# Which of the four US major sports does the Fantasy Draft have the least/most impact?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-the-four-us-major-sports-does-the-fantasy-draft-have-the-least-most-impact/847371>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 2, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-the-four-us-major-sports-does-the-fantasy-draft-have-the-least-most-impact/847371 "2020-02-02T05:57:32Z")\
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**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-the-four-us-major-sports-does-the-fantasy-draft-have-the-least-most-impact/847371/1 "2020-02-02T05:57:32Z")

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Based on my VERY limited experience:

LEAST: NFL- A short season, lots of injuries and a fluky sport. Seems to me a good draft can quickly blow up in a team owners face and a saavy team owner that had an unlucky draft can quickly pick up on emerging free agents especially with extra time in between games to prepare.

Next least: MLB- Baseball is such a hard game to predict. Over 162 games players go cold, they go hot, pitchers go cold, they go hot, and again a saavy baseball mind can pick out the diamonds in the rough. Too much can go wrong over such a long season and a lot of the game is based on plain luck.

Next most: NBA- Its pretty obvious who the first round picks are: Lebron, AD, Kawhli, Joel Embiid, BWest, Kevin Durant (not this year obviously), James Harden, Paul Geroge, Kemba Walker, Freak etc. Basically in a 10 team league if you don’t pick up a top 15 scorer with your first pick you basically blow it. Only danger is if that #1 pick gets injured for the season you are fucked but its a rather low risk proposition. HOWEVER the challenge is in what you do the remaining rounds!

MOST impact–NHL- The NHL rarely changes from year to year. Unicorns are rare as NHL coaches are the most stringent about even the most promising prospects must earn their ice time. I looked at my NHL fantasy league and for the most part, those that drafted the best are on top. In addition hockey careers can last a long time, so even top players in their early 30s can still be big contributors. I contend that of the 4 US sports, the draft is the most important when it comes to NHL Fantasy.