First over all fantasy pick

[sd1976]

I have the first overall pick in this years draft. Long term keeper league, 10 teams points only 1/1 and top 12 forwards + top 6 defenceman +1 goalie counts and I\'m in first year of 3 year rebuild. I also have the 3rd and 5th and 8th overall picks due to some trades made this year. I have 6 draft picks through 5 rounds (1st, 3rd, 5th, 8th, 15th, and 24th overall of 50) Here are my keepers:

FORWARDS

D. Briere
E. Staal
J. Staal
N. Backstrom
D. Roy
P. Meuller
K. Turris
E. Cole
P. Bouchard
S. Stamkos
J. Voracek
P. Bergeron
S. Gagne
R. Smyth
M. Afiniganov
S. Sullivan
T. Ruutu

DEFENCEMEN

J.M. Liles
B. Seabrook
T. Poti
J. Pitkanen
K. Bieksa

GOALIES

J.S. Giguere
T. Vokoun

My Drops are Conroy, Guerin, Zhitnik, Pothier, and 2 other players I\'m owed from trades (usually crap).

Now, I think I\'m stacked as far as young stud forwards go with the Staals the Phoenix twins, Ovechkins centerman and Stamkos among others. I\'m in dire need of some depth on defence but there are still a couple of forwards I like available. Here is a list of the undrafted players I\'m looking at;

DEFENCE
Streit
Byfuglien
Wideman
Yandle
Niskanen
Doughty
Peitrangelo
Hedmon
Rivet
Gilbert
Girardi

FORWARDS
Brunstrom
Giroux
Dubinski
Krejci
Hodgeson
Filitov

So after all that, assuming Streit stays with Montreal, I think he is the no brainer, also knowing that the guy with the second overall pick is worse off than me on defence ( I think he picks up Byfuglien, who do I go after then with the 3rd pick overall? Do I go Defence again, do I go with Brunstrom depending on which team he signs with or Claude Giroux? I really like Yandle, how close is he? The young D\'s are still at least 3 years away from making an impact. ADVICE???

[ultrawhiteness]

man good project you\'ve got there. you\'ll have a real strong team, very soon.

agree about streit 1st. and then brunnstrom, again, depending on who signs him. tampa would be good if they also got stamkos, otherwise not at all. or really any team that needs a 2nd line and also somehow also received stamkos.

use the next two picks to go both defence. yandle, niskanen, doughty, gilbert, pietrangelo.

i would love to hear more about your league setup. i like how deep and how you\'ll be drafting

[Atomic Wedgy]

Bergeron and Gags are a worry that you dont need. I\'d be looking to move them, but I guess they are more valuable on your team than what you could get for them at the moment.

If either of them start quick next year, i think you should trade them for as much as you can get.

Otherwise, I like the advise that Ultra gave you.

[sd1976]

The league started 6 seasons ago with 8 teams all friends. I missed the original draft because I was working out of the country but came in as an expansion team (a bad one lol). I worked my way up to third last year in a 10 team league and had I kept my team together, would be in second this year but I was just getting to old. I took advantage of some trading opportunities to get younger and keep my good young players (with the exception of Hemsky which still burns). I wasnt impressed with where I would be in a year or 2 and there were so many good young players available through trade and the draft I had to take it.

The league started with 30 players per team and a 5 round draft every year, must drop one player per draft pick. Goals and assists are 1 point and goalies get 2 points for a win and one point for an overtime loss. 12 top forwards count and 6 top defenceman. Ideally you want a mix of 18/19 forwards 9/10 defenceman and 2 #1 goalies (at least thats my strategy from year to year).

Now what are your thoughts if Streit doesnt sign with Montreal? Is he still worth the first overall pick? Also, I forgot about Strallman and Edler in their. Where do they rank? Stralman I think I could pick up with my second rounder, do I risk it? Especially with the chances of Kubina nad maybe McCabe being moved over the summer?

[Anonymous]

McCabe is going nowehere, Kubina I could see going just because. I would leave Stralman to a bit later, and I would take him ahead of Edler.

Considering your positional strengths, I agree with everyone who says Streit. Giroux I would take as the number 3 pick well ahead of Brunnstrom. Brunnstrom might be slightly more immediate, but he is not a sure thing at all,h e is nothing mroe an an unsigned draft pick, he gets hyped up alot. Giroux is a future 90 point player, I\'m not sure that Brunnstrom will achieve that if he does pan out.

Some other players to target with your other picks in the first round would be Filatov, Krejci, Hodgson on forward. Defence though I would put as mroe of a priority. Stralman you shold target for sure. If still available, I would take Doughty first, then take one of those three forwards I mentioned and grab Stralman if he is available with your 15th. If Doughty is gone, take a forward at 5 and then pick up Stralman at 8.

Your team will be disgusting if you can walk away this draft with players like Streit, Giroux, Doughty, Filatov, Stralman. Thats actually mouthwatering good. I can\'t imagine your team being beat in 3 or 4 years.

