DraftStreet Player Pricing Breakdown and NHL Lineup

by landsharkhockey Last Updated 2011-02-11 15:15:49

DraftStreet: Friday Lineups and Weekly Preview

This week, I’m going to analyze Draftstreet’s salary structure in detail to help you find the best value for your money.

Every site uses a different algorithm behind the scenes for setting player salaries. Understanding these systems helps when you’re trying identify value picks to squeeze the most out of your cap space. Draftstreet seems to do a better job than most sites of taking into account a player’s recent performance, as opposed to the player’s full season-to-date stats. This makes it harder to cash in on hot players, as those players go up in price almost on a daily basis.

On one hand, you obviously want to cash in on a hot player’s success; however, you’re clearly going to have to pay for that privilege on Draftstreet more so than on other sites. So how do you find value on Draftstreet? Here are a few tips to consider:

1. Off the IR

Player salaries tend to drop steadily when a player gets injured and misses a few games. It takes a game or two after returning to action for the price to climb back up to where it was, assuming the player performs. While players don’t always jump right back into steady production, you can often benefit in the short-term by getting a player priced low on his first game or two back.

I’m curious to see where players like Crosby and Getzlaf get priced when they get back in the lineup.

2. Avoid the Player of the Week

Because the salaries weigh the recent past more heavily, you’ll tend to see prices jump extremely fast on players who have an unusually good week. Consider Johan Franzen. 5-goal night’s don’t happen every year. After his amazing performance last week, his salary jumped from a reasonable $9.5k up to an over-inflated $12.6k in just a few days. Franzen is a steady producer, but you can’t expect that kind of production each night. If you jumped on the band-wagon this week, you blew a good chunk of your cap, as he delivered 0 points in 3 games. You’re much better off spending that money on a steady producer like Daniel Sedin who gives you a consistent 5.5 fppg, without the peaks and valleys.

3. Play the Opponents

All salary algorithms are based on past performance. When playing daily hockey, all you really care about is what’s going to happen tonight. Inertia is a reality when it comes to defense in the NHL. A hot team defense / goalie tends to stay hot, while a slumping defense / goalie, tends to struggle for a few games at a time. There is a wide margin between the top defensive teams (Boston, Pittsburgh) who average about 2.3 GAA and the worst defensive teams (Ottawa, Edmonton) – averaging 3.4 GAA. So, it makes sense before filling up your roster to make a mental note on the teams you want your skaters to be facing tonight. Note which teams are in action against the slumping defenses, and load up on players from those teams. Similarly, avoid the Bruins at all cost. Here are 5 teams that you can expect good production against this week:

• Atlanta – have allowed 4 goals against in each of their past 4 games
• NY Islanders – down to their 9th string goalie I believe at this point.
• Ottawa – can’t score, can’t win, and can’t stop any offense in 2011.
• Edmonton – dead last in goals against in the NHL
• Colorado – the Avs are hurting right now, particularly in net. The last time they allowed fewer than 3 goals against was Jan. 14th.

So, if you’re deciding between two evenly priced players, one facing Boston, and the other facing Colorado, it should be clear who should be in your lineup.

My Lineup

Here’s my roster for tonight’s action on Draftstreet. As you can see, I’m following the strategy of targeting the opposition with many of these picks, focusing on Pittsburgh players vs the NY Isles, Columbus players versus Colorado, and to some degree, the Ducks skaters facing the Flames.

Target Picks

Here are my target picks for this week on Draftstreet. For each position I’ve included the Top Price player who is the most expensive at that spot, my Target players who I am trying to get on my lineup at a fair cost, and my Value picks which are players that are priced very cheaply based on what they are expected to produce.

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About the Writer: ‘Chewy’ aka Gary Wilson, operates LandShark Hockey, and has been helping others dominate Fantasy Hockey Leagues for almost 20 years now. Landshark Hockey provides fantasy hockey fans with daily news, updates, and draft strategy including the LandShark Hockey War Room for Daily Fantasy Hockey Lineup Help.