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 vote)
J.P. Dumont (17 votes)
Alex Kovalev (11 votes)
Tomas Vokoun (17 votes)
other (3 votes)
49 total votes
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