The hockey season is just around the corner, which means we’re back for another edition of our fantasy hockey cheat sheet. It’s time to start prepping for your drafts!If this isn’t your first time, you know what to do: The rankings are below for you to download, in big bold letters. For the folks who are new, here’s the deal: We have a fancy spreadsheet that creates fully customizable rankings tailored to whatever strange way your league is set up.There’s no real standardized hockey league, and the best way to get ahead is having rankings that take into account your league’s specific settings. Your league is not the same as the next person’s — a critical point when it comes to research and rankings. In fantasy hockey, there’s no one-size-fits-all ranking. Depending on any single set of rankings — no matter how smart the ranker — might already be your first mistake.While other rankings can work for standard leagues or research purposes, they probably don’t apply directly to your league’s quirks. That’s the point of this spreadsheet: to create an easy way for any fantasy hockey manager to tailor rankings to their league’s scoring system and format. (And trust us, it pays to have projections for every stat you need, not just points).You can find download links to the sheets below (In Excel and Numbers formats). Instructions on how the sheet works as well as answers to some frequently asked questions are underneath. (All patches and updates will be noted at the bottom of this page.)Microsoft Excel download link (Yahoo)Microsoft Excel download link (Fantrax)Numbers download link (Yahoo)Numbers download link (Fantrax)How to use this fantasy hockey cheat sheetStep 1: Scoring settingsThe first thing you need to do is to go to the “Settings” tab to start customizing. On the left side is where you’ll enter your league’s scoring system. If you’re in a points-based league, you only need to worry about the points column. If you’re in a categories or roto league, only worry about the categories column.For points leagues, simply type in the value next to each stat. If a goal is worth three points, type “3.” That’s it.For category leagues, I use standard deviations to score players in each category, so simply type “1” next to whatever category your league uses. This weights each category equally. If you would like to add more weight to certain categories (goals, assists, shots) over others (PIM, hits, blocks) based on scarcity, you can make the former categories worth more than 1 and/or the latter categories worth less.Step 2: League settingsNext, you’ll focus on the right side of the page.At the top, fill in how many players are in the starting lineup. If you’re in a league that doesn’t separate forwards by position, just make sure all three positions add up to the total amount of forward positions. At the bottom under “number of teams,” type in how many teams are in your league.For ADP data, type in which fantasy service you use.For league type, type in “points” or “categories,” depending on whichever your league uses. There’s only one page for rankings, so this step is crucial to make sure the correct total fantasy point calculation is used.For forward positions, type in “C/LW/RW” if separated or “forwards” if not. We realize all of this is pretty self-explanatory from looking at the spreadsheet, but for those less fluent, we figured we would spell it out for you.Then there’s “games played projections.” “No” means that every skater is projected to play all 84 games, while “yes” uses our games played estimates. If you’re of the mind that injuries are random, it might be better to go by a player’s projected per-game output. Just make sure you go through the list to mark the players who already have known injuries.There’s one more setting, but it requires further explanation.Step 3: Establishing a baselineThere’s a reason that you’re asked to fill out league size and starting lineup size above, and that’s so the spreadsheet can calculate each player’s value over replacement — the key to the rankings.Essentially, each player has a projected fantasy point rate, but that number needs the added context of what position he plays and what other players at the position are expected to do. Generally, this is to control for the fact that there’s an abundance of strong scoring centers and not as many capable wingers or defenders.For example, if Rasmus Dahlin is expected to score 420 fantasy points and Jack Eichel is expected to score 500, it’s the latter that seems more valuable. But it all depends on that baseline, where you can generally get a 400-point center just as easily as a 320-point defender. That makes them equally valuable. There’s a column in the settings sheet so you have an easy view at what that baseline is for each position.Now, here’s where things get tricky: How do you actually establish the baseline?Previously, it was established with an automatic calculation based on league size and starting lineup, combined with how players are normally drafted within the top 100. That generally made defenders more valuable, but for some, it doesn’t go far enough — the need for four defensemen in a standard league makes them even more valuable than the calculation suggested. For some users and leagues, the positional requirement using the starting lineup multiplied by team size as the baseline – essentially, the true definition of replacement — works best.