Dobber Pro-Wales draft retrospective

[hockeyislife]

I found myself with the 9th pick in this year's edition of the Pro-Wales draft; not where I was hoping for (6th or 7th), but with this crowd I don't think there truly is a good spot to be in. My original strategy of grabbing one of Luongo, Miller or Broduer goes out the window; no way any of them will slide that far. As such, I look at two players; Heatley and Kovalchuk, as they both have dual wing eligibility. Hopefully one of them will be there; as it turns out they both are. I go with Heatley.

2nd round: I take RW Patrick Kane in the second round; this way I can start Heatley on my LW. Now I have to grab a G in the next round, before the last couple of true #1's are all gone.

The first "surprise" pick is Doulos grabbing Chris Pronger with his 2nd rounder. While still an elite D-man, the fact that he may still be recovering from surgery when the season starts pushed him down my list.

3rd round: While G is my priority, I make the mistake of putting Rick Nash in my queue(he also has dual wing eligibility). As soon as I do that UW snags him; this may in turn save my draft. Howard and Kipper go just before me, leaving my choice between Fluery and Ward. Pittsburgh is the better team, so I go with Fluery. Perhaps Ward will be there on the way back.

Doulos again goes with a boom/bust pick in RW Gaborik: I cant deny his talent, but his BAB status scares me far too much.

4th round: The final quality G go after I take Fluery: Ward, Vokoun and Turco and Anderson disappear of the screen in a heartbeat. I take C Zetterberg; if he and Datsyuk play together he may eventually get LW eligibility. So far, I like the look of my squad.

5th Round: I'm up in the air as to what to go after next, so I figure I'll let the competition make my decision for me. Lecavailer and Vanek are the most appealing; however as soon as you think of a name he gets taken. Almost every pick at this point starts an uproar, something that will continue for many rounds. There's one last player that I like with dual eligibility: Patrick Sharp. Yeah, snapped up before me by blammo. Jason Spezza is a good secondary prize tho.

The dual eligibility now may have been my undoing; because I was so focused on Sharp I didn't pay attention to who needed a second G. I quickly figure that out as both S.Mason and Backstrom go after I select Spezza. I survived last year because I had Luongo and Miller; this year I'm going to struggle at G.

6th round: I don't have a single D-man yet so I take Gonchar here. I still consider him among the elite, but I may be reaching a bit there. Hopefully I can fill in around him with a strong group.

Niemi and Leighton go after I pick Gonchar; again, I'm not focused on the G situation. Hemsky is grabbed by duballstar to a chorus of thank you's. We all realize the talent, but are scared off by his injuries. duballstar tells us all to do something unnatural!
Doulos again rolls the dice on another injured player in Andrei Markov. His team could be anywhere, depending on how quickly they come back.

7th round: I've made the decision to go with the best available talent, regardless of position. With that in mind I go with RW Loui Eriksson. I considered two others in Kaberle and Briere, but prefer Eriksson.

8th round: Briere is sitting there when my pick comes up again, so I grab him. He's my first injury concern, but I'm hopeful that his playoff performance will carry thru to this season.

UW puzzles us all by taking C Olli Jokinen; even he admits he had to scroll thru a lot of names to find him. He was a name I had in the back of my head, perhaps as my #4 C.
Doulos follows up with Taylor Hall. It's a bold pick, but with the dearth of LW's available its well worth the gamble.

9th round: LW is looking a bit bleak; both on what's remaining and on my squad. I'm looking at three names, however they all go in succession: Elias, Neal, Frolov. I'm starting to think that I should be putting guys like Clutterbuck in my queue; everyone seems to be cheating of me anyways. Three more LW go in JVR, Wolski and J.Jokinen.
Ugh. I take RW Hornqvist. That fills up my RW, so now I can focus on other things.

10th round: I take C Derek Roy here; I'm hoping that he gets back to the PPG season he had a couple years ago. I'm on the phone with one of the guys from my main keeper pool; he's offered my Eric Staal for my 1st round pick in the amateur draft; needless to say I don't pay any attention the Pro pool for quite some time.(yes, I did the deal to get Staal)

11th round: I'm still trying to figure out what has happened in the draft as my clock is ticking down; I need help at LW, D and G. I cant wait at G any longer, so I hope that my pick of Dan Ellis pans out. If not, my skaters better be bagging me some huge roto points

If I had paid attention to the draft, I would have realized the guys behind me weren't n the market for G at this point. I had been eyeing Enstrom for a while, but between the clock and my G I panicked. Enstrom goes to jobbers four picks later; he's a steal this late.

12th round: No one is taking LW's anymore, and I'm desperate to grab them. Mason Raymond could steal a top 6 spot in Vancouver; especially with Burrows being hurt.

13th round: I'm still desperate for help at LW; Ponikarovsky is the best name available which means I still need help at LW! Perhaps he clicks better with Kopitar than he did with Crosby or Malkin. I cant believe I actually think that

14th round: My D still consists of just Sergei Gonchar; I had best do something about that quickly. I take D Jack Johnson; again I'm hoping that playoff performance will carry over into this season.

LOTR rolls the dice by taking D John Carlson; granted he has Lidstrom, Edler and Subban to cover for him. I had him on my radar, but was hoping I might snag him as a bench player.

15th round: There's a run on LW and D this round; precisely what I don't want to see. I had noticed that Alex Tanguay was sitting pretty low on the Yahoo boards and am hoping he'll slide to me. This time St. John's Capitals takes him from under me; the hissy fit I throw wakes up my dog. I take D Matt Carle(Phi); hopefully Pronger's absence won't affect him too much.

Smack takes two players in 15 and 16 that I think are solid picks in D Kris Letang(I kick myself for not taking him) and G Rick Dipietro.

16th round: I'm still trying to add to my D, so I go with Ian White. Suddenly my D isn't looking so bleak.

I'm focusing more on the players other people are taking now; sometimes that helps, and sometimes it hurts. My queue gets ravaged again as everyone is on the same page at D; how I wish for the guys at the office pool suddenly!

17th round: At this point, I'm getting a bit antsy as to where I should be focused. I decide to take a calculated gamble and select D Jamie McBain. He looked great in the few games he played in Carolina, I'm just not sure if the return of Corvo is going to help, hurt and mean nothing.

18th round: I'm willing to roll the dice a bit more with my 4th line guys: I'm hoping that Scott Arniel will employ the same offensive philosophy that he had with the Moose in Columbus; as such I take LW Nikita Filatov. This is my second biggest boom/bust pick; however this one wont cost me the draft...I hope

19th round: My fourth C is Matt Lombardi; I'm hoping that the numbers he will put up similar numbers in Nashville as he did last year in Phoenix.

Doulos get C Marc Savard in this round; this is a great gamble. I was hoping to sang him with one of my bench picks; but it quickly sounds like everyone was of the same mindset.

20th round: I need a D to fill out my roster, and I have two in my queue. Comish takes Tom Gilbert, leaving D Keith Ballard as my #6D.

Bench: I'm not fussy as to who I grab as bench players; however I decide that I'm not going to use a spot on a D. I will use the waiver wire if/when I need to add a d-man.
I add C Matt Cullen, G Ondrej Pavelec, RW Milan Hejduk, C Josh Bailey and LW Nick Foligno over the final five rounds.

Overall, looking at my team one day later I like it more than I did yesterday when i was drafting; hopefully I'll like it even more as the season progresses...

[Karhgath]

I was gonna do that in the other thread, hope you don't mind me posting here HIL?

I entered this draft with dread. I was a fresh (and very very lucky) recruit coming directly from the entry league. I highly respected everyone present at the draft table, so I was a bit intimidated. Also I was first. Yeah yeah yeah, everyone wants to be first... but I hate that. You end up with no stud as your second pick. However, we were only 13, not 16 or 20, so that's a bit better. Still...

Round 1: First overall, that was a no brainer : Ovechkin.

Round 2/3: I had no choice but to take a goalie here. I nearly took Rask with Howard/Kipper back to back and in retrospect, I should have; they went poof right after my picks. But I ended up with Rask and Jumbo Joe, the only 80+ nearly guaranteed skater left after 2 rounds. Yeah, playoffs, whatever. I was pretty confident at that point.

Round 4/5: That was brutal. I wanted a second goalie, but no dice there; no way I was gonna pick Price... and then he went right after me! Chara was a nice pick by Joos, ultra went with Phaneuf and I believe it will pay off, but I went with the underrated Weber and against my best judgment got Carter for his multi-cat studness as a second center. I believe it was the right pick as round 5 was revealed to be a center-bonanza.

Round 6/7: I was planning to go G and D here. I always stock up on good Ds since you have 6 slots. I had Lidstrom/Markov lined up, with Niemi, Backstrom, Leighton, Lehtonen... they all went poof right before me!!! That was brutal. I was on the clock with no queue left. I hastily decided to go double D, saw EJ and... Myers. That was too soon for Myers I believe... I'm also glad I didn't have to draft Hemsky there, good luck Dub! Kesler. Is. An. Absolute. Steal. Here. Should be on my team instead of Myers.

Round 8/9: No G's to be drafted here... Downie is a nice and bold pick by Lord of the rinks. I had Carter's best friend Hartnell in my queue along with Ericksson, Pavelski, Kesler, Stewart, Burrows, Doan... and then, for a second time in that draft: poof! My queue depleted faster than Lindsay Lohan can... well, let's stay on focus here. Ahem. I needed RW since I was empty on that wing; I went with the next best multi cat stud on the board (Brown) and a favorite of mine (Voracek). My RWs are in good shape now. Frolov was a nice pick by Joos there, but one I couldn't make. I was pretty confident of my team at this point.

Then everything went downhill...

Round 10/11: My queue: Yandle, Morrow, Simmonds, Edler, Okposo, Karlsson, Duchene, Bourque... they all, AGAIN, went poof!! All except Bourque... I juste drafted 2 RW, and he's injury prone... so I decided to go LW since they are much rarer this draft. Took 2 chances : Ennis and Mueller. That could become a stroke of genious or a sore disappointment. Anyway, I could draft Bourque next round maybe... or maybe not, he went right next. Darn, this is frustrating. Subban is such a nice pick there, McDonald and Samuelsson aren't bad either.

Round 12/13: Ellis and Thomas went, so I lost a starting G and my backup G... I didn't plan on G as I had my list full: Bogosian, Giroux, Campbell, Pominville, Raymond, all nicely lined up... guess what? Yeah, bye bye queue! I panicked, I still didn't have a second G; I could go Leclaire/Elliot or Gustavsson/Giguere there. Was that too soon? I compromised(bad idea), rolled the dice instead, picked Gustavsson and, frustrated, rolled the almighty injury dice on Bieksa.

Round 14/15: I lined up: Smyth, Versteeg, Havlat, Frolik, Langenbrunner, Ribeiro, Plekanec, J.J., Booth, Carlson, Ott, Zherdev. I said to myself, 12 in queue, that's gonna be enough this time! Then... I had to pause to take the alcool out of the cabinet... they all were gone by the time I was on the clock!! The guy who patented "Method to exercise a cat" rolled in his grave. True story. Also, Leclaire/Elliott were picked back-to-back by Jobbers, guess I wasn't the only one with that idea... damn. My picks? Well, Weiss was one of the last 1st line C left at that time (beside Bozak i think, which I missed), so I bit. I had a choice of Benn/Perron/Brouwer/Setoguchi/Bergfors. I went with my gut on this one, Benn. The rest disappeared right after. Gagner was a steal there, 14th round.

Round 16/17: Great pick by smack: DiPietro. Maybe I should have gambled on him. C.Mason and Neuvirth gone also there. G is getting depleted... Mike Smith it is. And... I was surprised that Bergeron was still there. Maybe it's because the Habs/Bruins game was on and he just scored a goal, but I went with this high risk pick. Gomez was a steal there.

Round 18/19: Usually, by that time, it's time for the calder-candidate bluechip and young that could breakout for me. Oshie, Filatov, Eberle, E.Kane, Fehr, Del Zotto, Moulson. All on my board, and all gone in the span of seconds. I needed a D, but the D pool was depleting fast. I picked a (ill-advised?) wildcard here : Jason Demers. Kovalev might be a steal there by blammo, or the laugh of the draft. Savard was bold too by doulos. Bozak is a steal there.

Round 20/21: Guess what happened here too? Queue depleted! All those responsible will be sacked! Gilbert was a steal (I wished I took him instead of Dermers, damn!) Giguere went too, grrr, lost my 2 backups. I still needed a D, so Seidenberg it is. Also, hey, look at that... I forgot about a potential bluechip here: Turris. They are patient with him and it might pay off... but probably not this year.

