Great reads guys! Like I said earlier, toughest draft I've ever taken part in.
This was my second Pro draft, the first one taking place the day before. In the other Pro draft I drew the first overall pick (to the calls of "fix"). I HAD to take Ovechkin first. Doing that sets in motion a certain strategy. I ended up with LW, G, D, D, D, G and only took my first C in round 14.
I wanted to pick in a different position for this draft to try a different strategy. The Hockey Gods were with me on draft day, I ended up picking 12 of 13! Yay!
Rounds 1 & 2 - Not a whole lot you can plan for when you are picking 12th overall, so I was just waiting to see what fell to me. I was initially thinking at least one stud goalie because there would be a lot of picks until my 3rd pick. That was before Mike Green fell into my lap. With six starters at D, I couldn't pass up the most dominant fantasy D out there. I was overjoyed. For my second pick, I thought, definitely get a stud goalie. the jobbers took Bryzgalov on the corner, so I was left with Jimmy "I don't trust you yet" Howard, Lundqvist or Kiprusoff at goaltender. One option that was left was Nicklas Backstrom (Wsh) was still on the table. Normally I loathe taking a C this high, but when you factor in +/-, PPP and the fact he should hit triple digits in points, I couldn't resist taking him (although it took me nearly the full 1:30).
Rounds 3 & 4 - Because I passed on taking a goalie with my first two picks, I was thinking goalie, goalie. Of course seven goalies were taken after my 2nd round pick. That left me with Cam Ward and Tomas Vokoun. I know, two decent goalies stuck on average to potentially bad teams, but with our scoring including Saves, these guys should be just fine. With weekly starts, you can't mess around taking the chance on platoon situation goalies (Ott, Tor, Phi, SJ, NYI, TB, Wsh to name a few).
Rounds 5 & 6 - Time to start looking at the wings. Was looking at LW/C-Sharp and LW-Cammalleri. Then blammo, Sharp was off the board four picks in front of me. I was drooling at the opportunity to snag Cammalleri, but he got Smacked with the pick in front of mine. Thanks guys. Not liking what was "Left" on the board and seeing RW as very deep, I decided to go with C Paul Stastny. BPA IMO. I had a difficult time deciding my round 6 pick. It came down to Mark Streit, Phil Kessel or Ales Hemsky. The deciding factor was that there were still plenty of very good D on the board and I just don't trust Hemsky to stay healthy. I also have a bazillion Assists with Backstrom and could use some Goals, so I went with Kessel.
Rounds 7 & 8 - A whole bunch of top D went off the board, but I still didn't have any LW. I was eyeballing Hartnell, but blammo blew that up for me. That "Left" Ryane Clowe who will help in the PiM department. I need a little help there because I have too many sweethearts so far in my lineup. With my next pick I wanted to take the next best D available before all the 50 pointers are gone. I went with Tomas Kaberle. Please play forward this year Tomas!
Rounds 9 & 10 - Was looking at Backes, but Smack got me again. Ended up taking an underrated LW in Brooks Laich, who will contribute in +/-, PPP and SOG in addition to 60 points. Wanted a D next and Keith Yandle's superior +/- and SOG won out over Enstrom and his upcoming minus rating. I kinda regret this move in hindsight and hope that my instincts were right.
Rounds 11 & 12 - Funny story time. I had five guys pegged in my queue and had a very hard time prioritizing. Enstrom who I passed over the round before, Krejci, Pominville, C.Giroux and Gionta. With the Savard news all over the place, I decide that Krejci will be the guy who steps up and produces on the number one line, so I take him now. Then the jobbers proceed to take Enstrom and Pominville, leaving me to choose between Brian Gionta and Claude Giroux. I choose the former primarily because of the superior SOG. Giroux goes with the very next pick to Smack!
Rounds 13 & 14 - While waiting, I'm loading my queue with Jordan Staal and Martin Havlat, both who would look good on my team, but joos scoops them both with his picks! I settle for another underrated veteran in Jamie Langenbrunner. He had 19 PPP and 228 SOG last season. I couldn't pass on C Tomas Plekanec to round out my pivots. Seriously, he had 70 points last year. That also gives me three guys with the first nameTomas.
Rounds 15 & 16 - I knew that LW has the shallowest pool of talent this year and I only had two of my four LW spots filled. The talent was draining quickly, so I scooped up a guy who had 61 points and 25 PPP last year, but little else in Andrew Brunette. I figure I have enough decent plus/minus guys to offset his potentially bad numbers. My next pick was fun. I checked the guy picking behind me (the jobbers) and noticed he only had one LW (Kovalchuk), that's why I took Brunette first, but when the jobbers didn't take a LW with either of his two picks, I decided to put the boots to him a little and chose Ryan Malone hoping that the new situation in TB will benefit him. Plus he is no slouch in the PiM department. Good luck jobbers! Note: He ended up with Moulson and T.Ruutu (edit: I incorrectly wrote J.Jokinen), who should be just fine.
Rounds 17 & 18 - Was torqued to see Ryan Whitney (doulos) and especially Del Zotto (UW) go earlier in the round. Then I was really steamed when Kubina went right in front of me (again Smack, really? C'mon man!). I settled for Cam Barker and then took the BPA in C Alex Steen.
Rounds 19 & 20 - I ended up getting the guy I passed on earlier, thinking he'd still be around with my next pick and thankfully he was. Brent Burns was that pick. I'm hoping he can recover his form from a couple of years ago, but right now it's just hope. Then I rounded out my D corps with Tom Gilbert.
Rounds 21 & 22 - Missed out on Horcoff (doulos) and was going to take a chance with Souray, but St.John's Capitals scooped him. I ended up settling for another veteran in Vinny Prospal. I always prefer established players over hyped up rookies at least in one year pools. My next pick was a little iffy in my opinion. With the return of Hudler, I'm not sure taking Todd Bertuzzi was a good pick, but his ancillary numbers last year seduced me.
Rounds 23 & 24 - Took a couple shots in the dark with Mikhail Grabovski and believe it or not Joe Corvo. That Hurricane blueline sure is crowded though. WTF is management doing bringing back Babchuk AND Corvo when they've already got Pitkanen and a budding young stud in McBain? I see Corvo's role as reduced, but should things not go well, the coach has confidence in Corvo because it's the same coach that gave him over 25 minutes per game.
Round 25 - Last chance to make an impact, so like most everyone else, I took a darkhorse. Mine was Artem Anisimov or as my buddy calls him Isaac Asimov! Is it Science Fiction to believe he'll center the number one line? Maybe, maybe not.
Awesome draft guys and thanks again for all your write ups. Too bad first is already decided.