Hi guys...appreciate the comments and looking forward to the upcoming season. I'll try to be more of a "regular" on this site and an active contributor. I travel frequently on business and fantasy hockey is my "downtime" activity.

Going into this draft, my strategy was simple - get solid goaltending (not necessarily the "best goalies" but goalies who will see lots of action) and target those players who will contribute across the board and have realistic "upside".

To paraphrase the late great Herb Brooks: I'm not necessarily looking for the best players, but the RIGHT players...so, going into this draft, my thinking is unless I get lucky enough for a top 3 pick - I'm taking a goalie.

The reality is…in a draft with really knowledgeable, competitive GMs…you need to take a few risks and you need a few breaks to win.

Unfortunately for me, reality went out the door when my flight home was delayed by 4 hours and I ended up trying to draft my team in the soothing and placid confines of the Philadelphia International Airport. As luck would have it, I couldn't get the Yahoo draft app to load properly on my laptop using my aircard. After fumbling with trying to draft via my android PDA, I was finally able to make it to the 4th round by borrowing a colleague's laptop. Several shocks awaited me...I ended up with the 2nd pick overall and Mr. Autopick selected D.Sedin... a stud at the very thin LW position so all wasn't lost. Shock #2 was a total of 15 GMs at this happy gathering. For some reason I assumed this was a 12 GM pool and wouldn't need to go deep in the well (3 extra GMs is huge as it means 6 less goalies, 18 less defenseman, 12 less left wingers available). Had I known this in advance I would have absolutely selected a goalie (see Shock #3) instead as my first pick. Shock #3 was the inevitable goalie run that I missed out on and was left with the somewhat slim pickings. Time to get to work and pick up the pieces! As the 14th pick in the 4th round, Gaborik offered the best potential reward (and yes, he's always a risk but he's playing with a top flight center for once).

I'll provide a deeper analysis/reasoning of the rest of my picks later... suffice to say I'm happier with my squad today than I was yesterday. As a whole, I'm really happy with the balance of my forwards and I should have broad strength across all of my skater cats. Goaltending is my wildcard... Quick should be very solid with that LA team and Mason can't be as bad as he was last year (can he???). He's got a better team in front of him and that alone should translate into more wins and improved numbers. The first month or two will be telling for him. Rask is my insurance policy. He'll play more games than he did last year and if the aging Timmy Thomas pulls a groin I'm golden. Defense is serviceable but with Kreci, Ott, Sedin, JVR, Iginla, Gaborik, Downie I'll more than compensate for the incremental stats an upgrade or 2 at D would've given me. A calculated risk indeed but we'll see how it plays out. As someone mentioned earlier in the thread...it will be the overall balance that will be the key to winning in this league.

My team:
C: Kreci, Ott, Oshie, Bolland, Hodgson
LW: D.Sedin, JVR, T.Ruutu, Smyth, Raymond
RW: Iginla, Gaborik, Downie, Upshall, A.Stewart
D: Streit, Campbell, Souray, M.Staal, Martin, Salo, McCabe (please sign somewhere soon!)
G: Quick, S.Mason, Rask

A very intense and very competitive draft with a really sharp, really savvy bunch of GMs. The airport was nearly empty by the time it was over and I had a spare laptop to lug home. Luckily my luggage was still on the baggage merry-go-round. Overall, I'm pleased. If my team stays healthy, we will compete and finish in the top 3. Hopefully Herb Brooks will look down and will be pleased too - if not, to quote Herb, my team could end up looking like a bunch of "monkeys trying to hump a football".

Nice team preview and can't wait to see more details.

Sorry to hear about your troubles getting on to the draft app... (or am I ?!? haha)

Either way nice to hear from you!

__________________
Gates Imbeau
Assistant Manager - DobberSports.com
Writer - Fantrax.com
Regular Guest - The York Report via NextSportStar.com
Email: gates@dobbersports.com
Twitter: @GM_Gates

Ah... someday I dream to make my way up the Dobber Invitational League to the Experts level... someday...