[theleaguerookie]

If Streit signs with Montreal I\'d take him. If he ends up on a different team, I\'d steer well clear, or draft him and trade him fast. Montreal has the best power-play in the league and makes good use of defense-men in general, and I think he\'s a product of the team as opposed to a genuinely elite player (I\'d say instead that he\'s firmly competent, and plays in a system where competence and reliability are well taken advantage of).

33 of his 59 points come on the power play, and while he\'s got a pretty good number of goals (7 of 12 on PP), he\'s not exactly flying across the ice Green-style and deking the puck past a tender to get them--he just slams it home when someone puts the puck on his stick.

Other D have looked great while they played for Montreal. My humble opinion. I really like the guy and hope he re-signs with the Habs, though I don\'t have the room to protect him for next year.

[Number1]

The key word that I noticed that obviously no one else has is that you are RE-BUILDING. I would not use my first overall pick of the year to draft a 31 year old defencemen if I was re-building. If I were you I would draft the best player available, which to me sounds like Giroux. Then I would use your next 3 picks and pick-up defencemen. If streit isn\'t there who cares take doughty, pietrangelo and starlman. It just doesn\'t make any sense to me for you to draft an older defencmen onto your young and extremely talented squad. If worst case and you don\'t get a defencmen that you are looking for trade Giroux or anyone of your good forwards for a good young defencemen such as Enstrom, Burns or maybe even green if you find the right owner. Is Cody Franson available in your draft? Just my thoughts!!

[smoothfun]

i agree that unless streit signs with montreal i\'d steer clear.doughty or gilbert would be the guys i\'d go for or go after the best player available , maybe giroux , and trade him + for an elite d-man.seems like you have the smarts in the trade dept. so use your skills to move some unproven yet still desireable talents for a proven d-man as well as to fill in the gaps.

[newper114]

Looks like you have a good team for some yrs to come.. i would say use the first pick on the dman. but i would consider trading off picks 3 & 5 for a top offensmen and decent dman. proven guys. maybe try to get hossa or malkin or something. this way you have some guys around now that will contribute to your current yrs stats. just a thought.

[sd1976]

That would be a good idea, unfortunately the guy who has Malkin tried to trade him to me earlier this season for Staal, Backstrom, Meuller, Liles and my 1st pick. And that was before he want on a rampage when Crosby got hurt. I know there are alot of people on here that say things like trade everything for a shot at Ovechkin/Crosby/Malkin. That doesnt work in this pool. Depth rules. I\'d like to have him, but no chance I can dismantle everything I\'ve done this season to have one good player and scrap after that...

[ultrawhiteness]

yes sd1976, in many cases i would say go for broke and get one of those super 3, but for you, you\'ve obviously been working at this team for a few years and it would be a shame to undo all that work. with your team, your depth will make you very tough to beat regardless of a top heavy talent like malkin.

just wanted to address this:
Number1 wrote:

The key word that I noticed that obviously no one else has is that you are RE-BUILDING. I would not use my first overall pick of the year to draft a 31 year old defencemen if I was re-building.

Number1 here makes some good points, especially when he enquires about Franson, who will be a very good young dman, but you should be able to wait until he\'s actually playing some games. what i\'m concerned with is that you might get caught up in a perpetually rebuilding mode, which you don\'t want. you\'ve got some great forwards who will be putting up big points starting next year. you don\'t necessarily want to add a bunch of young prospect dmen that will take 5 years to put up 45 points. try to focus on guys that are already in the nhl. niskanen and gilbert are nice talents who are already playing.

i do agree with everyone else in regards to trying to wait and see if streit will resign in montreal though. if you can.

[newper114]

yeah i agree dont give up all that. and as the other posts rebuilding is a word i see alot but you all have to realize is its fantasy hockey. why rebuild for 5 yrs in the future and watch your team lose now yr after yr. to me that outlook is worthless. i look at it like rebuild some but make sure you got a good core to go yr after yr.

my keeper league we keep 5: lecav, spezza, brodeur, green, and ignlia. thats who im keeping for this yr. i know we only keep 5 so its different but they are all proven guys then i have green who is my long term guy. i will probably be looking to trade spezza and brodeur off this coming yr for younger guys. its a move where you need to make but need to make sure you have guys to play each yr. just my outlook

[ultrawhiteness]

sorry, thread hijack here, but newper:

don\'t trade spezza, he\'s still quite young. go nuts trading brodeur though.

[mapletreemarty]

I saw someone mentioned Gilbert earlier. I think he\'s been playing really well for his second year in the league 33 pts. He\'s outplayed Pitkanen this year, and Souray (well Souray has been hurt) but has flopped regardless... big surprise there.

He\'s still really young and could put up 45 points by the time his 4th year rolls around. I guess it all depends on what the Oilers do with Pitkanen. 25 pts. will be even lower than his rookie season of 27 pts. Just something to keep your eye on I guess.

[BrianSTC]

I would not draft Streit...
Your team is fairly young...so you should be playing to win in 2 or 3 years....
I would go with...
#1 Doughty
#3 Hedman
#5 Gilbert
#8 Peitrangelo

At least one of those D-men will turn into a super-stud...