Fantasy Hockey Mondays: Week Five

So it turns out this Steven Stamkos kid is pretty good at hockey. He seems to be scoring a lot of points. My advice: you should try to pick him up in your fantasy pool.

I kid, of course, but it's still astounding the run that Stamkos is on to start the season, as he picked up another 4 goals and 2 assists this week. At 20 years old, he's leading the league in goals, points, powerplay points, and game-winning goals. He's on pace for 72 goals and 135 points. I was incredibly lucky to be picking third overall in all three of my pools and was able to select Stamkos after the consensus first two picks of Ovechkin and Crosby. And to think, I almost decided to draft Nicklas Backstrom instead. That would have been very, very stupid.

That said, Stamkos will need to shoulder even more of the offensive load, as Vincent Lecavalier, who has 9 points in 14 games, will be out for at least a month. Sure, he's not the same player who scored 52 goals in 2006-07, but his absence will still put more pressure on the first line, especially Stamkos and Martin St. Louis. I also have St. Louis in two of my pools, who has been outstanding as well, with 19 points in 17 games. I am confident they will be able to keep rolling, but I'm not sure whether the same could be said for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Still, the standings don't affect my fantasy teams.

Pool One - Office Pool

Team: Aldergrove Awesome

Week Five Result: 7-5-1 Win

With two wins in a row, I can almost start getting cocky about the Awesome. At least, until I remember that they're still below .500 and in 7th out of 12 teams. Ugh. As per usual, Stamkos and St. Louis led the way, with 5 goals and 6 assists between them. Niclas Bergfors was also a solid performer, with a goal and 3 assists. Even my two New Jersey Devils players started producing, with 2 goals and an assist from Jason Arnott and 1 goal, 1 assist, and 17 penalty minutes from David Clarkson.

More importantly, Jonas Hiller picked this week to be fantastic and my opponent's top goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, picked this week to be terrible. That gave me 3 wins in the goaltending statistics alone. Even Chris Mason's brutal performance this week wasn't enough to cost me, as Ilya Bryzgalov was reasonable enough to balance everything out.

Pool Two - Nucks Misconduct

Team: I Miss Kyle Wellwood

Week Five Result: 7-2-1 Win

There's nothing like walloping a beat-up team, right every-team-that-has-played-the-Islanders? My opponent, Twincest, had two players eligible for Injured Reserve, Michael Leighton and Simon Gagne, and an additional two players who were Day-to-Day, Drew Stafford and Craig Rivet, and didn't play this week. In a 20-team league like this one, that many injuries can decimate a team as there are essentially no decent replacements available via free agency.

I won every category except penalty minutes and, oddly enough, wins. Stamkos and Ryan Kesler had 4 goals each, Tobias Enstrom added 4 assists, and both Bergfors and Plekanec had a goal and 3 assists each. Plekanec actually had a better week than that putting up a goal and 6 assists in three games, but two of those games fell on days when I had Kesler and Stamkos in the lineup instead.

It was an odd week for my goalies, however, as I didn't get any wins. Dwayne Roloson was reasonable enough, with a 2.28 GAA and a .919 SV%, but didn't get any goal support. Chris Mason, on the other hand, was awful, posting a 9.31 GAA and a .765 SV%. Only one goaltender had a worse performance last week; fortunately, he played for my opponent. Nikolai Khabibulin had a 10.70 GAA and a .692 SV%, destroying the excellent stats posted by his other goaltender, Jonathan Quick. So, with a cumulative 3.82 GAA and an .875 SV%, I still won those categories.

Pool Three - Friends Pool

Team: Emily Carr Echidnas

Week Five Result: 6-3-1 Win

Yes, a victory in every pool this week. This win lifts the Echidnas out of the basement into a lofty 8th place out of 10 teams. Huzzah!

This match-up was skaters versus goaltenders, as I won every skating category and my opponent, Trentons Finest, won every goaltending category except for shutouts. Again, Stamkos and St. Louis were the top performers, with excellent weeks from Bergfors, Plekanec, and Dustin Byfuglien. I'm still baffled that Byfuglien was still available in free agency two weeks ago. He's currently tied for first in goalscoring for defenseman and is third in points behind Kris Letang and Nicklas Lidstrom. Combine that with 27 penalty minutes and he is fantasy gold.

