Kick-start your Fantasy Hockey Game Search
October 6, 2003


Story by: Keri Aasen

The business of Online Fantasy Sports is booming; it is predicted that for the fiscal year of 2003, this industry will bring in $50 Million (US). In Canada, almost all of the major sports stations have their own websites and their own fantasy game offering. Slowly other industries that want to be associated with sports are developing sites and offering games as well. Aside from those sites with major corporate sponsorship there are numerous independent sites that have a competitive product. This can make the job of choosing the right fantasy hockey game a tough one for the potential fantasy player.

The different fantasy hockey game offerings, and scoring options have been detailed below to help make your decisions a little easier. Some links to websites have been included to kick-start your fantasy hockey game search.

Draft: Live Draft vs. Automated Draft

In a fantasy game that offers a Live Draft, the participant will have to first join a league. Each league will have its own rules such as the number of players required at each position, the points given to goals, assists, etc. A draft date and time will be assigned for the league; all participants should be logged in at the designated time ready to draft their team. The drafting order will be pre-determined by the website and/or the League Commissioner. One player cannot be on more than one participant's team. Simply put, only one team can have Eric Lindros in its roster.

This is the closest to the normal pub or office draft.

The Automated Draft is very similar to the live draft. The difference here is that there is a tool on the site for this fantasy product that allows the participant to pre-select the players he or she wants for the team. The tool allows the participant to rank the players. There is an assigned draft date, however, no one needs to be logged in for it to run. The draft runs overnight on the assigned date. Again the draft order is pre-determined by the website and/or the League Commissioner and just like the Live Draft one player can only be on one team. If two participants have asked for the same player whoever drafts first will get the player, the second participant will get the next highest ranked player on his or her pre-selected list.

Leagues can either be Public leagues where anyone can join or Private leagues where everyone knows each other.

Some sites that offer Leagues with Drafts are:

Yahoo! - http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/hockey
ESPN - http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/fhl/frontpage
Sportsline - http://hockey.sportsline.com/splash/hockey/spln/single

The Pick'em

The majority of the fantasy hockey games offered on the 'Net are pick 'em games. The basic concept is that the potential fantasy participant joins the site, may be given the option to join a fantasy league and is able to select a team from the database of players provided by the site. The site will determine how many players are required to make up a team, as well as how many players are required per position. Scoring will also be determined as Rotisserie, Points or Head to Head.

Some sites that offer Pick'em games are:
FSN - www.fantasysportsnetwork.com
NHL- http://nhl.com/fancentral/fantasy/index.html
CDMsports- http://www.cdmsports.com/

The Salary Cap or Managerial Game

As a twist to the regular Pick'Em game the Salary Cap forces the fantasy participant to be more selective when fielding a team. In a game with a salary cap, the players are all given specific market values based on their previous season's performance. Each fantasy participant has a specified budget to use to select players; the catch is that the participant cannot go over the amount he or she has been given. The participant is forced to develop a strategy: to pick one or two expensive players and then fill in the rest of the roster with lesser players or to try and take a more moderate approach. The key here is for the participant to know how the team will be scored, if goals are more highly valued than a goalie's wins he may want to spend more money on a goal scorer than a goalie.

Note that in some instances the Salary Cap is not given in monetary terms, there are instance where the player is given a fantasy ranking value and each team is given a maximum fantasy ranking value that cannot be exceeded.

Some sites that offer Salary Cap/Managerial games are:

FSN- www.fantasysportsnetwork.com
Sportsnet- http://www.sportsnet.ca/features/games/index.jsp
SportingNews - http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/hockey/home.html
NHL- http://nhl.com/fancentral/fantasy/index.html
CDMsports- http://www.cdmsports.com/

Head to Head

Head to Head uses points scoring, but it pits fantasy participants against each other. Different categories are given different point values the same as would be done in a game using straight scoring. The league is divided into conferences and on a weekly basis different fantasy participants' teams play against each other. The points are tallied for that week period and whoever has the most points at the end of the week wins the week. In the standings, the win is noted under the appropriate team and the loss is noted for the other team. In some instances there may be a tie, in this case each team would be assessed as such.. At the end of the season the teams with the best records for their conferences play off against each other, until one team is ultimately named the overall winner.

Some sites that offer Head to Head competition are:

Yahoo! - http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/hockey
Sandbox - http://www.sandbox.com/fantasysportsgames/fullstrength.html
ESPN - http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/fhl/frontpage
Sportsline - http://hockey.sportsline.com/splash/hockey/spln/single
Atll Star Stats- http://www.allstarstats.com/

Types of Scoring:

Rotisserie scoring [ Return to Article ]

This type of scoring allows for statistical averages such as the GAA (Goals Against Average) to be factored into the standings. This form of scoring ranks the players in the league based on different categories for example, number of goals, number of assists, highest GAA. If there are 10 players in a league, the available points go from 10 points for the highest ranked participant to 1 point for the lowest ranked participant per category.

The participant with the highest number of points at the end of the season will win the league.

Example

A league has Goals, Assists, Game Winning Goals, Wins, Losses and GAA as its categories. In a league of 10 participants, George Smith ranks 1st in Goals, 2nd in Assists, 2nd in Game Winning Goals, 1st in Wins, 1st in Losses, and 2nd in GAA. His total points will be: 10+9+8+6+7+4=44

Points Scoring [ Return to Article ]

In a league using points all categories are given a specific points value. For example, using this scoring approach, goals could be worth 2 points, while assists are worth 1 point or a win could get 1 point while a loss is given -1 point. This scoring system does not account for any statistic given in the form of an average. Hence, the GAA will not be a category for this type of league.

The participant with the highest number of points at the end of the season will win the league.

In the final analysis, the fantasy games mentioned here are all fun to play. If you are new to fantasy hockey games you may want to start with a pick'em game that uses points scoring. If you're a seasoned veteran, a salary cap or head to head competition may be more your thing. Whatever your choice, you're sure to have fun.

Enjoy the season and remember, playing online fantasy hockey games can be like eating potato chips - you can't join just one!