
Round 12
1. Dylan Guenther (Allen)
2. John Tavares (Chandan)
3. Matt Boldy (Becquey)
4. Adin Hill (Matiash)
Round 13
1. Clayton Keller (Matiash)
2. Matthew Tkachuk (Becquey)
3. Jesper Bratt (Chandan)
4. Jake Sanderson (Allen)
Round 14
1. Adam Fox (Allen)
2. Adrian Kempe (Chandan)
3. Steven Stamkos (Becquey)
4. Josh Morrissey (Matiash)
Round 15
1. Mark Scheifele (Matiash)
2. Dustin Wolf (Becquey)
3. John Carlson (Chandan)
4. Wyatt Johnston (Allen)
Round 16
1. Thomas Harley (Allen)
2. Brandon Hagel (Chandan)
3. Vincent Trocheck (Becquey)
4. Darcy Kuemper (Matiash)
Round 17
1. Dylan Larkin (Matiash)
2. Nick Suzuki (Becquey)
3. Jackson LaCombe (Chandan)
4. Dylan Holloway (Allen)
Round 18
1. Connor Bedard (Allen)
2. Nazem Kadri (Chandan)
3. Mikhail Sergachev (Becquey)
4. Martin Necas (Matiash)
Round 19
1. Rasmus Andersson (Matiash)
2. Mike Matheson (Becquey)
3. Noah Dobson (Chandan)
4. Aleksander Barkov (Allen)
Round 20
1. Mackenzie Blackwood (Allen)
2. Charlie McAvoy (Chandan)
3. Seth Jarvis (Becquey)
4. Brock Faber (Matiash)
Round 21
1. Mika Zibanejad (Matiash)
2. Sebastian Aho (Becquey)
3. Erik Karlsson (Chandan)
4. Frederik Andersen (Allen)
Round 22
1. Jacob Markstrom (Allen)
2. Anthony Stolarz (Chandan)
3. Kris Letang (Becquey)
4. Ilya Sorokin (Matiash)