As for goaltending, it appears that Brent Johnson waited until I acquired him to start being terrible. He and Miikka Kiprusoff were just plain awful last week and cost me the goaltending categories. I'm almost at the point where I feel the need to blow up my goaltending, trade Kiprusoff along with a forward for a goaltender who might actually win a few games. I'm ecstatic that the Flames are terrible this year, but it's killing Kiprusoff's fantasy value.

Fantasy Hockey Mondays: Week Four

When it comes to fantasy hockey drafts, it's dangerous to let your emotions get too involved. We all have attachments to certain players and teams; if you allow that to sway your decision-making, you might end up with a team that looks like this, rather than a team that might be expected to experience a modicum of success.

That said, I admit to certain emotional attachments that I just can't shake. Every year I rank Ed Jovanovski just a little bit higher than I probably should, just because I have fond memories of his time in Vancouver. What can I say, I like the guy.

And it's paying off: with his hattrick this week, Jovo currently leads the Coyotes in scoring with 9 points in 11 games, coincidentally the same number of points in the same number of games as Mike Green. Let's just say that Mike Green tends to get drafted a bit higher than Ed Jovanovski. He's also a +4 on the season, which is a nice switch from his typically terrible +/-. With Shane Doan out of the lineup indefinitely, Jovo will be relied on heavily to provide offense. I'm not naive enough to think that this run will continue, but if he can improve on his numbers from the last couple seasons, I will be thrilled.

Pool One - Office Pool

Team: Aldergrove Awesome

Week Four Result: 8-4-1 Win

A big victory for the Awesome over one of the top teams in the league. More importantly, his office is only a few steps away from mine, putting me in prime gloating territory. Surprisingly, the big wins for me this week came in my goaltending stats, which is a nice switch from the last couple weeks. Ilya Bryzgalov, Jonas Hiller, and Chris Mason managed to get me 4 wins and 0 losses and while their GAA and SV% weren't fantastic, Pekka Rinne torpedoed my opponent's statistics enough that it didn't make a difference.

Offensively, I won both goals and assists thanks to solid performances from Ed Jovanovski, Mason Raymond, Sergei Gonchar, and Steven Stamkos. Really, almost everyone chipped in with a goal or an assist except for Mike Comrie, David Clarkson, and Josh Bailey. I'll be keeping David Clarkson both because he's one of my few sources for penalty minutes and because I'm confident he will break out of his slump, but it's time to say goodbye to Mike Comrie and/or Josh Bailey. And, considering that Matt Cullen is still available in free agency, it's farewell Mike Comrie.

Pool Two - Nucks Misconduct

Team: I Miss Kyle Wellwood

Week Four Result: 4-5-2 Loss

A disappointing loss this week, considering the solid performance from my goaltenders. I got a nice 2 wins, 2,34 GAA, and .935 SV%, with Chris Mason and Jonathan Bernier doing the heavy lifting. It was all moot, as my opponent only got 2 starts from his goalies and forfeited all the goaltending categories anyways. I lost or tied every other category, despite 4 points from Ryan Kesler, 3 points from Stamkos and Wojtek Wolski, and solid powerplay production throughout my lineup. Just not enough consistency, as Burrows, J.P. Dumont, Marek Zidlicky, Matt Taormina, and Tomas Plekanec were all held pointless this week.

Since there are 20 teams in this league, there are very few players available in free agency that are any good whatsoever. Imagine my surprise, then, when Matt Moulson was still on the list. He scored 30 goals last season and, with 2 goals in his last 2 games, he's on pace for 35 goals this season. 30-goal scorers don't grow on trees: only 24 players last season scored 30 or more goals. Getting a potential 30-goal scorer 4 weeks into the fantasy season in a 20-team league is almost absurd. I switched him in for Blake Comeau, who, after a solid start and 8 points in his first 7 games, has only 1 assist in his last 5.

Pool Three - Friends Pool

Team: Emily Carr Echidnas

Week Four Result: 1-8-1 Loss

I don't even want to talk about it. I got soundly whooped by Dustin's Team Awesom (sic). My goalies, including supposed fantasy studs Ilya Bryzgalov and Miikka Kiprusoff, were awful, while he got 3 wins from Jonas Hiller. I got 12 goals, which would have been enough to win or tie any of the other match-ups, but he also got 12 goals. Joe Thornton decided it wasn't wabbit or duck season, it was head season, and got 17 penalty minutes to lead his team to victory in that category. The only category I managed to win was shots-on-goal. Huzzah.

