2007-08 Faceoff-Factor Fantasy Draft

Adam Jennings | Fantasy Corner

Oct 3, 04:15 AM | Hype this story!

On September 30, the first annual Faceoff-Factor staff fantasy hockey league conducted its draft.  Now we'll discuss the winners and losers of the first 15 rounds.  Stay tuned for weekly updates.  Each team starts 4 Centers, 4 Right Wings, 4 Left Wings, 4 Defensemen, 1 Utility and 2 Goaltenders.  There are 6 bench spots per team. 

Here are the owners and their team names according to draft order.


Matt Bodenschatz Zerstorers Everything hockey
Adam Jennings HidingTheRingDings Fantasy Corner
Michael Farkas The Vlasic Crime Transactions/News/Fantasy
Andrew Chiappazzi EagleMorph College
C.J. “Stoosh” Jiuliante Babych's Mustache NHL editorials
Paige Gagne Pens163 Minor Leagues
Brian Metzer Ruthless Interlopers Penguins
Kyle Dreibelbies WillPlayf4Beer Baby Penguins


Round 1  
1 Zerstorers Sidney Crosby
2 HidingTheRingDings Dany Heatley
3 The Vlasic Crime Roberto Luongo
4 EagleMorph Alexander Ovechkin
5 Babych's Mustache Evgeni Malkin
6 Pens163 Jarome Iginla
7 Ruthless Interlopers Joe Thornton
8 WillPlayf4Beer Martin Brodeur

 The best pick:  Thornton should out produce both Malkin and Iginla.  He is easily a top 5 player.  The worst pick: Malkin is a great player, but is he really going to out produce Thornton, Iginla, Jagr or Hossa?  I doubt it


Round 2  
9 WillPlay4Beer Marian Hossa
10 Ruthless Interlopers Jaromir Jagr
11 Pens163 Miikka Kiprusoff
12 Babych's Mustache Jason Spezza
13 EagleMorph Vincent Lecavalier
14 The Vlasic Crime Pavel Datsyuk
15 HidingTheRingDings Ilya Kovalchuk
16 Zerstorers Henrik Zetterberg

The best pick: The Interlopers get the best pick again, snagging Jagr.  Jagr should continue to be a top 10 player.  The worst pick: Everyone had a solid selection this round. 


Round 3  
17 Zerstorers Chris Pronger
18 HidingTheRingDings Marian Gaborik
19 The Vlasic Crime Martin St. Louis
20 EagleMorph Jean-Sebastien Giguere
21 Babych's Mustache Niklas Backstrom
22 Pens163 Jonathan Cheechoo
23 Ruthless Interlopers Daniel Alfredsson
24 WillPlayf4Beer Ryan Whitney

The best pick: St. Louis is a solid selection.  He always seems to contribute in every category. The worst pick: Jean-Sebastien Giguere is a questionable call.  Especially with some of the goalies still on the board.

Round 4  
25 WillPlay4Beer Daniel Briere
26 Ruthless Interlopers Dominik Hasek
27 Pens163 Maxim Afinogenov
28 Babych's Mustache Olli Jokinen
29 EagleMorph Dion Phaneuf
30 The Vlasic Crime Marc Savard
31 HidingTheRingDings Nicklas Lidstrom
32 Zerstorers Henrik Lundqvist

The best pick: Jokinen continues to not get any love.  Could easily have a 100 point season.  Savard is another solid selection.  Lundqvist is a steal.  The worst pick: Hasek went over Lundqvist and even a couple of others.  He's on a good team, but he is an old hockey player who misses starts.  Not exactly what you want from your number one goaltender.

Round 5  
33 Zerstorers Martin Havlat
34 HidingTheRingDings Sergei Gonchar
35 The Vlasic Crime Milan Michalek
36 EagleMorph Thomas Vanek
37 Babych's Mustache Joe Sakic
38 Pens163 Milan Hejduk
39 Ruthless Interlopers Daniel Sedin
40 WillPlayf4Beer Michael Cammalleri

The best pick: Havlat is an absolute steal.  Has the talent to be a top 20 player.  The worst pick: Michalek is a bit of a reach and probably could have been had a few rounds later.


Round 6  
41 WillPlay4Beer Simon Gagne
42 Ruthless Interlopers Evgeni Nabokov
43 Pens163 Marc-Andre Fleury
44 Babych's Mustache Alexander Frolov
45 EagleMorph Marty Turco
46 The Vlasic Crime Tomas Vokoun
47 HidingTheRingDings Lubomir Visnovsky
48 Zerstorers Ryan Miller

The best pick: Ryan Miller the best choice here.  Overall, every team got a useful player.


