After surveying whom I got stuck with after the auto-pick draft, I started making a bunch of changes to the ol’ roster. As of today, I’ve made 11 moves (which I think counts both dropping and adding a player as separate counts). Here’s the list, the top being most recent and so forth.

I've been busy. I lead my league with transactions.

Yeah, I picked up some folks and then dropped then soon after. ::shrug:: It happens. You have to go with who is hot and cut ties with those that are bringing you down, or ain’t on a streak any longer. I was happy to get Steve Sullivan at first, as he’s a proven 60+ point scorer and has been Nashville’s best forward…hm…ever. However, Sully is off to a slow start, as is most of Nashville, so I had to move on.

Derek Morris was on my team for maybe 48 hours before I saw how great Matt Carle is doing while being paired with Chris “How Many Different Teams Can I Take to the Finals” Pronger. Samsonov–slow start and inconsistent. Gone. Kostitsyn, slow too.

Other cuts: Sykora, a slow start, groin problems and being placed on injured reserve. Bye. Hated to cut Lenio, but, Benn from Dallas has been doing a lot better. I think Lenio might pick it up eventually, as the Red Wings are now dealing with losing Franzen for several months, and having Datsyuk out against the Avalanche didn’t help matters at all. I’m keeping an eye on Lenio. If he starts to pick up, I’ll try and grab him again.

The free agent pick ups:

D-men – Johnson, 7 points, +4. Doughty, 6 points, +1. Carle, 8 points, +5. Doughty, 6 points, +1 is reaping the benefits of LA having a hot start. Carkner, 2 points, +6, is still on probation, as I just picked him up at the end of my first week. He’s on pace for over 200 PIMs this season, which is something I need–and better still, he’s eligible to play at RW or D, which is great. He’s getting around 19 minutes a night with an Ottawa squad that seems to be surviving losing Dany Heatley (5-2, at the top of the Northeast division).

Wingers – Justin Williams, 9 points, has been one of my better waiver wire steals so far this season. He is clicking with his linemates Smyth and Kopitar big time. He’s a much better RW option than what I started with. Benn, 7 points, has been tearing it up with follow Dallas rookie James Neal, 7 points–another pick-up of mine.

Neal is taking a bunch of shots, 27 so far, and is third behind Malkin on my team (36–who had 12 last night alone, yikes) and Vrbata (32 shots). Heatley, my goal leader with 6, only has 23 shots on goal so far. Brunette has been a great addition too–he’s second on my team with 5 goals (8 points total), but his +/- could be better (-5).

Goalies – If’in it ain’t one thang, it’s another. Two of my goalies, Gustavsson and Theodore, were injured early on. Thankfully, Theodore was only day to day (he should be back soon) and at least The Monster was put on IR, allowing me to snatch a new goalie without dumping someone. I picked up Atlanta’s Ondrej Pavelec (3-1, 2.37 GAA, .929 SV%) and I am glad I did. I might try and hang on to him after the Monster comes off IR. Carrying four goalies might be overkill, but with neither the Monster nor Theodore for sure starters, it probably ain’t a bad idea.

Bumps an’ Bruises: The big news this week is that my top D-man, Sergei Gonchar (8 points, 5 of which were on the powerplay) is injured and could miss 4 to 6 weeks. ARGH. I’m hoping he gets put on IR and that I can drop him down there at the same time Schneider comes off (which should be soon), meaning I wouldn’t have to cut someone or try to find a new d-man.

Aw, Man: Boston’s #1 center, Savard, is out–I don’t have him, but I have his wingman, Marco Strum. Savard is out 4 to 6 weeks and this means Strum’s value drops big time. Playing with a center who averages 80 assists a season makes Strum a decent LW, but without Savard’s playmaking, how good will he be? (case in point: Boston beat Nashville tonight 3-2 , Strum had zero points and one shot on goal)

The sting here is that I cut Lenio over Strum for the reason that Strum plays with Savard (and there is no guarantee that Lenio will play with Datsyuk or Zetterberg).

Standings after week one: 11th place (5-10-2) out of fourteen teams.

I got destroyed in week one, 10 to 5. Weak goaltending, aided by two goalies getting injured, and Heatley having a bad week, did me in.

Through Tuesday, I am leading in this week’s match-up, 9 to 6. I’d like to get above .500, and soon.

Marked for the Chop:
Marco Strum, LW. See above.

Scott Gomez, C, (4 points in 8 games) really needs to kick it up a notch (bam?). But then the same could be said of the rest of the Canadiens. I’d hate to cut Gomez, as he at least gets a bunch of face-offs won, but I’m center-heavy and would like to get rid of one eventually (ideally, via a trade for a winger).

Radim Vrbata, RW, 4 points in 7 games. Despite being second on my team with 32 shots, Vrbata is on a 5 game point slump–he hasn’t scored a point since the second game of the season. However, he gets special consideration (to a point), since decent RW’s are hard to come by. But he better get it going. If he got the token goal against the Red Wings on Thursday (and the Wings won) I’d be happy.

Tomas Kaberle, D, 4 points in 7 games, -4. OK, the Maple Leafs have yet to win a game this season, which is reason enough to cut someone. But, Gonchar going down this week will probably cause me to keep Kabbie around for a bit longer–and he’s a fairly consistent scorer over the years, averaging 0.58 points a game over his career. Not bad. And things could pick up if/when Kessel finally skates with his new team. (Yes, Ryan Whitney, another of my d-men, has the same amount of points in as many games–but Whitney is +3 and gets penalty minutes).

