Sports: Discuss: The NHL Fantasy Draft '08
We finally settled on a time to do our very competitive fantasy draft with only two people auto-drafting: Graeme, because he’s in Czechoslovakia, and Cole, because he didn’t show up. I, as league manager, randomly work out the draft order and ended up with this: 1) Team Daniel (Andrea), 2) grilled cheese sandwich (Andrew), 3) The Long Augers (Chad), 4) Victoria lollerskates (Lucas), 5) Stusstick inyourface (Stu), 6) Beaverlodge Beavers (Cole), 7) The Jimmy Waffles (Jim), 8) True Blue (Byron), 9) Pribram Wicentosandwich (Graeme), and 10) Gagner West (Me).
Before we delve into the draft, here’s my drafting strategy going into it, which is now safe to unveil:
1. I’ll probably be better off ditching the penalty minute category. Out of the 52 players who tallied 100 PIM’s or more, only 13 are in the top 100 in any of the other skater categories (Phaneuf, Scott Hartnell, Shane O’Brien, Pronger, Staios, Pavel Kubina, Chara, Corey Perry, Adam Foote, Brenden Morrow, Craig Rivet, Ryan Malone, and Michael Komisarek) and, even further, only 7 are in the top 100 in two categories (Phaneuf, Hartnell, Pronger, Chara, Perry, Morrow, Malone). Throw in the fact that Malone won’t be playing with Crosby or Malkin and you’re down to six. That’s a short list. Having a PIM-only enforcer taking up one of the starting slots is just too costly.
2. My first priority is to pick up 2, preferably 3, of the top ten goalies in the league. Getting quality in that position guarantees me 10 points in three categories.
3. I need forwards that are top 50 in goals, assists, powerplay goals, and shots. Last season, nine players accomplished this feat (Ovechkin, Zetterberg, Lecavalier, Malkin, Iginla, Heatley, Staal, Daniel Sedin, and Arnott) and realistically, I can pick up two of them.
4. With defensemen, only Brian Rafalski is in the top 50 in two of the categories I designated for forwards (assists and pp goals). They play differently than forwards so they should be judged differently than forwards. So I need them to take care of three categories that D’s usually take care of: Average time on ice, PP goals, and +/- (which is the hardest stat to project, unfortunately). Out of the top 100 ATOI players, 81 of them are defencemen, so plenty of choices there. Narrow it down to those who have scored 5 or more powerplay goal last season, and you get 26 dudes. Slim it down to those who had a positive +/- and you get Chara, Lidstrom, Phaneuf, Gonchar, Dennis Wideman, Brian Campbell, Andrei Markov, Michal Rozsival, Rafalski, Pavel Kubina, Braydon Cobourn, Sami Salo, Mike Green, Brent Burns, Jaroslav Spacek, Mathieu Schneider, and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. I’m only picking D’s from this pool.
So with that, I have a delicious chance to win every category except for PIM. Consequently, this season’s fantasy league is mine to rock.
On to the running diary…
11:15 am (Philippines time): I’m heading towards the nearest internet café after lying to my girlfriend that I needed to email my mom some important documents. If I told her that I’m doing a fantasy hockey draft with my friends on my day off instead of going to the beach, she won’t be too happy, even though she doesn't know what "fantasy hockey draft" means, let alone "fantasy hockey", let alone "hockey".
I drew the 10th pick and my list of “Fo-Sho’s” goes a little something like this: Brodeur, Ovechkin, Giguere, Crosby, Nabokov, Malkin, Lecavalier, Iginla, Zetterberg (in that order). That’s nine guys. Nine! And I’m picking 10th! Do the math.
11:40 am: I’m finally logged in after waiting for a computer to become available, with five minutes to spare. If I was going to miss my first pick because some 10-year old kid won’t quit his Counterstrike game, I’m going to lose it. Because of my tardiness, I miss on classic chat lines, mostly delivered/typed by Andrew who is easily the most underrated comedian between my group of friends.
Lucas: k im gonna study I have to LEARN about SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Andrew: like racisms
Lucas: yeah sure
Andrew: ooo oilers are doing awesome tonight
Andrew: like the opposite
Stu: naw, [I’m] doing my masters in building science
Andrew: does building science mean you're making science or sciencing buildings
Andrew: lucas, ugly people are social problems
Lucas: do webcams work on this thing?
Lucas: I wanna see the whites of your eyes
Lucas: see the FEAR
Andrew: i bet lucas is topless right now
Lucas: im not topless
Lucas: i am bottomless however
Lucas: I’m picking people alphabetically
11:45 am: The draft is underway. After a proclamation that she’s basing her picks on good looks, Andrea’s panicking because she doesn’t know how ESPN'S draft app works. I can only imagine what she’s going through: “oh my god, the clock is ticking and I might miss out on Crosby’s sexy, pouting lips!” Fortunately, she gets her man with a few seconds left.
11:46 am: Without hesitation, Andrew picks Ovechkin at #2. The other teams curse at him. Then, thanks to Chad, the second best player in the Penguins becomes the third best player in our league as he selects Malkin at #3.
11:47 am: Lucas: “hahah awesome it makes a noise,” which means he’s up. He takes the first goalie with Brodeur, who clearly should’ve gone #1 or #2. I’m wondering if Lucas, who is a self-advertised non-hockey follower, knows that this is a tremendous pick at #4 or he just picked who ESPN has ranked #1. “Yeah well I’m in this to win fuckers,” he says, so he might’ve done his research.
11:49 am: It’s Stu’s turn, and it doesn’t seem like he’s around for it. The clock dwindles down and ESPN picks Giguere for him.
11:51 am: It’s Cole’s turn, and it doesn’t seem like he’s around for it. The clock dwindles down and ESPN picks Iginla for him.
11:52 am: The Stanley Cup champs suddenly invade the draft with Jim taking Datsyuk, Byron taking Zetterberg, and Graeme’s pre-ranks taking Osgood.
11:55 am: It’s my turn and I get my #5 guy (Nabokov) as my 10th pick and my #7 guy (Lecavalier) as my 11th pick. I’m loving my team already. If I get Heatley at #20, the only fo-sho guy left, it’s over.
11:56 am: Graeme’s pre-ranks shatter my dreams by picking Heatley, which is quickly followed by Theodore, Phaneuf, and Thornton in rapid sucession.
11:58 am: Stu, who got disconnected apparently, is back and selects Lidstrom. Lucas takes Jokinen and suddenly started throwing F-bombs because the Java application has failed him. He actually wanted Alfredsson. Andrea consoles him by saying “it’s a funny name though. [it] sounds like 'are you jokin'."
12:00 pm: Chad takes Hossa, Andrew takes Kovalchuk, and Andrea’s hottie strategy made her take Luongo and Gonchar back to back, which made sense because Gonchar looks like a Russian Neil Patrick Harris and Luongo looks like Howie from the Backstreet Boys. However, everyone quickly informs her that Gonchar is out four to six months with a shoulder and she’s flabbergasted, “seriously?? wikipedia is NOT telling me this stuff.”
12:03 pm: Andrew takes his third forward, Getzlaf. He might end up winning goals, powerplay goals, and shots, but finish last everywhere else. Chad takes Marc Savard three rounds earlier than he should’ve gone. Lucas takes Gaborik and his mid-season groin injury. Stu picks another forward, Eric Staal (who I really wanted). All the while, I’m sitting there HOPING that I get a second top 5 goalie.
12:05 pm: Cole autopicks Carey Price, Jim takes Spezza, Byron takes Fleury, and Graeme’s pre-ranks takes Bryzgalov. And I luck out with Lundqvist, my #5 goalie. That’s laying out a strategy and playing it out, fellas. Afterwards, I’m completely stumped. All the sure things except for Turco are taken and I didn’t want to pick a third goalie; so, instead, I take Dallas’ number 1 defenceman, Philippe Boucher at no. 31.
