I signed up for a Yahoo! Fantasy Hockey League for the first time in a few years. I’ll be honest, I missed it. When you’re in a fantasy league, you quickly grow accustomed to absorbing any and all information relating to your fantasy sport of choice. Once you do that a few times, it is hard to ignore that hunger ever again.
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:
