Fantasy Hockey: Help the Fabulous Forecheckers choose a keeper

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

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

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Comments

Vokooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn!

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

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

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

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