Originally Posted by
suvojitde
Was debating if I wanted to do a blow by blow account of how my draft went today and if I wanted to relive it again, but as things turned out since I am happy with how my team shaped up, here goes.
Let's start by saying that I was pleasantly surprised when nico's updated his first post in this thread with the draft order and I was shocked (read overjoyed) to see my name was first! In my 15+ years of fantasy hockey, this may well have been the first. I could barely contain my nervous excitement all of Friday and the morning of Saturday thinking that Ovi, Kuch and McDavid's fate lay in my hands!!!!
Kidding aside, started the draft with cautious excitement.
Round 1 - No surprise, picked who I consider to be god's gift to Roto Hockey in this age - the Great 8, Ovi! (Hoping I am not jinxing myself). Rest of the round goes pretty much as expected. The one surprise - McDavid falls to 4 (Forsbergfan is overjoyed)
Rounds 2 and 3 - With Ovi as LW, my next pick will be an RW - knowing that Kuch, Pasta, Kane will be gone by the time my pick comes (and they are), I am wishing for Marner to be there (backup plan - Tarasenko, Wheeler). Marner falls to me. I am also delighted that of the 3 top Ds, I get one - Karlsson. Still no Goalie run aside from the obvious (Vas, Bob, Andersen, Price and Bishop are gone), so I am not too concerned that I have not picked my first Goalie yet. Still no C either, but there are plenty of those still left.
Rounds 4 and 5 - I am thinking a Goalie and multi-positional top ranked offensive player (Giroux, Guentzel, Benn - who I expect to rebound this season especially if he lines up with Pavelski) next. A round of high scoring Cs (Barkov, Bergeron, Eichel, Malkin, Giroux) go, and without that Goalie run, I get my first Goalie - Fleury (it was a choice between him, Rask and Holtby). Like others, I think VGK has a good chance to go deep this season. And, I also get Jamie Benn.
The best LW, a solid / top of the line RW, D1, G1 and C1 (who can also play LW) - so far so good.
But work is not even half done yet - now I need to start queuing up some top of the line offensive players to fill out my roster - specifically players that are multi-pos eligible. This is where I noticed that all the good work that we all do in Dobber is bearing fruit - all my fellow GMs have come to play and they will not go down easily. They have done their homework, I see. Some of my next queued up players go - Meier, Guentzel, Forsberg, Debrincat. I also want a solid D2 - but Seth Jones, Rielly, and worst of all, Giordano go before my pick.
Rounds 6, 7 - I pick Krug as my D2. Follow that up with Pavelski as my multi-pos offense guy (ride shot-gun with Benn)
Rounds 8, 9 - Similar theme follows - folks are gunning for high scoring multi-pos offensive guys - some are even (in my opinion at least) reaching a couple of rounds early for their favorites perhaps skeptical, that if they wait too long, they will lose the opportunity. I am also starting to see some focus on the next level D men like Josi, Subban, Klingberg (darn, I wanted him), Byfuglien and Weber; and start of a Goalie run of sorts (Rinne in the previous round, Grubauer and Hart in this round). I need Power Play points so I narrow down on Kessel, and my G2 - Martin Jones. Round 10 sees more D go - McDonagh, Hamilton, Dahlin, Dumba, Yandle - I had queued up the last 4 as my D3 - so disappointed to see all of them go.
Rounds 10, 11 - D and dual position eligible wingers with 60 points potential are drying up fast, so I need to do something. Since I lost my entire pack of potential D3s, I queue up Doughty, Barrie, OEL and Chabot AND Teravainen, Hoffman, Svechnikov as my next multi-pos eligible winger. Doughty and Pulock go before my pick, so I pick Teravainen and Barrie (hoping he gets PP1 time on that Toronto PP).
Rounds 12, 13 - I need a high scoring C and an LW. Like it happened throughout the draft, these knowledgeable GMs kept probing holes into my queue. Atkinson goes, T Wilson goes (that one hurt!) ROR went in Rd 11, so I can no longer ignore one of my favorite players still being around - I pick Ovi's setup man for the past decade - Backstrom. The fact that Pacioretty is still around, strengthens my LW.
Ds keep flying off the radar - Sergachev, Ristolainen (who I had my eyes on for a couple of rounds but waited too long) and the Ghost go in Rd 13.
Rounds 14, 15 - Curses, Mantha goes early in Rd 14 followed by Niederreiter a couple of picks later, so I end up taking my 3rd Goalie - Lundqvist. I make a mental note to myself to pick up Georgiev to complete the NYR handcuff (that later!). I am delighted to land Labanc in Round 15 (I can almost guarantee that at least 1 or 2 GMs would have cursed me for it). Connor (who resigned today), Barzal, Keller, Domi, J Hughes are some of the other notable picks this round.
Rounds 16, 17 - Time to be extra careful - and round up my roster with good / decent picks - this is where one can win or lose the draft. I need to shore up my D, so after Parayko, Petry, McAvoy and Ellis go, I narrow down on Heiskanen. I am also happy to pick Granlund as another mid-tier scoring multi-pos winger. I also notice that some very high scoring Cs are still left - even though I lost Couture this round, folks like Duchene, Kopitar, Getzlaf, Ryan Johansen are still there. I want to get at least 1 of those guys in the next 2 rounds. I also need to fill out my Ds (although I am happy so far to have Karlsson, Krug, Barrie, Heiskanen as a very solid top 4), I still need 2 more.
Rounds 18, 19 - Quinn Hughes, Ekblad, Dahlbeck, Gardiner, Edler all go, so Ds are starting to get to slim pickings now, but still, I cannot resist picking Duchene, thinking I got Sam Girard lined up for the next round. For some reason, I hesitate to pick Girard, and go with Suter instead (proven veteran over yet unproven talent, I guess - also, Suter is the sure deal in Minny and Girard will have to fight off Makar, EJ, and others in Col)
Rounds 20, 21 - Somewhat underwhelming rounds (for me) as I was caught between multi-pos eligible scoring Wingers, Cs OR completing my D. I pick Simmonds and Lindell. I had my eyes on Zucker, Ferland and Schmaltz but they go before me. I am also crushed to lose Nyquist who I had queued up for the last 3 rounds, but I have to blame myself as I waited too long.
Rounds 22, 23 - Yanni Gourde for Round 22 in my humble opinion, was another sneaky good pick, if I may say so myself :-) and with Georgiev in Round 23, I have now got my NYR goalie handcuff.
Rounds 24, 25 - For the last 2 rounds, I have my eyes on hidden gems who can score. I am light on Hits I know, but that is something I can get through WW - scoring one cannot. I queue up Parise, Eberle and also want a decent backup (bench) D in case any of my other Ds get hurt early. Parise goes, so I pick Eberle and Colin Miller as my backup D to finish the draft.
Phew, that draft was exciting and tiring. The draft is done, now it's over to the team to show their wares on the ice. Go Team Stan Lee's Cup-a glory!
Cheers