Best hockey pool guide/list/kit from the 2023/24 season

[hkyresearch]

Hello poolers,

Want to know which hockey pool list of projections was best for a one-year, straight points-only draft from the 2023/24 season?

I did, so over the course of this summer I have executed and evaluated over 87.1 million hockey pool draft simulations using the 54 point projection lists which were collected last season.

You can find all my videos breaking down the tests and results here Hockey Pool Aid Videos on YouTube

Over-all there were seven lists which pulled away from the rest of the competition by making it to the top levels as finalists in both the 8 owner and 9 owner drafts. They were:
DatsyukToZetterberg - Does extremely well in short drafts
Steve Laidlaw - Largely relies on longer drafts to rack up wins
Robert Koho - Balanced and successful in many draft lengths but distant in short ones
Crome Aggregate Projections - The most consistent of the ‘consensus’ lists
Ultimate Pool Preview - Carved out a path for victories in mid-length drafts
Game of CHAT - Consistent results across but placed better when 9 owners were involved
Canadian Sand Goggles - Found a way to win in highly competitive mid-level drafts

Another three lists were at the top level as finalists in one but not both sets of owner drafts. They were:
Steve's Cheat Sheet
Fantasy Hockey Decision System
Fantasy Hockey Helper w/recency bias

The guide with the most consistency and success across all the formats which we tested was DatsyukToZetterberg!!! Congrats to them!!! You can find them on Reddit and HockeysFuture.

They fought hard, especially against Robert Koho and Steve Laidlaw in longer drafts, but it was their immediate success in short drafts which separated them from all others.

They won the 9-Owner Battle of the Hockey Pools Guides, half of the Kumite deep drafts, and came in second in the 8-Owner Draft-A-Thon simulations.

We found that most of the lists were longer in length than in past season, which helped simulate the very long drafts.
Also, the holder of the second overall selection in a draft generally had an awful season. However, if you had the third or fourth overall pick you were more likely to win than in past seasons.

I have already started to collect the projections lists for the 2024/25 season and I look forward to putting them through even more rigorous testing next summer.

Good luck in your pools this season!!

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[BerthMania]

Which would you suggest for the 2024 25 season?

 

[hkyresearch]

Which would you suggest for the 2024 25 season?

I would need to know a little bit more about your pool before I could offer up a suggestion.
My evaluations are for points only drafts - no goalies, if this fits with your pool then
- how many rounds are there?
- how many owners?
- do you have any positional requirements?
- how strong do you think your competitors are?

 

[BerthMania]

I would need to know a little bit more about your pool before I could offer up a suggestion.
My evaluations are for points only drafts - no goalies, if this fits with your pool then
- how many rounds are there?
- how many owners?
- do you have any positional requirements?
- how strong do you think your competitors are?

It's a points only draft where goals and assists are worth 1 point. Win for goalies are 2 points. There are 20 rounds, 10 owners, I need 12 forwards, 6 D, 2 goalies. I'd say half of the competition is good and prepare themselves for the draft

 

[hkyresearch]

I will give you a few suggestions.

Dom Luszczyszyn from the Athletic - You might be able to access for free through your public library, if not you will need to $ for a subscription but sometimes there is a deal. But he did not have a good season last year.

Crome Aggregate Projections - can be found on reddit and is free. As the name states they aggregate several sources to come up with their rankings.

Ultimate Pool Preview - you will have to pay $. They are also an aggregator. My findings say that they do better in longer drafts, but around 200 players is the start of their better performance against others.

Steve's Cheat Sheet - you have to pay $. They too are an aggregator. Not as consistent as the other two aggregators but they had a very good 2022/23 season.

Steve Laidlaw - is free and can be found on X (twitter). It is his own ratings.

Some of the spreadsheets are configurable for your pools parameters, and some even tell you which position is the next best to choose from. But I did not have any positional restrictions on my testing.
And, I have to reiterate my testing did not include goalies.

No offense to any of the guides which did well last season but which I did not include in this list. Simply looking over the results from several reasons and sometimes I don't have much history to go from with new authors.

I hope this helps you.
Good luck in your pool.