Friday, August 24

Since Brendan did such an excellent job recapping the recent prospect action (click on the Next arrow below if you haven’t read his recent ramblings, you won’t want to miss them), I thought I would do something different and recap my recent Year 1 Dynasty draft, along with my thoughts and strategies, for what it’s worth.

This is a ten-team dynasty league, which means you get to keep any and all of your players from one season to the next, so the initial prospect and NHL drafts are obviously very important.  The scoring is goals and assists only, with goalies getting points and partial points for wins and saves, and lose points for goals-against. My team randomly drew number 2, which meant I had the option of going second in the prospect draft and ninth in the NHL draft, or vice versa.  I chose to pick second in the NHL draft instead of the seven-round prospect draft because I felt that with only 70 picks being made, there would be plenty of prospects to choose from.

My draft strategy for the prospect draft, which was up first, was to get sure things/immediate contributers in the first couple of round, and gamble more on potential in the later rounds.  Note:  The league rule is that to be a prospect a player may not have ever appeared in a regular-season NHL game, and once they hit 25 games played you must move them to your NHL roster or risk losing him if another player claims him.

The first-round went pretty much as expected, as I watched Yakupov, Huberdeau, Granlund, and the like go first.  I was targeting two players in round one:  Kreider, as per my strategy, or Galchenyuk, because I think he has superstar potential.  Galchenyuk went at five and I was happy to take Kreider at nine.  I think he has first-line potential, maybe all-star.  He may have gone earlier but a few GMs thought he wasn’t eligible because he played in the playoffs.

It was a snake draft so I was up again just three picks laterand chose defenseman Justin Schultz from Edmonton. another guy I see as high-floor, potential high-ceiling. You start 12 forwards and six defensemen in this league, so it’s puts more of a premium price on blueliners because there just aren’t as many that can get you at least 25-30 points.

While waiting 16 picks until my next one, I watched guys I wanted such as Etem, Rattie and Bjugstad go and took goaltender Eddie Lack from Vancouver.  I think he’s a starter somewhere two years from now.  I just hope it’s not in the AHL.

The guy I had targeted with my next pick was still there, center Tyler Toffoli from the Kings. The biggest question on him seems to be opportunity, but I see him playing wing in L.A. in 2012-13. He has 70 point potential.

My next pick was the 49th overall in round 5, and I gambled a bit on Roman Cervenka from Calgary.  We know he’ll play, and get plenty of chances, but will he actually produce? I took the risk that he will, and that he has more upside at 26 years old.  My real target at that pick?  Ryan Spooner, who went 43.

I may have reached a little on my next pick, and feel free to let me know if you don’t like it.  At 52 overall I took Drew Shore of the Florida Panthers. A boom or bust type, I’m thinking boom but will probably take a few years. Who could I have taken instead?  Malcolm Subban, Gallagher, Hertl, Knight…  yeah, I know…

My final pick was another of those guys who will almost certainly play in the NHL, but may or may not be a point producer.  Max Reinhart was the pick, and I’m hoping that he’ll be closer to 60 points than 40 when he makes it to Calgary.

I took advantage of the deep (12) bench in our league to select more prospects (those who have appeared in at least one regular-season NHL game) in the NHL portion of the draft. I was able to get Peter Holland, Paul Postma, Cody Eakin, Torey Krug and Louis LeBlanc to go along with younger players such as Nugent-Hopkins, Voynov, Blum, Bailey and Craig Smith. Add in Malkin, Toews, Weber, Howard, Wheeler and Enstrom, among others and I’m prtty happy with the way my team looks for the future.  Now, we just need the owners and players to make sure we have a season this year.

As always, feel free to ask me questions on Twitter @RichDillon17, and good luck at your drafts.