Belated Fantasy Hockey Monday: Week Three

Jason made this awesomely awful logo for me. Thank you.

I'm sure you were all wondering why I hadn't posted my weekly fantasy hockey update. Surely, without hearing about my fantasy hockey teams, your Monday was incomplete and you have wandered through the last few days in an existential void, unsure of whether this world held any meaning and value.

Quite frankly, I wanted to avoid an update this week as I lost every single matchup. Badly. I wanted to do everything in my power to avoid thinking about how badly I lost. I didn't want to share the evidence of how terrible I am at fantasy hockey.

But, one of those loses was to my wife, and she was legitimately upset that I didn't write about it. And, since today is our wedding anniversary, I feel obligated to detail the extensiveness of her victory. That will come up in my Pool Three recap, but first...

Pool One - Office Pool

Team: Aldergrove Awesome

Week Three Result: 4-8-1 Loss

This first loss was the most frustrating, as my players actually performed fairly well. Looking across the rest of the league this week, my team would have won if they had been matched up against almost any other team. But instead, I was up against the Celery Cap Specials, who dropped me to 9th in the league with a 15-22-2 record.

My goalies were good, but my opponent had Tim Thomas's 2 shutouts. I had six players who put up multiple assists; my opponent had nine. Mike Knuble chipped in a shorthanded assist and often one shorthanded point is enough to win that category: my opponent got shorthanded points from Nicklas Backstrom and David Perron. On the positive side, I won in goals, penalty minutes, shots-on-goal, and hits. Ed Jovanovski led the way with 12 shots and 4 hits, with Taylor Hall being the main offensive contributor with 2 goals and 2 assists.

A look at the team stats for the league reveals that I'm near average in all of the categories for skaters and near the bottom in all of the goalie categories. It's still early, but I might need to look into a trade...

Pool Two - Nucks Misconduct

Team: I Miss Kyle Wellwood

Week Three Result: 2-7-1 Loss

Two syllables: bru-tal. My goaltending trio of Roloson, Mason, and Bernier was, unsurprisingly, not very good. Not that it matter, because my opponent had Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo, who put up 3 wins, a 1.00 GAA, a .966 SV%, and 2 shutouts. I didn't have a hope of winning those categories.

I managed to win in goals thanks to Tomas Plekanec scoring 3 on his own and, for the first time in any of my pools, I won in +/-, despite Blake Comeau going -5 for the week. Dan Boyle, Tobias Enstrom, and Steven Stamkos were the main contributors there. Otherwise, everyone was terrible. I'm going to try to forget this week happened, as it dropped me below .500 to a 12-13-5 record. Considering this team had 2 straight victories prior to this debacle, I'm hopeful that this is just an unfortunate confluence of events.

Pool Three - Friends Pool

Team: Emily Carr Echidnas

Week Three Result: 3-6-1 Loss

After my wife's awesomely named team, The Pain Lions, dismantled my Echidnas, she had one thing to say: "Really, you beat yourself." Thanks, wife. I'm glad you think that I have mismanaged my team and thus caused my own downfall. Of course, what she meant by that is that I have taught her everything she knows about hockey in general and fantasy hockey in particular and have therefore, by proxy, defeated myself this week.

Of course, the former is basically true as well. Tell me this: if you had the choice of a goalie tandem of either Ilya Bryzgalov and Miikka Kiprusoff or Michael Neuvirth and Antero Niittymaki, who would you choose? It would be obvious, right? Not this week: Neuvirth put up 2 wins, including a shutout, to go with a 1.34 GAA and .947 SV%, while Niittymaki got a win himself with a 2.00 GAA and a .931 SV%. Kiprusoff (or rather, the Flames) imploded, leaving Kiprusoff with a bloated 5.08 GAA and a meager .831 SV%. Bryzgalov was better, but not enough to make a difference.

I do have a third goalie, Brent Johnson of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who was still available in free agency. He had a shutout last week. I could have started him in place of Miikka Kiprusoff on Saturday, but I wasn't sure if he or Marc-André Fleury would get the start. So I went with Kiprusoff, who had a wonderful .778 SV% against the Washington Capitals that day. Fantastic.