Round 22/23: Uh-oh... I missed Pavelec there. Skinner is a nice high risk pick by dub. Ladd and Berglund went right before me. Not much left here. Stalberg might be the 3rd, 2nd or 1st LW in CHI, so he's worth a pick. I liked his rookie season. Callahan is a multi-cat kinda of guy. Yeah. Really! Well... not really, but who's gonna be my last RW? Then I realized Hedjuk was still on the board, too late. Peverley was a steal right there by LOTR.

Round 24/25: I will definitely cry to bed tonight thinking about my goalies. Oh. My. God. Simply. Brutal. Last year I picked Howard near the end of my draft, and I won in part because of that pick. Maybe if I try something similar... so, with all the confidence I could muster, I picked Jeff Deslauriers! Then it dawned on me... DET vs EDM. Nuff said. As a last pick I took the biggest long shot/dropsie I could dream of regretting: Cole. Yeah. Really. I love the Tangradi pick by Joos, can't believe I missed him. Recchi 25th round? Could become a pretty darn good steal.

That's all. With comforting alcool flowing through my veins and a sense of utter darkness and failure over my head, I went to bed, hoping that I would look back at my draft the next morning and see it differently.

The verdict? I ended up dancing and drinking scotch with Cthulhu before going to work this morning. True story.

[hockeyislife]

Welcome to the Pro-Wales draft my friend!!!

This is by far, the most intimidating, humiliating group of hockey people I've had the pleasure(read that as hair pulling hell) of drafting with. One err in judgement while have you scrambling for rounds; and i'm not just talking about scotch!

Hopefully we'll get a few of the other draftees posting their thoughts as well.

[joos]

Here we go....

overall goal.... get bigger pt guys in the beginning, and then start to hit the multi cat guys in the middle... and then the specific role players later.

round 1: Autopick! luckly I had my queue set up to grab Luongo. simple as that.

round 2: Normally I would go b2b goalies in this case but I noticed there were still a bunch left and we were coming off the short end of the draft so I only had around 10 picks for my 3rd rounder. Ideally I would have wanted Kane but I decided with Perry... definitely wasn't going to draft a center at this point consider we have to start 4 LW and 4 RW. Perry was fine with me and actually fit my strat very nicely (G, PIM, SOG)

round 3: Howard...LOTR screwed me here. Taken 1 pick before me... and I was definitely grabbing a goalie here. Kipper has his issues but I still think hes a top end goalie. He and Luo should be more than enough. No too upset with this pick

round 4: Here... I wanted a LWer but realized the top-end guys were all gone and the guys left where a bit questionable. I had a few middle-lower tier LWers that I felt comfortable with drafting later on so I went with D. At this pt I knew I wanted a multicate d-men.. my choices were Chara, Weber and I think Phaneuf. I went with Chara... good SOG, PIM and +/-. Liked this pick.

round 5: It was between Carter n Toews... Karhgath made my decision easier and took Carter. I was happy to get Toews... hes gonna give me solid pts and a good +/-. This pick was more or less a take the best available player pick.

round 6/7: I felt in respects to positions, who was left, how many we start... I need to get more D-men. I needed some d-man who would strictly give me lots of pts and ppps. Striet and Visnovsky were the top dogs at this pt IMO. +/- wont be great with them but I felt I could make that sacrafice with Toews n Chara. Another reason I felt I could get d-men was i had alot of mid-tier guys on the wings and well center... i can fill that out later

round 8: I really wanted Downie but again, LOTR screwed me... and once I saw him go in round 7, I knew I could wait much longer for Carcillo... killed two birds with one stone.. HUGE PIM guy and my 1st LWer!!

round 9: Kinda desperate for a LW who can actually score me some pts... risky pick at this pt but it had to be done... we start freakin 4 LWers!!! Plus from what I hear, Frolov should be a decent player this yr lol

round 10: During the 9th and 10th round... i felt that my queue players were being raped... I had my eye set on Simmonds! solid guy all round... I was exstatic to grab him. Perfect guy for my strat... PIM, +/-

round 11: Mcdonald was a solid pick by UW here... kinda jealous. Again, with this pick.. I went with a PIM, +/- type guy in Lucic. Need more LWers and I felt he fit my strat the most

round 12: At this pt... i only had 1 center and saw Staal.. sounding repetitive but he was a solid guy all around... high SOG at this pt from a center and good +/-... plus the allure of playing with Malkin.

round 13: Havlat... go big or go home. I felt my last few picks might have been to multi-cat central so I need someone to bring in some pts... Havlat is a gamble but when healthy, he is able to produce. Plus with our IR spots, I felt fine grabbing him

round 14: Gagner... sleeper pick.. and needed a center.

round 15: Seabrook fit my 4th d-spot like a glove. He'll chip in with pts but his strenght will be his +/- and decent PIM.

round 16/17: Suter and Fisher... steady vets for my team. Both guys fit my bill... multi cat guys who chip in a respectable amount of pts.

round 18: Schutlz the +/- master... or from what someone (sorry forgot >.<) said when i drafted him... +/- insurance! lol He might not reach that +50 mark but any WSH player will help

round 19: Kinda just stumbled upon Stempniak. But he was actually a decent pick IMO. High SOG and decent +/-... I felt he might give me some much need pts

round 20: Seriously, no love for this guy. Potential 50 pt from LW in round 20... sure I will take him. That being said.. thats all hell give you basically lol.

round 21: Wideman... I felt I could take the +/- hit with him. He usually excels with teams in the beginning and hes a lock for the 1st PP unit... I liked the pick here as well

round 22: Hanzal... very underrated... 100 PIM and potentially a 2nd line center. Dont expect too much but he could surprise

round 23/24: strictly PIM pushers. 150 from both these guys will greatly help

round 25: Tangradi... SUREEE lol. hey man... it was the last round...

OVERALL:

I am happy with my team. I was able to grab a lot of the players I wanted in the latter half of the draft. I think I have a good amount of PIM and +/-... my team isnt full of bright names but they are all guys who work hard. If anything, I might be considered with straight up G and A cats.

