Draft day tips; Zidlicky, Klefbom, Rozsival signings; players to avoid

Summer’s officially over, even if the Farmer’s Almanac says that it doesn’t officially end until Wednesday. One reason that I know this is that fantasy hockey drafts are beginning. My first real draft is Sunday evening, where I’ll be taking part in the DobberHockey Experts League for the first time.

As you might imagine, the time leading up to regular season puck drop is the real busy time here at Dobber Hockey. If you haven’t already, many of you will be purchasing one of the packages that will help you dominate your league.

Yes, Dobber will take care of you with all sorts of fantasy goodness. But also keep in mind that the success or failure of your team comes down to a more important factor: you. So take the time to prepare yourself for your draft. Below I’m going to offer a few pieces of advice.

First of all, test your software. I recently participated in a fantasy football draft where one of the guys was at a party, attempting to conduct his draft on his phone. Although Yahoo allows you to do this, he seemed to have a difficult time with his Wi-Fi, getting kicked off and having to log back in. At one point, he even needed the commish to type names of top-ranked players for him through the chatroom because he was having trouble sorting rankings on his small-screen phone.

In its reminder email, Yahoo suggests not using an older browser such as IE9 or Safari 5 or earlier because they do not work well with the html5 draft client. Yahoo allows you to test your system before the draft, which would be particularly important if you are using an older or unfamiliar computer. A mock draft, like the one I did last weekend, is never a bad idea. As well, remember that the ability to rank players shuts down one hour before your draft start time.

As far as the draft guide goes, don’t be the guy or gal who purchases Dobber’s Fantasy Guide or Fantasy Hockey Geek at 6:30 p.m. for a 7 p.m. draft. Purchase your product well in advance so that you have enough time to at least review the content and learn where everything is (where is the download, where are the player rankings, etc.) In fact, I would suggest purchasing at least 24 hours ahead of time, which also gives us enough time to respond to any queries you may have.

I know that those of you who are Dobber regulars already know the drill. But we don’t want your draft to be a bad experience if you’ve been looking forward to it all summer.

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Steve Laidlaw took care of the Marek Zidlicky signing earlier today, so I won’t delve into it in much detail here. I think there’s still something left with Zidlicky, even if he’s now 38 years old. I really like the fact that he scored 11 points – 8 on the power play – in 21 games in a Red Wings’ uniform late last season. Now he’s joining an Islanders team that had a top-5 offense last season; one in which there seem to be more young scorers than top-6 roles. That could help the cause.

One comment on Johnny Boychuk’s value taking a hit: I’m not really into Boychuk as a scoring option, since his 35 points last season was a career outlier mainly propelled by a strong start (only 13 points in 36 games post All-Star break). But if your league counts hits and/or blocked shots, he’s someone to target, even if he doesn’t reach 30 points in 2015-16. Boychuk was a top-25 defenseman in both categories last season.

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According to Ryan Rishaug of TSN, Oscar Klefbom has signed a seven-year extension with the Oilers. I know Klefbom has some upside, but I’m quite surprised that the Oils are giving him seven years. Considering that his average icetime was 23 minutes per game post-All Star break, he’s probably ready for top 4 minutes. I wrote about Klefbom as a keeper in the Fantasy Guide – someone who is probably more likely to break out in 2016-17 than in 2015-16.

But at $4 million, I wonder how much of a problem this contract might be once Connor McDavid and even the likes of Nail Yakupov and Leon Draisaitl are looking to get paid. Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Taylor Hall are each locked up at $6 million per season for at least the next four seasons (Cap Friendly).

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I was curious about what would happen with Michal Rozsival this offseason after that gruesome ankle injury during the playoffs. So I’m happy to see that he’s back with the Blackhawks for another season (Chicago Tribune). Remember that the Blackhawks’ defensive depth was severely tested after Rozsival’s second-round injury.

Assuming he can get back to full speed, the 37-year-old Rozsival would be a bottom-pairing defenseman with either Trevor van Riemsdyk or David Rundblad. Neither of those young d-men seemed to be able to make a difference once Rozsival was sidelined. In fact, I’d be interested to see if Lubomir Visnovsky, who is in camp on a tryout, can make the team. Out of all these defensemen, he’s the one that’s most likely to have any sort of fantasy relevance.

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Speaking of the Blackhawks, I have Patrick Kane way, way, way down in my rankings for obvious reasons. But I have a feeling that he’ll play this season like nothing ever happened. And he’ll appreciate every question he is asked about the incident.

Seriously, I thought the precedent was set when the Kings suspended Slava Voynov, which was from the precedent set by the NFL suspension of Ray Rice. Do the Blackhawks have too much at stake right now? Do they simply know something about this case that the rest of us know – that maybe some money will make the whole thing go away?

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With draft day on the way, I have a couple of links to articles on possible players to avoid. The first is right here at Dobber – more specifically, the Geek of the Week, which is profiling Sean Monahan this week. The second is for the other site that I write for, Today’s Slapshot, which has an article on the risks involved in drafting Kyle Okposo.

First, about Monahan. I think that much of his success might be tied to the Flames’ success as a whole. Monahan and guys like Jiri Hudler all had absurdly high shooting percentages, which would suggest a regression for the team is to come. However, keep in mind that the Flames upgraded during the offseason in adding Dougie Hamilton and Michael Frolik. I’m predicting that the Flames will finish with around the same number of points as they did last season. Monahan will probably be a decent fantasy option, but he’s not a player you want to reach for in your draft.

As for Okposo, this is not the first article that I’ve read about the uncertainty of drafting him. Demetri Fragopoulos covered Okposo a few weeks ago in The Contrarian, where he researched the seriousness of Okposo’s eye injury last season. The Isles have a very formidable top-9 currently along with some solid prospects, which is why they moved Michael Grabner. So Okposo could fall down the depth chart quickly if he struggles, and there’s even the possibility that the Islanders might trade him (Newsday).

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Thanks for reading, and enjoy your Sunday.