On the positive side, Patrick Marleau put up 5 points and was a +6 this week, Nathan Horton almost single-handedly won the penalty minutes category with 17, and Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, and Tomas Plekanec continue to be excellent. And, thankfully, Alex Burrows is back. Oddly enough, I won the +/- category in this pool as well, with a sparkling +13. Thank you Patrick Marleau. That actually puts me at the top of the league in that category, which is meaningless as I'm third from the bottom of the league in the actual standings.

Ugh.

Fantasy Hockey Mondays: Week Two

Week two of the fantasy hockey season has passed, and Steven Stamkos continues to be awesome. He leads the league in points and goals and I am exceedingly happy that I ended up with him on all three of my fantasy hockey teams. This week he chipped in 4 goals and 5 assists in 4 games, but he also contributed a +3 rating, 6 penalty minutes, 17 shots, and 4 powerplay points. One of the leagues counts hits and blocked shots, and Stamkos even contributed there, with 4 hits and 3 blocked shots. The guy is a stud.

And, quite frankly, he's going to be a stud all season long, so I'm going to keep Stamkos talk to a minimum. It's not going to be Stamkos that wins me a fantasy hockey crown; he was a no-brainer pick. It's going to be all the fringe players and the unexpected success stories that determine things. This week, my big performer was Miikka Kiprusoff for the Emily Carr Echidnas, who posted two shutouts this week to lead the Echidnas to victory.

Pool One - Office Pool

Team: Aldergrove Awesome

Week Two Result: 5-7-1 Loss

Two straight losses in my office pool means I'm in for some sharp barbs at work. At least they were close losses, which means I can certainly recover and make my way up the top of the standings through the rest of the season. The Awesome currently have an 11-14-1 record.

My goaltending let me down this week. Ilya Bryzgalov and Jonas Hiller were reasonable, but Chris Mason was awful, posting a 4.68 GAA and an .892 SV%. With Ondrej Pavelec returning, he might lose the starting job...but not necessarily as the team in front of him hasn't been any good either. In any case, I lost all of the goaltending categories except shutouts as my opponent, The Helmut Twisters, didn't get any either.

Offensively, it was assists all the way, with Mike Comrie, Martin St. Louis, Sergei Gonchar, and Ed Jovanovski all posting 3 apiece. David Clarkson led the way in penalty minutes with 11 (making up for his complete lack of scoring), helping me win that category, with St. Louis posting 23 shots and Gonchar blocking 8, to win both those categories as well. The wildcard, shorthanded points, was won by Jovanovski's 1 shorthanded assist.

I decided to cut ties with Dan Carcillo, as he has done approximately nothing through the first couple weeks of the season. In his place I picked up Josh Bailey, who Canucks fans will remember from the 2008 NHL entry draft, as the Islanders took Bailey much higher than expected, allowing the Canucks to select Cody Hodgson. Bailey has become a decent two-way forward and has started off the season on a tear with 3 goals and 3 assists, before missing a couple games with a minor hip injury. I'm hopeful he can keep up his scoring.

Pool Two - Nucks Misconduct

Team: I Miss Kyle Wellwood

Week Two Result: 5-4-1 Win

With another win, I Miss Kyle Wellwood moves up to 7th overall out of 20 teams with a 10-6-4 record overall. As with the Aldergrove Awesome, goaltending was a weakpoint, as I lost each goaltending category. The culprit was once again Chris Mason as Dwayne Roloson was outstanding and Jonathan Bernier decent enough.

The only other category I lost was +/-, but I lost that by an absurd amount. Apparently, I Miss Kyle Wellwood is terrible defensively, posting a -14 altogether. That's because most of their production comes on the powerplay: my players racked up 12 powerplay points, with Tobias Enstrom and Marek Zidlicky providing the production from the blue line.

The worst player this week was Fedor Tyutin. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel when I selected him, but he was terrible this week, posting just one assist and a -4 rating. He's gone, replaced by rookie Matt Taormina, who's getting prime powerplay minutes in New Jersey. Also gone is Niclas Bergfors, the key piece in the Ilya Kovalchuk trade for the Thrashers; he's been a healthy scratch and hasn't done much when he's been in the lineup. In his place is Antti Miettinen, who has 6 points so far through 7 games.