MY TEAM:

C - Toews, J.Staal, Gagner, Fisher, Hanzal, Tangradi
LW - Frolov, Carcillo, Lucic, A.Kostitsyn, Mcleod
RW - Perry, Simmonds, Havlat, Stempniak, Crombeen
D - Chara, Streit, Visnovsky, Seabrook, Suter, Schultz, Wideman
G - Luongo, Kipper

Comments on other picks:

Doulos: Pronger for sure... he went VERY early IMO. I'll back you up with the Hall pick tho! Like the Berglund pick as well
Karh: Benn in the 15th @ LW was pretty nice... I actually wanted him.
UW: Jokinen..... you actually stole Brouwer... I was eyeing him for a few rounds hoping he would slip further
St.John: I really wanted Carkner but held off too long since I had enough D at that pt.
blammo: SHarp!! I wanted him so bad as my 1st LW but you took him pretty early... I wanted him but I felt it was still a little too early. I was hoping to get him around the 6th-7th round. Comrie was a complete STEAL! Totally forgot him.
HIL: mcbain and JJ were two guys I wanted. solid picks there
Hellfire: Bernier... its a 1 yr league right? lol. Quite surprised he was taken and that early.
Smack: letang and morrow were good picks... took morrow right when i was thinking about grabbing him
Comish: Krejci.. oh how i wanted him. I think i ended up taking Gagner instead. Gilbert at that pick was also pretty good imo
jobbers: you screwed me 3 times.. kesler, buffy, clarkson...

[doulos]

I came into this draft wanting to try something completely different - mainly NOT grab goalies early, and to give the proverbial "screw you" to the LWer problem in the draft this year. I also decided to ignore concerns about injuries this year just for the heck of it. You'll notice that I drafted lots of BAB guys this year.

Round 1 - Drafted 2nd overall, so I stuck to my guns and didn't grab a goalie - knowing it was going to be an issue - but instead grabbing Crosby anyways. Probably mistake #1...

Round 2 - Took Pronger in this Round - the guy is a stud in all areas and I think he's going to have a sickeningly good year in Philly. I got some good ribbing on this pick but I still like it as I am certain he wouldn't have been there next time my picks came around.

Round 3 - So now my resolve is really being tested - if I avoid taking a goalie here I'm going to be left with a couple guys who are sort of gambles most likely. But why not! So I snag BAB#1 in Gaborik. Maybe should have reached for a LWer here but RW is not THAT much worse than LW so this made sense to me. I dedicate this pick to Jeff Angus.

Round 4 - 75 million goalies get drafted and I begin to think that I really messed up. I might have. Oops! Looking at my list there are only a couple goalies left that will get serious starts (and this is Weekly starts so that's important!) so I grab Hiller this round first.

Round 5 - I decided to take the last "start heavy" goalie I could see and snagged Price and now I have a really long wait to see how many LWers get taken in the next 20+ picks. That's a going concern now.

Round 6 - Sharp and Cammalleri were the two guys I was looking at on the left side so I figure I'll just ignore the problem and draft them later. Markov (BAB#2) is sitting there and he'll go nicely with Pronger. Kharhgath takes 2 more defense behind me on the turn so it's looking like there might be a bit of a run on them which makes me feel better.

Round 7 - I grab another RWers in Franzen (BAB#3) since I don't see any more LWers that I feel are better right now. Wasn't happy to hear him get injured after the fact but it doesn't sound serious and I think that I should be in great shape for Goals with my forwards so far.

Round 8 - Now I just HAVE to draft a LWer and the options are really pretty crappy. A lot of the multi-cat type guys go off the board (Clowe, Hartnell, Burrows, Carcillo) and Gagne as well who I thought might fall to me. A good number of defense go as well, so I am glad I grabbed Markov earlier. I snag Taylor Hall here - not overly enthused with him, but he should really help in goals again - and maybe PPP.

Round 9 - Mikko Koivu (BAB#4) is my next pick, again mostly because he contributes across the board and there wasn't a really juicy LWer to take so I just ignored it again. 10 LWers get picked (so basically every second player) before my next pick so this was perhaps a dumb ass move.

Round 10 - I grab Penner and I guess I'll hope he shows what he did early on last year. I don't like this pick much after I do it but my LW options were getting pretty gross.

Round 11 - Rene Bourque (BAB#5) A risky pick and another RWer, but he's pretty nice in these roto formats - if he can stay healthy. Theme of my draft. Still only have 1 LWer so I'll need to hope for some luck here.

Round 12 - Huselius is still there and while I'm not a fan, he has potential, which is what my hopes and dreams are pinned at this point. I've sort of also given up on grabbing any PIMy type guys that will bring me much value, so I'm going to need as many points as I can get.

Round 13 - I like Zidlickyto give me a bit of everything and I fill out my defense some more - one of the few areas I like right now.

Round 14/15 - Zherdev (BAB#6) has been tempting me for a while and he fits in well with Team First Aid - I finish my RW. I badly need another LW so I take Perron He's as "goonish" as they come on my roster and hopefully he'll have a bit of a breakout this season.

At this point (I think) I had to go, so basically I set my queue to finish off my D first, then my C and finally grab one last goalie at the end. I had a meeting to go to and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Turned out decent I thought.

The players I picked up (in order) were Kronwall (BAB#7), Ryan Whitney, Liles, Savard (BAB#8), Horcoff, Umberger, Berglund, Khabibulin (BAB#9), Carle and Lupul (BAB#10).

Summary: The chances of this roster staying healthy = the chances of the Oilers team I stay for winning the Stanley Cup. Sure there's a chance, but it's as close to 0 as you can get. MY goaltending also sucks. I think I did a poor job drafting this year and if things go well I might end up in the middle of the pack.

I think Lord of the Rinks has a stellar team and would be my favorite to win it all, with Joos, Smack and Comish all being top teams after the draft as well.

If the season is anywhere near as close as the draft then I am screwed but the other guys should have a great battle!

[duballstar014]

I didn't do this analysis thing last year and wasn't planning on doing it this year...heck, I've been on Dobber-vac for a while now. What the hell...here goes.

Last year I didn't put too much stock in goaltending and PIMs, both of which took a huge bite right out of my ass. While I'm not going to entirely focus on them this year, I won't ignore them the way I did previously.

Draft starts at 5:30pm for me.

5:20pm - Dad calls. Wants me over for dinner this weekend and wants to talk about my last weekend (road trip to Vegas for UFHP draft). Can't get him off the phone. Meanwhile, front desk of my apt calls and leaves message. They're not going to fix my broken garage tonight and I have until 6pm to get a parking pass for the night or they'll tow my car in my new spot. Off the phone with both of them at 5:31 and I don't even know what pick # I am, but it's my turn.

Turns out I'm #6 and while I wanted a top goalie or wing, I just can't pass on Henrik Sedin. I did really want a Heatley or Kovalchuk, but just couldn't find the stomach to take one above Hank.