12:07 pm: Graeme’s pre-ranks picked a third goalie for him with Huet. He’s going to wake up in Czechoslovakia and groan once he sees that he has five starting goalies and no defencemen. That’s quickly followed by solid picks by everyone: Alfredsson, Kovalev, Vanek, Cheechoo, Brad Richards, Kiprusoff, Turco, and S. Niedermayer to complete Round 4.
12:12 pm: Andrea takes the first Oiler in our draft with Hemsky and she’s ecstatic. “Yeah gotta have an Oiler,” she says. I wouldn’t want to put myself through that. If Hemsky gets injured, which he often does, it would destroy my home team and my fantasy team. That’s a double slapper.
12:12 pm: Andrew selects Pronger next, which is baffling. When Pronger did the whole Edmonton screwjob, no one emanated more hatred than him. If you saw him foam in the mouth whenever he is mentioned in a conversation, you’d think that Pronger slept with his mom. Andrew and Pronger teaming up in search of a victory is like when Zoolander and Hansel teamed up against Mugatu. This monumental event is quickly followed by Mike Green, Mathieu Garon, Andrew Cogliano, Horton, Franzen, and Mike Richards.
12:16 pm: Graeme’s pre-ranks comes up huge for him with Brenden Morrow. Now I’m agonizing between Daniel Sedin and Martin St. Louis. I like them both, but I didn’t want two Tampa Bay players as my top two forwards. So I went with Vancouver’s only goal scorer, the better twin, Daniel Sedin. I pick up big Zdeno Chara right after; I have him ranked as my #3 defenceman.
12:17 pm; Graeme’s pre-ranks pick Cam Ward as his fourth goalie, then this is followed by St. Louis, Paul Stastny, Manny Fernandez. Stu picks Jordan Staal, who is a fabulous sleeper acquisition if you’re in Round 19 (it’s Round 6, if you’re keeping track). This is followed by Rafalski, Rick Nash, Anze Kopitar, Nicklas Backstrom (the goalie version).
12:21 pm: Sticking with her hottie strategy, Andrea takes Daniel Briere, who looks like a young Paul McCartney. Round 7 ends up looking like this: Andrei Markov, Selanne, Naslund, Brad Boyes, Cammalleri, Ribeiro, Dan Boyle, Miroslav Satan (which made Jim go, “damn! i wanted Satan!!!”), and my pick, Shane Doan.
12:24 pm: To start Round 8 the right way, I pick Petr Sykora to compensate for not having Crosby or Malkin on my team. This is proceeded by Rolston, Toews, Kane, Jeff Carter, Sharp, Bieksa, Brian Campbell, Nicklas Backstrom (the forward version), and Henrik Sedin, the lesser twin.
So here’s how my team filled out: Lecavalier, D. Sedin, Doan, Sykora, Marleau, Drury, O’Sullivan, Blake, Afinogenov as my starting forwards. Boucher, Chara, Redden, Salo, Roszival as my D’s. Nabokov and Lundqvist as my starting goalies. Ray Whitney as my utility player. Raycroft and Josh Harding as goalies on my bench, accompanied by forwards Wojtek Wolski, Kyle Turris, and Christopher Higgins.
As for the rest of our roto draft, here were the highlights:
Before we delve into the draft, here’s my drafting strategy going into it, which is now safe to unveil:
1. I’ll probably be better off ditching the penalty minute category. Out of the 52 players who tallied 100 PIM’s or more, only 13 are in the top 100 in any of the other skater categories (Phaneuf, Scott Hartnell, Shane O’Brien, Pronger, Staios, Pavel Kubina, Chara, Corey Perry, Adam Foote, Brenden Morrow, Craig Rivet, Ryan Malone, and Michael Komisarek) and, even further, only 7 are in the top 100 in two categories (Phaneuf, Hartnell, Pronger, Chara, Perry, Morrow, Malone). Throw in the fact that Malone won’t be playing with Crosby or Malkin and you’re down to six. That’s a short list. Having a PIM-only enforcer taking up one of the starting slots is just too costly.