Pool Three - Friends Pool

Team: Emily Carr Echidnas

Week Two Result: 8-2-0 Win

This week's massive win makes up for the 1-8-1 shellacking I received last week and bumps me up from 10th to 7th with a 9-10-1 record. Miikka Kiprusoff's excellent performance this week made up for Chris Mason's awfulness, with an assist from Antti Niemi, who was awful for my opponents, the Boston Dereks. The Echidnas ran away with the goaltending categories, including shutouts.

Goals were plentiful for the Echidnas, with Henrik Zetterberg, Patrick Marleau, Martin St. Louis, and Nathan Horton all putting up 2 goals. Assists were also easy to be had, led by Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos with an impressive 5 each. The only weakness this week was +/-, with Marleau's brutal -5 dragging everyone else down.

I took some chances in free agency at the end of this week, cutting ties with Niclas Bergfors, Nikita Filatov, and Chris Mason. In their place, I added Tomas Kopecky, who has had a solid start on Chicago's top line and has LW/RW eligibility, James Neal, who has 8 points and an excellent +8 rating, and Brent Johnson, who has been great for Pittsburgh and may get more starts with Marc-André Fleury struggling. If not, there are other options out there and Kiprusoff and Bryzgalov are a fine tandem otherwise.

Fantasy Hockey Mondays: Week One

As a fantasy hockey aficionado, I often have to restrain myself from bombarding people who don't care about fake hockey teams with updates on how "my" players are doing. It's taken a lot of willpower to refrain from posting constant updates on trade offers, free agent signings, and daily performances on Pass it to Bulis. But I will allow myself the indulgence of a weekly update on how my three fantasy hockey teams are doing. They'll be on Mondays after the conclusion of each head-to-head match-up.

Fair word of warning: I am not a fantasy hockey expert. At all. I get too caught up in my biases and too emotionally involved in hockey for that. Besides, I still have a full-time job, a wife, and an upper-level philosophy course in addition to writing this blog, so I don't have time to spend making sure my fake hockey teams are consistent winners. So feel free to ask me for fantasy hockey advice, but don't expect it to work.

I am in three hockey pools, all run through Yahoo! Sports, an office pool, a Nucks Misconduct pool, and a pool with friends.

Pool One - Office Pool

Team: Aldergrove Awesome

Week One Result: 7-6-0 Loss

Despite my opponent failing to get the requisite number of goaltender appearances and forfeiting all six goaltender categories, I failed to pick up any of the other categories, giving me a 7-6 loss. Brutal. In a strange coincidence, I picked third in every single pool I was in and decided to go with Steven Stamkos each time. He re-paid me by scoring 4 goals and 2 assists in 4 games. Christian Ehrhoff was my stud on defense, with 2 goals, 1 assist, and 12 shots. Mason Raymond, Jason Arnott, Chris Kunitz, and Martin St. Louis were also solid for me, but it wasn't enough as I came 1 goal, 4 assists, and 4 hits short of my opponent, Sea of dRed. The other categories weren't that close.

My goaltenders put on a fine show, as Bryzgalov, Hiller, and Mason (Chris-wise) all posted solid SV% and decent GAA while putting together 6 total wins. It was completely unnecessary as my opponent forfeit all those categories, but it was still nice to see. Hiller has a terrible team in front of him, but he'll at least get his starts and put up a decent SV%.

Worst player of the week was Dan Carcillo by far. Seriously, Carcillo? -3 and only 4 penalty minutes? That's awful. Still, the Awesome are weak in the PIM area, so I kept him around and added David Clarkson from free agency to replace the woeful Blake Wheeler. Clarkson was solid for me last year before getting injured and I'm hopeful he can stay healthy and rack up some goals and PIM.

Pool Two - Nucks Misconduct

Team: I Miss Kyle Wellwood

Week One Result: 5-2-3 Win

This is a much deeper pool with 20 total teams, so the overall talent level is lower. As above, I got excellent production from Steven Stamkos, but no other player on my team scored more than 1 goal except for Tomas Plekanec, who I had on the bench for one of his goals. Ugh. No matter, I lost the category by 11 goals. Every other category was much more respectable. Tobias Enstrom led the way in assists with 3, Stamkos and Dumont both post +3 ratings, Ryan Kesler added 14 penalty minutes, and all 4 of Enstrom's points came on the powerplay, so I managed to win or tie each of those categories.

