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Saturday, September 09, 2006

Draft like the pros

Well, I don’t know if this is supposed to be a big secret or if I’m spoiling any great intro, but I did my first Yahoo draft today, as part of Mirtle’s monster league. This league might get some publicity, as it involves many ‘celebrities’, like Kukla, Golbez, Spector, BoA, Covered in Oil, Puck Update, etc., etc. I’m sure someone’s going to do a comprehensive post somewhere.

Some short specs on this mega-league, though:

20 teams head-to-head
Positions: C x 3, LW x 2, RW x 2, Util x 2, D x 4, G x 2, Bench x 4, IR x 3
Categories: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPG, PPA, SHP, GWG, SOG, W, GAA, SV, SV%, SHO

So a long draft, 380 players deep. Well, here’s what I did, getting the #2 pick:

Rd – Pick – Player
1 – 2 – M. Kiprusoff, G CGY
2 – 39 – T. Selanne, RW ANA
3 – 42 – T. Bertuzzi, RW FLA
4 – 79 – J. Giguere, G ANA
5 – 82 – A. McDonald, C ANA
6 – 119 – A. Frolov, LW LOS
7 – 122 – R. Getzlaf, C ANA
8 – 159 – F. Beauchemin, D ANA
9 – 162 – D. Cloutier, G LOS
10 – 199 – P. Sykora, RW EDM
11 – 202 – M. Carle, D SJS
12 – 239 – E. Lindros, C DAL
13 – 242 – D. Penner, C ANA
14 – 279 – O. Nolan, RW PHX
15 – 282 – D. Brown, RW LOS
16 – 319 – T. Fedoruk, LW ANA
17 – 322 – J. Madden, C NJD
18 – 359 – K. McLaren, D SJS
19 – 362 – A. Kopitar, C LOS

C – McDonald, Getzlaf, Lindros, Penner, Madden, Kopitar
RW – Selanne, Bertuzzi, Sykora, Nolan, Brown
LW – Frolov, Fedoruk
D – Beauchemin, Carle, McLaren
G – Kiprusoff, Giguere, Cloutier

Strengths: strong goaltenders for a 20-team league, top-line Anaheim scorers
Weaknesses: logjam at center, not enough defensemen, too many Ducks
Solutions: a) I am fairly certain that Penner will get LW eligibility to ease the problem at center.
b) As for defensemen, I immediately will have two spots freed up, as Yahoo! Has whimsically allowed me to put Lindros and Cloutier on the IR. I got a month until the season starts to straighten out the blueline.

At any rate, I did my best to represent the BoC, and I even ended up with a player from each Pacific team.

Critiques? Opinions? Trade offers?

9 comments:

Sean Zandberg said...

Too many Ducks....
Love the goalies though. Kipper will get more points than Brodeur I bet!
Is there a games-played limit on each position? What is it?

Earl Sleek said...

Um, no max, I think. Just a minimum of 2 GP (for goalies, mostly).

Oh, but there is a 60-roster-move max, good thing I looked!

Doogie2K said...

Just in case it's not clear, that means drops/pickups, not dressed/bench.

VeryProudofYa said...

That's a sharp looking team. I had my first live draft today, too. I was only able to nab macdonald from the ducks.
Luckily for me I swung a trade that got lidtrom on my team and also freed up bench slots, which I used to grab penner.


But your goalies will be a major strenght, especially in a league like yours where starting goalies are a premium. You should be able to a swing a deal for an elite defenseman, even if Jiggy and Cloutier tend to be middle of the pack goalies.

joninabox said...

Bleh, head to head. Probably would have been better suited to go for elite D early after Kipper (ie Lidstrom). With so many forward positions probably could have found some steals later that would produce similarly to Getzlaf, McDonald, Frolov, etc. Goaltending looks very good for a large league. Kopitar might turn into a very good late pick. Nice job overall, might suffer a bit in PIM, SHP, and assists. Who knows though, HTH is a crapshoot with hockey. :)

Earl Sleek said...

Fair enough. I should point out that by the time I had a 2nd-round pick (thanks to snake-drafting), the following d-men were already drafted:

Lidstrom (16th overall)
Pronger (20th)
Niedermayer (21st)
Redden (22nd)
McCabe (31st)
Phaneuf (34th)
Chara (35th)
Gonchar (38th)

So 'premium defensemen' were pretty thinned.

As to H2H being a crapshoot, yes, that is true. However, it does allow for later comebacks, IMO, than rotisserie leagues.

James Mirtle said...

Wow, didn't realize your netminding stable was so strong (I have Hasek, Toivonen and Nabokov, for those keeping score).

I went hog wild with scoring forwards, however, and very little defence. I have no clue if that'll give me an advantage or not.

VeryProudofYa said...

You might want to look at smid for your d-line. He was expected to challenge for a spot when the trade was made, and edmonton's defense has hardly gotten stronger since then. It'll be a risk, but if he does make it they'll groom him on the powerplay.

Ingmar "W" Bergman said...

I agree with Mirtle, your goaltenders are looking strong.

I like your Frolov/Kopitar/Brown selections. They could very well become Crawfords "project".

Frolov has to break through sometime and Kopitar might get as much as 40 points this year. Brown? I'm not sure as to his potential but he looks good.

My draft is in three weeks time.