OPPF2021 Assassinations Thread

[BenchBrawl]

Fire away !

Click to read more...

 

[VanIslander]

Later.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

Hammond(Indiana)Organ® Grinders

Coach-Fred Shero

#11 Sweeney Schriner-#7 Howie Morenz-#17 Jari Kurri
#9 Vladimir Krutov-#19 Joe Sakic (A)-#10 Pavel Bure
#26 Jere Lehtinen-#91 Segei Fedorov-#24 Cecil Dillon
#20 Jiří Holík-#28 Claude Giroux-#86 Nikita Kucherov

#21 Börje Salming-#77 Raymond Bourque (A)
#5 Denis Potvin (C)-#6 Shea Weber
#2 Duncan Keith-#27 Teppo Numminen​

#1 Clint Benedict
#30 Hugh Lehman
​

PP1: Giroux-Morenz-Krutov
Weber-Bourque
PP2: Kurri-Sakic-Schriner
Potvin-Fedorov
(spare PPers- Bure, Kucherov)

PK1: Lehtinen-Fedorov
Potvin-Bourque
PK2: Sakic-Dillon
Keith-Numminen
(spare PKers- Salming, Weber, Morenz, Kurri)

Estimated Core Regular Season Time-on-Ice Chart, subject to adjustments from Coach Shero. It should be noted that Shero was NOT averse to spot-starting Wingers on lines not regularly their own- most famously when he would rotate certain obvious pugilists onto the Clarke line, to provide extra protection in case of a targeting attempt. The presence of Lehtinen, Giroux, and even Fedorov should give Coach Shero possibilities that won't easily be reflected in a standard time-on-ice chart.

Forward	ES	PP	PK	Tot
Schriner	13	3		16
Morenz	14	4	1	19
Kurri	12	3	1	16
Krutov	14	2		16
Sakic	13	3	2	18
Bure	12	1		13
Lehtinen	9		3	12
Fedorov	11	3	3	17
Dillon	11		2	13
J. Holik	10			10
Giroux	8	4		12
Kucherov	11	1		12

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Perhaps the most "equal-temperament" set of Forwards I've ever collected as a GM. No-one will be asked to bear a heavy load, and all figure to have energy and jump when in-the-game.

Defencemen	ES	PP	PK	Tot
Salming	16		1	17
Bourque	16	4	4	24
D. Potvin	15	4	4	23
S. Weber	16	3	1	20
Keith	15		2	17
Numminen	12		2	14

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

A more conventional arrangement here. Bourque and Potvin will bear loads that are bog-standard for Ds of their level- and also figure to sustain energy throughout the Regular Season. Spare a thought for RW stars attempting to generate an attack along the starboard side against this team! They'll be dealing with either Potvin, Salming, or Keith!

Projected Regular Season Goaltender Start Percentage
Benedict: 65%
Lehman: 35%

Lehman is an upper-level back-up in a League of this size... and we're counting on him to fill his role as Regular Season metronome- doing his part to help keep Benedict fresh and sharp.

O.G.s- Behind-the-numbers: As mentioned above, Lehtinen, Giroux, and Fedorov did not merely provide build-flexibility options... they also provide Coach Shero with deployment-flexibility options. The forward contingent contains ample defensively responsible players. The blue-liners, while being formidable defenders, will also make massive contributions to team offense, particularly Potvin & Bourque. In addition to the Ds ability to create breakouts and make elite-level exit-passes, the O.G.s also have forwards, most notably Morenz and Fedorov, who can create effective transitions by themselves.

 

[tabness]

miami VICE

roster

coaching

Glen Sather

forwards

Paul Kariya • Eric Lindros (A) • Jaromir Jagr [pond of nightmares]
Bobby Hull • Mike Modano • Brett Hull [golden cigarettes]
Bengt Ake Gustafsson • Peter Stastny • Marian Stastny [jan hammer connection]
Craig Ramsay • Patrice Bergeron • Jack Walker [superstar's blues]

Bobby Hull will get some looks on the top line with Lindros and Jagr

defense

Larry Robinson (A) • Paul Coffey (C)
Scott Niedermayer • Alexei Kasatonov
Allan Stanley • Brian Leetch

Coffey and Robinson will switch sides depending on the matchups

goalies

Terry Sawchuk
Billy Smith [will play to injure some star on the other team]

powerplay

first unit: Paul Kariya • Peter Stastny • Brett Hull with Bobby Hull • Brian Leetch
second unit: Mike Modano • Eric Lindros • Jaromir Jagr with Scott Niedermayer • Paul Coffey

shorthanded

first unit: Patrice Bergeron • Craig Ramsay with Allan Stanley • Larry Robinson
second unit: Mike Modano • Bengt Ake Gustafsson with Scott Niedermayer • Alexei Kasatonov

Leetch and Coffey and Bobby Hull get some time on the kill especially when a shorty is needed

 

[ResilientBeast]

Coach: Joel Quenneville

Sid Abel --- Syl Apps --- Bernie Geoffrion
Nels Stewart --- Bobby Clarke (C) --- Boris Mikhailov (A)
Brad Marchand --- Frank Nighbor --- Jarome Iginla
Esa Tikkanen --- Ryan Getzlaf --- Claude Lemieux

Sprague Cleghorn --- Chris Chelios (A)
Bill Gadsby --- Drew Doughty
Ulf Samuelsson --- Alex Pietrangelo

Dominik Hasek
Roy Worters

PP1: Cleghorn - Geoffrion- Stewart - Apps - Mikhailov
PP2: Gadsby - Doughty - Nighbor - Clarke - Iginla
PK1 - Gadsby - Chelios - Nighbor - Tikkanen
Pk2 - Samuelsson - Pietrangelo - Clarke - Marchand​

 

[The Macho King]

Coach: Toe Blake

Toe Blake (A) - Wayne Gretzky (C) - Sergei Makarov
Frank Mahovlich - Bryan Trottier (A) - Andy Bathgate
Patrick Elias - Milt Schmidt - Corey Perry
Gary Roberts - Anze Kopitar - Punch Broadbent

Chris Pronger - Mark Howe
Jan Suchy - Bill Quackenbush
Moose Johnson - Sergei Gonchar

Glenn Hall
Pekka Rinne


PP1: Gretzky
Makarov - Trottier - Bathgate
Pronger

PP2: Schmidt
Mahovlich - Blake - Bathgate
Howe

PK1: Trottier - Elias
Pronger - Quackenbush

PK2: Kopitar - Broadbent
Howe - Johnson​

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Coach: Lester Patrick

Ted Lindsay (A) - Mark Messier (C) - Charlie Conacher
Anatoli Firsov - Newsy Lalonde - Vladimir Martinec
Frank Foyston - Hooley Smith - Marian Hossa
Rick Nash - Joe Thornton - Dave Taylor

Pierre Pilote - Dit Clapper (A)
Ivan Johnson - Al MacInnis
Jim Schoenfeld - Larry Murphy

Martin Brodeur
Andrei Vasilevskiy


PP1
Lindsay - Lalonde - Thornton
Conacher - MacInnis

PP2
Firsov - Messier - Martinec
Murphy/Clapper - Pilote

PK1
Smith - Hossa
Schoenfeld - Clapper

PK2
Messier - Firsov
I. Johnson - MacInnis/Murphy

Extra PK F: Foyston

​

Estimated Regular Season Minutes

Forwards
Player	ES	PP	PK	Total
T. Lindsay	14	4		18
M. Messier	14	3	3	20
C. Conacher	14	4		18
A. Firsov	12	3	3	18
N. Lalonde	14	4		18
V. Martinec	14	3		17
F. Foyston	15			15
H. Smith	10		4	14
M. Hossa	11		4	15
R. Nash	5			5
J. Thornton	8	4		12
D. Taylor	7			7
TOTAL	138	25	14	177

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

*Foyston will take some shifts for Nash on the 4th line and Firsov on the 2nd line
**In certain offensive situations Thornton will take a shift or two for Smith on the 3rd line

Defense
Player	ES	PP	PK	Total
P. Pilote	20	3		23
D. Clapper	17	1	4	22
I. Johnson	18		3	21
A. MacInnis	16.5	5	1.5	23
J. Schoenfeld	11		4	15
L. Murphy	9.5	1	1.5	12
TOTAL	92	10	14	116

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Coach: Joel Quenneville

Sid Abel --- Syl Apps --- Bernie Geoffrion
Nels Stewart --- Bobby Clarke (C) --- Boris Mikhailov (A)
Brad Marchand --- Frank Nighbor --- Jarome Iginla
Esa Tikkanen --- Ryan Getzlaf --- Claude Lemieux

Sprague Cleghorn --- Chris Chelios (A)
Bill Gadsby --- Drew Doughty
Ulf Samuelsson --- Alex Pietrangelo

Dominik Hasek
Roy Worters

PP1: Cleghorn - Geoffrion- Stewart - Apps - Mikhailov
PP2: Gadsby - Doughty - Nighbor - Clarke - Iginla
PK1 - Gadsby - Chelios - Nighbor - Tikkanen
Pk2 - Samuelsson - Pietrangelo - Clarke - Marchand​

RB, you generally build a team that is somewhat "outside the box" and you've done it again here.

The 1st line is likely the weakest in the draft, but that's bound to happen when your 3rd best center is on the 1st line. That being said, Apps - Clarke- Nighbor is a hell of a trio up the middle. Also, the chemistry of the 1st line works well.

You have the best 3rd line in the draft, and it mimics the real life Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak line, but with Iginla providing the extra toughness/bodyguard that you want with Nighbor. One of my favorite lines of the draft.

Clarke - Mikhailov are a solid combo on the 2nd line, I need a refresher on the case for Nels Stewart at LW, so I'll refrain from commenting on that aspect.

Defense is solid, I'd say neither a strength or a weakness. 1st pair has a lot of nastiness. Samuelsson is a bit weak on the bottom pairing.

Elite goaltending with Hasek

Quenneville is a solid coach, if he can get a Cup with Florida I think I'd put him in the very top tier of coaches with Bowman, Blake, Patrick , but for now I have him in the 2nd tier (I go back and forth on where to put Arbour). However, you have a very defensive minded team and I wouldn't call Q a defense first coach. He's not all offense either, more balanced I suppose. I certainly don't think the fit is bad, but it's not perfect either. So basically, coaching is also neither a strength or weakness IMO.

The PP units are a weak point of this team. Despite having Geoffrion on the point, the 1st PP unit is below average. I think you should put Abel on the 2nd unit and remove Nighbor.

The PK is strong, although I'd switch Marchand and Tikkanen, mainly just because he plays with Nighbor at ES.

Overall, I like this team and think it's one of the better entries this year. You have a very strong team defensively with a counter-attack threat, but it's also lacking the big offensive firepower that some of the other teams have, which really shows on the PP units.

I'd be very interested to see a minutes chart considering how the Centers are set up.

 

[ResilientBeast]

RB, you generally build a team that is somewhat "outside the box" and you've done it again here.

I nearly went with Lalonde from the Habs instead of Boom Boom

I don't think I intentionally build outside of the box teams, I try and be meta and then get sucked into value see (Taylor-Lalonde from the ATD)

I wanted to end up with

Taylor
Lalonde
Nighbor

Down the middle just for fun.

To all your comments, yes my top end fire power is a little weak when compared to other teams but I think all 3 of my lines will be competent enough to keep us in the game while Hasek holds down the fort.

The case for Stewart on LW comes down to 2 of his best 4 seasons were played predominately at LW before the S-Line settled on him at C. Early on Hooley was the center for the line.

Now playing with Clarke and Mikhalov, his job will be just to get into dangerous areas and put the puck in the net. Clarke can carry the puck and make plays, Mikhailov can do the dirty work. When Clarke starts a fight, Stewart is plenty tough to help end it.

My first and second lines are competent enough defensively to not get caved in at ES which will let Quennville role the lines a bit.

Talking about my lines offence, I didn't quite realize how unspectacular it looks but with VsX 7 year in the table you can really see it. Missing out on the high end Habs really hurt me there. But I think it's as deep as any group in the draft. All my lines are pretty close to equal if you fudge Mikhailov and Nighbor in the 80ish range. The team is also full of strong playoff performers with a couple of playoff stars in Geoffrion & Nighbor who were in the top 25 of the playoff performer project

LW	C	RW	Sum
87.3	92.4	89.9	269.6
90.3	90.4	???	180.7
83.8	???	86.7	170.5

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[ResilientBeast]

Coach: Lester Patrick

Ted Lindsay (A) - Mark Messier (C) - Charlie Conacher
Anatoli Firsov - Newsy Lalonde - Vladimir Martinec
Frank Foyston - Hooley Smith - Marian Hossa
Rick Nash - Joe Thornton - Dave Taylor

Pierre Pilote - Dit Clapper (A)
Ivan Johnson - Al MacInnis
Jim Schoenfeld - Larry Murphy

Martin Brodeur
Andrei Vasilevskiy


PP1
Lindsay - Lalonde - Thornton
Conacher - MacInnis

PP2
Firsov - Messier - Martinec
Murphy/Clapper - Pilote

PK1
Smith - Hossa
Schoenfeld - Clapper

PK2
Messier - Firsov
I. Johnson - MacInnis/Murphy

Extra PK F: Foyston

​

​

Talking about people who build a certain type of team, I would've assumed this is you HT if we blind drafted.

The top line is fantastic and awful to play against. My only question is are Messier and Lindsay good enough playmakers to give Conacher the best oppourtunity to score? Lindsay has a lot of good finishes, but did play with Howe which definitely would juice the numbers a bit. Overall a good line however

You follow it up with a different kind of line that will be equally hard to play against. Martinec and Firsov are balanced scorers who will look good with Lalonde. The line is a two way line by committee but will work effectively, all the players are tough with Lalonde being the most violent of the group. A solid looking line overall

A very aggressive checking line, all 3 are strong two way players and Hooley to bring the violence. Will be effective against a lot of different scoring lines due to the balance attributes this group has.

