Players I've staked my fantasy reputation on

by James Mirtle on Nov 27, 2008 9:57 AM CST Comment 4 comments

I've written about my three pools before this year, but here they are again: the Blogger Invitational and two more Open Invitational fantasy gatherings. So far, it's been an okay start, as I'm fourth in the top pool (here was my team as of a few weeks ago before Brendan Morrow limped out for the season), second in the B Pool and sixth in the C Pool (which has turned out to be quite tough for some reason).

All of the pools I run are 20-player rosters with 18 to 20 teams, so we're talking about deep, deep lineups. There are also four available IR slots, which I've been making some nice use of lately.

Here's who I've picked in all three this year, ranked by how they've performed thus far:

	Player	Tm	Y! Rnk	Pool	Acq'd	Notes
1	Marian Hossa	Det	7	A	1st Rnd	Good pick at 14th overall
2	Ryane Clowe	SJ	17	C	14th Rnd	Best pick of the year
3	Patrick Marleau	SJ	18	C	7th Rnd	An absolute steal
4	Thomas Vanek	Buf	21	C	4th Rnd	A very good pick
5	Pavel Datsyuk	Det	47	C	1st Rnd	Pretty solid so far
6	Kris Versteeg	Chi	50	A, C	FA	It pays to use free agency
7	Bryan Little	Atl	58	A, C	FA	Great early season pickup
8	Brenden Morrow	Dal	64	A	4th Rnd	Act of God ends season
9	Slava Kozlov	Atl	68	A	14th Rnd	A big-time steal so far
10	Jason Arnott	Nas	70	B	5th Rnd	An underrated fantasy pick
11	Carey Price	Mon	71	A, C	2nd Rnd	Solid starter so far
12	Niklas Hagman	Tor	77	B	14th Rnd	Has been excellent so far
13	Brian Boucher	SJ	85	C	19th Rnd	Pays to take flier on backups
14	Martin Erat	Nas	93	A	9th Rnd	Another underrated player
15	David Booth	Fla	95	A	16th Rnd	Another good late-rounder
16	Ray Whitney	Car	106	A, B	11th, 10th	Always really underrated
17	Paul Stastny	Col	107	B	3rd Rnd	A bit disappointing so far
18	Mike Cammalleri	Cal	109	C	6th Rnd	Was expecting a little more
19	Derek Roy	Buf	117	C	3rd Rnd	Starting to get it together
20	Brian Rafalski	Det	124	B	Trade	Solid so far
21	Martin St. Louis	TB	128	B	Trade	Expect he'll heat up soon
22	S. Robidas	Dal	141	A	15th Rnd	Not bad for sleeper
23	Alex Auld	Ott	145	A	19th Rnd	Saved my pool so far
24	T. Holmstrom	Det	151	C	9th Rnd	Been good when healthy
25	Tomas Plekanec	Mon	155	A, B	7th Rnd	Probably bought too high
26	Milan Hejduk	Col	156	A	8th Rnd	About what I expected
27	J-S Giguere	Ana	159	B	1st Rnd	Dragging me down right now
28	Miikka Kiprusoff	Cal	161	B	Trade	Took a flyer on him
29	Mike Ribeiro	Dal	166	A	5th Rnd	Bad pick so far
30	RJ Umberger	Cls	168	A, C	10th Rnd	Late-rounder heating up
31	Ty Conklin	Det	176	A, C	12th, 11th	Waiting for Osgood to fall
32	Troy Brouwer	Chi	192	A	FA	Has been very solid
33	Alex Goligoski	Pit	206	C	FA	Solid for what he is
34	Michael Nylander	Was	211	B	12th Rnd	Needs a trade
35	Jonas Hiller	Ana	213	B, C	17th, 13th	Decent insurance for Giggy
36	Petr Sykora	Pit	216	A, B	6th Rnd	In a mini-slump so far
37	David Legwand	Nas	231	C	12th Rnd	Bad pick
38	Joe Sakic	Col	241	C	5th Rnd	Bad pick
39	Chris Higgins	Mon	271	C	8th Rnd	Bad pick
40	S. Clemmensen	NJ	272	C	FA	Pays to take flier on backups
41	R. Fedotenko	Pit	273	B	16th Rnd	Don't expect much this late
42	Jason Williams	Atl	275	B	11th Rnd	A bust so far
43	Dave Bolland	Chi	280	C	FA	Solid for what he is
44	Mike Van Ryn	Tor	289	C	FA	Was great before injury
45	Cory Stillman	Fla	300	B	8th Rnd	A bust so far
46	Jason LaBarbera	LA	305	B	18th Rnd	He's not starting but was cheap
47	Jaroslav Spacek	Buf	306	B	15th Rnd	Expected a bit more
48	Mikael Tellqvist	Phx	324	A, B	FA	Maybe Bryz gets hurt?
49	Chris Neil	Ott	331	B	FA	On IR, waiting to offer PIMs
50	Antoine Vermette	Ott	379	B	9th Rnd	Yeeeck. A pool killer
51	Kevin Porter	Phx	382	B	FA	A short-term pickup
52	Martin Gerber	Ott	527	A	3rd Rnd	Worst pick of the year
53	Mark Parrish	Dal	530	A, B	FA	I ended up with a lotta Stars
54	Sergei Gonchar	Pit	809	A	FA	Sitting, waiting on IR

I always find that who you can snag for nothing in free agency goes a long way toward winning your pool. If Versteeg and Little keep up what they're doing and one of the backup goalies I always stash on the roster becomes the starter, there's a chance to pull away.

I'll let you know how it goes.

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Comments

Fantasy hockey is fun

I never thought I’d drop a healthy Martin Havlat, but I just did (my pool is obviously not quite as deep as yours; Nik Hagman is typical of the top of the free agent pool). I’m taking a flyer on Phillippe Boucher rebounding.

What do you use for the maximum games played per player in your pools? We’ve always had a difficult time filling out the goalie games, especially if we run more than 15 teams. Yahoo won’t allow you to set different maximums for goalies and skaters. It got ridiculous one season when every time a starter got hurt, there was a run on the third stringer, since the backup was most likely already on a roster.

I've been looking at the sky

by Back In Black on Nov 27, 2008 10:34 AM CST reply actions 0 recs