Dailyjoust.com recently kicked off their fantasy hockey offering.  By the looks of things, it's bound to be a success.  Between the live scoring features, original take on the goalie position, and a top notch user interface, many daily players should be flocking to the site this season.  Daily Joust also has a unique point scoring system that you need to get a grasp on in order to build the optimal roster.  So for those new to the site / sport, here's your 101 strategy on building a winning roster for Daily Joust hockey.

You have 9 roster spots to fill and $1 million in cap to spend.  That averages out to about $110k a player to spread out across your goalie, defense, and three forward positions.  But all positions are not created equally. 

GOALIE

Always start by selecting your goalie squad.  Daily Joust is unique in that you need not concern yourself with who is getting the start in net, as you're selecting a team, not a player.  Obviously there is a difference in quality between most starters and their respective backups, so you'll still want to stay somewhat informed before making your pick.  However, you won't get completely burned when Miller gets his off-night of rest.  In terms of scoring, the goalie position is potentially the most lucrative, and therefore, the most expensive.  Breaking it down by what you can expect based on performance:

• Great win (shutout): 50 pts
• Good win: 30 pts
• Avg loss: 1 pt
• Bad game: -8 pts

As you'll see in a moment, you can't reasonably expect a forward to earn you 30 to 50 points the way a solid goalie effort will, but you'll pay for that privilege.  Goalie salaries range from about $110k to $265k, with the decent options starting around $220k.  As you can see, you have no choice but to spend some money at this position.  The prices are based on the rankings of the goalies and don't really take into consideration the weakness of the opponent.  This is where you can cash in.  Focus on the opponent here.  Anyone playing the likes of Winnepeg, Ottawa, Columbus or Calgary should catch your attention in the early going. 

DEFENSE

Once your crease is settled, hold your nose and fill up the necessary spots with defense.  While I'm a huge fan of the position in the real game of hockey, there's just no love to be had in the fantasy world.  Forwards and defensemen are rewarded with equal weight for their stats, and as a rule, defensemen score at half the pace of forwards.  Best bet here is to scrape together a couple of value players with some chance of registering points, while saving as much cap as possible for your offense.  The one thing to note for this position is the hits and blocked shots.  You can sometimes find consistent producers in these categories, even if the goals and assists are sporadic.   Here's what you can expect most nights:

• Great game: 25 pts
• Avg game: 15 pts
• Poor game: -3 pts

Defensemen salaries start at $45k and go all the way up to $177.  If you're spending the money at the upper end of that spectrum, you're not winning.   Players at the $45 tend to be inactive, so pay attention if you're scraping the very bottom of the barrel.  The reasonable options start around $70k.  You can find some solid options lingering around $100k.  You'll rarely find me topping $110k at this position.

OFFENSE

Assuming you've followed my advice, you've probably invested under $300k to this point, leaving you to spend about $115k per forward.  Here's what you can expect from these guys:

• Great Game: 40+ pts

• Avg Game: 20 pts
• Poor game: 5 pts

As with the defense, your options technically start at $45k, but you won't find much worth exploring until you get to the $60k territory.  At that point, try and snag one or two sleepers lingering between $60-$70k.  Right now, youngsters like Alex Burmistrov and Cody Hodgson can be had for this price.  Doing this will allow you to splurge on a superstar or two.  There are a handful of players who produced on an almost nightly basis last season (Stamkos, Daniel Sedin, Perry…).  Despite the crazy cap hit, it's worth grabbing one for the near-guarantee in points.  This season, I'll be playing Claude Giroux and/or Stamkos every chance I get.  If/when Crosby returns, you can add him into that category as well.

BEST VALUES

Now that you've got the basic strategy in hand, here are a few guys that stand out as good value picks given the current cap hits:

• James van Riemsdyk (PHI) - JVR is on the verge of a major breakout season.  He's lingering the moderate price range for now ($123k).  Expect that to climb as his stats do the same.
• Evgeni Malkin (PIT) - Yes, he's hurt, which is the only thing to explain his $130k cap hit.  The moment he returns, use him in your lineup until the inevitable price correction.
• Ryan Kesler (VAN) - Perhaps the injury factor explains this one, too.  Kesler is a fantasy stud, delivering goals, assists, hits, +/-, and every else that counts.  He just played his first game of the season and sits at $123k.
• Derek Stepan (NYR) - Yes, it's true, he hasn't registered a point yet.  Be patient.  At $71k, this sophomore is due for a huge game and can't come much cheaper.
• Clarke MacArthur (TOR) - MacArthur has just 1 point, having missed a couple of games with a suspension.  He's certainly worth more than his $74k salary would lead you to believe.
• Kyle Okposo (NYI) - Expect Okposo to starting putting up some numbers at some point this season.  $74k is low.
• Alexander Burmistrov (WIN) - $58k is silly for this budding star

NOTE: Tonight, Daily Joust is running a free contest worth $500.  Sign up and use refer code "LANDSHARKHOCKEY".