2. My first priority is to pick up 2, preferably 3, of the top ten goalies in the league. Getting quality in that position guarantees me 10 points in three categories.
3. I need forwards that are top 50 in goals, assists, powerplay goals, and shots. Last season, nine players accomplished this feat (Ovechkin, Zetterberg, Lecavalier, Malkin, Iginla, Heatley, Staal, Daniel Sedin, and Arnott) and realistically, I can pick up two of them.
4. With defensemen, only Brian Rafalski is in the top 50 in two of the categories I designated for forwards (assists and pp goals). They play differently than forwards so they should be judged differently than forwards. So I need them to take care of three categories that D’s usually take care of: Average time on ice, PP goals, and +/- (which is the hardest stat to project, unfortunately). Out of the top 100 ATOI players, 81 of them are defencemen, so plenty of choices there. Narrow it down to those who have scored 5 or more powerplay goal last season, and you get 26 dudes. Slim it down to those who had a positive +/- and you get Chara, Lidstrom, Phaneuf, Gonchar, Dennis Wideman, Brian Campbell, Andrei Markov, Michal Rozsival, Rafalski, Pavel Kubina, Braydon Cobourn, Sami Salo, Mike Green, Brent Burns, Jaroslav Spacek, Mathieu Schneider, and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. I’m only picking D’s from this pool.
So with that, I have a delicious chance to win every category except for PIM. Consequently, this season’s fantasy league is mine to rock.
On to the running diary…
11:15 am (Philippines time): I’m heading towards the nearest internet café after lying to my girlfriend that I needed to email my mom some important documents. If I told her that I’m doing a fantasy hockey draft with my friends on my day off instead of going to the beach, she won’t be too happy, even though she doesn't know what "fantasy hockey draft" means, let alone "fantasy hockey", let alone "hockey".
I drew the 10th pick and my list of “Fo-Sho’s” goes a little something like this: Brodeur, Ovechkin, Giguere, Crosby, Nabokov, Malkin, Lecavalier, Iginla, Zetterberg (in that order). That’s nine guys. Nine! And I’m picking 10th! Do the math.
11:40 am: I’m finally logged in after waiting for a computer to become available, with five minutes to spare. If I was going to miss my first pick because some 10-year old kid won’t quit his Counterstrike game, I’m going to lose it. Because of my tardiness, I miss on classic chat lines, mostly delivered/typed by Andrew who is easily the most underrated comedian between my group of friends.
Lucas: k im gonna study I have to LEARN about SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Andrew: like racisms
Lucas: yeah sure
Andrew: ooo oilers are doing awesome tonight
Andrew: like the opposite
Stu: naw, [I’m] doing my masters in building science
Andrew: does building science mean you're making science or sciencing buildings
Andrew: lucas, ugly people are social problems
Lucas: do webcams work on this thing?
Lucas: I wanna see the whites of your eyes
Lucas: see the FEAR
Andrew: i bet lucas is topless right now
Lucas: im not topless
Lucas: i am bottomless however
Lucas: I’m picking people alphabetically
11:45 am: The draft is underway. After a proclamation that she’s basing her picks on good looks, Andrea’s panicking because she doesn’t know how ESPN'S draft app works. I can only imagine what she’s going through: “oh my god, the clock is ticking and I might miss out on Crosby’s sexy, pouting lips!” Fortunately, she gets her man with a few seconds left.
11:46 am: Without hesitation, Andrew picks Ovechkin at #2. The other teams curse at him. Then, thanks to Chad, the second best player in the Penguins becomes the third best player in our league as he selects Malkin at #3.