Round 7  
49 Zerstorers Alexander Semin
50 HidingTheRingDings Kari Lehtonen
51 The Vlasic Crime Pavol Demitra
52 EagleMorph Rick Nash
53 Babych's Mustache Slava Kozlov
54 Pens163 Dan Boyle
55 Ruthless Interlopers Patrick Marleau
56 WillPlayf4Beer Rick DiPietro

The best pick: Semin and Marleau share the honor this round.  The worst pick:  Nash is an interesting choice.  But, career numbers point to disappointment.


Round 8  
57 WillPlay4Beer Jason Blake
58 Ruthless Interlopers Kristian Huselius
59 Pens163 Scott Neidermayer
60 Babych's Mustache Sheldon Souray
61 EagleMorph Corey Perry
62 The Vlasic Crime Jay Bouwmeester
63 HidingTheRingDings Tomas Kaberle
64 Zerstorers Zdeno Chara

The best pick:  This round saw five D-men picked.  Jay Bouwmeester is one of the best.  Neidermayer's decision to play will make this either a steal or a complete waste.  The worst pick: Jason Blake has no upside and there were a lot of names with more value.


Round 9  
65 Zerstorers Eric Staal
66 HidingTheRingDings Cristobal Huet
67 The Vlasic Crime John-Michael Liles
68 EagleMorph Philippe Boucher
69 Babych's Mustache Chris Drury
70 Pens163 Brad Richards
71 Ruthless Interlopers Henrk Sedin
72 WillPlayf4Beer Matt Carle

The best pick: Drury and Richards are both great selections for the round.  The worst pick: Boucher over Zubov?  Zubov will likely have better numbers.


Round 10  
73 WillPlay4Beer Jason Pominville
74 Ruthless Interlopers Paul Stastny
75 Pens163 Keith Tkachuk
76 Babych's Mustache Alexander Radulov
77 EagleMorph Mats Sundin
78 The Vlasic Crime Zach Parise
79 HidingTheRingDings Michael Nylander
80 Zerstorers Bryan McCabe

The best pick:  Zach Parise should continue to improve and has to if the Devils are to contend.  He could turn out to have a lot of value for being drafted 78th.  The worst pick:  Nothing too out of place here.  Tkachuk might have lasted another round or two.


Round 11  
81 Zerstorers Petr Sykora
82 HidingTheRingDings Scott Gomez
83 The Vlasic Crime Sergei Zubov
84 EagleMorph Anze Kopitar
85 Babych's Mustache Brian Rolston
86 Pens163 Rod Brind'Amour
87 Ruthless Interlopers Andrew Brunette
88 WillPlayf4Beer Andy McDonald

The best pick:  Once again a strong round.  Gomez, Kopitar and McDonald each came with a lot of value.  Brind'Amour is the best of the group.  With Zubov also being considered.  The worst pick: Sykora went two or three round early.  But, he does have decent upside, likely playing on the wing of the MVP. 


Round 12  
89 WillPlay4Beer Derek Roy
90 Ruthless Interlopers Alexei Zhitnik
91 Pens163 Justin Williams
92 Babych's Mustache Ryan Smyth
93 EagleMorph Steve Sullivan
94 The Vlasic Crime Alex Tanguay
95 HidingTheRingDings Tomas Holmstrom
96 Zerstorers Wade Redden

The best pick: Tanguay, Williams and Roy stick out of this group.  Another fairly even round.  The worst pick: Steve Sullivan doesn't have a lot of upside and probably could have been had later.


Round 13  
97 Zerstorers Brenden Morrow
98 HidingTheRingDings Brendan Shanahan
99 The Vlasic Crime Ryan Getzlaf
100 EagleMorph Scott Hartnell
101 Babych's Mustache Brian Rafalski
102 Pens163 Patrice Bergeron
103 Ruthless Interlopers Brian Gionta
104 WillPlayf4Beer Mike Knuble

The best pick: Getzlaf stands out as a player that has a ton of upside. Bergeron has always had the potential, just hasn't panned out yet. The worst pick:  Mike Knuble is a waste, and shouldn't contribute much to a fantasy team.


Round 14  
105 WillPlay4Beer Paul Kariya
106 Ruthless Interlopers Mathieu Schneider
107 Pens163 Erik Cole
108 Babych's Mustache Nikolai Khabibulin
109 EagleMorph Kevin Bieska
110 The Vlasic Crime Patrik Elias
111 HidingTheRingDings Chris Kunitz
112 Zerstorers Jonathan Toews

The best pick:  Patrik Elias definitely should have gone earlier.  Perhaps too many Pens fans in the league. The worst pick:  Schneider needs to recover quickly to justify this pick.