Since all your lines can go power-on-power (like mine) you opted for a 4th line to bring more scoring. Given it's a 4th line it definitely looks like it'll be able to chip in timely offense.

The D group is a 1D by committee situation (all evaluations are considering it's a 10 team league)

Pilote - Strong 2D
Clapper - Low End 2D
MacInnis - Low end 2D
Johnson - Low End 3D

It's a deep group and the fits are all good, just not as talented as many other groups in the draft. Makes sense that this is a weakness as your forward group is excellent.

An excellent tandem in net, Vasilevskiy would be lucky to see the ice during the RS since he's back up Brodeur.

Overall a really strong looking squad, I see some similarities in the construction between our teams. You have more fire power, to compensate my D is stronger.

 

[VanIslander]

Laval Rocket
Build the best blueline, draft the best coach, but ensure he gets the two centers he has identified as the best defensively. Done.

coach Scotty Bowman
"I found out that if you are going to win games,
you had better be ready to adapt."

Luc Robitaille - Steve Yzerman (C) - Teemu Selanne
Brian Propp - Joe Malone - Patrick Kane
Jamie Benn - Ted Kennedy (A) - Joe Mullen
John Madden - Ron Francis - Jean Pronovost

Slava Fetisov (A) - Doug Harvey
Zdeno Chara - King Clancy
Lionel Conacher - Art Coulter

Jiri Holecek
(Tretiak equivalent)
Roberto Luongo​

PP1: Robitaille - Yzerman - Selanne - Chara - Harvey
PP2: Malone - Francis - Kane - Fetisov - Clancy
PK1: Kennedy - Francis - Conacher - Harvey
PK2: Yzerman - Madden - Fetisov - Chara
MVP: Harvey

Note: Sometimes a plan is better than a bargain-bin purchase. I have never ever in any draft picked Rick Nash, Teppo Numminen, or Jim Schoenfeld nor likely ever will.

Note2: Target stars, build a TEAM, draft role players, avoid the all-star game line-up mentality. What do I mean? I mean you should swear ****! that you missed out on Esa Tikkanen, Craig Ramsay and Claude Lemieux, though none of them will sniff the HHOF. *sigh* Don't cry at missing out on a Thornton, Getzlaf or Giroux.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

miami VICE

Another creative entry- and props for getting this up onto the Assassination Board right away. Respect.
Evaluation follows:
Coach Glen Sather- was there ever going to be any other?! Fine for what you're looking to accomplish. Will do little harm, much good.
Leadership- Present, but (I'd argue) just simply not properly allocated. Bergeron's been a quality Captain, post-Chara. Suppose Robinson is fine as an 'A.' I love Lindros, think he's under-rated/under-valued, but I think you got about five guys on your roster I'd be more comfortable giving an 'A' to than him. [Peter Stastny has been a Captain, too- just not a particularly effective one.] In a ten-team league, Leadership is ordinary, at best.

First Line: Kariya-Lindros-Jagr will be formidable, when healthy. Contrary to Legion-of-Doom lore, Lindros doesn't need everyone on his line to be heavy-cycle capable. Besides, if you want to play that game, you could use Bobby Hull shift-poaching to work that strategy in. All three elements of the line can pass [Lindros IS an underrated passer], and (obviously) all three can shoot. Just be sure to send your "Letter-of-Concern" to the ATD-OPPF Committee on Player Safety, hope that Kariya & Lindros don't go out of the lineup at the same time, and for G_d's sake take down your statement of intended use for Billy Smith, before someone takes a screen shot of it, and brings THAT text to the Committee(!)

Second Line: Bo. Hull-Modano-Br. Hull... Bobby Hull is such luxury-casting on the 2nd Line, and squads have to construct game-plans around mitigating his impact. That's somewhat offset by the fact that Modano is bargain-casting as a 10-player draft OPPF #2C. Brett Hull can fill up nets, as well... but he's such an even-strength defensive black-hole that puck-possession should be prioritized. I don't think Sather's going to be the one to bring out the vestigial defensive conscience buried within- it'll be up to his teammates.

Third Line: B.A. Gustafsson-P. Stastny-M. Stastny-- it was inspired to unite the Stastnys- and I like the move a lot. I've noted that we're selling Gustafsson as a swiss-army-knife type. [One of those WILL be handy with the miss-time capabilities of Lindros & Kariya.] Still, it'll be up to you to explain how this player, drafted only once in the 12-team era, belongs here in a 10 team paradigm. I'll also be interested in hearing how this line will handle it if they get put on the defensive.