As for goaltending, my all backup-but-soon-to-be-number-one trio of Chris Mason, Dwayne Roloson, and Jonathan Bernier put up great numbers, defeating the more name-brand duo of Lundqvist and Halak for my opponents, F U Sweden.

No one was out-and-out terrible this week, but a move was necessitated by the news that Vinny Prospal was undergoing knee surgery. Since I already had Alex Burrows on injured reserve, I picked up Blake Comeau from free agency to replace Prospal. Earlier in the week I accepted a trade of Wojtek Wolski for Steve Ott, a move I'm comfortable with because of my strength up the middle in Stamkos, Kesler, and Plekanec.

Pool Three - Friends Pool

Team: Emily Carr Echidnas

Week One Result: 1-8-1 Loss

Ugly. There's no other word for it. Other than Stamkos, Plekanec, and Nathan Horton, no one on my team can score goals, apparently. St. Louis and Enstrom (can you tell I have some biases in my picks) both kicked in some assists, but it wasn't enough. The team was overall a +5, which is often enough to win, but not this week. Penalty minutes, powerplay points, shots on goal...all woeful.

My one win came from my goaltending, who managed one more win than my opponent's trio, but lost or tied in every other category. Kiprusoff was especially bad and, with how the Flames' season is shaping up so far, he won't get much better. As much as I hate to say it, I hope he gets better. Man, I hate cheering for the Flames...

With the brutal loss to start the season, I panicked and dropped Wojtek Wolski in favor of Josh Bailey. Sure Bailey has had a hot start to the season, but he's as likely to continue potting goals as the Maple Leafs are likely to keep winning. Still, he's got both centre and left-wing eligibility and I'll only need to keep him as long as it takes Alex Burrows to get back in the lineup from the IR...unless he keeps scoring, in which case I'll need to make a tough decision.

But not too tough. It is, after all, just fake hockey. Real hockey is far more important.

Fantasy Hockey: I Miss Kyle Wellwood

Apparently, I hate having free time, as I have signed myself up for three separate fantasy hockey leagues. This isn't because I'm good at fantasy hockey and none of them are for money. It's because I enjoy being locked into the NHL season and it helps me to pay attention to what is going on around the league as opposed to just the Canucks. It's also nice to have a player or two to cheer for when I'm watching a game that doesn't involve the Canucks.

Unfortunately, the first of the drafts snuck up on me when I wasn't paying attention. I joined one of the Nucks Misconduct leagues with 19 other teams, a bigger league than I'm used to. The live draft was yesterday and I was only able to be there for the first three picks and the last five, depending on my pre-draft rankings for the rest. The result was...mixed. Here's my team: I Miss Kyle Wellwood.

Draft results:

1. (3) Steven Stamkos - C

In the first round, I had the third pick, which is one of my least favorite places to pick. As expected, Ovechkin and Crosby when one and two, leaving me with a difficult choice: do I hope that Stamkos continues his success from last year (especially on the powerplay), go with the more proven Backstrom (though he scores fewer goals), take a chance on Malkin playing a full season (with his high PIM to go with it) or solidify my goaltending with Luongo or Miller? Obviously, I went with Stamkos. Goals are harder to come by than a lot of other stats and he led the NHL in powerplay points last season.

2. (38) Ryan Kesler - C

I hate taking two centres with my first two picks as centre is the deepest position in fantasy hockey, but the combination of points, penalty minutes, and powerplay points makes Kesler a decent bet. Also, I'm a total homer and have a massive man-crush on the guy. I try to divest myself of my emotions on draft day, but it never works.

3. (43) Dan Boyle - D

I'm very happy I got Boyle at this position in the draft, as he's a legitimate powerplay quarterback who will put up plenty of points for me, especially goals. He had a reasonable number of penalty minutes last year, so he'll chip in from time to time on that stat.

4. (78) Tomas Plekanec - C

Here's where the auto-picking takes over and, of course, it's the first pick I'm not happy with. Since I already have two great centres, the last thing I want is another one before I have a single winger. Plekanec is also a risky proposition, as he jumped from 39 points to 70 last year and I'm skeptical he can continue to produce at that level. That said, he's consistently scored 20+ goals over the last 4 seasons and he's playing with a legitimate sniper in Cammalleri, so his assist totals may be alright. But ultimately I may end up trying to swing a trade for a winger before the season starts.

