Re: Just Won the Draft Lottery - For My Team Should I Take Matthews or Laine (REP)
Thanks for the comments everyone and I have used up my REP limit for today so will try to spread some more around over the next few days.
Now its time to share my thoughts. Firstly, I am a bit surprised that there is not a single person that has said they would go with Laine. Considering that he was the SM-Liiga playoff best player and World Championship MVP / Best Forward I thought at least one or two would have him ranked #1 on their fantasy draft board. When I started this post I was leaning toward selecting Laine with the #1 pick for the following reasons:
- He is a winger that will likely get LW / RW eligibility, which is a lot more valuable and harder to replace then C.
He has the potential to be an elite goal scorer, which I feel is one of the hardest attributes to find in fantasy hockey, and I also think he will be near the top of the league in SOG.
- He is 7 months younger than Matthews, which from development perspective, is not insignificant and I think that his skating (which is a knock that I have heard against him) will continue to improve.
- I already have Eichel (p), Kuznetsov, Scheifele, Barkov, S. Bennett (p) and Barzal (p) at C and fully expect at least 4 of them to be among my keepers for the foreseeable future.
- I am a Jets fan (I know it shouldn't matter but its hard to pass on top end hometown talent) and can already envision him playing alongside Scheifele and Ehlers for the next decade.
- I already have Marner, who I expect to line-up with Mathews long-term, so worst case scenario I should have a Matthews hedge going forward.
That being said I really like Matthews and, given the comments, will seriously consider taking him as I do think he will be one of the top C's in the league for years to come.
10 Team Keeper League, 15 Keepers (max 2 goalies), 10 prospects, Start 2C, 2LW, 2RW, 3 Utility, 4D, 2G
Stats: G, A, P, +/-, PIMS, SOG, STP; W, SO, SV%, GAA
C: MacKinnon, Scheifele, Larkin, Pavelski (RW)
LW Panarin, Ehlers , Ovechkin, Verhaeghe (C), Beauvillier, Killorn
RW: Kucherov, Pastrnak, Wheeler, Mangiapane (LW)
D: Makar, Hughes, Krug; Pietrangelo, Schmidt, Andersson, Gostibehere
G: Vasilevskiy, Hellebuyck, Bobrovsky
Prospects: Sorokin (G), Askarov (G), Raymond (LW), Kaliyev (RW), Perfetti (RW), Norris (C), Kaprizov (LW), Hayton (C), Brannstrom (D), Boqvist (D), Clarke (D)
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Originally Posted by VintageVibe