Fourth Line: C. Ramsay-Bergeron-J. Walker: just an old-school, skate-in-quicksand, drag-to-play-against Checking Line. I like it- could see this line being "rolled" for more minutes that we'd typically expect from a 4th line, and have the potential to be inspirational to the rest of the roster (who will benefit from the extra oxygen they'll absorb while this crew does its thing).

Defense- oh yeah, right... the Defense-

Did I ever mention that I am really NOT a fan of two letters on the same line, or the same defensive pairing? That's okay, there's a way out of this- even if you insist of having your top two Ds keeping their letters.

Coffey-Robinson: two great bilateral Defencemen being bilateral together. (That didn't come out right, did it?!) Still, I think this is a dream you may have to let go. You see, ALL of your Ds are L-handed shots. {What is it about these Southeastern Teams and all LHS Defencemen?!?} and I think there's something to be said to assigning both of them to R-side duty on different pairings. [It's reported that Robinson preferred being on the L-side... but in this case, he should consider taking one for the team.] If you do that, you'll wriggle out of a laterality-botch.

Stanley-Leetch: Right now, you have Stanley as a casting-stretch, and Leetch laterality-botched. Best thing that can be said for this is that Stanley has an excellent chance of being well-in-zone should Leetch get caught up-ice.

Niedermayer-Kasatonov: pretty sporty for a 3rd-pairing. Still, both known more for their offense, and also (of course) both LHSs.

Maybe try instead-
Leetch-Robinson (with reduced Special Teams responsibilities, Leetch should be up to first-pairing minutes).
Niedermayer-Coffey (again with the offense, but you're going to wind up with an offensively oriented pairing, no matter what. Maybe you can shelter their minutes).
Stanley-Kasatonov [if Stanley stays on the 2nd pairing, it'll be worthy of the "e" word (eyesore).]

(Honestly, I see a way you could pitch Stanley with add-drop & keep the Coffey-Robinson dream alive...)

Sawchuk- upper level Goaltender in this league. Had him lined up at 75, you scooped him with pick 73. ["Now you get anachronistic on me!" I thought.] Billy Smith is fine in backup role.

Power Play- A 1/1a construct. Might like the second Unit more than the first.
Penalty Kill- Love it up top, feeling kind of "meh" about it down low. [Testament to the strength of a 10-team league, and also to less prioritization on the D side of the roster.]

Summary- congratulations for having all your players on-hand for an early start to Hockey's equivalent to OTAs. I always confer extra-credit for putting one's team on-the-line in the Assassination Thread- the more detailed, the better. I at the very least like (and in many cases love) just about all the Forwards. The rear-guardsmen are not of the same level- but if you're as committed to attending to the mental health of Sawchuk as I'm committed to maintaining the sobriety of Benedict & Krutov*, then no one can impugn your last line of defense.

*[O.G.s Special Announcement- any "Binny's" gift cards (or other ETOH-oriented presents) mailed to Messrs. Benedict or Krutov will be intercepted unopened by O.G. staff. The outer envelope will be signed by the GM and Coach Shero, and the material(s) shall be auctioned, with the proceeds going to charities dedicated to helping the victims of sexual predation. Mr. Keith will be responsible for deliveries of the proceeds.]

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

And now for our other Southeastern entry...

​

We don't have Lemieux-Beliveau this year... but we have Gretzky-Trottier, which looks like the strongest central one-two spine in the League this year.

Leadership- Toe Blake is a podium-level coach, full stop. Gretzky will be the Captain on about any team for whom he's playing. I've already riffed on my reluctance to have two letters on the same line, right? I'd pass Toe Blake's 'A' to Pronger. Leadership very good- perhaps top-drawer counting the Blake-as-coach effect.

Offense--
Toe Blake-Gretzky-Makarov: count me among the people who were a little surprised you didn't plump for the other Montreal LW. Guess you wanted a defensive conscience more than you wanted a corner-battler. At any rate, VsX/7 fans should love the funhouse numbers generated between Gretzky & Makarov. Weird thing about Toe Blake (the player) I observed in the waning moments of the HoH top-100 project- he didn't feast on weakened war-years, statistically, to NEARLY the degree I would have expected. It was to the point that if he actually served like Abel, Schmidt, R. Conacher... I would have extrapolated numbers higher than the real ones, and have rated him higher. I don't know, maybe during that time he was all-in on chance-suppression and risk-mitigation(?)

Mahovlich-Trottier-Bathgate: I really like this line. Last year, I'd mated Mahovlich to Messier & Iginla on my acclaimed "Thunder Line." @zffssk gave it the thumbs-up by saying that it's a tricky thing to get a suitable Center for Mahovlich- asserting that Messier worked as a kind of hybrid between Red Kelly (as a Center) & Beliveau. Well, what's Trottier? He's like Messier- scarcely less physical, at least as offensively talented... just without the longevity. Bathgate's underrated- not quite the 'Rodney Dangerfield' that Iginla is (amongst the list-makers), but he won't miss a damn shift. [Edit- candidate for best 2nd line this year, I think.]