11:47 am: Lucas: “hahah awesome it makes a noise,” which means he’s up. He takes the first goalie with Brodeur, who clearly should’ve gone #1 or #2. I’m wondering if Lucas, who is a self-advertised non-hockey follower, knows that this is a tremendous pick at #4 or he just picked who ESPN has ranked #1. “Yeah well I’m in this to win fuckers,” he says, so he might’ve done his research.
11:49 am: It’s Stu’s turn, and it doesn’t seem like he’s around for it. The clock dwindles down and ESPN picks Giguere for him.
11:51 am: It’s Cole’s turn, and it doesn’t seem like he’s around for it. The clock dwindles down and ESPN picks Iginla for him.
11:52 am: The Stanley Cup champs suddenly invade the draft with Jim taking Datsyuk, Byron taking Zetterberg, and Graeme’s pre-ranks taking Osgood.
11:55 am: It’s my turn and I get my #5 guy (Nabokov) as my 10th pick and my #7 guy (Lecavalier) as my 11th pick. I’m loving my team already. If I get Heatley at #20, the only fo-sho guy left, it’s over.
11:56 am: Graeme’s pre-ranks shatter my dreams by picking Heatley, which is quickly followed by Theodore, Phaneuf, and Thornton in rapid sucession.
11:58 am: Stu, who got disconnected apparently, is back and selects Lidstrom. Lucas takes Jokinen and suddenly started throwing F-bombs because the Java application has failed him. He actually wanted Alfredsson. Andrea consoles him by saying “it’s a funny name though. [it] sounds like 'are you jokin'."
12:00 pm: Chad takes Hossa, Andrew takes Kovalchuk, and Andrea’s hottie strategy made her take Luongo and Gonchar back to back, which made sense because Gonchar looks like a Russian Neil Patrick Harris and Luongo looks like Howie from the Backstreet Boys. However, everyone quickly informs her that Gonchar is out four to six months with a shoulder and she’s flabbergasted, “seriously?? wikipedia is NOT telling me this stuff.”
12:03 pm: Andrew takes his third forward, Getzlaf. He might end up winning goals, powerplay goals, and shots, but finish last everywhere else. Chad takes Marc Savard three rounds earlier than he should’ve gone. Lucas takes Gaborik and his mid-season groin injury. Stu picks another forward, Eric Staal (who I really wanted). All the while, I’m sitting there HOPING that I get a second top 5 goalie.
12:05 pm: Cole autopicks Carey Price, Jim takes Spezza, Byron takes Fleury, and Graeme’s pre-ranks takes Bryzgalov. And I luck out with Lundqvist, my #5 goalie. That’s laying out a strategy and playing it out, fellas. Afterwards, I’m completely stumped. All the sure things except for Turco are taken and I didn’t want to pick a third goalie; so, instead, I take Dallas’ number 1 defenceman, Philippe Boucher at no. 31.
12:07 pm: Graeme’s pre-ranks picked a third goalie for him with Huet. He’s going to wake up in Czechoslovakia and groan once he sees that he has five starting goalies and no defencemen. That’s quickly followed by solid picks by everyone: Alfredsson, Kovalev, Vanek, Cheechoo, Brad Richards, Kiprusoff, Turco, and S. Niedermayer to complete Round 4.
12:12 pm: Andrea takes the first Oiler in our draft with Hemsky and she’s ecstatic. “Yeah gotta have an Oiler,” she says. I wouldn’t want to put myself through that. If Hemsky gets injured, which he often does, it would destroy my home team and my fantasy team. That’s a double slapper.
12:12 pm: Andrew selects Pronger next, which is baffling. When Pronger did the whole Edmonton screwjob, no one emanated more hatred than him. If you saw him foam in the mouth whenever he is mentioned in a conversation, you’d think that Pronger slept with his mom. Andrew and Pronger teaming up in search of a victory is like when Zoolander and Hansel teamed up against Mugatu. This monumental event is quickly followed by Mike Green, Mathieu Garon, Andrew Cogliano, Horton, Franzen, and Mike Richards.
