September 29, 2014

Dobber

2014-09-29

A look at strategy from my draft this weekend; Strome on the bubble, Duclair impressing and more …

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Breaking – Torey Krug and Reilly Smith have signed cap-friendly deals with the Bruins. They are good to go!

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Fantasy Guide is updated as of Sunday night with latest cuts and injury info. Just login, go to your downloads and re-download it to get the update. And again, I have to remind you of the awesome deal – get my Guide, Draft List, Prospects Report, Midseason Guide that comes out in January AND the Playoff List for next April – all for just $10. I’m not kidding. You can get just the Fantasy Guide here…OR you can spend an extra two minutes to jump through a hoop and get all of the above products for the same price by going here.

TWO drafts this weekend, one Saturday and one Sunday. I hosted the Sunday one, as well as the pre-party for that Saturday night – so yeah, I was hosting a get together with the guys, and drafting for another league at the same time. But I had made some moves throughout the past few months and managed 14 picks in the first nine rounds – and zero picks in the last four. So I got done early. I also, using Fantasy Hockey Geek, had a list of 150 players pre-organized in the Fan Trax draft room, so it really was easy to do.

For the other draft, the one I was hosting (and I’m the commish), whittling down my list was not easy. My last of four picks was 42nd and my list was 58 players. But then I realized – I should keep it that way. I don’t really need goalies or defensemen. So if I draft a goalie say 14th, and a defenseman 15th (my first two picks were back-to-back), then I would just cross off all the G and D on my list. So just like that, my list becomes about 28 players deep for the 28 picks until my last one. I don’t mind at all over-drafting for a position – puts me in a position of strength. But if I over-draft…and then over-draft again, that’s when I get uncomfortable. I can have too many at one position, but when that gets carried away I don’t like the position it puts me in.

Although a couple of days old, I found this to be a good assessment of the Islanders camp so far. In a nutshell: Cory Conacher is fighting a losing battle for a roster spot (and if he gets one it won’t be with Tavares); Mikhail Grabovski is being tried on the wing and Brock Nelson is playing extremely well at center; and that means Ryan Strome is actually on the bubble. He doesn’t have to clear waivers to be sent down and he hasn’t outshone anyone he’s competing with. Yet.

So at this point, the lines are looking like Anders Lee with Tavares and Okposo, and then Nelson centering Grabovski and Kulemin. Frans Nielsen – who is looking at a sharp decline in production this year, anchors the third line.

Anyway, it’s a points pool with additional points for PPP, SOG and plus/minus. Dress (weekly) 4C, 8W, 6D, 2G. I kept:

C – Giroux, Kopitar

W – Benn, Ovechkin

D – Carlson, Green, Giordano, Trouba, Barrie

G – Anderson, Smith, Bishop

As you can see, I’m a huge believer in covering yourself off on D and G. Those are the toughest spots to fill via waivers later on, whereas I’m very good at finding forwards.

To give you an idea of how the draft went in terms of the types of players out there, I’ll give you the first round in order:

Nyquist, Kapanen, Kesler, Vrbata, Hodgson, Semin, Hamilton, Soderberg, Filppula, S. Bennett, Markov, Ekblad, Forsberg, Zuccarello. Since it’s a limited keeper, the stud prospects have a little less value. More value in the ‘here and now’ aspect.

Here were my picks:

First Round: Ekblad

Second Round: Kuemper

So you can see that even though I’m strong on D and G, I still picked D and G. I believe in BPA (Best Player Available). To an extent.

Third Round: Purcell

Fourth: Atkinson

Fifth: Tlusty (playing the hunch that I noted last week on Puck Daddy)

Seventh: Nelson (traded my sixth rounder)

Eighth: Read, Dupuis, Fleischmann, Franson, Domi

Ninth: J. Jokinen, Doan, Arcobello

So my 14-team league, three-time defending champion team is:

C – Kopitar, Giroux, Nelson (C/W), J. Jokinen (C/W) (Bench – Arcobello (C/W))

W – Benn, Ovechkin, Purcell, Tlusty, Atkinson, Fleischmann, Read, Doan (Bench – Domi (C/W), Dupuis)

D – Green, Barrie, Carlson, Giordano, Barrie, Trouba (Bench – Ekblad, Franson)

G – Anderson, Bishop (Bench – Smith, Kuemper)

Goaltending and defense are 100% covered, stars lead the way at forward with decent secondary players and some good forward waiver options available if I need to replace a stiff. Top players available on the wire are all forwards – such as Hagelin, Horton, Michalek, Umberger, Raymond, Backlund, Roy, Berglund.

Barry Trotz on prospect Burakovsky, if he would consider keeping him as a third-line center:

“I wouldn't have to consider it. He's working his way onto the lineup.”

You can read the fantasy hockey outlook on Burakovsky here (it’s very in-depth, updated, and all you need to know about the guy).

Cody Franson left Sunday’s game after this hit…

Grigorenko, who is having a good camp, makes a nice shootout move:

UPCOMING GAMES

Nov 05 - 19:11	CAR	vs	PHI
Nov 05 - 19:11	MTL	vs	CGY
Nov 05 - 19:11	BUF	vs	OTT
Nov 05 - 19:11	TOR	vs	BOS
Nov 05 - 19:11	NYI	vs	PIT
Nov 05 - 20:11	MIN	vs	L.A
Nov 05 - 20:11	STL	vs	T.B
Nov 05 - 20:11	WPG	vs	UTA
Nov 05 - 21:11	COL	vs	SEA
Nov 05 - 22:11	ANA	vs	VAN
Nov 05 - 22:11	S.J	vs	CBJ