Can you believe that the NHL season starts one month from now? No, not preseason games. No, not early games from another continent. Actual regular-season games on North American soil. Yes, the regular season now starts in late September as opposed to early October. That begs another question: Where did the summer go?

With Yahoo leagues having just reopened, I participated in my first mock draft of the season. I picked the 12-team draft with Yahoo default settings, which I believe are still G, A, +/-, PPP, SOG, Hits, W, GAA, and SV%. I used the Top 100 Roto Rankings and Yahoo default rankings to help me. For full results, go to my personal blog Goods Fantasy Hockey.

1-3 Nikita Kucherov (TB – RW)
I used an online random number generator from 1-12 to decide where I should pick, and it landed on 3. That meant Kucherov was an easy first pick for me at third overall, as I have him third in the Roto Rankings behind Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. Not surprisingly, McDavid and MacKinnon were drafted ahead of Kucherov in this draft as well, in that order. Can I say the first three picks in fantasy drafts this season are as easy as 1-2-3?

I'll save you a click if you just want to see how the rest of the first round went:

4 – Cale Makar

5 – Macklin Celebrini

6 – Zach Werenski

7 – Leon Draisaitl

8 – Andrei Vasilevskiy

9 – David Pastrnak

10 – Kirill Kaprizov

11 – Quinn Hughes

12 – Evan Bouchard

The only picks that raised my eyebrows were Werenski and Vasilevskiy. That seems high for where Werenski has been going, but he has also piled up back-to-back 80-point seasons. Only Makar has more points among defensemen over the past two seasons than Werenski. As for Vasilevskiy, it's more about a goaltender being risky as a first-round pick.

2-22 Jack Eichel (VGK – C)
I went to the center position for my second pick in Jack Eichel. I could have picked Matt Boldy or Mikko Rantanen and both would have been great picks in this spot as well.

3-27 Mikko Rantanen (DAL – RW,LW)
Boldy was picked right before this pick, making this an easy decision. I'm kind of surprised both were still available after pick 25. I'd question the likes of Connor Hellebuyck (trade request) and Cutter Gauthier (unsigned) being selected before Rantanen.

4-46 Artemi Panarin (LA – LW)
I had my eye on Mitch Marner for my fourth-round pick, but he was picked right before this pick. I still want to draft scoring, so I picked Panarin. I was thinking about Clayton Keller with this pick, so I quickly went to the Roto Rankings to decide between the two. Ilya Sorokin and Igor Shesterkin were still on the board, while Yahoo has placed Scott Wedgewood in that goalie tier as well.  

5-51 Sidney Crosby (PIT – C)
Crosby was too tempting to pass up in the fifth round, even with Keller still there (he was picked right after). Leo Carlsson was also available and he may break out, but there's going to be a ton of pressure on him with that contract. I'm happy with what I have at the center position, though.  

6-70 Lucas Raymond (DET – RW)
I know I’m going to have to pick some defensemen soon. I had my eye on Adam Fox… guess what? Picked right before me! I didn't have much time, so I went with what I thought was the best player available and decided to wait for a defenseman on my next pick. Shortly after my pick, I noticed that Erik Karlsson, Roman Josi, Josh Morrissey, and John Carlson were available. Maybe one or more will still be there. Otherwise, I'll have to start looking at peripheral categories such as hits.

7-75 Erik Karlsson (PIT – D)
I was undecided between Karlsson and Josh Morrissey, although the Roto Rankings have Morrissey a bit higher. Hopefully Morrissey will be around for my next pick, but I doubt it. After I drafted my six forwards, I thought I would pick four consecutive defensemen, then two goalies, then fill up my bench. These mock drafts go way too quickly to make the sort of pick that you can put a lot of thought into.

8-94 John Carlson (TB – D)
And yes, of course, Morrissey goes right before me, so another Carlson it is. He has the potential to have a big year in Tampa Bay. My defense is a little older, but that’s fine. This is just a mock draft, and I probably need to do some more of these before the real thing.

9-99 Brandon Bussi (CAR – G)
My goal was to start thinking about goalies at pick 100, and I grabbed Bussi right around there. Looks like he had fallen a bit. He’ll probably be in a goaltending battle with Pyotr Kochetkov in Carolina. I figure Carolina will win a lot of games, so he should be fine.

10-118 Dylan Larkin (DET – C)
Needing more defensemen, I was looking at Vince Dunn, but guess what… picked right before my turn.  Shea Theodore was the player I immediately turned to after Bussi, but he was grabbed several picks before. Regardless, Larkin seems like a great value pick after pick 100, regardless of whether he plays in Detroit or elsewhere.  

11-123 Mark Stone (VGK – RW)
Stone will probably get injured again, but when he is in the lineup, he’s a point-per-game player. It's hard to sleep on that if he even reaches 70 games, which he has not done since 2018-19. 

12-142 Jet Greaves (CBJ – G)
Greaves should play a lot with Elvis Merzlikins injured. He already did last season by appearing in 55 games. Columbus might not be very good, but I think he’s a great Zero G option if he happens to be available for you.

13-147 Mattias Ekholm (EDM – D)
I was looking at Simon Nemec, but he was selected not one, but two picks before me. To the mock draft's credit, there didn't look like there were many autopickers, even in the evening on the West Coast. I need defensemen, and I let a targeted one slip away again. That’s something I’m going to have to practice here. Not really happy with the Ekholm selection, but that's the best I could do with the limited time.

14-166 Pyotr Kochetkov (CAR – G)
Very late in the draft, I picked the other Carolina goalie. That could be quite a tandem, and they weren’t that expensive.

15-171 Jacob Trouba (SJ – D)
Trouba is my late-round pick because I don’t have an overly physical lineup. He’ll help me in the hits category. If you're like me and you left defensemen late, whether it be accidentally or on purpose, use the position to fill peripheral categories that they can best provide. I don't think this mock draft counted blocked shots, but I would have targeted that category if I knew that it did.

16-190 Sam Malinski (COL – D)

The forwards that are left aren’t all that appealing, which means I'll draft Malinski as my final pick. He should help with a bit of scoring, and I don’t know if my plus-minus will be that great on this team. Maybe it will be okay, but Malinski playing for Colorado should help in that category. The last pick on any team is probably the player most likely to be dropped, unless you can cash in and find a super sleeper.

Well, that's my draft. I loaded up on scoring forwards, could have done a lot better on defense, and I like the goalies that I waited on. I don't have the youngest team, but there are a lot of proven options. I will definitely need more practice before the real thing, although mock drafts don't give me the time that I need to make the best possible pick (30 seconds I believe). When it's your first draft of the year, that seems more like three seconds. But as they say, practice makes perfect.

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