What's the easiest way to learn how to play Fantasy Hockey on Yahoo!? I've never played Fantasy Leagues ever.

Question

How does scoring work? Drafts? etc. Is it easy to learn? I wish I could see how it works instead of just reading directions.

Answer 1

Look man, anyone who answers your questions will just probably be giving more directions. What you have to do is just sign up and see for yourself. Sign up for 4 teams (maximum amount allowed on one Yahoo account), sign up for 1 team the first day it opens (aug 22) and see how the draft and lineups work. Then sign up for a team at the beginning of the season, to see how the lineups will actually affect your team (which players to have in when, etc.). After signing up for those 2 teams and gaining at least some knowledge of the system you sign up for 2 more teams on the last day possible (I'm guessing sometime at the start of November, maybe sooner). These will be your real, serious teams, it's better to sign up late (1 month into the season) because you already know something about how the system works and because you know what certain players have done so far in the season and how good everyone is. You should get into leagues with live drafts, they are funner.

Trust me man, there's no better way to learn than just going for it.

Other than all that, here's some tips I gave to another guy who asked a somewhat similar question:

Players that you should try to get (no particular order):

Sidney Crosby
Jarome Iginla
Alexander Ovechkin
Dany Heatley
Jason Spezza
Paul Stastny
Joe Sakic
Jordan Staal
Vinny Lecavalier
Marty St. Louis
Henrik Zetterberg
Pavel Datsyuk
Ryan Smyth
Alexander Semin
Marc Savard
Joe Thornton
Marian Hossa
Jaromir Jagr
Daniel Briere
Evgeni Malkin
Anze Kopitar
Eric Staal
Sean Avery (trust me, he sometimes scores and really piles up the PIMs)

Those are forwards who I think will score a lot next season and will be beneficial to your team, there's probably some guys I forgot, but this is just off the top of my head. You clearly can't get all those guys, try to get 2 players from the list above. As for defensemen, you don't really need them that much, they don't score a lot, don't waste your high picks on defensemen, unless it's either Lidstrom, Niedermayer, Pronger, or Gonchar. Defensemen should usually be drafted in the lower rounds, get D-men that will give you a lot of penalty minutes (you need that) like Kevin Bieksa or Steve Montador. The most important parts of any Fantasy hockey team are the goalies, you should always have at least 2 better than average goalies on your team. Here are the premier goalies that should do pretty good next year (no particular order):

Marc-Andre Fleury (plays for the Pens so he'll win a lot)
Roberto Luongo
Martin Brodeur
Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Miikka Kiprusoff
Ryan Miller
Henrik Lundqvist
Niklas Backstrom
Kari Lehtonen
Ray Emery
Tomas Vokoun

You should absolutely try to get at least one of those guys on your team, if not 2.

Overall, the Yahoo player rankings are usually pretty good, if you're in doubt during the draft, it's okay to just go for the highest rated player, even if you don't know him that much.


Add:

Here's a link that can help, but I'm sure you've been there already:http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/hockey/rules/

Answer 2

Scoring is calculated by Yahoo. If you are in a private league, the commissioner of your league chooses which stats to use and roster slots as well as trade deadlines, and veto options. This coming year will be my 7th year of Yahoo hockey. Our league mutually agrees on the stats and rules prior to the start of the season and then sets a draft date.

Yahoo randomly generates the draft line-up. Say you have 10 players. 1-10 draft in round 1. 10-1 draft in round 2. Etc. Etc.

You can pre-rank your players for the draft, but don't trust Yahoo rankings. Do your own research and come well armed especially if you are in a money league.

Public leagues usually fill up. You will have a mediocre team at best unless you have a bunch of doofuses playing in your league and they are suckers for bad trades. Private leagues have fewer players, usually, and thus you can really have some killer rosters.

Answer 3

With the scoring you have nothing to worry about because yahoo adds it all for you..you have goal,assists,+/-,PPP, Pins, GWG for your offense and Wins, GAA, SV%, and SHO. Everyday you log onto your team and put your goalies and players in. Then depending on your how good your team is you win or lose. heres a link to my old team it might give u an idea on whats it going to look like:http://archive.fantasysports.yahoo.com/nhl/2006/19791/5