Not that I think this draft is necessarily over, but I thought I would post some post-draft thoughts:
Players/coaches from ATD9 who never got mentioned or drafted after nearly 1400 players/coaches in ATD10/MLD10/AAA10/Top-1000:
LW Donald Brashear
C Guyle Fielder
Coach Warren Strelow
Coach Francois Allaire
Coach Mike Milbury
C Michel Briere
Coach Vsevolod Bobrov
This all makes sense with the exception of Fielder. I'm surprised someone didn't grab him, given his reputation.
Players/coaches from MLD9 who never got mentioned or drafted after nearly 1400 players/coaches in ATD10/MLD10/AAA10/Top-1000:
C Carl Voss
LW Corey Perry
LW Bobby Kromm
D Mika Stromberg
RW John McCreedy
C Shawn Horcoff
D Darryl Sly
D Ted Crowley
C Travis Green
D Barrett Jackman
Coach Mike Buckna
LW Steve Bozek
LW Shawn Antoski
RW Tie Domi
D Jack Lancien
D Steve McCarthy
Coach Guy Carbonneau
Coach Phil Esposito
C Steve Tambellini
Coach Ernie Marleau
C Jordan Staal
G Vesa Toskala
Most of this can be explained. Perry, Stromberg, Crowley, Antoski, Domi, Staal, and Toskala are not draft material and were taken by camperjr, a newbie in his first ever draft. Kromm, McCreedy, Sly, Bozek, Lancien, and McCarthy were taken by shawnmullin in his admirable attempt to build a competitive squad of players with Trail Smoke Eaters and BC ties. Although I am not sure why he didn't take Harry Smith, an excellent (at that level) offensive defenseman who played for Trail for a while. He had great numbers and was on the all-star team nearly everywhere he went.
Players selected in ATD10/MLD10/AAA10 who were never drafted or mentioned in this section before, along with approximate total draft position:
Coach Ivan Hlinka (506)
Coach Jacques Laperriere (672)
Coach Bob Pulford (673)
LW Dubbie Kerr (735)
LW Red Hamill (762)
RW Viktor Shalimov (801)
D Dunc Munro (809)
C/D Skene Ronan (831)
Coach Eddie Gerard (847)
RW Bruce Ridpath (861)
D Murray Henderson (889)
LW Vic Lynn (914)
D Vitezslav Duris (930)
LW/D Jack Marks (946)
Jiri Fischer (947)
LW/RW Lasse Oksanen (965)
C Herb Jordan (977)
RW Jack McDonald (978)
D Sergei Babinov (983)
RW Vlastimil Bubnik (984)
C Clarence McKerrow (987)
D Weldy Young (988)
RW Tony Gingras (995)
D Reg Hamilton (999)
RW Serge Bernier (1006)
LW/C Don Smith (1010)
C Sergei Shepelev (1011)
D Pavel Kubina (1018)
C Nils Nilsson (1021)
D Art Moore (1031)
D Roy Rickey (1032)
LW Wildor Larochelle (1044)
LW Bohuslav Stastny (1045)
D Miroslav Dvorak (1046)
LW Yuri Blinov (1047)
C Jude Drouin (1052)
LW Lorne Henning (1053)
RW Billy Bell (1054)
LW Matti Hagman (1063)
D Pekka Marjamaki (1064)
LW Ted Irvine (1065)
D Brad Marsh (1070)
D Oleg Tverdovsky (1072)
LW Bill Warwick (1073)
C Alexei Guryshev (1079)
G Nokolay Puchkov (1081)
G Peter Lindmark (1092)
D Roland Stoltz (1093)
LW Thomas Vanek (1095)
D Tapio Levo (1096)
C Mikko Koivu (1097)
RW Ken Mallen (1106)
LW Ville Peltonen (1107)
D Lasse Bjorn (1109)
C/D John Mayasich (1112)
LW/C Hib Milks (1113)
D Joe Reekie (1118)
G Urpo Ylonen (1127)
D Petteri Nummelin (1128)
D Niklas Kronwall (1130)
F Robert McDougall (1134)
LW Bep Guidolin (1137)
LW/D Alf Pike (1139)
Coach Jan Starsi (1144)
D Anders Eldebrink (1148)
D Sami Salo (1151)
RW David Vyborny (1152)
D Mark Streit (1154)
LW Armand Mondou (1157)
D Moe Mantha (1158)
Coach Steamer Maxwell (1162)
C Mike Sillinger (1163)
LW/RW/D Jack McIntyre (1165)
RW/D Sami Kapanen (1168)
Coach Kalevi Numminen (1169)
