The Hockey Pool Post

It's the most wonderful time of the year - the start of hockey season and, therefore, hockey pools!

This season's Five Hole Fanatics pool was set-up by Chunky Moose and Alex. The rules governing the draft and points were established as follows:

- Live draft format.
- Teams will consist of 10 forwards, 4 defensemen and 1 goalie. Goalies will be drafted seperately from skaters.
- 1 "darkhorse" selection per player. The DH will be submitted anonymously at the conclusion of the draft and cannot be a goalie. Any matching darkhorses are disqualified.

- Point System:

Skaters points -

- Goal: 2 points
- Assist: 1 point
- OT goal: +1 (bonus)

Goalie points -

- Goalie Win: 1 point
- Team Win: 1 point
- Shut-out: +2 points (bonus)
- Assist: 2 points
- Goal: 8 points

- Four trades allowed during the season. Only players on the "free agent" list are open for selection.

This was my first draft with a "darkhorse" choice and I've concluded that I like it. The challenge of choosing a decent player, while at the same time trying to avoid selecting the same guy as someone else, spices things up a little turns the end of the draft into something of a poker match.

(click to enlarge)

The draft took place this weekend. Above are the 12 "GM's" (including all 5 Five Hole Fanatics contributors), their teams and the order in which the players were selected. Altogether, 168 skaters were drafted, plus 12 goalies and 12 darkhorses. Dany Healtey went #1 overall and Pittsburgh d-man Ryan Whitney was the last guy taken at #168. The draft was done in sections and took all bloody weekend. The darkhorse picks were sent in and finalized yesterday.

Points of interest:

- Khabibulin was selected despite his terrible season last year AND the fact that 'tender's accrue points based on wins (both by them and by the team as a whole). Hmmm...does GM Krahn know something I don't?

- Iginla was the top Flame to be selected at #9 although Tanguay wasn't far behind at #18. Phaneuf was the first defensemen to be taken at #30. Altogether, 10 Calgary players were drafted - Iginla, Tanguay, Phaneuf, Lombardi, Huselius, Hamrlik, Regehr, A. Ference, Langkow and Kipper.

- Kiprusoff was snagged first in the goalie draft, of course. Ryan Miller was the surprise second choice, followed by Brodeur. I selected Vokoun with the 8th pick. The fact that Nashville will play the likes of Chicago, St. Louis and Columbus all year forced my hand.

- The average age of the oldest team selected: 34.31 (Thomsen).

- The team with the most Canadians: 12 of 16 (Tyler).

- Players that went undrafted: Modin, Brunette, JP Dumont, PM Bouchard, Bulis.

- On a "You can't make this kind of shit up" note - Alex Hemsky was the first Oiler selected at pick #44(!).

My team and Strategy:

Seeing as goals are worth double that of assists, I made sure to tab goal getters and top powerplay guys in my draft. Although I was stuck in the 8th position, I still managed to grab Kovalchuk as my first selection. My rationale? Kovalchuk's goal totals have been steadily increasing since he broke into the NHL (29, 38, 41 and 52) meaning he's in line for a pretty massive season. It also helps that he's deadly on the PP.

Another strategy I employed this year was "linking" linemates: by grabbing a decent offensive line, goals can often be worth 3 points (goal+assist) rather than just 2 (goal). Thus my Hossa pick - not only is he a first unit PP linemate of my first round selection, he's also a pretty damn consistent point-getter (he hasn't had less than 30 goals in the last 5 seasons). Should be a pretty lethal combination. Some other linked (potential) linemates on my team include Briere, Afinogenov and Kotalik. Basically, I wanted to get a healthy piece what I think will be a deadly Sabre PP.

As you can see, I chose 3 of my 4 d-men in the final rounds. Unless you're talking about Lidstrom or Niedermayer, I find it prudent to select blueliners at the end of the draft; why waste a mid-round pick on a 45 point getter when you could be taking a 70 point forward? Especially since there are typically a lot of 40 point d-men remaing in the end. As for my selections, I think Redden has the capacity to bag a 60+ point season as the #1 guy in Ottawa (thus my making an exception for him and taking him in round 5). I picked up Beauchemin because I believe (hope?) he'll get some significant PP time with Anaheim, even with Pronger in the mix. I picked up Campbell because he'll be spending time on the Sabres top PP unit and I chose Van Ryn because he's quietly scored 22 goals for Florida the last 2 seasons. Overall, if my defenders average about 40 points between them, I'll be happy.

Incredibly, Mark Bell lasted all the way to round 7, where I got him with the 80th selection. If he sticks on the Thornton-Cheechoo line I may just end up with the steal of the draft.

Marco Sturm was my next selection. A lot of people forgot about Sturm in the wake of Thornton's Art Ross season, but he did gather 29 goals playing on Boston's first line. This year, he'll be playing with one of Bergeron or Savard at center and should be a member of a first unit PP that will also include guys like Chara, Mara and/or Stuart. A 30+ goal season is not not out of the question for Marco.

Kovalev was the first Canadiens taken in the draft. I picked him 104th overall! He's a bit of risk, granted, thanks his penchant for getting injured and taking weeks off at a time. However, he should get top PP minutes in Montreal and does have the capacity to put together a 30-40 goal campaign (if everything goes right). I figured the risk was worth the reward this late in the proceedings.

I've been beating the drum for Kristian Huselius recently, so I plucked him with choice #113. He was Calgary's best player with the man-advantage last season and scored at a 60 point pace while wearing the Flaming C. Should Juice land on the first unit PP with Iggy and Tanguay there's no reason not to expect a career year out of him. In addition, I couldn't in good conscience be a Calgary fan and not select a single Flame.

Finally, I agonized and agonized over my DH pick. Everytime I thought of the "perfect guy" I managed to convince myself it was too obvious a choice and someone else was going to select him. Possibilites that occured to me included McAmmond, Ponikarovsky, Penner, Perry, Rucchin, Amonte, Brunette and Modin. In the end, I settled on Branko Radivojevic, thanks in part to some rumblings that he may be playing on the first line in Minnesota.

So that's it, the die is cast. I'm pretty pleased with my roster and have yet another reason to eagerly anticipate the start of the season.

PS - Special thanks go out to Chunkymoose for the incredible amount of work he put in to facilitating the draft and everything else this past week or so. Kudos!

Rookie Intrasquad Game Notes

I managed to catch most of the scrimmage between the hopefuls for the coming season last night. In many cases, it was my first live and up-close observation of the player in question (in other cases, it was the first time I'd even heard of the guy - Chris Neiszner?).

Initially, the experience was a little overwhelming - trying to diligently follow two full teams of nameless players during a game is akin to counting grains of sand while the tide's coming in. Thankfully, the Flames provided a sheet detailing each players team affiliation (Red or Black) and their jersey numbers. Unfortunately, trying to match number to player through the roster sheet while keeping on eye on play at all times proved to be a bit of challenge. Of course, as the game progressed, certain stand-outs became familiar to me, negating the need to glance at the RS every other time they touched the puck.

For those interested few that were unable to attend, follow the link to some brief youtube material provided by "Furnaceface" from the Calgarypuck.com messageboards:

Link.

(Thanks FF)

Also, the official Flames site has notes on the game here.

My Thoughts:

The Good

- The best goalie of the evening was Leland Irving. He was flawless during the third period, which included a very impressive cross-crease pad save on Eric Nystrom. All the other tenders I saw were roughly equal to each other.

- Justin Taylor (C) was surprisingly good, especially in the 2nd period. He seemed to have decent offensive instincts and made a couple of notable plays down low. Also scored Team Black's second goal.

- Andrei Taratukhin (C) was fairly decent, though he seemed to fade in the third period. He scored a snap-shot-through-the-legs goal in the second period and was an active participant in either end of the rink. He tended to get winded faster than the other players and took shorter shifts, though.

- Eric Nystrom (LW) was decent all around, but was especially effective along the boards. He probably should have scored on the 2on1 against Irving (mentioned above), but he was still clearly one of the better players there.

- Dustin Boyd (C) while being one of the smaller guys was also one of the faster ones. He seemed a little "manic" at times - quick and panicy - but he asserted himself well overall. He managed to make some nice moves breaking in against defensemen.

- Daniel Ryder (C) impressed me throroughly. One of the younger and, like Boyd, more diminuitive players, Ryder still managed to score a goal and was part of one of the best forward trios on the ice near the end of the game (Ryder, Germyn, Prust). He made smart, crisp passes and often seemed to be in the place at the right time. I can't wait to see him here again next year.

- Adam Cracknell (RW) scored with a laser beam to the top corner in the 3rd period, and generally seemed dangerous in the offensive zone most of the night. May be a late, late round steal should he do well in the AHL this season.

