D Nikita Zadorov (hulking 6'5 230 Russian, physical type like Gudbranson, has a heavy shot)
D Slater Koekkek (6'2 185, , 19 years old, 10th in 2012, offensively gifted with QB of PP written all over him, also very strong all around player)
LW Quinton Howden (6'3 190, 21 years old, 25th in 2010, great for PK)
Howden, power forward often compared to Bertuzzi
Koekkek stock dropped on an injury, but he projects to be Hedman's partner for a long time
Zadorov the beast with tremendous hands for his size
Full write-up to come. Team Rafiki/Effen
Kreider - MacKinnon - Yakupov
Foligno - Eller - Stewart
Howden - Johansson - T Wilson
Carlson - Gudbranson
Zadorov - Klefbom
Krug - Koekkek
Kreider/Johansson - MacKinnon - Yakupov
Foligno - Eller - Stewart
Howden - Johansson - T Wilson
Carlson - Gudbranson
Zadorov - Klefbom
Krug - Koekkek
Gibson
our team is obviously competing with the "in 5 year club". We built a bit in the Bruins model, which we think we will extremely hard to play against in the playoffs.
Kreider, Foligno, Eller, Stewart, Wilson and Howden are all going to play the body very hard. Johansson, Howden and Carlsson should be the base of a tremendous PK.
The PP is going to revolve around Yakupov/Mackinnon/Johansson/Carlsson/Krug/Stewart/Klefbom
There should be enough team speed with Johansson (who can play LW and may move to the LW on line 1), MacKinnon and Yakupov.
The blueline has offensively gifted kids in Krug, Klefbom, Koekkek and Carlson. Zadorov (6'5) and Gudbranson (6'5 ) are absolute towers, and probably round out what will be the toughest team in the draft.
We don't know what Gibson's ceiling is. He's already a winner, and mentally tough. We like his chances.
A lot of people making terrible picks this round. People are drafting replacement level guys, why when clearly the correct strategy is to draft elite older guys, and when they retire in 2 years, you get replacement level guys (at the level of players available to draft now) anyway
So with that being said with my last 3 picks I select
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Willie Mitchell
Definitely on the old side at 36, but he should be great for another 2 years at least, injuries aside. Hopefully he won't get any season ending knee injuries from fishing on my team. Whats promising is that at 35 he had his best ever year of hockey, and added an offensive edge (resulting in powerplay time) to his already dominant defensive game. On my 3rd pairing, he just has to keep the puck out of his own net, and take #1 pk duty. Something which doesn't require young legs so he should be good for a few years yet
Spoiler:
Teemu Selanne
Still putting up crazy points at his age, I'd rather have Selanne for 1 or 2 years over some of the other bums being drafted right now. Still elite on the pp, where combined with the deadly pp skills of the top end Sharks talent on my team, should result in him tapping on pp goals for days
Plus age isn't a problem if you never age
Spoiler:
Are you ready for this?
Spoiler:
OHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Still scoring at 2 points/game in the Slovak league. So clearly still the best and on a line with Selanne, opposing players will be too busy wanting to shake hands with them to stop them scoring.