Escaped the Ax:
Derick Brassard, C, 5 points in 7 games–but he’s on a four game point streak, including two points in one game on the 20th. Nice. He plays with Rick Nash, how can he not rack up the points?

Thankfully, I’m in a league with at least a few people I know, unlike the league of strangers I was in last time (note: League of Strangers is a cool name for something, must remember that one…)

I’m in a head to head league–meaning, all of my players’ stats go up against my opponent’s players’ stats for the week, similar to the way most Fantasy Football leagues are run (ex: I have 10 goals at the end of the week, Player B has 7, I win that category). In the past, I’ve mainly done what are called rotisserie leagues–your points fluctuate based on your ranking regarding each stat, usually based on how many teams in your league (ex: if I’m leading in goals at the end of the day in a 14 team league, I earn 14 points. But, if I drop to third the next day, I only have 12 points in that category).

Each type of league has its advantages and disadvantages. It is easier to come from behind in a head to head league, as if you have a great couple of weeks you can jump to the lead. But in a rotisserie league, if you get in a rut from the start, you might never climb out.

We had an auto-pick draft for our league, forgoing a live draft due to our crazy schedules. However, I customized my pre-draft rankings and I think I did pretty well considering we had a fairly large league of 14 teams.

I drafted 2nd overall–which is good, but also bad. The draft order is serpentine, meaning that while I get to pick second in round one, I pick second to last in round two, 27th overall (the person picking 14th overall gets two picks in a row: 14 and 15). By the time I get my second pick, 26 other players have already been picked (assuming my math is correct).

My crew, in the order drafted:

The Yellow Scarfs

My team’s logo and patron Saint, Proto Man. Image © Capcom

(my team name, named after Proto Man, which in turn inspired the character Zeroth in my novel/podcast The Magic of Eyri.  Zeroth also wears a yellow scarf)

1. (2) Evgeni Malkin – MVP candidate last season, keeps getting better and better.

2. (27) Dany Heatley – Disgruntled sniper that demanded a trade to a new team. 50 goal scorer.

3. (30) Joe Thornton – Great set-up man, line mate of Dany Heatley. Wins lots of faceoffs.

4. (55) Steve Mason – Rookie of the year winner last season.  Goalie.  Getting a great goalie or two is key in fantasy hockey.

5. (58) Sergei Gonchar – Scoring defenseman.

6. (83) Scott Gomez – Capable center playing on a line with two sniper wingers, could be the center of one of the best lines in the league.

7. (86) Henrik Sedin – Another high scoring center.

8. (111) Tomas Kaberle – Decent scoring defenseman.

9. (114) Mikko Koivu – Developing scoring center, 60+ points last season, wins lots of faceoffs.

10. (139) Petr Sykora – New team, could be a sleeper winger. I’m hoping he is.

11. (142) Mathieu Schneider – Scoring d-man, hoping playing with the Sedin twins will help him rack up a bunch of points.

12. (167) Marco Sturm – So-so winger, but Boston has been playing really well as of late.

13. (170) Andrei Kostitsyn – Another so-so Left Wing. Sub-par season last year. Hoping he rebounds.

14. (195) Ryan Whitney – Scoring d-man, will get more minutes with Pronger not being on the team any more.

15. (198) Jose Theodore – An OK goalie, probably good for 30 wins. But, could lose his starting gig to a young upstart rookie goalie.

16. (223) Derick Brassard – Was in the running for Rookie of the Year until injury/surgery shortened his season.

17. (226) Mike Comrie – Meh. A prime example of someone I wouldn’t have drafted had I been running the draft live.

18. (251) Sergei Samsonov – Another possible sleeper winger.

19. (254) Ville Leino – One time scoring leader of the Finnish hockey league, now a rookie with the Red Wings.  After losing three wingers to free agency, it is looking like Lenio will have lots of chances to step up.

20. (279) Radim Vrbata – Back with Phoenix, had  a great season the last time he was there (27 goals).

21. (282) Jonas Gustavsson – The Monster.  Could steal the starting goalie gig on the Maple Leafs.

22. (307) Andrej Meszaros – Lame season last year with the Bolts. Will probably drop him.

23. (310) Andrej Sekera – Will be dropped ASAP.

I’m happy with the results for the most part, by my last two picks irked me a bit, as both are rather lackluster defensemen. The problem was that my list was based on us originally have 16 teams drafting, but then we dropped to 14 at the last minute, which changed things a bit.

The problem with the auto-draft is that while it follows your order, it also looks to fill what you need how it sees fit–and I don’t know how it decides. For example, there might be a great Right Wing available, but it sees that you need a Left Wing and skips down to that, avoiding the better player. I think this is why I have a bunch of Centers. The advantage of a live draft is that you can make calls like that on the fly “Oh, that guy’s still available…I really need a Right Wing, but this Defensemen is awesome…”

Where my strategy paid off was with picks two and three–Heatley was ranked lower this year because of a crappy season in Ottawa. He was recently traded to San Jose, and plays on the top line with Thornton. The good thing here is that I could be doubling my points on a given night–if Thornton assists on a Heatley goal, I get both of those points.

I also got some nice steals in the early and later rounds, mainly Brassard (a rookie of the year consideration last season until having season ending surgery: 25 points in 31 games, not bad) and Gustavsson (a goalie nicknamed The Monster because he is so big).

And I’m really happy I was able to get Leino from the Red Wings. After Heatley though, I’m fairly weak when it comes to wingers, but a few of my guys could be sleepers. Penalty Minutes is one of our categories, so I gotta pick up some goons.

…How the heck did my last two picks both end up being guys named Andrej?

And I leave you with this: