This is my first draft of the season and also my first draft since being introduced to DobberHockey. If any fantasy hockey pros here can give me any suggestions for improvement it would be much appreciated. I do have several upcoming drafts so this will help refine my strategy. Thanks in advance.
This is a 12 team head-to-head league using snake draft. I drafted first overall.
Scoring as follow:
Skaters - G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SOG
Goaltenders - W, GAA, SV%, SO
The league have the following position requirements:
2C, 2RW, 2LW, 4D, 2G, 4B, 1IR (total 16 players + 1 IR)
Here's my team:
1. (1) Alex Ovechkin (LW)
2. (24) Ilya Bryzgalov (G)
3. (25) Ryan Getzlaf (C)
4. (48) Jaroslav Halak (G)
5. (49) Ryan Kesler (C)
6. (72) Loui Eriksson (RW)
7. (73) Carey Price (G)
8. (96) Andrei Markov (D)
9. (97) Ales Hemsky (RW)
10. (120) Erik Karlsson (D)
11. (121) Taylor Hall (LW)
12. (144) P.K. Subban (D)
13. (145) Jiri Hudler (RW)
14. (168) Paul Martin (D)
15. (169) Tyler Ennis (C/LW)
16. (192) Jamie McBain (D)
My first pick was a no-brainer with Alex Ovechkin. The hot item in the first couple rounds looks to be centers and goaltenders as expected.
I would've gladly waited till the 5th/6th rounds to grab my first center but could not pass up the opportunity to draft Ryan Getzlaf in round 3 (my next pick being #48 there is no way he will be available). I was hoping to grab Corry Perry or Bobby Ryan with my next pick for a 1-2 punch with Getzlaf but both those players flew off the board early in round 4... I settled for another 5-tool forward - Ryan Kesler with my 5th pick.
I think I have fairly strong goaltending with legitimate 1A/1B with Bryzgalov and Halak and a decent secondary with Carey Price (looking for him to have a bounce back season). I should get fairly good returns on these investments seeing as goaltending account for 40% of the stat, so unless I completely missed the mark I should be ok here.
I'm fairly satisfied with my defense with all 5 of my picks being quarterbacks of the PP1 unit on their respective teams so they should be decent point producers.
One of my strategy in drafting is getting undervalued players who was injured or did not play in the NHL last season, hence my drafting of players such as Ales Hemsky and Jiri Hudler. That being said, I did forgo several higher ranked players on my pre-draft list to avoid having too many 'band-aid boys' on my team.
I think I may be a little weak in terms of my wingers but with the deep RW there should be plenty of possible replacements in the FA pool. For LW there is of course Ovechkin... and I took a chance in grabbing Taylor Hall in round 11. Another of my weakness may be PIM.
Not complaining with taken a chance and getting Tyler Ennis and Jamie McBain as sleeper picks in the last two rounds.
Do you think I may have took too much chance on unproven players? Do you see any areas I need improvement on?
I think you did a very good job with your draft...you solidified your GK situation up very nicely which allowed you to focus on other needs for the remainder of the draft. Your Defense looks good, you just don't have that top tier anchor which is okay because in a standard Yahoo league it's more important to draft offensive studs before them when available.
I do not think you drafted too much unproven guys because you have the consistent offensive threats to anchor your offensive unit for the entire season; which will allow you to take chances on some guys.
I haven't seen the other teams in your league but this one should be very competitive at first glance. The only thing that could spell disaster for your team would be if Halak is a bust - not being able to handle the rigors of being the main man for an entire season and if Price falls by the wayside - which is what many expect. Although, I think Price can have a bounce back year....if all of your GK's work out for you, the offensive studs stay healthy, and a few of your unprovens or on the bubble guys blossom I wouldn't wanna play this team in the playoffs!
Thanks for taking the time to analyze my team, nino3436. I agree with your points on the goaltending issue, I do note however that I did forgo some goaltenders for their tendency to get injured - such as Kari Lehtonen or Semyon Varlamov.
Alternatives to Halak and Price in my draft might be to take Cam Ward over Halak and Steve Mason over Price (both Ward and S. Mason may have bounce back seasons).
Yeah, all of those guys have about equal oppurtunities to succeed/fail IMHO. There wasn't much you could do at that point. Carey Price has the most UPSIDE our of all of these guys but probably has the highest chance to fail as well. I think Varlamov is the safest pick out of these guys....I don't see him losing the upper hand to Neuvirth. Mason is Mason and is a middle of the pack guy on bad team. As for Keri Lehtonen, read Steve Mason.
I don't blame your pick...you went for the high risk/high reward guy and that's how you win championships. I like your strategy.
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