Round 15  
113 Zerstorers Chris Neil
114 HidingTheRingDings Martin Straka
115 The Vlasic Crime Wojtek Wolski
116 EagleMorph Jordan Staal
117 Babych's Mustache Nicklas Backstrom
118 Pens163 Mike Commodore
119 Ruthless Interlopers Ray Whitney
120 WillPlayf4Beer Brian Campbell

The best pick:  Staal's value goes up a lot, if he's on Crosby's line.  Whitney continues to contribute.  The worst pick: Chris Neil is a joke.  I believe Matt's defense of the pick was "I need a guy for PIMs."  I personally have never built a team around PIMs, but I guess it's a strategy. 

Comments

  1. Kyle Dreibelbies

    Oct 3, 06:18 AM

    Woohoo!

    One of my picks was a best pick and I had 2 as a worst pick. I’m hoping it doesn’t work out that way in the end.

  2. Matt Bodenschatz

    Oct 3, 08:38 AM

    Ah, come on Adam I never said my strategy was PIM’s — I said I wanted someone who could get me some PIM’s, while potting some points.

    That’s okay though. You’ll rethink your strategy when I finish in first!

  3. jon s

    Oct 3, 10:38 AM

    You guys should open one to the public…IMO

  4. Stoosh

    Oct 3, 11:43 AM

    I reserve the right to defend myself here on the Malkin pick.

    First of all, I was deciding between three players there – Malkin, Thorton and Jagr.

    I’m just not a fan of Joe Thornton. Great player; great scorer. I just always get the feeling he could do more, and one of these seasons I think it’s going to catch up with him. It wouldn’t surprise me to see some sort of Jagr-in-Washington dip in his numbers one of these years.

    It really became a choice between Malkin and Jagr, then, and homerism wins out. There. I said it. I can admit it. Homerism. I’ve always liked Jagr, even after he left. I never boo the guy. I still wish he was here. All things being equal, though, I hate the Rangers and I don’t want to give myself any reason to cheer for them. (Never mind that this clearly flies in the face of my selections of Spezza – who I don’t really like – and Drury – who I’ve always liked but now wears the mark of the Ranger. Never mind any of that.)

    I just have a feeling Malkin is going to be a beast this year. He’s looked possessed in the preseason this year. He had 85 points despite hitting a bit of a wall around March. He’s still adjusting to the NHL game, but that should be much less pronounced this year.

    Geno Malkin. 105 points this year.

    Lock it up.

    Championship.

  5. Michael Farkas

    Oct 3, 11:46 AM

    I get called out on Milan Michalek, do you remember how many groans there was when I picked him, “ahhhh, I wanted him…” hahaha …if Thornton is a top five player and Michalek had the best bang for your buck last year (most points/per contract value) then combined, he should explode for at least 45 goals this year…

    Otherwise, my picks are mentioned as the best pick in 8 of 15 rounds? So much love for me, it’s almost like I wrote it myself, keep up the great work Adam!

  6. Kyle Dreibelbies

    Oct 3, 02:53 PM

    Mikey, you’re right. Michalek wouldn’t have lasted a couple more rounds because I would have snagged him with my next pick.

    Also, I counted wrong. I was in the ‘Good Pick’ section for 2 picks and ‘Bad Pick’ section for 2. But, I guess that’s to be expected since I picked Jason Blake, piece of crap, in a league of Penguins fans.

  7. Matt Bodenschatz

    Oct 3, 11:13 PM

    Jon, we’re pondering the idea, and I will make a post tomorrow on the site with how people can express interest. If we can get at least 8 people who want in, we’ll create an FF readers league.

  8. DEBOCK

    Oct 5, 04:00 AM

    For sure man, I’d join in a fantasy draft with some “pros.” I don’t use quotation marks lightly, I do hope you guys are chilling with some calculators for your projections, I used your rankings for my pools this year. Good luck to you = good luck to me. Thanks for the solid reads fellas.

  9. Matt Bodenschatz

    Oct 5, 08:42 AM

    Debock, glad to hear you are liking our fantasy coverage — it only stands to get better and more complete over the coming weeks. And it’s comments like yours that will encourage us to do more.

    If interested in joining an FF league, please go to our front page, and click on the Fantasy League link at the top of the gray box in the center of the page.

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