D Tommy Albelin (1170)
C Mika Nieminen (1171)
Coach Barry Trotz (1172)
RW Andrei Lomakin (1173)
Coach Glen Sonmor (1174)
LW Real Chevrefils (1185)
F Billy Barlow (1188)
C Jim McFadden (1196)
LW Zach Parise (1198)
C/RW Charlie Sands (1199)
RW Ran McDonald (1200)
RW Rudi Ball (1206)
C Mickey Roach (1208)
F Shirley Davidson (1209)
D Barry Gibbs (1216)
D Ivan Romishevsky (1218)
D Alfred Kuchevsky (1219)
D Genrikh Sidorenkov (1220)
LW/D/RW Charles Tobin (1221)
D Bob Trapp (1224)
F Yevgeny Mishakov (1228)
LW/RW Alexander Bodunov (1231)
C Dan Quinn (1232)
C Earl Ingarfield (1233)
D Oleg Zaitsev (1234)
RW Earl Robinson (1237)
LW Lars-Erik Lundvall (1239)
C Viktor Shuvalov (1240)
D Bret Hedican (1241)
D Jimmy Orlando (1242)
G Bohumil Modry (1243)
D James Stewart (1245)
C Yevgeny Groshev (1247)
RW Tom Fitzgerald (1252)
C Mike Fisher (1253)
C Jaroslav Drobny (1257)
LW Travis Moen (1259)
D Bill Brydge (1261)
D Percy Traub (1262)
D Billy Stuart (1263)
D Stewart Evans (1264)
D Jimmy Fowler (1265)
D Sergei Starikov (1276)
LW Sylvain Turgeon (1277)
G Leif Holmqvist (1279)
Coach John Tortorella (1281)
C Viktor Yakushev (1282)
RW/D Stanislav Petukhov (1283)
D Duke Dukowski (1284)
Coach Floyd Smith (1286)
RW Phil Roberto (1290)
LW John Marks (1291)
C Dwight Foster (1292)
C Ray Cullen (1293)
D Dmitri Ukolov (1296)
3/673 picks in the ATD were "discoveries" - 0.4%.
12/287 in the MLD - 4.2%
64/216 in the AAA - 29.6%
50/120 in the AA - 41.7%
57/89 mentioned in the top-1000 thread - 64.0%
In the actual drafts, there were a total of 129 "discoveries" - anyone care to scan the list and tell us how many you're responsible for? My number is
15. Gerard, Smith, Guryshev, Reekie, McIntyre, Chevrefils, Sands, McDonald, Tobin, Trapp, Groshev, Brydge, Yakushev, Petukhov, Dukowski. A mini-roster! (without a goalie) - and great
shev down the middle.
Gerard
Smith - Guryshev - McDonald
Chevrefils- Groshev - Petukhov
Tobin - Yakushev - Sands
Reekie - Trapp
Brydge - Dukowski
McIntyre
I'll reserve comment on my own, but many of the other discoveries in the MLD were outstanding! They are all superb picks with the exceptions of Henderson, Fischer, and Lynn, who are all decent picks. In the AAA, things went off the board a bit from time to time but every selection was well-backed up. We couldn't have asked for anything more. I am honoured to be a part of this "hockey study group" - you guys taught me so much this time, and I hope you learned from me too.
I think that if we were fortunate enough to have a 16-team MLD and maybe a 12-team AAA draft following ATD11, you would see much fewer discoveries. We went really, really deep this time (see my mini-bios of free agents, I feel they are all better than some of the marginal picks of the MLD, AAA, and AA drafts) and it will be tough to find a player we can really back up, who hasn't yet been selected.
Are we moving in the right direction? Absolutely. Compare the "discoveries" with the list of players from ATD/MLD10 who didn't make it this time, and it's clear that as a group we are getting better and better at identifying the best players and coaches from history and building ultimate fantasy rosters from the best of all-time, then picking through the leftovers for the next best, again and again.
Give yourselves a hand. Especially the hardcores who made it all the way through to the end of the AA draft. For which I still hope there are playoffs.