Marleau - Thornton - Burrows
Obviously my scoring line. Have faith that Burrows can score at ease with those 2 as he does with the Sedins and we already know the chemistry Patty and Jumbo have. Shame the WIL of this line is immeasurable though
Stalberg - Pavelski - Williams
my 100% d-zone line. Made it clear how elite both Pavelski and Williams (Williams in particular) are at possession, so I have no doubt they will manage to breakeven vs the all star lines they will be matched up against
Palffy - Filpulla - Selanne
Euro's unite. My 100% ozone, all soft minutes line. Expecting Selanne and Palffy to pot goals at will with Thornton feeding them the puck on the pp. They will be terrible at defence, but hey, i built the GOAT defence to make up for that. Obviously in like 2 years, Selanne and Pallfy will be gone. At which point ill have 2 scrubs with Filpulla which is less than ideal. But like previously stated, my defence/goalie combo is GOAT, so all my 3rd line has to do is not suck when getting 100% ozone vs other 3rd lines
Like my 3 lines a lot as a group. Don't have to worry about matchups with my defence. Just basic set up of 3rd line has to not suck, and then look to score heaps of points on the pp. 2nd line has to shut down other top lines and take the dzone starts. Top line just has to score score score
As an additional bonus, my forwards are super disciplined, so won't need to pk much. 1 bad part is lack of physicality. Thornton is a goon who likes to throw his weight around, Stalberg a bit aswell and Burrows is a dick. But outside of that, I'm relying 100% on skill which isn't great for a 7 round series. 6 rangz has to account for something though
Suter - Keith
Obviously having 2 top 10 dmen is pretty great. Will obviously crush souls when given the tough defensive matchups and come out ahead. Will probably use only Suter on the pp but with only limited minutes and stick with given them a huge majority of ES mintues with pk time
Bouwmeester - Edler
My offensive specialists. Will get plenty of o-zone starts, plenty of pp time, limited defensive minutes and again i expect them to crush the 2nd pairing minutes since they both usually take on tougher minutes than that
Tyutin - Mitchell
My mid pairing, expect them to yet again crush their minutes, Tyutin capable of scoring plenty of ES points vs soft minutes since he usually does it vs the toughest minutes and has Mitchell to cover his back on the defensive side
I easily have the best defence of the draft, there is nothing i would change
Rinne
Ye, so gl scoring when you only get 15 shots/game and Rinne is in net with a GAA of <1
pp1
Palffy - Thornton - Selanne
Bouwmeester - Edler
pp2
Marleau - Filpulla - Williams
Suter - Pavelski
pk1
Pavelski - Burrows
Mitchell - Keith
pk2
Thornton - Marleau
Tyutin - Suter
ship the cups
Bonus points for my team containing every letter of the alphabet (including first names)
yes switch, i'm extremely scurred that you took a 36yo with a bum knee that hasn't played hockey in a year and a half, a 43yo coming off of a near career worst season (the only one worse when the year after he blew out his knee, he's always said he needed lockout #2 to properly rehab that injury), and a 41yo who has been playing in the Slovakian league since 2006.
you had a good team going there, so thanks for blowing it late
I love Willie Mitchell, but come on son. He's coming off a career threatening knee injury, and Lombardi was so doubtful about his recovery that he signed Regehr. (and is bringing 9 signed D to camp)
Plus he plays the left side. If you wanted a 3rd pairing, right D, to kill penalties, you should have taken (undrafted) He's younger and all character.
And your D isn't close to the best in the draft. Mine is, and will be for the next 8 years.
If those 3 picks all suck, then ill just get replacement level guys that are of the same skill level as the guys available to draft now anyway. So why draft them when you can take a 0% risk on some elite older guys?
Like i said, a bunch of people have drafted lolbad this round without thinking outside the box
If those 3 picks all suck, then ill just get replacement level guys that are of the same skill level as the guys available to draft now anyway. So why draft them when you can take a 0% risk on some elite older guys?
Like i said, a bunch of people have drafted lolbad this round without thinking outside the box
I may be crazy, but I think most people understood that you basically play this roster for the 10 years. Otherwise the advantage of people only drafting 17-18-19 year olds is that their teams will suck for years 1-5, and then they get a bunch of imaginary first rounders to add to their sweet core. I dunno, I think your version makes no sense. One could just as easily send someone down to minors and get new replacement level guys...
No need to just get the oldest crap guys out there.
I may be crazy, but I think most people understood that you basically play this roster for the 10 years. Otherwise the advantage of people only drafting 17-18-19 year olds is that their teams will suck for years 1-5, and then they get a bunch of imaginary first rounders to add to their sweet core.
That is exactly what the OP states
Pretty sure my Palffy pick is against the rules anyway, but hoping Grind will let it fly for being awesome