Elias-Schmidt-Perry: Steady-as-she-goes, with Perry providing the added irritation factor. [I like irritation as a seasoning, NOT as a main course. More on that in another review.]

Ga. Roberts-Kopitar-Broadbent: The Defensively-Oriented guardian-line. All right for what it does.

It's OPPF Southeast, so it's (once again) time for... oh, by-the-way-- Defense. To lock up so much Scoring Line offense, we have to pay a price somewhere. Here's where the fee gets assessed.

Pronger-Howe: Pronger was good value where picked, Mark Howe felt like a bit of an overpay (this coming from someone who might well have really overpaid on Weber, granted), but let's look at the numbers- Pronger is ranked #18 on the "Top-100" list, which is consistent with a worthy first-pairing defenseman (but on the low-end). Mark Howe comes in at position #33, which is like a mid-range 2nd pairing talent.

Suchy-Quackenbush: We'll set aside HoH rankings (for a second) & instead focus on my fan-boy perspective of Suchy. I have Suchy as a Top-20 defenceman, all-time. This opinion is shared by, well... no-one (outside the Czech Republic). Based on our respective History Lists, Quackenbush checks in at #44. Pace Van, this DOESN'T mean he doesn't belong on a 2nd pairing. The biggest problem here is that you've consigned Suchy to an LD-slot, a role he didn't typically fill in real life. We're also talking about two Ds best known for their O.

I wouldn't play Suchy as an LD. Just wouldn't do it. If Suchy was moved to RD, and mated with a mid-20s LD (like Gerard, for instance), then it would totally work for me. I don't know if it would work for the preponderance of the observers who have Suchy just barely sketching into the Top-50 Ds, All-Time.

I don't know if you can add-drop your way out of this.

Moose Johnson-Gonchar: Moose Johnson is a quality third-pairing guy. He's joined by Gonchar, whom I thought would help earn his roster-spot by providing Power Play help.

No, huh?

Finally, just like Miami, Richmond has an entire sextet of LHS Defencemen.

Special Teams- I'll withhold judgement on the Power Play- as I expect that Bathgate listed on both PP1 & PP2 was a misprint. And no Gonchar on PP is unusual enough [absent PP contributions, Gonchar's sort of a crevasse (at this level)], but no Suchy?!?

Penalty-Kill- your options are a little constrained by the Ds available... bit I'd consider reducing some of Trottier's Special Teams use, one way or another. I think PP1 & PK1 is a little too robust an ask in a 10-team league.

Goaltending- Glenn Hall is upper-half. This season, he might even be podium (in the Regular Season). Pekka Rinne is as much as you could ask for out of a back-up.

Summary- A Team that has a chance of putting up some real Pinball Wizard points. They look like they'll play it pretty clean-and-straight (which means they might be more likely to be on the PP than the Kill). Still, Coach Blake has a few decisions to make- and some of them won't be easy.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

Laval Rocket

Wherein we examine-
The relationship between accumulating the Best Defensive Talent in the draft and the impact it inevitably has on the Forward lines.
The introduction of the "Bill Cook Standard," among other interesting new concepts.

Let's start at the VERY back end, and get this out of the way first-
Goaltending: Holecek-Luongo. I rate Holecek more highly than most. I have him ahead of Broda, ahead of Durnan, ahead of Tony O. As highly as I rate him, though... some squad was going to have the 10th-rated starting Goaltender-- and this season, it's Laval. How much should that count for? I'd say- not as much as most people think. Remember, this is a Bowman-coached squad with possibly the Best Defensive Talent ever accumulated- in ATD history (or at least ATD-history involving a double-digit number of participants).

Because I think Holecek is "enough better" than Luongo to be the clear #1, I'd say you won't have a Goalie Controversy. Others, including some who'd actually rate Luongo more highly, might disagree.

Defense:
Fetisov-Harvey
Chara-Clancy
L. Conacher-Coulter

Almost all of these stars are on our "History of Hockey" lists- most very highly. Reviewing their placements on these lists helps reinforce how historically significant this accumulation is-
Harvey- #2 D All-Time=Ultra-Elite #1
Fetisov- #8 D All-Time=Upper Half #1
Clancy- #11 D All-Time=Ultra-Elite #2
Chara- #23 D All-Time=Upper-Half #3
L. Conacher- #50 D All-Time=Low-end #5/Ultra-Elite #6 [Edit- updated because Hod Stuart is dingusly listed as a Center on their chart.]
Coulter- (not on lists, but pegged by most as lower-third Hall-of-Famer). Always used in 2nd-pairings in previous OPPFs.
[Strange- I kind of view Coulter as a Mainstream HoFer, but his not getting a whiff in HoH Top-200 is evidence that most disagree. No matter, this won't rise-or-fall based our what we think about Coulter.]

