Starting a new keeper this year, and many of the other guys are new at keepers. For that reason, I think that, particularly on defense, there\'s going to be a rush on established players like Gonchar, Zubov, Lidstrom, Pronger, etc., in a rush to win right away. My master plan is to pick up goaltending gold early, then stock 6 (ish) starting forwards (2 per position), and try to get some young steals for my defense towards the middle of the draft. Really, it\'s more of a 2nd year plan than an immediate one.

Of course, (for example) if someone like Ryan Whitney or Phaneuf falls into the 3rd or 4th round, I\'ll probably grab him, but my question is geared specifically to what young d-men I might get in the mid-rounds. Specifically, Jack or Erik Johnson.

Initially, I was higher on Jack because it looked like he might find a top 4 spot behind Blake and Visnovsky, and probably plenty of PP time. Plus, I like the young forwards who he will hopefully be assisting. However, there now looks like a d-man glut in LA after the signing of Preissing and Stuart, which probably means that Jack gets bumped into the last pairing and gets little or no PP time. On the other hand, St. Louis looks like they\'ll badly need some scoring from the back end. Does this mean that Erik is pretty much a lock to get top 4 minutes and all the PP time he can handle? Does he have immediate impact? Does Jack have his first impact season pushed back a year or 2 because of all the d-men in LA? I figure that they have about equal upsides in terms of points, but does Erik get there first?

So many questions...*sigh*...

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Full Keeper Team, straight points, no PIMs:
C Staal, Datsyuk (LW), Kopitar, Backstrom (IR)
LW Marleau (C), Parise, McDonald (C), Heatley
RW Iginla, Kessel, Gaborik, Giroux (C), Hudler
D Kaberle, Phaneuf, Visnovsky, J. Johnson, Hamhuis
G Kiprusoff, Bryzgalov, Thomas
Farm Tatar, Strome, Radulov, Gerbe, Elliott (Col)

I think Erik\'s gonna be the better of the 2 johnsons. Just from seeing him at the world juniors he seems to keep his head better and does everything at least as well as jack does. I also think that given the situation in St. Louis he\'ll be forced into more situations like the power play and critical minutes. If Andy Murray handles him correctly I think he\'ll be better now and better long term. I could see him putting up numbers similar to those of Phaneuf.

I would pick Erik as well. He will get you more points this year and as you said they are both equal in term of future points.

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24GMs Dynasty (G A +- PIM PPP SOG W SV GAA / 4C, 4LW, 4RW, 6D, 1G)
Cap hit: $1188 out of $1250

C-Malkin $157,Schwartz $5,Granlund $5,Shaw $5,Rinaldo $5,Cervenka $5,Schroeder $5,Galchenyuk $5
LW-Hartnell $136,Nash $115,Leino $29,Kulemin $49,Gagne $32,Paajarvi $5,MFoligno $5,Joensuu $5
RW-Brown $115,Jagr $14,Grabner $40,Gallagher $5,Knight $5,Radulov $5
D-Karlsson $105,Edler $83,McDonagh $18,Bogosian $27,Mitchell $22,REllis $5,Salvador $5,Hamilton $5
G-Halak $127,Montoya $24,Bishop $5,Fasth $5,Allen $5

Erik Johnson has more upside points wise than Jack Johnson. Jack will be more valuable for his intangibles, ie. toughness and passion. It was fun watching how different they were at the World Junior\'s this past year. Erik quietly dominated, while Jack was aggressive physically and took some chances defensively. For that reason, I think Jack will have some growing pains in the NHL wrt his plus/minus.

A lot of the Canadian fans were (verbally) on Jack during the games, but he appeared to enjoy the jeering! In the round robin game versus Canada, Jack took a penalty (roughing/ elbowing, I can\'t remember) and the mostly pro-Canadian crowd was on him, he looked up and gave us a big smile! Not sure if TSN caught that moment, but it made the tournament for me! If this guy was Canadian, he\'d be more popular than Phaneuf.

I\'ve never seen a defenceman take wrist shots from the point like Jack Johnson does. The kid has a passion for the game that I just love. Interesting to note that Jack and Sidney Crosby are buddies from their prep school days.

It sounds like the Kings are going to pair him up with his idol Rob Blake to begin his NHL career. I don\'t see Johnson playing on the first PP unit, but I think he will get his chances throughout the year mostly on the 2nd PP pairing.

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12 Team "Experts" Roto representing Dobberhockey 2nd
G,A,PPP,+/-,SOG,Hits,Blocks,Wins,GAA,SV% - Keep 4
4C-Kopitar,M.Koivu,Stepan,Matthias,Prospal
4L-Marleau,Steen,M.Foligno,N.Foligno,Morrow,Umberger
4R-Hossa,Hornqvist,Little,Alfredsson,Oshie
6D-Byfuglien,Phaneuf,Doughty,J.Johnson,Burns,Wideman, Kostka,Methot
2G-M.Smith,Backstrom,Reimer

12 Team Salary Cap Roto Dynasty 3rd (G,A,Pts,FPts,DPts,Pim,SOG,H,BS,W+OTL+SO,GAA,SV%)
12F-Ovechkin,Kopitar,P&E Kane,Kessel,Ryan,M&N Foligno,Ennis,Hodgson,Killorn,Horton,Wolski,Morrow ,Bonino
6D-Subban,J.Johnson,Carle,Wizniewski,Franson,Spurgeon ,Kostka,M.Fraser
2G-Rask,Anderson,Emery
Farm-Markstrom,Scrivens,Brunner,Nyquist,G.Bourque,B.Con nolly,T.Barrie,Brennan,Barberio,Orlov