The first of the fantasy Forecheckers...

by Dirk Hoag on Sep 15, 2009 12:31 AM EDT in Fantasy Hockey

So there I was relaxing at home, with the kids asleep and the chance to settle in at the computer to catch up on some hockey news. Then, a note popped into my email:

"2010 SBN Hockey Invitational (West) Fantasy draft starts in 30 minutes."

What? I had completely forgotten that I had a fantasy hockey draft tonight, consisting of the bloggers from SB Nation's Western Conference teams (with James Mirtle thrown in as the Master of Ceremonies). Now, this gave me quite a fright, as I like to be prepared for such things; I have a fairly systematic approach to fantasy hockey drafts, and naturally it involves detailed spreadsheets which break things down by position.

I had none of that at my disposal, however, and while I did my best to mock something up while the draft progressed, I was basically flying by the seat of my pants through this 16-team, 20 round selection process.

So how'd I do? Check out my roster after the jump...

In typical Mirtle form, this was a deep draft, and the league consists of 13 scoring categories: Goals, Assists, Plus/Minus, PIM, PPG, PPA, GWG, and SOG for skaters, and W, GAA, Saves, Save Pct., and Shutouts for goalies. The positions played are C, C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, F, F, D, D, D, D, Util, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN.

With 16 teams, you want to ensure that you have two #1 goaltenders, as 5 of the 13 scoring slots are devoted to the netminders.

On the Forecheck

Round	Pick	Player	Position
1.	(3)	Evgeni Nabokov	G
2.	(30)	Eric Staal	C
3.	(35)	Tomas Vokoun	G
4.	(62)	David Booth	LW
5.	(67)	Sheldon Souray	D
6.	(94)	Milan Hejduk	RW
7.	(99)	J.P. Dumont	RW
8.	(126)	Jordan Staal	C
9.	(131)	Jason Arnott	C
10.	(158)	Pavel Kubina	D
11.	(163)	Ryan Malone	LW
12.	(190)	Fedor Tyutin	D
13.	(195)	Steve Sullivan	LW
14.	(222)	Ryan Whitney	D
15.	(227)	Vaclav Prospal	LW
16.	(254)	Jaroslav Halak	G
17.	(259)	Cory Stillman	LW
18.	(286)	Dan Ellis	G
19.	(291)	Ian White	D
20.	(318)	Marek Svatos	RW

In retrospect, I probably regret taking Nabokov so high, but I did want a top fantasy goalie if I could get one, and with the Sharks in front of him and a typically heavy workload, Nabokov fits the bill. I'm pretty happy with my later picks (from #12 on down), as I was able to snag guys with lots of upside compared to last season, either due to recovery from injury (Sullivan & Whitney), new surroundings (Prospal), or the opportunity for more PP work (White).

For an entire look at the league, I've created another Google Spreadsheet with all the details. You can either hop over there, or scroll through below:

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