Best first pairing in-the-league. Candidate for best second pairing in-the-league. [Potvin>Clancy, but Chara>Shea Weber.] Candidate for best third pairing in-the-league. [Keith>L. Conacher, but Coulter>Numminen. Niedermayer-Kasatonov looks really good, too, but they may have to be split up to repair Miami's laterality-botch.] [Edit- and in fact they HAVE been split up- but the laterality-botch remains.]

Now, remember when I reviewed the Southeastern Teams, I said "oh, by the way, the Defense?" Well, now it's "oh, by the way, the Forwards!"

You can get some hard-core glare in your eyes when reviewing OPPF first-lines. It seems like everybody's got a Superstar (or two or three), and every last trio looks brilliant, so long as you haven't done something silly like put two people who led the league in shots for multiple consecutive years together on the same line. What I needed was a calibration instrument- a measuring stick to place in juxtaposition to the Supernovas- so I hereby unpack "The Bill Cook Standard."

Our average OPPF first-liner is of the quality of Bill Cook. Let THAT sink in- in the rarified air of OPPF first lines, Bill Cook is ordinary. NOBODY has a line that has THREE players north of Bill Cook. If you have a line that has TWO players comfortably north of Bill Cook (e.g.: Regina or San Jose), you have a candidate for best First Line in-the-league. One comfortably north, one in-the-ballpark and one not too far behind (e.g.: Chicago) is very good. If you only have one such player (like- regrettably... me), your First Line is lower-tier. If all THREE of your players are south of Bill Cook, your First Line is a candidate for The Basement.

Somebody has to have the least-impactful First Line in the entire league. This season, that designation belongs to
Robitaille-Yzerman-Selanne. At this level, every component is well below league average, Robitaille is epicly so.

Now, who sets the measuring-stick for Second Line quality? Seems like it's Brett Hull- but even that doesn't feel particularly right- since he divides opinions. Maybe something between Br. Hull & Mikhailov(?) Splitting the difference between these two comes close to giving us an idea of the average Second Liner here.
At his point in our hockey perspectives, I'd say Patrick Kane has comfortably put Brett Hull in-the-shade. Brett Hull, and Mikhailov, and possibly even Bathgate (though his 70+% O-zone starts make me say "not-so-fast" on the Bathgate front). Patrick Kane is the crowning achievement in your top-6. Unfortunately, all of his merit and then some is cratered by the appearance of Brian Propp on that same line.
Propp-Malone-Kane: No knock on Brian Propp, whom I personally like, and whose heart is (imo) in the right place- but in a world populated by Delvecchios and Mikhailovs, he just doesn't belong. He is clearly the least consequential Scoring Line player in the entire draft- and by himself drags the whole project down to make the Laval Second Line join its First Line in position 10 in this draft.

Luckily, fortunes brighten a bit with Line 3.
Benn-Kennedy-Mullen is enough to grant middle-of-pack status to Laval's Third Line, provided we factor in a pop for Kennedy's post-season chops.
Line 4, of course, has the super-ultra-luxury casting of Ron Francis, who has a case for MOST consequential 4th-liner in the entire draft. Of course I think Madden's fine for a Baker's-Half-Dozen even-strength minutes @LW at this level. My earlier point is that when I did something like this in ATD, I took it up the back-end. If you wind up NOT taking it up the back-end, I'll feel that justice will have been served- but the justice will be of a selective nature. Jean Pronovost feels lackluster in his slot (sometimes he's drafted, sometimes he's not), but any lack-of-sheen he has is more than made up for by the presence of Francis. This is an all right 4th line, regardless of what anyone thinks of the Wingers.

Coaching: Bowman=Ichiban.
Leadership: Top-drawer, among the best.
Special Teams- all right, considering the personnel-limitations up-front.

The Good: Top Defense in League, Best Coach in League.
The Not-so-Good: Last-place Top-6 in the League. Lowest-esteemed starting Goaltender in League.
The Ugly: Two drafting miscues, one of which cost, big-time, and another that nearly did.

It'll be interesting to see how this super-IE homage plays out this year.

 

[tabness]

Another creative entry- and props for getting this up onto the Assassination Board right away. Respect.
Evaluation follows:
Coach Glen Sather- was there ever going to be any other?! Fine for what you're looking to accomplish. Will do little harm, much good.
Leadership- Present, but (I'd argue) just simply not properly allocated. Bergeron's been a quality Captain, post-Chara. Suppose Robinson is fine as an 'A.' I love Lindros, think he's under-rated/under-valued, but I think you got about five guys on your roster I'd be more comfortable giving an 'A' to than him. [Peter Stastny has been a Captain, too- just not a particularly effective one.] In a ten-team league, Leadership is ordinary, at best.