2 - I'm looking Marleau here all the way. St Johns Caps takes a peek at my queue, flips me the bird, and steals my horse. With Miller, Luongo, Brodeur, and Lundqvist gone...I decide to go with a goalie and take Halak. The thing that I like about Halak is that his defense is young and fairly offensive, which should lead to him seeing a lot of rubber, which is when he is at his best. Halak could get me 40+ wins, a boatload of saves, and a solid sv%. At least I hope so.

As soon as I make my pick, I sprint down to the leasing office, grab my parking pass, hightail it over to my car about a block away, put the pass on, sprint back up to my apt on the 2nd floor.

3 - Back just in time to see that doulos, who talks mad shit on Pronger, actually drafted Pronger. Not only did he draft him, he drafted him in the 2nd! I kindly asked him where his true colors were and that I'd never be caught dead drafting Crosby...oh wait, my pick, sorry. I wanted a top LW, and it feels like each team already drafted 4 each. I take Bobby Ryan though I also have my eye on Iginla.

4 - Goalies are flat out evaporating and I still haven't even had a chance to get settled yet. I figure if I don't do something I'm really going to be ****ed...maybe I already am. I hate that Bernier is so good, but I gamble on Quick. Could work out great if he plays the same amount of games (100).

5 - Carter, Price, Lecavalier, Vanek, Toews gone gone gone...not like I wanted any of them. I don't really want to take a bunch of Flyers but Mike Richards is staring me in the face...after wasting 45 seconds, my Richards jersey somehow jumps out of the closet and lands on my desk haunting me. I cave. Richie it is.

6 - I've got 2C, 1LW, and 2G...and no multi-position guys. NOT what I wanted. crap. I need a RW pretty bad...Kessel looks good. Ouch, thanks Comish. Guess I'll take this Hemsky guy. Immediately trumpets from the heavens start blaring. Apparently this was a bigger move to everyone else than it was to me. (outside of last year's injury, he averaged 73 GP per year since the lockout fellas. I'll gladly take him). I'm extremely unexcited to see Jonathan Bernier drafted at all, let alone this early. What does Hellfire know that I don't know...

7 - Need a D pretty bad here and I really want Visnovsky...I just want him as my 2nd D. Streit, Lidstrom, Markov, EJ, Myers, Visno all go right after my Hemsky pick. Holy crap. Only other guy sandwiched in there was UW picking Lehtonen which makes me pee my pants laughing a bit. Downie goes too. Unreal. I pick up Rafalski and put my tail between my legs.

8 - Well, all of the guys I really wanted just went again...I'm sensing a pattern here. I go with Ehrhoff. "Never owned this guy before so he better not piss me off" I mumble to myself.

9 - I want another winger but literally cannot make up my mind. JVR is at the top of my queue but I've got my eye on Tavares and Hudler. Whoops...waited too long. JVR it is. hockeyislife accuses me of a homer pick.

10 - Karlsson was a sleeper of mine...who am I kidding? sleeper? in a draft with these ********? Thank God my co-GM shows up and helps me out a bit because with my scramble earlier and the beer now has caught up to me and I'm making awful decisions with my queue. He tells me over and over "Hudler." SJC taps our phone conversation and snatches the Russian prick. Guess we're going Duchene.

11 - OK, I've got 3 centers already and benchmarking my team around the rest of the league, my wings look worse than Pittsburgh's. Brad Boyes will do. Hopefully the STL offense jumpstarts this year and he remembers that he actually DOES know how to put the biscuit in the basket. I wanted Bourque but doulos snatched him up.

12 - I tell smack to stick his head where the sun don't shine after he snipes Claude Giroux. I think he loves drafting Flyers right before me, just to mess with me. I'm dragging Huselius to my queue, when he pulls a Kaizer Soze on me. Apparently doulos drafted him. I don't have many PIMs, but I'm sure as hell not going the "Dan Carcillo" route that joos did, at least not yet. I think I saw Zach Bogosian bench press a Buick in the offseason, and I definitely saw him crush someone's face last year in person at a game in ATL. Sounds like he's my guy.

13 - I need another winger...gotta go with my Oakley guy Teemu. Pitkanen falls off of my constantly shrinking queue.

14 - Plekanec has been hanging out for a while...I'm thinking I could make him my 4th center if he slips to me, whoops. too late. Booth. Booth's our man. blammo! I think he names himself that because that's what he does to your queue if you draft after him. Leino for me. Call it a Flyers homer, but I'm telling you what, that kid has skill.

15 - I'm looking for a D-man now and I've got my eye on Hedman...I try to keep hiding him on my queue though since apparently it's on the bottom ticker of TSN or something. Somehow he lasts to me and I snag him.

16 - ohhh smack, that dirty bastard. takes Rick DiPietro. I had him lined up for my IR1 spot too. Among the wingers left, I notice Niclas Bergfors loves shooting the puck. Points and high SOG? Sold.

17 - I've got a decent amount of guys who can get PIMs, but now I think it's time for my Carcillo strategy. I want to insert one player who can just rack up PIMs for me, considering it's a roto league. My co-GM wants McBain. I ignore my better judgment and go for Konopka and hope he tops his mark from last season, even though he'll be up against some serious heavyweights in the Atlantic Division. McBain lasts only 3 picks later. Uhh...oops..

18 - My fault on that last pick I say. Who do you want? Evander Kane, then Savard. OK, Kane slips to us. Done. Savard gets taken early in the 19th. We all exchange a few profanities and move on.

19 - I want Carkner, since he can go on D and really stack my PIM total. Co-GM says to go for Foster...could be huge in EDM...damn, I think he's right. I go Foster and SJC takes Carkner right after me. "I can't believe he was still available" he says. I shake my fist.

20 - JS Giguere fellas. I don't care what you guys think of Gustavsson. Giguere has already been named starter and has 1 Conn Smythe and 1 Stanley Cup, largely in part due to HIS efforts. He is reunited with Francois Allaire and has a MUCH better D in Toronto than he did in Anaheim. Shame on you guys for letting him fall to me in round 20. (crossing my fingers that actually pans out haha).

21 - Did I see that right? Did someone really take Bobrovsky? well, I'm going to go defense and stick to that STL bandwagon, grabbing Colaiacovo.

22 - Alright, time to get crazy. You guys ready? I don't think you're ready...Jeff Skinner!

23 - Brandon Sutter...did he really score over 20g last year? What the hell. I'm game.

24 - Maybe a RW of mine will feel like sitting on the bench and I'll throw Colton Orr out there to just tomahawk people in the head with his stick. Or something along those lines. Just get me PIMs if I put you in there, OK Colton?