- Richie Regehr and Tim Ramholt (D) formed a pretty steady duo for Team Red. Ramholt managed to stand up two advancing forwards in sequence during one play. Regehr was just plain solid all over the ice.

- Mark Giordano (D) popped up here and there. I would go for long stretches without noticing him and then suddenly a d-man would make a great first pass or decent rub-out and I'd have to look up his number again.

- Brandon Prust (LW) was both fast and hungry. I think he had two assists on the night, the best one was a two-on-one feed to Carsen Germyn. Differentiated himself well from a lot of the other hopefuls I thought.

The Bad

- Kris Chucko (RW) was completely unremarkable. To the degree that I had to specifically look for his jersey number to ensure that we was, in fact, playing. I can't remember a single Chucko shift or even play.

- Matt Pelech (D) was similar to Chucko; didn't really stand out. The one time I really noticed him he was "unleashing" a puck at curling speed from the point. Will most assuredly be returning to Junior this year.

- Myles Rumsey (D) was clearly over his head. I doubt you will ever hear his name in the big league.

- John Armstrong (C) was pretty much invisible as well. He has a bunch of years ahead of him, however, so that's not a big concern.

- I expected to see to see more of last year's AHL guys Tomi Maki (LW) and Cam Cunning (LW), but neither of them made any kind of lasting mark.

The final score in the game was 4-2 in favor of Team Red. Cracknell, Germyn, Taratukhin and Ryder scored for the victors while Taylor and Van Der Gulik replied for Team Black.

For those of you that missed last night's tilt the re-match is set for tonight at the saddledome. If guys like Chucko and Pelech assert themselves with some kind of authority, Team Black might be able to avenge Sunday night's defeat...

Flames Pre-Season Begins

Calgary's official start to the pre-season began yesterday with the initiation of the rookie portion of training camp. Here's a lengthy training camp roster that includes all 65 invited players (7 goalies, 19 defensemen, 39 forwards). Apparently, on-ice sessions and practices are open to the public - the first rookie inter-squad game takes place this Sunday afternoon at the Saddledome for all those who are interested. As far as the Big Boys are concerned, main camp opens September 15th and is quickly followed up by the first pre-season match-up September 17th against the Florida Panthers.

If, like me, you're overwhelmed by the sheer volume of players on the training camp roster, Hockey's Future has a more succinct list of the Flames top 20 young 'uns to keep an eye on (21 if count Brent Krahn, who is conspicuously absent for some reason).

Surrounded by rosters and lists and such, I figured the thing to do would be to make my own. Following are those prospects I consider the most interesting:

1.) Brent Krahn - G - A top selection back into 2001, Krahn had his development derailed first by injuries and then by lack of playing time (he was second fiddle in the Lowell system when the Flames shared an affiliate with Carolina). In 05/06, Krahn was finally able to play a full year as the #1 and he didn't disappoint. Even though the Omaha Knights failed to make the post-season, Krahn managed 26 wins, 3 shut-outs and a 2.50 GAA - the latter stat was the 3rd best in the league, ahead of other notable prospects Jimmy Howard (Detroit Red Wings), Josh Harding (Minnesota Wild) and Al Montoya (New York Rangers).

Most observers think this will be Krahn's "make or break season". If he doesn't beat out Jamie McLennan for the back-up position, he will have to be a dominant player in the AHL in order to remove all doubt for next year. Expect him to get some time in the NHL if there's an injury (god forbid) or if McLennan falters.

2.) Eric Nystrom - LW - Nystrom nearly won a spot with the big club last year before being sent down to the minors for some seasoning. By all accounts, Nystrom is a fiesty fore-checker, good skater and an excellent locker-room presence. On the negative side, he failed to put up significant offensive numbers in the AHL last year which probably means he'll never make much of an offensive impact at the NHL level. Unfortunately, that's what the Flames desperately need right now. However, Nystrom, like Nilson and Yelle, promises to have utility as a checking winger and penalty killer, so if either one of the aforementioned Flames players goes down to injury, expect Nystrom to get the call.

3.) Andrei Taratukhin - C - Recently, Darryl Sutter went on record to say that Taratukhin is probably the most talented prospect in the Flame's system. He's relatively old (23) and has already played at the pro level in the Russian Super League the last couple of years. He was also one of the few players on the most recent Russian Olympic team that wasn't already playing in the NHL. While his stats from playing in Russia aren't mind-blowing (9 goals, 15 assists in 40 GP) the difference in the play and scoring in the Super League make it difficult to accurately assess scoring prowess from stats alone. According to his "talent analysis" at russianprospects.com, Taratukhin is an average skater and shooter, but an excellent puck-handler and passer. Determination and work ethic are also mentioned as strengths.

