Fantasy hockey

Fantasy hockey is a form of fantasy sport where fantasy owners build a team that competes against other fantasy owners based on the statistics generated by professional hockey players or teams. The majority of all fantasy hockey pools are based on the teams and players of the National Hockey League (NHL).

A typical Yahoo! fantasy hockey league (also called hockey pool) is established with 8 - 12 teams but can have as many as 20. Other types of pools may have a greater number of teams, which may dilute the average talent making it more or less fun depending on the league, but also represents more closely the actual NHL, which currently has 30 teams.

The NHL players or teams that comprise a fantasy team are usually distributed via a draft, either online or in person. A common format of a fantasy team is:

• 2 Centres (Forward)
• 2 Left Wings (Forward)
• 2 Right Wings (Forward)
• 4 Defencemen
• 2 Goaltenders (or Goalies)
• 4 Bench Players
• 1 Injured reserve

Common categories in which the fantasy owners collect points include:

• Goals
• Assists
• Plus/Minus (+/-)
• Penalty Minutes
• Power Play Points
• Game-Winning Goals
• Faceoffs Won
• Shots On Goal
• Wins (Goalie)
• Goals Against Average (Goalie)
• Save Percentage (Goalie)
• Shutouts (Goalie)

There are three common types of fantasy hockey leagues: ‘Head-to-Head’, ‘Points’ and ‘Rotisserie.’

A ‘Head-to-Head’ league is one where fantasy owners are pitted in one on one duels each week. The owners attempt to win as many categories as possible per week, with their weekly scores to be added to their cumulative score. It is the only league that offers a bracket-style playoff format at the end of the regular season.

A ‘Points’ league is one in which point multipliers are assigned to certain categories and all owners try to accumulate points by scoring in these categories without the weekly competition. For instance, if 10 points are awarded for a goal and 5 for an assist, a manager who selects a player who scores 10 goals and 30 assists will collect 100 plus 150 points for a total of 250 points. Points are awarded for multiple scoring categories in the same fashion.

A ‘Rotisserie’ league is one in which teams are ranked in order from best to worst in certain categories and receive points corresponding to the place they finish. For example, a team receives 10 points for having the highest total of goals in a 10 team league, 9 points for second most goals. The same applies across all scoring categories. In a 10 team league with 10 categories, the maximum number of points a team can earn is 100 (by finishing 1st in each category). The least is 10, by finishing last and collecting only 1 point per category. Rotisserie leagues are likely the most strategic type of fantasy pool and rewards managers whose team has strong, balanced scoring across all categories.

Another type of fantasy hockey league is called a Simulation Hockey League. These leagues use a video game (such as the EA Sports NHL series) or a hockey simulator program (such as FHLSim or STHS) as a match simulator. Each team manager selects a NHL team and is able to submit, control and edit many of the aspects of their team. Either players are drafted and teams are built from scratch or each manager starts with the the official NHL roster loaded on the software. In either case, managers can acquire players during the season through waivers and trades. Transactions are submitted to the Commissioner of the league, who in turn loads the lines and runs the program, simulating a game based on the set attributes.

Any fantasy hockey pool that “rolls over” into other years is called a “Keeper” or “Dynasty” league. The leagues can be run each year in any of the above formats with a winner declared at the end of each season. At the end of the year team managers decide which players they wish to protect (the number varies but is usually in the high single digits). Before the NHL season opener, a fantasy draft is held to fill out the rest of the roster.

Most Keeper leagues, as well as some single season leagues, have adopted salary cap rules similar to the NHL. In a Cap League a salary is assigned to each player before the manager selects his team. Salaries are usually determined by the NHL player’s real salary. Otherwise a number value is assigned, usually by an online hockey pool program. Each manager must ensure that they do not go over the predefined salary cap when selecting players.

For help and advice on fantasy hockey visit: http://www.fantasypucks.com http://www.poolhardy.com http://holypuck.com/ http://www.fantasyinsideronline.com

Some popular free online fantasy hockey leagues are run by: Yahoo [1] National Hockey League [2]

There are also many websites that charge a fee for league setup, varying from around $10 to around $100 per season.