Last Resort

C: Carter, M.Koivu, Kesler, Hanzal
LW: Ryan, Franzen, van Riemsdyk, McDonald
RW: Giroux, P.Kane, Hossa, Selanne
D: Pietrangelo, Green, Ehrhoff, Hamonic, Hamhuis, Zidlicky
G: Halak, Hiller
Bench: Gionta, Kennedy, Ruutu, Vokoun, Scrivens

I like my team and I think I am relatively solid at every position. LW is a bit questionable with several injury prone players, but we'll see how that goes. RW on the other hand is very strong so that's probably the position to trade from if issues arise elsewhere in the team. Draft went mostly according to the plan and I managed to draft about half the team where I was planning to take them pre-draft so that's pretty much as good as can be expected. Pre-draft plan was to take goalies in rounds 2&3 and then concentrate on dmen and wingers so I would have 0-1 C, 1-2 LW, 1-2 RW, 2 D, 2 G by the of the round 8. After that the idea was to mostly draft based on my rankings spreadsheet with emphasis on wingers and dmen in the middle rounds and deviate from that only if I needed help in certain categories.

1. (5) Claude Giroux (Phi - C,RW)

Plan was to pick winger here or Crosby if I had to. I was hoping to get Ovechkin, but Giroux isn't too bad either.

2. (20) Jaroslav Halak (StL - G)

I wanted goalie here and I was pretty confident I would get one on my wish list of Halak/Price/Niemi. All three were available so decided to go with Halak.

3. (29) Jonas Hiller (Anh - G)

2nd goalie was the target and wishlist went Price/Niemi/Hiller. Price and Niemi went so picked Hiller.

4. (44) Bobby Ryan (Anh - LW)

I was hoping one of Chara/Weber/Byfuglien would be available here, but all three went before my pick. Secondary plan was to pick from the opposite wing of the 1st round selection so I selected the highest rated LW in Ryan.

5. (53) Alex Pietrangelo (StL - D)

Time to select my 1st dman and went with Pietrangelo. I had Pietrangelo, Subban, Edler and Green pretty much evenly rated so decided to go with Pietrangelo as I felt others would more likely be available at my next 2 picks.

6. (68) Patrick Kane (Chi - C,RW)

Subban went, but Edler is still available. I decide to wait on Edler/Green as I think I am better off picking winger now because one of Edler/Green has better chance of being available at my next pick. My 5th ranked RW P.Kane was still on board so went with him. Other options included Datsyuk or Marleau at LW.

7. (77) Mike Green (Was - D)

Edler, Datsyuk and Marleau were selected so went with Green as I wanted to have 2 top dmen in the team.

8. (92) Jeff Carter (LA - C)

I wanted to get LW here to balance the wing situation and I was looking at Heatley, Semin or Pacioretty at this point. All three went though and I wanted to pick LW, but the next best LW on my list was Franzen who would likely be available at my next pick at least. List of available good centers was getting pretty thin as well so decided to with Carter to pick my 1st center on the team.

9. (101) Marian Hossa (Chi - RW)

I really needed LW here, but Hossa was still available and I decided to risk losing Franzen by picking Hossa. Hossa was significantly higher rated on my list so essentially went with BPA here and thinking I could probably get LW by trading if necessary.

10. (116) Johan Franzen (Det - LW,RW)

Franzen was still available and decided to not risk the LW anymore as with Lupul gone there wasn't any good LWs left apart from Franzen.

11. (125) Teemu Selanne (Anh - RW)

Once again going with best winger available, although this selection creates a bit of imbalance with 4 RW and 2 LW on the team. I was hoping to draft wings pretty evenly, but Selanne was just rated far ahead of the highest rated LW available so had to go with BPA and hope to fix the imbalance by trading. M.Koivu was also available bit surprisingly, but went with the winger as I had Koivu and Selanne roughly evenly rated.

12. (140) Mikko Koivu (Min - C)

I wasn't really planning to pick another center for some time, but M.Koivu was still available and considering he was 18th ranked C on my list and next best was ranked 34th, I simply had to go with Koivu. Koivu was also easily the highest rated forward available at my pick so this was pretty much a no-brainer pick. Very happy with this pick and I think this was my best steal in the draft.

13. (149) Christian Ehrhoff (Buf - D)

Time to address the D again. Highly rated dmen were getting thin on my list with Giordano, Burns and Wisniewski going in the last few rounds so I went with Ehrhoff.

14. (164) Ryan Kesler (Van - C)

I was looking to add another dman and was especially targeting Timonen. Timonen went though and I was quite confident next best dmen in my list Markov and Ellis would be available in later rounds. Kesler was still available so had to go with him as he has potental to be pretty good player in this format.

15. (173) James van Riemsdyk (Tor - LW)

I had to address the LW with only 2 LW in the team so went with the best available on the list in van Riemsdyk. This is kind of risky pick and I am relying on him improving, but had to take some risks as I didn't like the rest of available LWs at all.

16. (188) Martin Hanzal (Pho - C)

My draft spreadsheet indicated that I was really low on hits so decided to go with Hanzal to remedy that a bit. He was also highest rated C left in my list so I think this was a good fit at this point.

17. (197) Travis Hamonic (NYI - D)

Another selection to get more hits to the team. Very nice hit totals already and could possibly be breakout candidate as well. I don't expect it though and I would be happy with mid-high 20s in points and close to 200 hits.

18. (212) Dan Hamhuis (Van - D)

Hoped Dubinsky would be available as 4th LW with nice hit totals and decent scoring ability would have been nice. Dubinsky went though so decided to with highest rated dman available in Hamhuis.

19. (221) Tomas Vokoun (Pit - G)

I left picking Markov a bit later than I was planning to with the need to get hits. So Markov went and I decided to pick up Vokoun in case Fleury is injured/continues with his his stellar play.

20. (236) Andy McDonald (StL - C,LW)

My late sleeper D pick in Ellis goes so I decided to select McDonald to complete the starting roster forwards.

21. (245) Marek Zidlicky (NJ - D)

Best D available to fill the 6th D spot in the roster.

22. (260) Brian Gionta (Mon - RW)

I think Gionta is very undervalued currently in most leagues and I think he'll provide good value as bench RW. Also gives me a good replacement RW in case I ship one out in a trade.

23. (269) Ben Scrivens (Tor - G)

We are in the lottery rounds already so decided to pick Scrivens as G that has even some reasonable chance to end up as a starter.

24. (284) Tyler Kennedy (Pit - LW,RW)

Just a filler winger. I'll probably drop in 2 or 3 weeks in the season anyway so I picked multi-position winger just in case there are injuries and can't field full lineup in the 1st week.

25. (293) Tuomo Ruutu (Car - C,LW)

Another multiposition filler player.

As for categories go I think I have solid team in most categories. I expect to be just middling team in saves though and probably still a bit low on hits as well.

From the other teams I like blammo best, team has good solid skaters with good balance except maybe somewhat low in hits. Ward and Pavelec should give team good finishes in W and SVS cats, but I expect this team to finish quite low in GAA. That's just the price you likely have to pay with selecting goalies relatively late in rounds 3 and 9, but I think blammo managed to get very good value out of the goalie picks.

Other teams I quite like as well are Expectoraters(questionable goaltending, but very strong balanced skaters), Das Chicleteur(good goaltending and skaters are decent as well) and Loki(best goaltending in the league, but skaters suffer a bit from going back-to-back goalie in the first 2 rounds).