As far as this coming season is concerned, 'Tukhin is a bit of a wild card. His age and experience should stand him in good stead to challenge for a spot on the Flames. He could end up usurping Byron Ritchie's place as the 13th forward, though he'll most likely draw into the Omaha Knights line-up - largely because he's never played NA hockey before and may need additional experience in that regard (also, he has a two-way contract). However, should the likes of Lombardi or Lundmark falter during the season, expect to see Taratukhin in the big line-up sooner rather than later.

4.) Tim Ramholt - D - The "other" defenseman selected behind Dion Phaneuf in 2003, Ramholt kicked ass in the QMJHL that year with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles - 9 goals and 27 assists in 51 games. By all accounts, he was set to have a bright future in the Nother American Junior ranks before he was lured back to Switzerland for monetary reasons. Back home, Ramholt's development seemed to stall - in 83 games with Zurich and Kloten, he scored just 1 goal and 4 assists thanks to relatively limited ice time.

Now that he's returned to this side of the pond, Ramholt will have to make siginificant strides towards becoming the player many thought he could be before his Swiss hiatus. If he can rediscover his form with top two type minutes on the farm, Ramholt will no doubt be challenging for a spot on the parent squad next season. I will definately be keeping an eye on his AHL numbers as this year progresses.

5.) Kris Chucko - RW - The Flames signed him to a pro contract in May - basically to rescue him from playing at the University of Michigan. While UofM is rumored to have a good system, Chucko had seemingly fallen through the cracks and his development was stagnating. Playing behind other notable prospects, like Phil Kessel, Chucko was resigned to third line checking type minutes - hardly the ideal situation for a first round draft pick.

According to scouts, Chucko is a big guy with a good stride and is strong on the puck. No one's really sure if he can score or not, thanks to his lackluster college numbers (which aren't reflected by some of his decent scoring totals as a minor hockey player), so it remains an open question heading into his first pro season. I don't think we'll see Chucko in the NHL this year, but with a decent AHL season he could be replacing the likes of Amonte or McCarty next October.

6.) Daniel Ryder - C - Ryder might be Calgary's most exciting prospect. He scored 20 goals in his rookie year in the OHL, followed by 29 goals the year after and 38 goals during the most recent campaign. In last season's OHL play-offs, Ryder scored 15 goals and 16 assists in just 19 games and won the Wayne Gretzky award for best play-off performer.

However, it's not just his stats that are intriguing. An OHL coaches poll conducted in the 05/06 season revealed that Ryder was considered a top player in various categories:

voted 3rd "smartest player"
voted 3rd "best on face-offs"
voted 1st "best penalty killer"

A prospect that can take face-offs and kill penalties while leading the team in scoring? Can't remember the last time we've seen something like that in the Flames system - usually it's mostly the penalty-killing type without the scoring ability.

This year, I expect Ryder to be returned to the Peterborough Petes for another year of Junior. If his prior play is any indication, I also expect him to dominate...

7.) Dustin Boyd - C - Boyd had a break-out season as an older guy in the WHL last year. He scored 48 goals and 42 assists in 64 games with the Moose Jaw Warriors, nearly 30 points better than his previous season totals. He also made Canada's Junior Team and was a key component on the gold medal squad.

To me, Boyd is a bit of a question mark. He didn't really do a lot until his final season in the Junior ranks. Either he had some sort of epiphany or was simply an overager taking advantage of an ideal situation. If Boyd turns out to be the real deal, Calgary is gonna have to figure out what to do with all these centers in a couple of years. If not, he'll be a competent AHL player for the rest of his career.

My Other Notables: Matt Pelech, Mark Giordano, Richie Regehr, Brandon Prust.

Overall, it should be an interesting camp. The Flames roster doesn't have a lot of vacancies going into the season, but there are definately some positions which may become available thanks to either veteran injury (Amonte, McCarty, Nilson, Yelle, McLennan) or a project player faltering (Lundmark, Friesen, Lombardi). While I don't think players like Nystrom or Taratukhin will make the Flame's opening night roster, I wouldn't be surprised to see them donning Calgary silks at some later point(s) in the season.