25 - Joffrey Lupul...oh, doulos wants him? Even after that showing in EDM a couple years ago? Guess I'll go with Pouliot.

C: Sedin, M Richards, Duchene, Konopka
LW: Ryan, JVR, Leino, Kane
RW: Hemsky, Boyes, Selanne, Bergfors
D: Rafalski, Ehrhoff, Bogosian, Hedman, Foster, Colaiacovo
G: Halak, Quick
Bench: Skinner, Sutter, Orr, Pouliot, Giguere

Should be an interesting year...My LW is basically boom or bust. Wouldn't mind adding a solid one at some point..

[rooneypoo]

I have to say, it's pretty fun reading this stuff over and seeing everyone else's perspectives on how things went down. Anyway, here's how the draft went down for me.

I show up with a beer in hand to find out that I've been assigned one of the two 'corner' picks (13th, at the end of the lineup). I start off thinking I kinda like this spot... until I realize that there are going to be 25 picks in between each chance I get to go. Anyway, the draft starts, I crack open beer #2, and get going.

Round 1/2: I'm eyeing G and W all the way. I almost never, ever pick C in the 1st two rounds, unless it's Crosby or Malkin. I start thinking that maybe Green will fall to me, but he goes the pick before me. Given the LW situation in Yahoo! this year, I was aiming for one of Parise, Heatley, or Kovalchuk beforehand. Kovalchuk is the only guy available at 13. I then hum and haw over which goalie to take for my full 1.5 minutes. Brygalov, Lundqvist, or Rinne? I see now that I wasn't ready for this decision, even though it was staring me in the face for a good 10 minutes beforehand. I take Bryz, thinking that his peripherals are always good and his team is a lot better than either of the other two.

Round 3/4: a LOT of quality goes here, quickly. I hold out for one of Getzlaf or Perry making it, but wow, they don't even survive the rest of the 2nd round. When someone picks Ward right in front of me, I know that all the top end goalies are gone. I decide on no goalie the next two rounds, make plans to grab Turco next round, and then I set my sights on D and C. I waffle endlessly between Boyle and Chara, and decide on Boyle. My next pick is E. Staal -- precisely the kind of centre I was targetting all along. I give up maybe 10 points on most of the C's that went in the 30+ picks ahead me, but not much else -- Staal will put up lots of goals and shots. I brag loudly on my decision-making here.

Round 5/6: 7 goalies go in front of me, and I'm getting panicky. I can't wait any longer. The only remaining goalies in the top 20 of my list of 40 goalies are Backstrom and S. Mason; S. Mason burned me bad in last year's Dobber league, so I plug my nose and take Backstrom, who I know will start a lot and is a decent goalie (albeit, on a bad team). You can't survive in this league without 3 decent starters, and I could see that I was in trouble already here in round 5/6. With my other pick, I take Alfredsson. Eriksson (the other 'top 10' RW on my list -- Hemsky is there, but I have no intention of picking him) is available and I consider him for a long time, but the homer in me wins out. That, and I like the idea of a Gonchar-led PP. The missus, god love her, brings me down beer #3.

Round 7/8: With 1C, 1LW, 1RW, 1D, and 2 G stashed away, I've got my bases covered. I now have to start thinking about other things: namely, PIM. Guys with multiple eligibity are a consideration, too. Other guys are thinking the same, too, tho': Hartnell, my go-to guy every year, gets picked up. I'm starting to think Eriksson will fall to me -- PIM be damned, I'll take him -- but he gets snapped up a few picks before me. Still, tho', this round turns out fantastic for me: Cs are dropping like flies these rounds, but Kesler falls to me for the 91st pick. With my next, I take Byfuglien, largely because of his RW/D eligibility / PIM combo. With these two picks, I figure I have grabbed something like 45+ goals, 100+ points, and 200 PIM. Again, my strategy of picking up Cs late is paying off, and I brag some more. Really, tho', I'm masking the pain I'm feeling for my G and LW.

Round 9/10: I'm still not done with PIM. Backes is my next target, and my other go-to guy in every league, but he goes moments before; I curse Smack loudly. By this point, too, I've resigned myself to a weak LW, as I'm not liking my options there: I can't justify picking up weaker players here when there's still a lot of quality on the board at every other position. I take Clarkson as my Backes consolation prize, and then grab Karlsson, passing on Enstrom and Campbell. I worry immediately that this is possibly a reach, and that my homerism is a factor here, and I again like the though of a Gonchar-led PP. No one bats an eye at the pick, tho'.

Rounds 11/12: The run of LW here is stupid bad -- 8 or 9 LWers go, including a number of guys I was targetting (Lucic, Avery) -- and I miss out huge. Ultra picks up Macdonald, and I suddenly realise that I had totally lost sight of him: I'm looking at the LWers in the 30s and 40s on my list, and Macdonald (in my top 20) was sitting there all along. I curse loudly as I switch to scotch, and then draft the exact same positions (RW and D) this round as I did last round, going with Enstrom and Pominville. Both picks earn me the ire of a few guys, which I take as congratuations for a job well done.

Round 13/14: My LW situation is annoying me huge, but I also I'm not really ecstatic to have Backstrom as my #2 goalie, so I target goalies next round. I decide to make life easy on myself (!) and pick up Leclaire and Elliott with my next two picks. OTT is a pretty solid team -- and, yes, they will make the playoffs in spite of Dobber's predictions -- so I just figure I need to make this G headache go away so I can focus on fixing LW and stop worrying about Backstrom. I'm not ecstatic about my G situation, but I think it's passable.

Round 15/16: 5 more LWers go before I pick, inlcuding Brunette, the guy I was targetting. At this point, things go to pot for me, sort of. I have 2 C, 1 LW, 3 RW, 4 D, and 4 G. A number of decent centres go, but Vermette lands in my lap, and I'm happy. I go to select T. Ruutu next (the best LW still available, in my mind), but instead I draft Arnott. Jason m-f'ing Arnott. I had a good 12 other centres, still available, ahead of him on my list. I curse and blame the scotch, and preach to the others about the perils of drinking and drafting. It takes me four rounds to give up cursing about this blunder.

Round 17/18: I commit myself to draft 2 LWs instantly after the Arnott debacle. T. Ruutu survives another round, and now I'm not sure if I should congratuate myself on the pick at all. Someone else points that out, too, and I'm starting to wonder if I am indeed a little fuzzy headed. I take Moulson with my other pick, hoping for a repeat performance.

