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!