I had a slight issue with the draft taking place for me at 4:30 in the morning! I was also surprised to see 15 teams, I thought it was supposed to be 12? The more the merrier for sure! Then I saw my draft position. 12 of 15. Ugh!

Round 1 - Oh well, looked like a Goalie for me in the first round. I took Luongo even though I'm not a fan. Hopefully, he'll be motivated to prove himself again this season.

Round 2 - Taking LW Datsyuk in the 2nd was tough. I looked at oldtimer Brodeur, Zetterberg and St. Louis, who all went immediately following my pick.

Rounds 3/4 - Wanted to take my second Goalie with this pick, but there was a monster run on tenders and I wasn't going to take Lehtonen or Roloson over either RW Patrick Kane (my 3rd selection) and Getzlaf (my 4th). I was tempted to take Toews.

Round 5 - Really wanted to grab Letang or Doughty, but had to settle for the fat bastard Byfuglien instead. Here's hoping that he can put those distractions aside and pot 50 pts, 100 pims and 350 SOG!

Round 6 - Took a risk with a damn Leafs goalie. Reimer looks to be for real and I actually don't think Toronto is as bad as they've played over the last two seasons.

Rounds 7-11 - Just couldn't stop taking Defensemen. All are on their respective team's top PP and will hit 45+ points and a boatload of PPP. Enstrom, E.Karlsson, J.Johnson, E.Johnson and Fowler.

Rounds 12-14 - I only had one LW and it's friggin' Round 12! Welcome to the team Misters Fleischmann, Pacioretty and Booth.

Round 15 - Noticed that I only had one RW at this point and saw Mr Underappreciated Martin Erat sitting there all alone.

Rounds 16-19 - I've ignored my C spot, taking only Getzlaf until this point. Time to go old school and hope for a revival. Olli Jokinen, Horcoff, Gomez and Sam Gagner all get a shot to play on Team Hope. All are either the de facto #1 or in the mix and get PP time.

Round 20 - Went looking for some Pims and found RW Bertuzzi laying on the shelf.

Round 21 - Wasn't comfortable with having Reimer as G2, so I bought a lottery ticket and took a chance that DiPietro can play 50 games on an improving Isles this year. (I hear you snickering out there!)

Rounds 22-25 - Who cares? These guys are the first ones gone to Free Agent Pick ups. C-Saku Koivu (hate him), RW-Colby Armstrong (hate him), RW-Neil Ott (hate him) and C-Cogliano Ana (hate him) round out my roster.

Overall, this was a very tough draft because of the quality of people drafting. You just couldn't keep your queue filled with players.

This was probably the least prepared I've ever been for a draft and I was playing it as safe as I could with my picks. I would NOT have taken Crosby in this draft, even if he fell to the third round! I'm loaded with veterans. In one year leagues, I don't take too many chances with rookies or band-aid boys.

My +/- will look chillier than Portage and Main in early January! It's a stupid stat that can be difficult to predict, so I have to hope that it won't be too bad for my big minus guys from last season (yeah, I'm looking squarely at you Mr Karlsson!).

With those 6 big D, I don't need as much from my Fwds.

I am so looking forward to the start of the season! Game On. Best of luck you guys, you are gonna need it this year.

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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

Awesome wrap up Comish and great strategy!

Grabbing 6 D in the first 11 Rounds is pretty interesting... D whore!

I like your team and you're going to compete well in many categories... pretty much all except the one you stated - plus/minus haha...

Man I can't wait for puck drop!

Oh and kudos for the 4:30AM draft... insane!

__________________
Gates Imbeau
Assistant Manager - DobberSports.com
Writer - Fantrax.com
Regular Guest - The York Report via NextSportStar.com
Email: gates@dobbersports.com
Twitter: @GM_Gates