Points league draft outcome - comments welcome
 

One-year Yahoo points league - 10 teams
G = 1, A = 1, W = 2, SO = 2
9F 4D 3BN 2G (Max 50 GP per slot) 2IR
Trades, adds/drops allowed

I had about 4 hours notice for this draft - I received the text during the Falcons-Seahawks game. I liked the idea though because I've never done a league draft in January. I still hate Bettman and Fehr though. This draft should have taken place in October. At least my car wouldn't be covered in snow when I left Boston Pizza.

I picked 1st overall, and the draft was snake format so I picked 10th in round 2.

My picks:
1 (1) - Evgeny Malkin
2 (20) - Mike Smith
3 (21) - Erik Karlsson
4 (40) - Phil Kessel
5 (41) - Joe Thornton
6 (60) - Dustin Byfuglien
7 (61) - Loui Eriksson
8 (80) - Miikka Kiprusoff
9 (81) - Jakub Voracek
10 (100) - Keith Yandle
11 (101) - Carey Price
12 (120) - Teddy Purcell
13 (121) - Mike Ribeiro
14 (140) - Matt Carle
15 (141) - Tomas Fleischmann
16 (160) - David Desharnais
17 (161) - Andy McDonald
18 (180) - Dmitry Kulikov

My final team:

F: Malkin, Kessel, Thornton, Eriksson, Voracek, Purcell, Ribeiro, Fleischmann, Desharnais
D: Karlsson, Byfuglien, Yandle, Carle
G: Smith, Kiprusoff
BN: Price, McDonald, Kulikov

Any thoughts or comments are welcome. I had fun and did this primarily as an escape from serious life but I think there are things to be learned in everything.

I am a bit surprised Karlsson didn't go until pick 21.

Definitely surprised about this too because the remaining forwards were 5-6 points ahead of Karlsson in total value. With Karlsson being head and shoulders above everyone else at his position it was a no brainer for me.

If defensemen don't get bonus points, then generally speaking the best thing to do is to wait to the mid-later rounds to draft your defense.

There's a ton of low-risk ~40 point defensemen to draft later on... no sense wasting an early pick gambling on the next Karlsson/Doughty/Visnovsky when there's a ton of elite forwards who are a lock for 80+.

Oh I agree with that totally. Just saying, the Karlsson train is mega huge right now, figured someone would snap him up in first 10 picks.

I don't love drafting at #1 personally, but I think you've made the best of it here.

I think some of your guys had career years last year and are due for a correction (Smith, Kessel, namely), but you've also got some great value picks in Yandle in round 10 and Price in 11.

I think Karlsson will make or break you... as mentioned above I personally wouldn't have gone for a defenseman that high in your format when you could've locked in an 80 point forward.

Overall your team is pretty solid - good balance and you did well with your later round picks.

Normally I abide by this strategy, but in a shortened season I don't mind the risk. After the elite scorers, there will be a bunch of guys around the point per game mark, say 45-50 points, so you could probably get someone who'll score not much less two or three rounds later. However, if (and this is the risk, sure) Karlsson can produce at close to the same rate as last year, he's a 40-45 point producer, which should be signficantly higher than the next best defenseman. He may not, but the fact that he got Thornton, who could put up 45 points, in the fifth round, I feel it was worth the risk.

A couple other notes:
-Smith was the last top tier goalie available. I picked 1st and there was a bit of a goalie run at the end of the 1st and early in the 2nd. Had to grab a goalie there.
-The smaller sample of games made projections difficult. When I would make my pick there were always a half dozen players projected within a point or two of the guy I ended up picking.
-My 3 bench spots are risk/reward players because they are not my primary options anyway. In particular Andy McDonald is awesome for pts/game but could be knocked out for the season in a heartbeat. I took the gamble and will hit the wire if need be.