Hope you enjoyed Bubble Keeper Week and were able to get a view on how we at Dobber make our keeper league decisions. These decisions are never easy and can even involve a lot of second-guessing.

I’ll put a wrap on Bubble Keeper Week with a story. I know I've shared this story before at some point. Maybe not here, but on social media for sure. The story is about my worst-ever keeper decision.

Back in 2015, my fourth and final keeper decision came down to two real-life teammates. Player A finished with 72 points in 2014-15. Player B, who I added from the waiver wire that season, finished with 65 points. I decided to keep Player A. Makes sense to keep Player A because he had more points, right?

Well, Player A was Tyler Johnson. Player B, however, was Nikita Kucherov.

You don’t need me to tell you that the two players' careers took different directions after that. A missed opportunity like that could have decimated my team's chances of winning for a long time, right? Well, as radio announcer Paul Harvey used to say, now it's time for the rest of the story.

Three years later in 2018, I ended up in a three-way tie for the league championship (this was a rotisserie league, not head-to-head, so a tie for the championship was possible). Perhaps Kucherov would have put me over the top, but I'll never know. I then won the league outright in 2020. Yes, that was a shortened season, but it's still a victory!

What I'm trying to say is that the failure of a horrible decision didn’t linger for me. In fact, my team actually improved from 9^th in 2015 to 5^th in both 2016 and 2017 all the way to the 1^st place tie in 2018. There was an 8^th place finish in 2019, but we won't talk about that! Winning (or losing) a league involves many decisions. You won’t get them all correct, but hopefully you make more right decisions than wrong decisions.

On a less positive note, the league disbanded in 2022. This league was an expert's league that lasted over a decade. The commissioner decided to step down, and no one volunteered to be commish in order to keep the league alive. On top of that, one prominent member (a well-known fantasy sports writer) decided not to continue. I didn't want to be in charge of this league because I am already the commish in two other leagues. This type of scenario is the reason I can't subscribe to 5+ year rebuild plans in keeper leagues. For all you know, the league could be gone by then! You never know what the future may hold.

That's my final contribution to Bubble Keeper Week. I wish you the best of luck with your own decisions.  

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It's time for another Yahoo mock draft. You can view the full results of this draft and league settings at my personal blog.

If you've tried a mock draft on Yahoo, you may have noticed that ADPs do not appear yet. I'm not sure whether they are waiting for more real drafts to take place or if they can take them from mock drafts.

The mock drafts I've participated in so far have also served as one form of input for the Top 100 Roto Rankings. My view is that rankings should take into account where players are getting drafted or even ranked by the providers like Yahoo and Fantrax, even if their rankings are wildly inaccurate. For example, if you find a player with a 10^th round ADP that has potential 3^rd round value, I don't advise drafting that player in the 3^rd round. Instead, wait until closer to the 10^th round (maybe 8^th or 9^th round) so you can maximize your other picks. In other words, don't draft a player early if you can draft them several rounds later.

Without further ado, here are my picks:

1-5 – Cale Makar – In my last mock draft writeup, I discussed who my top four are. For that reason, I selected the fifth pick so I could challenge myself as to who I would pick there. True to form, the first four picks were exactly who I thought they would be. But who is the best of the next bunch?

I thought long and hard about David Pastrnak, but I think his production slips a bit with the Bruins' current situation. Kirill Kaprizov also appears on the Yahoo default queue, but games missed is an issue. I left defensemen for too long in the last mock draft, so this time I'll go with Makar, the projected highest-scoring blueliner.

By the way, my top tier of defensemen consists of Makar and Quinn Hughes. That's it.

2-20 – Mitch Marner – What if Marner outscored everyone on the Leafs? He's mainly a pure scorer with his value lower in multicategory leagues. Other options here included Sam Reinhart, Brayden Point, Artemi Panarin, Jack Hughes, Jake Guentzel, and Sidney Crosby – all of whom were chosen before my next pick.

