Daily Faceoff Fantasy League: The Pink Chanther
Drafting Corey Perry in round 2 would not have been my personal pick but I guess I’ll take it as this is number 12 overall and for a guy who’s playing on a line with such talent as Getzlaf and Ryan there’s sure to be a lot of points scored. 90 points is a real possibility for this guy and he takes his fair share of PIMs as well.
Jeff Carter is quite a good pick up at 13, he brings a lot to the table although he’d be a lot more valuable if short handed points were a stat. If it were up to me I might have gone with Kovalchuk or one of those goalies that went in this round, namely Nabokov.
This is where it gets dicey, although Zetterberg is probably a really good pick here as he’ll probably be close to point per game and have one of the best plus/minus’ in the league but there’s just this thing where I hate the Red Wings and I know that real hockey shouldn’t interfere with fake hockey, but alas Zetts will be traded. I’m hoping to get another top notch winger since I’m pretty set at the centre position right now, I have a few offers out there but if I can pick up a Semin or someone along those lines, although I feel like I may have to make a package that is simply irresistible.
I love Marian Gaborik no matter how injury prone he is. I have a soft spot for the high producing injury prone players (ie. Havlat, the aforementioned Semin, Hossa) they really pay off when healthy and Gaborik is no exception, a fully healthy season could mean 30+ goals and 80 + points. Now that he’s not tied down by the defensive play of the Wild the potential is endless.
Going with 2 Lightning at 36-37 could be some really good value as both of these players have shown in the past that they have the offensive ability to score 100 points. I don’t think St. Louis will reproduce his massive 102 point season as he has struggled in post-lockout play, but Lecavalier still has many good year in him and could surprise some people with the addition of Alex Tanguay and the extra season under his belt for Stamkos offensive should come a little more often from the Bolts this season.
Toews at 48 is right on the money with his value. Again, another really high upside type of player that plays in a high octane offense.
Patrick Elias pretty much hit his cap last year at 78 points in 77 games, that’s a respectable point total and there’s no reason to think he can’t do it again as there haven’t been that many changes in the offensive look of the Devils.
Another Red Wing sneaks his way onto my roster. Although Osgood has put up great numbers in all major goalie stats but last year his stats took a pretty big dip to 3.09 GAA and an .887 sv%. The wings are a defensively responsible team that protects the net but I don’t trust Osgood until the playoffs especially with Jimmy Howard sneaking up behind him.
I like Marty Turco to have a bounce back year, he’s been very quiet and average the last 2 years but with the Olympics coming up, he’ll surely want to show he should be there and make a case to start or at least play – although I don’t see it happening.
Jason Blake is another high upside who has really underperformed according to Leafs nation and most of the hockey world thatharass Blake bout signing that big contract after scoring 40 goals and not doing much since then. He did put up 63 points in 78 games which is not bad considering it was his second year since finding out he had leukemia. I expect him to enjoy the newly acquired speed on the Leafs and get back to scoring goals, not 40 but 25+ is reasonable to expect and getting that at pick 72 is a good deal if you ask me.
David Backes is the ultimate PIM player. You can play him and expect some points while at the same time he can win you PIMs on his own. Very Scott Hartnell like.
With my 14th round pick and with a known Leafs fan in Dan Scratch drafting after me this is where I would have taken Phil Kessel but alas autodraft gave me Ray Whitney. This should be a pretty good deal after putting up 77 points last year it’s pretty safe to say 70+ points is a given from this guy although age could prove to be a factor but I’d bet Rod Brind’Amour would beg to differ
Another aging star, Rob Blake should still see significant production as he’ll see lots of PP time and with Boyle setting up the Blake rocket there’ll be pucks going into the net.
Drafting a pair of Canuck d-men probably won’t be very useful here. They’ll get their fair share of points, I’d expect similar totals to last year with 37 and 42 for edler and ehrhoff respectively. I’ll hope one starts hot and put them on the trade market.
Now we draft former underachieving Leafs d-men at 109-110 with Kubina nd Mccabe. I really think that both these guys suffered because of the spotlight in Toronto, Mccabe obviously had that great 69 point season but after the big contract came he never looked the same. Last year he was hurt but when he was playing he put up serviceable numbers with 39 points in 69 games, now that he’s captain of the Panthers he’ll have to be a consistent producer as well as be solid defensively. It’s hard to know what to expect from Kubina, but I’d say somewhere around 40 points and a lot of PIMs. So overall not a bad value for these guys here
Bogosian is a real wildcard, again autodraft is keeping my defense pairings on the same team, maybe it’s to keep up team chemistry or something. Bogosian looks like he might have another couple years to truly have fantasy relevance.
Joe Pavelski had 59 points last year, but with the way the Sharks shuffle lines you never know who he’ll be playing with. If he somehow ends up on the wing with Thornton and Heatley he’ll easily surpass the 59 points he had last year but as it stands he’ll be playing second line with Marleau, which adds up to a similar point total to last year.
My last 3 rounds are fairly irrelevant, in these round if I were drafting on my own I’d be taking my chance on a flier or 2 (not the Flyers), someone with high upside and is very low risk at this point in the draft. I’m eyeing someone like Nikita Filatov, Patrick O’Sullivan or a Brian Little. With these 3 guys I’ll be working the waiver wire pretty hard.
Overall I’m pretty happy with my team but considering there’s only 6 teams in this league everyone has a good team it’s all about the late round risks that will pan out, so we’ll see how this works out. Thanks Yahoo! Autodraft for a serviceable team, it needs some tweaking but I think Alexander the Gr-8 is going to carry the Pink Chanthers to victory!