12:16 pm: Graeme’s pre-ranks comes up huge for him with Brenden Morrow. Now I’m agonizing between Daniel Sedin and Martin St. Louis. I like them both, but I didn’t want two Tampa Bay players as my top two forwards. So I went with Vancouver’s only goal scorer, the better twin, Daniel Sedin. I pick up big Zdeno Chara right after; I have him ranked as my #3 defenceman.
12:17 pm; Graeme’s pre-ranks pick Cam Ward as his fourth goalie, then this is followed by St. Louis, Paul Stastny, Manny Fernandez. Stu picks Jordan Staal, who is a fabulous sleeper acquisition if you’re in Round 19 (it’s Round 6, if you’re keeping track). This is followed by Rafalski, Rick Nash, Anze Kopitar, Nicklas Backstrom (the goalie version).
12:21 pm: Sticking with her hottie strategy, Andrea takes Daniel Briere, who looks like a young Paul McCartney. Round 7 ends up looking like this: Andrei Markov, Selanne, Naslund, Brad Boyes, Cammalleri, Ribeiro, Dan Boyle, Miroslav Satan (which made Jim go, “damn! i wanted Satan!!!”), and my pick, Shane Doan.
12:24 pm: To start Round 8 the right way, I pick Petr Sykora to compensate for not having Crosby or Malkin on my team. This is proceeded by Rolston, Toews, Kane, Jeff Carter, Sharp, Bieksa, Brian Campbell, Nicklas Backstrom (the forward version), and Henrik Sedin, the lesser twin.
*****
I’ll end the draft there at Round 9. I followed those eight wonderful picks with a few more beauties: Wade Redden, Patrick Marleau, Andrew Raycroft, Chris Drury, Patrick O’Sullivan. Then I was derailed in Round 14. I contemplated on taking a few guys: Justin Williams, but he’s injured; Tanguay, who only gets assists; Patrice Bergeron, who didn’t have last year’s stat for me to pick him without doubts (because he was injured the whole season); and Martin Havlat, who always gets injured a month in the season. I really wanted to take Kimmo Timonen but I figured that I can take him the next round. So I settled with Jason Blake. And when Jim takes Timonen three slots after, my stomach immediately starts turning. Jason Blake’s not bad. He’ll get you a ton of shots on goal, he’ll get you 20 goals and 30 assists, he’ll get you 5 powerplay goals. He’s like a better version of Todd Marchant, but because he plays for Toronto and the first player he reminded me of is Todd Marchant, I’m not confident with him as a starting forward.So here’s how my team filled out: Lecavalier, D. Sedin, Doan, Sykora, Marleau, Drury, O’Sullivan, Blake, Afinogenov as my starting forwards. Boucher, Chara, Redden, Salo, Roszival as my D’s. Nabokov and Lundqvist as my starting goalies. Ray Whitney as my utility player. Raycroft and Josh Harding as goalies on my bench, accompanied by forwards Wojtek Wolski, Kyle Turris, and Christopher Higgins.
As for the rest of our roto draft, here were the highlights:
- Byron picks Semin and couldn’t contain his glee. He tried to provide some legitamate stats to back up his selection, but everyone’s convinced that he picked him because of his name.
- Stu picks Jagr and everyone quickly informs him that he’s playing in Russia this season. “Kicked in the face,” Stu wonderfully summarized.
- Everyone gives Lucas hell because he wanted to autopick in Round 15. He comes back with “I've basically been picking at random for the last hour anyway.”
- Andrew picks Erik Johnson who was out for the year because of a golf cart accident. Immediately, he asks for a trade. I propose one with me trading Jason Blake for Ovechkin and Erik Johnson. He said “deal”. I think he’s joking but I’m going to try it anyway.
- Stu picks another guy who’s going to be playing in Russia this season (Radulov). “Why do they do this to me,” he moans. If we're counting KHL stats, he's the front-runner this season.
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