3-29 – Jason Robertson – I wasn't going to let Robertson slip away in the fourth round this time. He's no longer worth a first-round pick or even a second-round pick, but he's a solid third-round pick that might be rated too low by Yahoo.

4-44 – Clayton Keller – He might not get enough love in fantasy drafts. Keller has posted three consecutive 30-goal and 75-point seasons and is coming off his first 90-point season. He profiles as a slightly lower point scorer than Marner, but with a few more goals.

5-53 – Brandon Hagel – I got Hagel in the sixth round in my previous mock draft. Even getting him the fifth round is huge value in my opinion. I'd bet the under on 90 points again, but I don't think he'll see a major dropoff either. I've also noticed that I filled up my wingers and need centers and other positions! That's the downside of picking who I think is the best player available.

6-68 – Jake Sanderson – This might be a reach considering where Sanderson's preseason rank is for Yahoo, but he is trending in the right direction. I was actually targeting Adam Fox here, but he was picked right before me.

7-77 – Dylan Strome – Tons of autopickers in this draft meant that I had to think fast. I needed a center, and Strome seemed like the best one available. I think there's a bit of regression this season, and some of that is tied to Alex Ovechkin. Looking back, the best available alternative at the center position appeared to be Seth Jarvis.

8-92 – Linus Ullmark – I was looking at the Markstrom/Ullmark goalie group just before pick 100. Other possible goalie picks at around pick 100 or shortly after include Anthony Stolarz, Jordan Binnington, Juuse Saros, Sam Montembeault, Jeremy Swayman, and Pyotr Kochetkov. These goalies are either high-volume starters for low-mid-level teams or timeshare goalies on contending teams.

9-101 – Elias Pettersson – Quite honestly, Pettersson's preseason value will be a source of debate. He has 100-point upside, so he could be drafted higher than the 60-70-point players that are typically getting picked in this round. Yet his performance last season wasn't even worthy of this spot. I don't think you can go wrong drafting him around pick 100, though.

10-116 – Andrei Svechnikov – I'm sticking to my plan of drafting multicategory specialists such as Svechnikov, Tom Wilson, and Timo Meier in the middle rounds. It's good to figure out if you have categories like hits and shots covered yet, and if not, target them. The differences between options are harder to find at this point in the draft, so you might as well draft what you need.

11-125 – Tom Wilson – One downside to the strategy listed above is that it may not account for positional needs. I still need defensemen and another goalie, and the good options are thinning out.

12-140 – Thatcher Demko – If you're using a Zero G strategy, then Demko might be an option for you. If he's over his injuries from last season, then he has a strong chance of exceeding this value. The Canucks won't overwork him, as Kevin Lankinen should probably play about 40% of the time, assuming minimal injuries. 

13-149 – Darnell Nurse – I couldn't find any hidden gems among defensemen, so I went back to the multicat well with Nurse. He won't anchor the Oilers' blueline and he could even see his icetime decrease, but he finished in the top 10 in combined shots, hits, and blocks in 2024-25 (although I just remember that this mock draft doesn't count blocked shots).

14-164 – Noah Hanifin – We're all out of decent PP1 options here, so I had to target strong PP2 options who could receive PP1. Hanifin seems to fall into that category. Shea Theodore is a Band-Aid Boy, while Hanifin should log a ton of minutes anyway.

15-173 – Dylan Cozens – I don't get much time to dig deep for a sleeper. Cozens could provide decent value, especially if he can find his game with the Senators. In addition, he has suddenly become a strong source of hits, reaching 100 hits for the first time in 2023-24, then leaping to over 200 hits last season.

16-188 – Gabriel Landeskog – This is the most likely pick that I'll drop, so might as well see if Landeskog is even a fraction of the player he was before the injury. The main factor is whether Landeskog can last a full season after missing nearly three whole seasons.

Hopefully you get a chance to try a mock draft just to get you thinking about your own rankings before your real draft.

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Follow me on X @Ian_Gooding and Bluesky @goodsfantasyhockey.bsky.social