I'm the defending champ, get outta here.

There are certain things I won't touch - what say we let him beat himself?

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

I had an interesting decision to make in round 3 based on my draft strategy.

First let me say that I went in with the following view: I am drafting in 10th slot, the big skater dogs will be gone. The 2 top guns in this league last year pulled down dramatically more roto points in the goalie cats than all but one team (that team pretty much sewered in all the offensive cats and finish in the bottom part of the league) - like real estate, goalies are a limited resource , especially in a league like this - you can't go to the wire for a replacement goalie but you can pick up stats from a lot of skaters on the wire. So I figured to wrap up 2 goalies by round 2 which I did.

So along comes my 3rd pick and there sits Kipper, bottom of tier 2 using FGH rankings with a 4 tier system I had him ranked 9th) - significant drop in value from him to tier 3. I had prepped by opening the same night tool before the draft, so I quickly threw in the stuff to get a read on his conflicts with Rinne and Ward - very low conflict numbers which means 51 available games for Calgary. (skaters like Benn, Kane and Lucic get taken immediately after to get a sense of skaters available at that point)

Kipper hasn't won less than 35 games since the last lockout - currently trends under 2.5 gaa and sv% bounces but reasonably expect about .915 and runs over 1800 saves a season.

Couldn't resist taking my 3rd goalie in the 3rd round knowing full well I won't get full value from him and also creating a need to scramble for skater cats.

In post mortem, I think I made the right call - time will tell.

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

3rd goalie was something I messed up on - grabbed by far the two strongest goalies remaining (IMO) with Price and Miller and then planned to grab a decent 3rd goalie but I just wasn't paying enough attention and the last of the quality guys disappeared before I realized only Elliott was left (though I debated over taking a guy like Neuvirth).

I think you made the right call with Elliott - any starts he gives you are going to be very high quality which speaks to 2 cats for sure and his starts will also contribute to the volume cats. Neuvirth is a lot riskier - perhaps higher reward but squishy - very squishy.

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

It's really interesting to chart my picks - position against rank - taking that 3rd goalie so early, punches a big hole in the curve where I don't get any value players that would equate to the 4th and 5th round picks. I guess you give to get. I actually really like my team - but I am just below the bubble on so many categories with it.

There's some hope I suppose - Horton and Franzen stay healthy, Laich and Visnovsky get back to where they should be, Hedman and Faulk take another step up. Yeah, hope springs eternal - gotta love fantasy hockey.

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

Not the sexiest names but you definitely got some solid guys. I couldn't believe Laich was hanging around that long, he's a fantastic multi-cat guy.

One thing that I have been thinking about is the speed of the draft - personally I think I would enjoy it more and likely make slightly better decisions (likely the same for everyone) if it was much slower, say 2:30 per pick. Now that like adds a good hour to the draft time, but when I consider how I am involved in months long off-line drafts, that isn't such a big deal.

I can hear an argument that it comes down to preparation to maximize the draft a 1:30 a pick, and that would be considered a good thing by some. Personally, don't buy that for a minute - a large part of fantasy hockey is the social side and the quality of the draft experience isn't particularly well served by riding the bullet train through the draft.

Just a thought - I would slow it down and make sure that participants in the league were able to attend - Smack and Barry autopicked for sure - were there others? Yeah maybe they could have prepped better because they got killed in goal but really - how good is a league when 2 teams for sure are out of it because they couldn't make the draft?

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

Yeah well he struggled last year and that might be why - I am happy to have got him where I did. Hopefully Oates will get the boys going including him.

Can I publicly rant about how many from the top of my queue ended up on your team, Garrett? 6, read it again - six, yes, that was six (6)!!!!!

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

I'll view that as a good thing for my fantasy team.

While you didn't snatch 6 from the top of my queue, you picked Keith and Visnovsky right as I was about to take them. Add to the fact that Ward and Kipper were two goalies I was targetting to make it past the initial goalie-frenzy, and we'll call it even enough