The transmission delay and the number of hops in path are the two main factors which should be considered in designing a routing algorithm for a specific network. The paths generated by different routing strategs are called least delay path (LDP) and least hop path (LHP). In satellite network, the algorithm for LHP is much simpler, but there are limited research achievements for the rationality of LHP. A detailed theoretical analysis, in this research, was made for the differences between LDP and LHP in polar circular LEO satellite network. Based on the results of our analysis, a simplified LHP path selecting strategy with an idea of horizontal transmitting priority (HTP) by using the features of horizontal link length was proposed. The simulation results prove that our path selecting strategy can quickly find out the shortest path among all the LHP between every two nodes. It provides a foundation for the research of routing algorithms in LEO satellite network.