Fantasy Hockey: Help the Fabulous Forecheckers choose a keeper

by Dirk Hoag on Sep 4, 2009 10:02 AM EDT in Fantasy Hockey Comment 5 comments

With Yahoo! Sports' Fantasy Hockey opening up this week, it's time to start poring over projections and musing about possible draft strategies this fall. Following a cue from Earl Sleek over at Battle of California, I'm going to ask for your help on this, so please follow the jump...

This year I plan on participating in three Fantasy Hockey leagues; a local one administered by Paul Nicholson (of @PredFans fame), a league made up of the SB Nation Western Conference hockey bloggers, and, of course, James Mirtle's Hockey Blogger Invitational, an elite 18-team pool in which I placed 2nd in the regular season and 3rd in the playoffs last year. Kent from Matchsticks & Gasoline won both the regular season and playoff titles last time around, halting Mirtle's two-year winning streak.

In the Hockey Blogger Invitational, we instituted a new "keeper" aspect last season, so I get to choose two players to reserve for this year's squad prior to the draft. Here's a look at last year's final roster for the Fabulous Forecheckers, which was admittedly gutted down the middle due to injury:

	Offense
Player	G	A	+/-	PIM	PPG	PPA	GWG	SOG
Eric Belanger (Min - C)	13	23	-5	26	4	9	4	147
Rob Blake (SJ - D)	10	35	15	110	6	16	1	198
Troy Brouwer (Chi - RW)	10	16	7	50	4	4	0	126
Andrew Brunette (Min - LW)	22	28	-5	18	9	9	3	118
J.P. Dumont (Nsh - RW)	16	49	1	20	5	17	4	176
Brian Gionta (Mon - RW)	20	40	12	32	3	8	1	248
Alex Kovalev (Ott - RW)	26	39	-5	74	11	21	4	209
Jamie Langenbrunner (NJ - RW)	29	40	25	56	6	11	7	229
Bryan McCabe (Fla - D)	15	24	-1	41	8	11	3	153
Owen Nolan (Min - RW)	25	20	5	26	12	5	5	148
Cal O'Reilly (Nsh - C)	3	2	2	2	0	0	0	6
Alexander Ovechkin (Was - LW)	56	54	8	72	19	27	10	528
Tomas Plekanec (Mon - C)	20	19	-9	54	6	6	2	202
Sami Salo (Van - D)	5	20	5	26	5	9	2	110
Jaroslav Spacek (Mon - D)	8	37	2	38	4	18	0	130
Doug Weight (NYI - C)	10	28	-15	55	5	16	0	96
Richard Zednik (Fla - LW,RW)	17	16	2	46	3	1	4	153

	Goaltending
Player	W	GAA	SV	SV%	SHO
Craig Anderson (Col - G)	15	2.71	903	.924	3
Dan Ellis (Nsh - G)	11	2.93	867	.900	3
Tomas Vokoun (Fla - G)	26	2.49	1717	.926	6

With this in mind, I have two keepers to select. Oh, but first I do have an announcement to make:

"NOLENSVILLE, TN - The Fabulous Forecheckers are proud to announce that Alexander Ovechkin has been signed to a lifetime contract."

OK, make that one keeper to select. Whattaya think, folks? Do I go with a steady scorer up front, or a goaltender? Do one of the defenseman stick out as particularly useful? Sound off in the comments below and the poll, which will remain open for a few days.

For your reference:

Roster Positions:	C, C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, F, F, D, D, D, D, Util, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN, IR, IR, IR, IR
Forwards/Defensemen Stat Categories:	Goals (G), Assists (A), Plus/Minus (+/-), Penalty Minutes (PIM), Powerplay Goals (PPG), Powerplay Assists (PPA), Game-Winning Goals (GWG), Shots on Goal (SOG)
Goaltenders Stat Categories:	Wins (W), Goals Against Average (GAA), Saves (SV), Save Percentage (SV%), Shutouts (SHO)

Poll

Who should Dirk keep on the 2009-10 Fabulous Forecheckers?

Craig Anderson

1 votes

J.P. Dumont

17 votes

Alex Kovalev

11 votes

Tomas Vokoun

17 votes

other

3 votes

49 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 5 comments

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Comments

Vokooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn!

by Mrs @ MHH on Sep 4, 2009 10:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

what does that league track?

are the stats above what that league tracks? would’ve hoped for better out of Mirtle than to track GWG considering they are such a crapshoot and tend to just fall in line with total goals scored. anyway…

probably vokoun simply because he’s guaranteed to give you a good show 3 of the 5 goalie stats (SV, SV%, SO)

Blog- http://paulnich.blogspot.com
Hockey Pics- http://flickr.com/photos/paulnich/collections/72157600076075216/
Hockey Vids- http://vimeo.com/pwnicholson/videos/tag:nhl

by pwnicholson on Sep 4, 2009 10:31 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yes, the stats listed above are the scoring categories. It’s a head-to-head league, so each week you can earn 13 “wins” if you sweep all the categories.

GWG is a statistical crapshoot, but damn it does make watching the games more entertaining. Many weeks it may only take 2 or 3 GWG to win that category, so landing one is huge.

More fun than a stick to the face!
On the Forecheck is SB Nation's blog covering the Nashville Predators.

by Dirk Hoag on Sep 4, 2009 10:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Owen Nolan scored 12 PPGs last year? Color me impressed.

But yeah, I think Vokoun is probably your guy — it’ll allow you to grab probably a better scorer in the first round than your non-OV options (plus I’ll level with you — thanks to BoC voters, my first round pick is going towards a netminder).

http://www.battleofcali.com/

by Earl Sleek on Sep 4, 2009 10:36 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs