Garnish Pride
Coach: Sid Abel
Captain: Greg Malone
Assistants: Keith Brown, Dave Hunter
Yevgeny Mishakov-Christian Bordelau-Glenn Brydson
Dave Hunter (A)- Greg Malone (C) - Donald Audette
Sylvain Turgeon-Yanic Perreault-JP Dumont
Brent Gilchrist-Ron Wilson-Bill Collins
Keith Brown (A)-Rick Lapointe
Jeff Norton-Tom Reid
Pekka Marjamaki-Randy Ladouceur
Richard Brodeur
Don Simmons
Extras: Ed Carpenter, Nathan Horton, Zbynek Michalek, Billy Bell
Let me say a few words on my team:
1st Line: Mishakov will be the featured scorer on this line. He scored 183 goals in 400 Soviet League Games. Christian Bordelau will be his playmaker and what a playmaker he should be, Bordelau had 3 WHA seasons of 50 or more assists and ranks 8th all time in the WHA in both assists and points. Brydson is the glue guy of my 1st line but he could be counted onto score as in 4 seasons in the low-scoring early days of the NHL he scored 10 goals.
2nd Line: Dave Hunter is a tremendous pick-up for my 2nd line, he played the gritty role for the championship Oiler teams of the 80's and I look for him to play a gritty role on my team. Greg Malone is another solid playmaker among my centres, he doesn't have the assist numbers Bordelau does but he should still be able to feed the puck to his opponents effeciently. Donald Audette will be the goal scorer on this line, throughout his career he proved to be an efficient goal scorer. He should have no trouble scoring goals at this level.
3rd Line: I previewed my 3rd line yesterday but will say a few more words about it here: Turgeon is a tremendous goal scorer at this level, Dumont is the playmaker (A much better playmaker than I thought he was, this after looking at his stats) and Perreault as my #3 centre is effective offensively but was drafted for his uncanny ability to win faceoffs. This should be helpful late in games if the team needs to win a key faceoff to either keep the lead or tie the game late.
4th Line: This line takes a break from the goal scorer-playmaker-glue guy mentality of my top 3 forward lines but it's a great shutdown line. Gilchrist was known as a good defensive guy during his career. Ron Wilson was an adept penalty killer during his career. Bill Collins scored 17 short handed goals during his career which shows his great skill on the penalty kill.
Extras: Nathan Horton will bring grit and scoring to the lineup in case he has to come off the bench. Billy Bell will provide a defensive game to my lineup should someone get injured.
1st defensive pairing: Keith Brown will be my #1 option for offense from my defense, he also plays a good defensive game. Lapointe will be the defensive cog on this 1st pairing. Much like Brown he can play some offense but I drafted Lapointe more for his defense than his offense.
2nd defensive pairing: Norton is a good 2 way defenseman similar to Brown, he'll play the offensive role on this pairing. Unlike Rick Lapointe on my 1st pairing Tom Reid is going to be staying in his own zone here which is something I want out of a defensive defenseman.
3rd defensive pairing: Marjamaki is a good offensive defenseman, in the Finnish league he had 5 seasons of 10 or more goals. He should provide an offensive sparkplug to my 3rd pairing. Much like Tom Reid I drafted Ladoucer to be a defensive cog on a pairing, that's a role that suits Ladoucer quite well.
Extras: Carpenter was one of the good early era offensive defenseman, in case one of my offensive defenseman should falter or get injured Carpenter should be able to step in and fill in quite well for them. Michalek adds shot blocking to my lineup should he have to start in case of injury.
Goaltending: In Richard Brodeur I have the 2nd winningest goalie in WHA history, he was also the #1 goalie for the Vancouver team that went to the Cup final in 1982. Don Simmons is a pretty good backup for me to have in case Brodeur falters.
Coaching: I really like Abel as a coach, he was the type of coach that allowed his players to play up to their abilities which is good on a team such as mine.
Overall: This is my 2nd draft on my own and I like this team better than I did my MLD team, it has the right balance of offense and defense. This draft is wide-open, IMO, and any team could win it. I think my team stands as good a chance of any other team to win. Good luck to all the other teams in this, looking forward to more discussion as we get to the playoffs.