We're two days away from actual regular season games, your draft has probably happened already, or you may have one last one tonight (like me). Regardless, best of luck this upcoming year, and stay tuned around here for everything to get you through the year in the best position possible.  

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I put in my annual votes for the DobberHockey writers' season preview, and I try not to take the easy consensus at each one. At the risk of spoiling all of my votes, I do want to talk about a couple thoughts I had while submitting the names.

One of the predictions we make is our Norris winner. Cale Makar is the easy answer, and both Roman Josi and Victor Hedman are worthy votes as well. However, the awards do tend to have a bit of a cyclical feel to them, and they get passed around a little based on who hasn't won one yet (or at least that's how it seems). As a result, we peak a little further down last year's Norris ballot, and right away we land on Adam Fox. On a Rangers team that's primed to contend for the division title, Fox would stand out even if he only scored 60-points in a season. However, over the last season-and-a-half, he has a stretch of 82 games where he scored at over a point-per-game pace. Oh, and he just hit his breakout threshold…

Letting that sink in for a second, a 20% increase or so on an 80-point pace would be around 96 points, which was the exact number that Josi scored last year to lead all defencemen in points. It will still be a tough contest with Makar, but I think Fox leads all defencemen in scoring this year, and in neck-and-neck for the Norris.

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I have Calgary as my pick to come out of the Western Conference. I think that despite not owning Makar, the Flames have the best defence core in the entire league. They also have a better coach, a better goalie, and they still have some skilled forwards. This is also the kind of team that has size, and money that they could more easily move out at the trade deadline to make a big splash with. They have drafted well, and their cupboard is nowhere near bare.

All in all, I think Jacob Markstrom is a very real possibility to unseat Igor Shesterkin for the Vezina Trophy, and that the Flames will again be one of the better sources of plus-minus ratios in the league.

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My bounce-back player for the year is Dougie Hamilton. I think he puts up 60 points and 300 shots, to make himself a top-five fantasy defenceman. Between him, Jack Hughes, and Vitek Vanecek, among a few others, I'm big on a lot of Devils players this year and I think they really surprise as a top-six team in the East.

Rick Roos agrees with me on Dougie having a big year. His annual Fearless Forecast column drops today, so come back and check that out mid-morning.

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In my toughest full redraft league, we always post summaries of what we thought about our picks, strategies, and who was taken right before our pick that we're definitely not still bitter about missing out on. It's a roto league with a full set of categories plus the kitchen sink, 25 player rosters, and 12 teams. I had the third overall pick, and here is a brief summary of my draft thoughts and strategy below. Sometimes I find that getting this kind of actual detailed insight is more thought provoking than any player stat or general advice that we can give.

Pre-word: I was drafting third overall, I tend to like to make sure I have enough peripherals, and I always fade goalies.

Round 1 – Pick 3 Auston Matthews: I was happy to get either Draisaitl or Matthews here, though I might have preferred the wing eligibility of the Oilers' star. I think this is also the first time I’ve ever owned Matthews in fantasy.

2-22 Evander Kane: I may dislike him, but he’s a Tkachuk lite, that could even out-produce both if things fall the right way.

3-27 Timo Meier: Not sure how much longer he would have lasted on the board but I feel like it would not have been long. Loving my goals, hits, and shots numbers thus far, as those are tougher to load up on in the first few rounds.

4-46 Kris Letang: I considered a few others here, but really wanted to not be left behind without a top defenceman or two. Letang can be a top-five defenceman in this league as long as he’s healthy (and as backup on that I grabbed Petry later).

5-51 Darnell Nurse: Again, heavy peripheral defenceman, and a high floor for points, despite a lower ceiling on the scoring.

6-70 Tanner Jeannot: At this point I made the rushed decision to focus less on FOWs, and more on the rougher categories. Also taking another hit in points, but I knew a few guys like Hughes, Thomas, Kyrou, etc would fall that I could cover that lack with.

7-75 Sam Bennett: Got sniped on Trocheck here, and that made this probably the pick I am least happy with. I do think Bennett gets some solid time with Tkachuk, while Verhaeghe, Duclair, Reinhart are also solid secondary options to keep his scoring and peripherals production afloat. Again, not heavy FOWs for a C, but solid elsewhere.

8-94 Jack Hughes: Getting a player whose point totals are going to match his draft slot # is much more appealing at this point in the draft. Not a lot of production elsewhere, but I’m hoping for big things from Hughes this year.

