NHL The Best Puck Classic- Underdog
Underdog Fantasy is officially taking over the Best Ball landscape as they have now added NHL “Best Puck” leagues and a pretty fun tournament in “The Best Puck Classic”. You can enter the GPP tournament for $5.00 or you can play in 3-man leagues for $3 or $25, and a regular 6-man league for $5. I want to focus on the GPP tournament as it is our first look at playing fantasy hockey with a Best Ball twist.
These are 10-man drafts with the top two teams moving on in each of the first 3 rounds until the final round. You will want to build a solid, well constructed team in this format. You will need high floor type of players but will also wanting to think ahead to the future rounds on players that could succeed as the year moves along. We are in a shorter season due to COVID which we will only see a total of 56 games. I believe that goalies will not take on such heavy workloads this season as teams will look to rest players as much as possible and get ready for playoff runs deeper into the season.
Here are my top 10 tips and some general thoughts I have so far after drafting 20+ of these tournament teams:
Underdog has ADP’s that you can take advantage of. Hall 42.0, Rantanen 70.0, Maker 92.0, Q.Hughes 141.0. Bjorkstrand 128.0, Rust 146.0, Rakell 121.0, etc.
I prefer a build that is 4 Centers, 6 Wingers, 3 Defense, 3 Goalies. 4/6/3/3
I feel that you can wait for Defense and Goalie until after the first 6 rounds. I like to stack my Centers and Wingers in those early rounds and secure the top half of those positions.
Set your rankings ahead of time. It is easy to use Underdogs rankings in the APP or on the website. Take some time before you draft and set those rankings so you don’t miss out on the value ADP’s or you don’t overdraft the over valued players.
Know the rules inside and out. That means double check how players will earn points but also know the tournament structure at how it works. Bottom line read the rules before you draft.
Use the “Queue” function to your advantage. These are all fast drafts so you have to act fast. Life has plenty of distractions so don’t be afraid to add 5-10 players to the Queue before your next set of picks.
I like to treat “Goalies” like the Quarterback position in Football. Sure you can spend your first two picks on Vasilevskiy or Hellebuyck but you end up missing out on the top C/W (or RB/WR for football terms). Think about 2020 NFL where you would have had to draft Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, that is the same with these top goalies. Meanwhile if you would have just drafted Josh Allen in the mid rounds you would be laughing.
Look at the draft board. See who is drafting who and what your opponents roster construction looks like it is easy to guess at what positions they will be looking at for their upcoming draft picks.
After you draft a team, review it. Look at what you did right and what you did wrong. Look at the other 9 teams and see what teams you like and see what type of builds work for you moving forward.
Try different strategies with your first few drafts. Maybe you try to stack a teams top line, maybe you want high power play type of players, or go Defense/Goalie heavy. There is no right or wrong way to build, the whole goal is have a top 2 team and move on to the next round. However you accomplish that is the real key.
I will have my NHL Best Ball (Best Puck) Rankings available in the next day to share with all of those that want to listen. If you are a fan of Best Ball and want to discuss NHL Best Ball in general feel free to contact me via Twitter @JamesBrimacombe
If you don’t already have an Underdog Fantasy account, sign up here. (new users please enter Eaglezzz).
Basic Tournament Info
Closes at = 2:10 PM - 1/13
Entry Fee = $5.00
Game type = NHL Best Ball
Max Entries = 67
Draft rounds = 4
Draft Size = 10
Pick Clock = 30 seconds
Draft Rounds = 16
Rake = 11.1%
Prize breakdown
1st $2,000
2nd $1,000
3rd $500
4th $350
5th $275
6th $225
7th $200
8th $175
9th $150
10th $125
11 - 12th $100
13 - 14th $90
15 - 16th $80
17 - 18th $70
19 - 45th $35
46 - 90th $20
91 - 225th $10
226 - 450th $5
Tournament schedule
Qualifiers 1/13 - 3/21
Quarterfinals3/22 - 4/4
Semifinals4/5 - 4/18
Championship4/19 - 5/2
Scoring
Skater
Goal 6.0
Assist 4.0
Power play point 0.5
Shot 1.0
Hit 0.5
Blocked shot 1.0
Goalie
Win 6.0
Save 0.6
Goal against -3.0
Roster
C 1
W 2
D 1
G 1
FLEX 1
BENCH 10