Round 19/20: It's getting time to round out the team. I need 1 LW, 1 RW, and 2 D, plus 3 bench guys. A lot of my targets get snapped up, but I'm happy to pick up Little and A. Babchuk. I expect Babchuk to do well, in particular.

Round 21/22: I'm thinking all D at this point -- I need 1 more, minimum, and I want a 7th one for the bench -- as I suddenly realize that I've only put 80 D on my list, whereas I needed more like 91 (13 x 7). And the D are dropping fast by this point. I take Franson along with Sullivan. Sullivan could help salvage my disastrous LW if he can stay healthy, so I figure it's definitely worth the gamble at this point. And hey, if Gaborik can have the occasional healthy year, maybe Sullivan can, too -- I tell myself. I contaminate my Highland Park 18 with tears of self-pity.

Round 23/24: I'm still not happy with my LW, so I'm still looking out for something here. I lose out on Ladd, but I pick up Hagman -- I like his G/SOG combo. I then take a chance on Stajan, hoping that the injury wasn't too bad -- I need a long-bomb pass here to make up for the Arnott debacle.

Round 25: I'm eyeing D the entire way, and that D is Kuba. Yeah, it's the homer in me for sure. I figure he's good for 30 points, however, and I know for sure that his injury is short term (1 month), so he's going to be a relatively safe pick, as someone has to play the 2nd PP in OTT. I get him with the very last pick on the evening, and go to bed dreaming about a re-do on my Arnott pick.

Overall, I think I ended up with a pretty solid team that will compete. I'll have to make a few savvy moves during the year to improve, tho', but I've always been good at watching the waiver wire. My LW is weak, but my D is reasonably solid, might RW looks good, and my C and G ranks are passable. One thing I'm proud of here is loading up on shooters rather than passers, which is my usual weakness. With Kesler, Clarkson, and Buff, I'm going to be middle of the pack with PIM -- unusual for me; I normally lead here -- but usually a good goon options emerges early in the year. I also wish I had more multi-position eligibiity players, as I only ended up with Kovalchuk and Buff, who both have RW as their 2nd options.

All in all, tho', by far one of the hardest drafts I've ever been in. I've never had so many of my targetted guys get snapped up right in front of me so consistently, that's for sure!

[smack]

Totally agree that this was one of my toughest drafts ever - never had so many players taken out of my queue like that. Damn you guys!!!

Ok so I see that I have the 11th pick which I'm ok with - I just didn't want to be 5,6,7 as I hate being right in the middle <---- That's what she said. Anyways, so here's my draft thinking:

Rounds 1/2 - I knew that I was coming out with a LW and a G no matter what. I just couldn't wait until round 3. Between D. Sedin and Parise and Hellfire takes Parise so easy decision for me to take D. Sedin. A couple of picks later I take Lundqvist as he's the perfect #1 goalie for me and even with a little less wins, he'll put up great stats.

Round 3/4 - Usually wait on taking D but decided that if Keith or Doughty are available at my pick, I'll take one. Blammo takes Keith so I pick Doughty right away at my pick. He's great for roto stats. Then another goalie rush happens so before I get stuck with the bottom of the barrel, I take Turco and his 40 wins. He can make up the wins I miss with Lundqvist knowing his stats won't be amazing.

Round 5/6 - Going into these rounds I wanted Sharp and Kessel. No rush to take a C yet and these were the best LW/RW'ers left. Blammo screws me again and takes Sharp so I take my favourite Hab in Cammalleri as he should be a very solid #2 LW. Then I'm ready to take Kessel and Comish at the last second takes him right before me. Totally leaves me scrambling and messes me up so I hate Horton. I could have waited on him but just panicked and picked him.

Round 7/8 - Decide I'm going to take a C here. Notice Pavelski is still available and he also has RW eligibility so it makes my decision easier and I take him. Hoping him playing with Marleau and Heatley can help. Then I realized I might use him more at RW so I take Zajac with my next pick. First liner playing with either or both of Kovalchuk and Parise makes this an easy pick for me.

Round 9/10 - Want to get some solid pims in the next few round so have my sights set on Backes or Downie - totally missed Downie getting picked so makes my decision to take Backes. Then notice Morrow is available and realize he'd be a great #3LW which would set me up really nice there. No brainer for me as now I have depth at the scarcest position.

Round 11/12 - Ok, I realized I waited long enough to draft another D and realize that slim picking are left. Mccabe is pretty much the best roto option left so I take him. Even when he misses his 15 games, he's good for PIMS, points but not +/- but I'm ok with that. Want another D with my next pick but see that Giroux is still there. No way am I passing on him this late so take him right away.

Round 13/14 - Since I took Giroux with my last pick, I really need another D so I take the highest point guy available in Pitkanen. Another band-aid boy but he had 46 pts last year and I see at least another 40pt season him. Still not sure where I'm playing Pavelski so in case I move him to RW I need another centre now and take Ribeiro, whom I see having a solid year with those wingers surrounding him.

Round 15/16 - Going with my 3rd D this round and I think Letang is a steal this late. At worst, he'll give me 30-35pts and he'll help my +/-. Realize I also need a 3rd goalie and Dipietro is the best one available (seriously, he was the best). Not expecting to use him but he's my insurance (insurance and Dipietro mix in nicely).

Round 17/18 - Pavel Kubina - yeah, not the greatest pick but he can be a roto stud and I see him getting my chances on the PP in Tampa and they can be a high scoring team. Shot in the dark. Want to close out my LW and take Michalek. Like Ottawa's top 2 lines and as long as he can stay somewhat healthy, he's a very sold #4 LW.

Round 19/20 - Need another C and Tyler Bozak is the last #1 centre available. I know he's not really #1 but if he plays decent with Kessel, he'd be a solid pick. Holmstrom here was easy. He's good for 50 games of PPP, G, Shots. #4 RW or even my bench if I use Pavelski there.

Round 21/22 - Brassard just cause I had nothing else and my phone is non-stop ringing at this point. Somehow Gunnarsson is next in my queue and he gets taken in the 22nd. My worst back to back rounds that I'm blaming on the phone - yeah I need an excuse.

Round 23/24 - Just going for the long shots now and I go for my Calder candidate and take Ekman-Larsson. Heard nothing but great things from him this camp and hoping he gets a shot with Yandle on the PP. Next up Kulemin as my #5 LW seems ok - Leaf bias starting to creep in.

Round 25 - C/D are by far my weakest positions so get Saku Koivu as some insurance. Really hope I never have to use him but in the last round, not so bad.