9-99 Miro Heiskanen: There was a small tier of Dmen left that I liked for my D3, including Miro, Seth Jones, and Devon Toews. I took the guy who should be growing into a bigger role. The other two went with the next two picks, making me very happy that I didn't wait. It's a league of very shrewd managers, so waiting past pick 100 for top defencemen was never going to fly.

10-118 / 11-123 Ilya Samsonov/Matt Murray: We’re past pick 100 in the draft, so I can look at goalies now. Lo-and-behold there is a full 82 games from the President’s Trophy team left on the board. Being very close to the turn it was manageable to grab both of these guys without getting the second-half stolen. That did happen to a few of the other top-tier handcuffs like Pavel Francouz. I only ever draft both sets of a tandem like this in Roto. For H2H my bench slots are too valuable to be wasted by goalies that only play three times every eight games.

12-142 Bryan Rust: He's criminally underrated as a 75-point winger with decent peripherals, and plays at what could be considered to be the shallowest position.

13-147 Michael Bunting: I think he was the top guy left on my really-preliminary pre-draft ranking list since after I picked Sam Bennett. I couldn’t stare at him any longer, and it’s nice to double-dip on the Leafs’ first line. I don't do too much line stacking but having one set for every dozen players on your fantasy team feels right.

14-166 Jeff Petry: Wanted to make sure I got Petry for his peripherals, and as a Letang cover. His +/- was holding his ranking down, but with the move to PIT that shouldn’t be an issue.

15-171 Ryan Pulock: I was eyeing Robert Thomas here, but he went two picks earlier – I should have taken him earlier. I did look at goalie, and didn’t see any standouts, also looked at forward, and there were some deeper tiers, so I went back to get my fifth defenceman. Getting my D5 here means I can wait on #6, and even fill in from the FA pile if needed.

16-190 Ondrej Palat: I liked the idea here of stacking the NJ top line with a winger that also hits and shoots. Palat isn't getting a lot of love outside of TB, but there's no reason for him not to.

17-195 Evan Rodrigues: He was basically the only guy left with FOW from a wing eligible guy, and having the upside of the second-line centre in COL was a bonus. If he flames out though, then he’s a back-nine pick, and I can easily make that up. These picks are where you win your league, but you won't lose it by making someone who eventually gets cycled out for a better option on the waiver wire.

18-214 Sean Durzi: At this point in the draft I ended up sorting defencemen by PPPs and realized there was one upside guy left in Durzi, so I had to grab him. There’s my six defencemen, and while Durzi may not be ready to start the year, he's again the kind of upside play that you have to go for here.

19-219 Alex Killorn: He hits and shoots a fair bit, and should be a top power play staple and centred by Braden Point.

20-238: Dan Vladar: One of the only goalies left on the board from a top-five-ish team. Figured I would grab him here, and if Markstrom’s drafter was actually present, he likely wouldn’t have lasted this long. Not ideal for goalie #3, but still a couple darts left on the board too, and my other 82 games (outside of the 82 already accounted for by the Maple Leafs' tandem) are going to be a committee approach.

21-243 James Reimer: Another starter left on the board. He won't get a ton of wins, but some decent ratios and a lot of saves. He also starts off the season early, and having four games under a player's belt in the first week always makes them easier to sell earlier on than the player with one (which makes no sense as there's a discrepancy in games remaining… but I digress).

22-262 Jordan Staal: I had been eyeing Staal, Philip Danault, Sean Couturier, and Mikael Granlund at around round 17, and decided I was going to wait on them and just pick the last one left. Well Danault went a few picks before, so I jumped on Staal. Again, fitting the theme of lots of peripherals but a lower ceiling on points.

23-267 Alexander Holtz: I don’t know if Holtz hits, but he has some fun upside at this point in the draft, and owning what could possibly be the entire Devil's top line is the kind of risk late in the draft that can turn into a real league-winner. If I end up having to drop him for a guy like Mario Ferraro or Calle Jarnkrok in a week, then so be it.

24-286 / 25-291 Laurent Brossoit/Adin Hill: Ideally, Brossoit is back about five games into the season, and Vegas sends down Thompson, running with a tandem of Brossoit/Hill. If so, that’s 70+ games or so for me from another playoff team. I love being able to wait on goalies.

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Scott Perunovich is unfortunately going to miss at least the next six months, which basically means he's out for the season. The perfect time to buy-low on him in dynasty leagues if you have space to stash him. While up on the NHL squad, it wasn't a guarantee he was going to make the team, but this now marks in Torey Krug's name in permanent marker on the top power play unit. I might bump his points projection up a few notches with the news (or at least bump his floor for the season up).

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You can find me on Twitter @alexdmaclean if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments.

See you next Wednesday!