5. (83) Alex Burrows - LW

This pick I don't mind at all. Yes, he's starting the season injured, but he'll likely slot in with the Sedins right away when he gets back, which is fantasy gold. If not, he'll be paired with Kesler, which is also not a bad thing. Burrows puts up goals and penalty minutes in abundance and is also likely to have a high +/-. He won't do anything on the powerplay, but at this point in the draft, that's a reasonable tradeoff.

6. (118) Chris Mason - G

My first goalie, and even though he plays for Atlanta now, I'm reasonably happy with this pick. He'll get plenty of starts because Ondrej Pavelec is incredibly unreliable (I should know, I had him in a pool last year), and he'll be reasonably consistent. If I hadn't been auto-picking, I would have tried to pick up a goalie in the 4th round in place of Plekanec, but I'll take Mason. Atlanta will hopefully win a few more games this season.

7. (123) Tobias Enstrom - D

For my second defenceman, I get a decent powerplay performer who will provide plenty of assists, but not much else. He was 7th in the league among defencemen for points last season, which is nice, and at his age he can be reasonably expected to improve.

8. (158) Niclas Bergfors - RW

Eighth round and I'm just getting my first right winger. Yikes. And he's a Thrasher. Double-yikes. He's a great young player and he'll get plenty of playing time in Atlanta, but this pick is still a bit of a risk. Hopefully it will pay off.

9. (163) Jonathan Bernier - G

Another risky pick, but one I feel pretty good about. I am confident that Bernier will battle with Quick for the starting spot with the Kings and I am confident that Bernier will win that battle. By the end of the season, this pick will look like the steal of the draft. In three games last season, he posted a .967 save percentage and a 1.30 GAA. Bernier will get plenty of wins in LA and he'll post a better save percentage and GAA than Quick while doing it.

10. (198) Devin Setoguchi - RW

I'm hoping that last year was an aberration and Setoguchi will have a bounce-back season. If he does, this will be a great pick. If he stumbles into Cheechoo territory, then he'll be hitting the waiver wire.

11. (203) Marek Zidlicky - D

This was when I got back online and looked to fill in some vacant roster spots. Zidlicky had a terrible +/- last season, but he got a lot of points on the powerplay and will give me a good number of assists. At this point, that's about all I can hope for.

12. (238) Vinny Prospal - LW

What can I say? I needed another left-winger and Prospal certainly is a left-winger. Actually, that's not even true: he's listed as a centre on NHL.com. In any case, he scored 20 goals last year and was decent on the powerplay so I can't complain.

13. (243) Steve Ott - C

Yes, another centre. He racks up the penalty minutes but also scored 22 goals last season. None of that will matter, of course, as he won't get into my lineup with Stamkos, Kesler, and Plekanec in front of him. I really need to trade Plekanec.

14. (278) Fedor Tyutin - D

One more defenceman, one more powerplay quarterback. He was the best of what was left, though I'm now wondering if I should have gone for a goon who would rack up penalty minutes instead. We'll see what the waiver wire has to offer.

15. (283) Bill Guerin - RW

This is a risk, but not a big one as there are players available on the waiver wire to replace him if he doesn't stick with the Flyers. But with the Flyers trading Gagne away and Zherdev being a bit of a question mark, I think the Flyers sign him as insurance. Yes, he's old, but he's been remarkably consistent. I think he can be successful with that group of forwards.

16. (318) Dwayne Roloson - G

Is this the year that DiPietro stays healthy? My guess is no, which means Roloson will get the bulk of the starts. I think the Islanders will be a better team this year, which means Roloson will get a few more wins. Is that a foolish thought? Yes, but again, in this round of a draft with this many teams, it's slim-pickings.

So that's team one, I Miss Kyle Wellwood. I like some parts of this team and hate other parts. I really wish I had been able to live draft the whole thing, because there's no way I would have taken another centre in the fourth round. Oh well, I still have two more teams in smaller leagues: the Emily Carr Echidnas and the Aldergrove Awesome.

For those who get horribly bored listening to people talk about their fantasy hockey teams (I know I do), I'll try to keep updates to a minimum, perhaps once a month unless something momentous happens.