Streaming players each week is common practice in fantasy hockey. It allows you to maximize your games played and give you an advantage over your opponent. However, this tactic can also be used on draft day. Below, we explore how you can use team schedules to your advantage.
Why It Matters
It’s a busy night in the NHL; everyone on your fantasy team is active. You set your lineup to the best of your ability but must stash a few players on the bench. The following day, you wake up and see that each of the players you benched went on to have career-high point totals. We’ve all been there.
Throughout the fantasy season, this will probably happen to you. It’s nearly unavoidable. But combatting this nightmare scenario begins on draft night. By drafting players on teams that play on light game days, you give yourself the best chance of avoiding being forced to bench players and simultaneously maximize your total games played.
A light day in the NHL is when less than half of the league is in action, which should provide plenty of flexibility in your fantasy lineup. The graphic below illustrates how many times each team plays on a light day every week and the season as a whole.
How To Utilize
As seen above, the Anaheim Ducks play on significantly more light days than most teams, especially the Tampa Bay Lightning, who play on the second-fewest. This does not mean you should reach to draft Troy Terry (ANA – RW) early. Subsequently, this does not mean you should avoid selecting Nikita Kucherov (TBL – RW). Instead, this should serve as a guide when deciding between two or three players that rank similarly.
For instance, you may find yourself in a situation where you are fixating between Troy Terry and Cole Caufield (MTL – LW, RW), torn on which player to draft. Using Brock Seguin’s Player Rankings, we see that both players are projected to have nearly identical seasons, with Caufield ranking at 106 and Terry at 110. In this scenario, the disparity of games on light days between these two players provides a tie-breaker and makes Troy Terry the easy choice.
The same can be true if deliberating between Pierre-Luc Dubois (LAK – C, LW) and Filip Forsberg (NSH – LW). According to the above-mentioned Player Rankings, both players are poised to have similar outputs this season and rank next to each other at 98 and 99, but the more favourable schedule for Dubois and the Kings might make him the more strategic selection.