Power Rankings:
1. Northern Voice - My projections, I should end up at the top or I really ####ed up the draft. This team should be strong across the board. I waited too long on Neuvirth as insurance for Mason - thanks
@Aaron Rudnicki (on the flip side of this, I think Pickard ends up the starter in COL by season't end). Could pretty easily have 8 60 point players (Johansen, Eichel, Matthews, Hall, Schenn, Radulov, Ryan, Subban) with guys like Kane/Perron/Hartnell filling in the hits and PIMs cats and still being in the 40-50 point range. And also the best goalie in the league. ***If Eichel's injury is serious, I fall at least to #2, maybe/likely farther.
2. Brasky's Brawlers - Solid team across the board, no real weaknesses here at all. Price and Holtby are far and away the top fantasy goalies, I have Holtby, Brasky has Price, just having those guys locked in early gives a big leg up. This team may even be better than it shows in my rankings, I used Loui Erikkson at LW and Marner at UT for these projections, so the sooner Jaden Schwartz gets back, the stronger this team is. I'm very high on Hellebuyck as well, thought I could wait a bit longer on him (that said Hutchinson is actually getting game 1).
3. 12 Parsec Kessel Run - Another team that is strong across the board in every category. Crawford/Schneider gives strength in net, nice mix of offense and physical players, really not much to criticize here.
4. Getz Ducks - Not quite as strong in net as the three teams above - need Gibson and Andersen to have strong seasons to push into the top 3 positions. Tons of shooters here, led by Ovechkin. Should be near the top in goals, PPP, shots, etc... but likely near the bottom in assists, which will also push points towards the middle of the pack. Definite contender but you can see potential weaknesses.
5. Fargin Iceholes - Jones and Dubnyk in net should do well in the counting categories, not quite as sure about GAA/SV%. Similar to Getz Ducks, will be stronger in the shooting/scoring categories, with the overall offense being more towards the middle of the pack. Gudas really needs to carry the load in hits and PIM's, not a ton of other guys there (Rakell signing would help).
6. Buffalo Lightsabres - This team strikes me as middle of the pack almost across the board but very likely last in penalty minutes. There's upside here in Bennett, Fabbri, Klefbom, Jones, Zibanejad etc... but not enough to push to the top of the standings.
7. Wheat Kings - I like Bishop in net but I'm not a big Varlamov fan. With the expansion draft looming, it's possible both are on different teams at the end of the season, so that's a major wild card here. I think the goaltending will be in the mid range overall. This is a tough team to judge because the best point production guys here are mostly pass first guys, but there are shooters in the depth (Purcell, Stempniak, Gallagher), I think it finishes near the top in assists but low in goals/shots, etc.. mixing and matching heavily with the forwards could push that but will be a lot of work.
8. Don Sweeney's Assistant - If this team doesn't lead the league in hits and penalties, something went seriously wrong. Should be strong in the shooting (G, SOG, PPP) categories as well, but a bit below average in assists and points. On offensive categories, this team ranks higher than 8th but the goaltending will prevent it from climbing much higher. Halak is a borderline #1 fantasy goalie at most and Smith is a ratio killer. Strong contender for last in GAA and SV%.
9. RnR - Right wing here is a big problem. Only three were drafted and two (Komorov, Wilson) aren't going to see any power play time. As a result, goals and powerplay points are likely going to be low. Lundqvist/Luongo combo in net is decent but both have some downside at this point. It should be a team that hits and gets penalty minutes no problem and some nice assist totals as well. Upgrading those wingers would help with the offense but hurt in hits/PIMs, so it's not an easy fix.
10. Game Time Decisions - The Rask/Allen combination in net will be near the top of the league in all 4 categories. That's good, because this is probably the lowest scoring team in the league. Guys like Hanzal, Vanek, Doan, Sharp, Parise, Markov, Green, Vrbata, Streit Marleau are all on the downside of their careers - sometimes these vets make for good late value picks, I just think there are too many here.
11. Sabres on the Warpath - There's a lot of offense here, so G, A, P, PPP and SOG will all be very strong categories. I think that won't be enough though, with not a lot coming in the way of hits and PIM's dragging the overall offensive categories down a little bit. The other concern is goaltending. Talbot is the only work horse here and I think no matter how good he is, the Oilers defense will prevent his overall numbers for being more than average. Vasilevskiy and Neuvirth could swing the goalie categories for the better (but Johnson and Bernier, if they get a lot of time, may not do too many favours).
12. Thorn - Overall offense likely a bit above average but hits and penalty minutes will be weaknesses. Strong offense from the back end but up front the depth is lacking, McDavid and Kuznetsov can cover up a lot of that. Rinne and Anderson are an okay combination in net, Greiss is a wild card there, overall I think there are too many weak categories for a higher finish.
13. Jack Burton Express - There is upside in the offense in Puljujarvi, Connor, Drouin and the like but 2 or 3 of those guys will have to really break out and displace guys like Vermette, Roussel for this team to be near the top of the standings. Goaltending is hurt by my system here with the two tandems but I'm not sure that Detroit tandem will produce very good numbers anyway. Wins and shutouts should be fine, ratios ok, penalty minutes will be fine as well.
14. IC Alkies- Hits and PIM's will be strengths, I don't like the goaltending. Elliott has upside in Calgary, if the team in front of him cooperates but none of Lehner, Lehtonen or Ward have done much lately to inspire a lot of confidence. Maybe Lehner gets a better team in front of him and Ward turns back the clock but I think there is a lot of downside in the piper here. In terms of scoring, some nice high end players here but having Martin, Neil, Chara, Martinez and Shaw limits the overall offensive upside - as it is now, this team probably gets the fewest points from its D corps in the league.
and then Drouin at 118 was probably a little early
We've drafted together last three years. With the success last year, we interacted more while he was at college and that made the season even more awesome.