Overall, I'm pretty damn happy with my team. Love my LW,RW and goalies. C are average and D is horrendous after Doughty. Need some luck this year to pull this one out especially looking at hockeyislife's team but I'm hoping my goalies will win it for me.

Hope that helps seeing what goes on in my sometimes empty head. Definitely need to improve my late round drafting. Cheers and good luck guys!

[angus]

Thanks for sharing the insights, gents. I tossed a link to this topic in the ramblings - hopefully people pay attention! One easy way to become stronger at drafting is to read how other people strategize and approach it.

[ultrawhiteness]

Great stuff guys. I'll echo everyone else and say this was the toughest draft I've ever been apart of. Last year's was a bitch too, but I think adding another GM to make 13 total put this one over the top.

Roto is really not my thing, so I was leaning on hockeypoolgeek.com pretty heavily. I decided beforehand that I wasn't going to get bogged down with positions too much and try to pick the BPA whenever possible, with a caveat: last year I decided to get experimental and drafted defenseman crazy early, and got hammered because of it. So Paul, I don't care what your "math" says, dmen can suck it.

Interesting thing about the HPG rankings - I ended up having centers popping up over and over as being head and shoulders above wingers in terms of "real value". So, here goes...

3rd overall pick. I NEVER get a top 3 pick, and I had to go Malkin. Would have liked to take Luongo, but #3 is too early.

Looking back, I would have much rather been picking at the end of the draft (usually my preference anyway). To get Kovy/Bryz and Sedin/Lundy in the first 2 rounds is sweetheart.

Question for smack: why the F would you take Hank Sedin with your first pick and not Danny boy?

Rounds 2 & 3 - Need a starting goalie and know they'll mostly be gone when round 4 hits. I also need at least one top winger. Take Rinne over Rask and then choose Nash because of the dual LW/RW eligibility. That will help as I go because I know I'll be behind the 8-ball with wingers and this way I won't have to worry about left or right... I'll just pick the best one. Spurious reasoning like this keeps me going.

Rounds 4 & 5 - Going for the homerun here. Everyone else is picking tier 2/3 wingers like crazy, and I say screw'em. Phaneuf and Lecavalier will literally make or break my team. If they have good years, these 2 rounds will put me in the top.

Rounds 6 & 7 - Now I'm thinking that this team is all just a big gamble anyway. Take Lehtonen and then, while trying to decide between C/RW Pavelski and RW Eriksson, I **** up and let the time run out on me while Niittymaki is at the top of my queue. Mistake #1. Oh well, at least hockeypoolgeek's team eval tool is telling me that I've got goalie categories relatively taken care of.

Rounds 8 & 9 - I get crap for this one (and still can't believe I picked him after he screwed me the wrong way last year) but my rankings are telling me that Olli Jokinen is far and away the best skater remaining and that is with modest predictions. If he bounces back and scores 25-30 with a ton of shots and PIMS, this will be a good pick. I swear. To balance that risk I go safety first with C/LW Elias. Love these dual eligibility dudes.

Rounds 10 & 11 - Can't ignore wingers anymore. I like Okposo and McDonald here as RW and LW because their teams will lean on them heavily, and HPG is telling me I need PPP. McDonald should get C eligibility relatively soon, too.

Rounds 12 & 13 - Sitting with C-C-C-LW-LW-RW-RW-D-G-G-G and need +/-, G, and A. Brian Campbell should help, and Smyth is a pick I'm comfortable with given the 3 IR spots.

Rounds 14 & 15 - Mistake #2: HPG is telling me Ott is a LW, but I fail to notice until the pick is made that I just picked up my 4th center in round 14. Shite! Make up for it somewhat with Brouwer, another guy that could get LW added.

Gotta say, at this point Elias/McDonald/Smyth and Nash/Okposo/Brouwer isn't bad for not joining the winger orgy with everyone else. Serviceable.

Rounds 16 & 17 - After wingers, everyone went ape over defensemen. I add Bouwmeester and Del Zotto hoping for some improvements from both this year.

Rounds 18 & 19 - IMO, Fehr is great value this late. I follow up this pick by somehow thinking this was a good time to walk off without anyone in my queue and am rewarded with a Marco Sturm autopick. Fuhhhhhh!. Mistake #3.

Rounds 20 & 25 - Vlasic for +/-, and while I almost completed my LW with Sullivan, I couldn't pass up on Seguin. He's much better than Hall, and who knows, maybe he'll get winger status at some point.

Last rounds: I only have 4 D, so I take 3 with my last 4 picks: Salo (hello IR!), Tyutin (yuck), and Kulikov. Upshall heads to the bench to finish it up and will probably be waiver fodder very soon.

C - Malkin, Lecavalier, Jokinen, Ott, Seguin
LW - Nash (RW), Elias (C), McDonald, Smyth, Sturm
RW - Okposo, Brouwer, Fehr, Upshall
D - Phaneuf, Campbell, Bouwmeester, Del Zotto, Vlasic, Salo, Tyutin, Kulikov
G - Rinne, Lehtonen, Niittymaki

It's a risky team, which would look a lot better with Benn instead of Ott and anyone other than Marco Sturm.

[ultrawhiteness]

And in the name of science, here is my team's result with the HPG team eval tool:

SV: surplus 723
GAA: surplus 0.093
W: surplus 13
G: surplus 13
A: need 49
+/-: need 16
PIM: surplus 129
SOG: surplus 197
PPP: surplus 17

should be interesting to see how that actually bears out. would also be interesting to input everyone else's team with my stats and see how they turn out.

[smack]

Question for smack: why the F would you take Hank Sedin with your first pick and not Danny boy?

I did take Daniel Sedin, not Henrik. I'll edit my post to make it clearer. Come on, I'm better than that.

[duballstar014]

Question for smack: why the F would you take Hank Sedin with your first pick and not Danny boy?

I took Hank Sedin, and I think you are asking why I took him over Heatley? 2 reasons - (1) Sedin scored 30 pts more than Heatley last year, even when Heatley had Jumbo Joe and a red hot Marleau on his line...seriously, 30! (2) If you read my post above, the clock was ticking on my pick before I was even settled.

At pick #6, even if I wasn't scrambling to make a pick, I still think taking the Hart winner from the previous year is a solid bet. Although I will admit that I considered Heater and Kovalchuk with their sexy LW/RW status.

[Rad64]

Great stuff guys!! I think I'll have to get back into a one year pool next year!

[Sin Bin]

Good luck to all my fellow Wales Conference foes from last year. More than likely I'll be back to join you next year. Looks like it a lot of tough teams like last year.