First Line: Kariya-Lindros-Jagr will be formidable, when healthy. Contrary to Legion-of-Doom lore, Lindros doesn't need everyone on his line to be heavy-cycle capable. Besides, if you want to play that game, you could use Bobby Hull shift-poaching to work that strategy in. All three elements of the line can pass [Lindros IS an underrated passer], and (obviously) all three can shoot. Just be sure to send your "Letter-of-Concern" to the ATD-OPPF Committee on Player Safety, hope that Kariya & Lindros don't go out of the lineup at the same time, and for G_d's sake take down your statement of intended use for Billy Smith, before someone takes a screen shot of it, and brings THAT text to the Committee(!)

Second Line: Bo. Hull-Modano-Br. Hull... Bobby Hull is such luxury-casting on the 2nd Line, and squads have to construct game-plans around mitigating his impact. That's somewhat offset by the fact that Modano is bargain-casting as a 10-player draft OPPF #2C. Brett Hull can fill up nets, as well... but he's such an even-strength defensive black-hole that puck-possession should be prioritized. I don't think Sather's going to be the one to bring out the vestigial defensive conscience buried within- it'll be up to his teammates.

Third Line: B.A. Gustafsson-P. Stastny-M. Stastny-- it was inspired to unite the Stastnys- and I like the move a lot. I've noted that we're selling Gustafsson as a swiss-army-knife type. [One of those WILL be handy with the miss-time capabilities of Lindros & Kariya.] Still, it'll be up to you to explain how this player, drafted only once in the 12-team era, belongs here in a 10 team paradigm. I'll also be interested in hearing how this line will handle it if they get put on the defensive.

Fourth Line: C. Ramsay-Bergeron-J. Walker: just an old-school, skate-in-quicksand, drag-to-play-against Checking Line. I like it- could see this line being "rolled" for more minutes that we'd typically expect from a 4th line, and have the potential to be inspirational to the rest of the roster (who will benefit from the extra oxygen they'll absorb while this crew does its thing).

Defense- oh yeah, right... the Defense-

Did I ever mention that I am really NOT a fan of two letters on the same line, or the same defensive pairing? That's okay, there's a way out of this- even if you insist of having your top two Ds keeping their letters.

Coffey-Robinson: two great bilateral Defencemen being bilateral together. (That didn't come out right, did it?!) Still, I think this is a dream you may have to let go. You see, ALL of your Ds are L-handed shots. {What is it about these Southeastern Teams and all LHS Defencemen?!?} and I think there's something to be said to assigning both of them to R-side duty on different pairings. [It's reported that Robinson preferred being on the L-side... but in this case, he should consider taking one for the team.] If you do that, you'll wriggle out of a laterality-botch.

Stanley-Leetch: Right now, you have Stanley as a casting-stretch, and Leetch laterality-botched. Best thing that can be said for this is that Stanley has an excellent chance of being well-in-zone should Leetch get caught up-ice.

Niedermayer-Kasatonov: pretty sporty for a 3rd-pairing. Still, both known more for their offense, and also (of course) both LHSs.

Maybe try instead-
Leetch-Robinson (with reduced Special Teams responsibilities, Leetch should be up to first-pairing minutes).
Niedermayer-Coffey (again with the offense, but you're going to wind up with an offensively oriented pairing, no matter what. Maybe you can shelter their minutes).
Stanley-Kasatonov [if Stanley stays on the 2nd pairing, it'll be worthy of the "e" word (eyesore).]

(Honestly, I see a way you could pitch Stanley with add-drop & keep the Coffey-Robinson dream alive...)

Sawchuk- upper level Goaltender in this league. Had him lined up at 75, you scooped him with pick 73. ["Now you get anachronistic on me!" I thought.] Billy Smith is fine in backup role.

Power Play- A 1/1a construct. Might like the second Unit more than the first.
Penalty Kill- Love it up top, feeling kind of "meh" about it down low. [Testament to the strength of a 10-team league, and also to less prioritization on the D side of the roster.]

Summary- congratulations for having all your players on-hand for an early start to Hockey's equivalent to OTAs. I always confer extra-credit for putting one's team on-the-line in the Assassination Thread- the more detailed, the better. I at the very least like (and in many cases love) just about all the Forwards. The rear-guardsmen are not of the same level- but if you're as committed to attending to the mental health of Sawchuk as I'm committed to maintaining the sobriety of Benedict & Krutov*, then no one can impugn your last line of defense.

*[O.G.s Special Announcement- any "Binny's" gift cards (or other ETOH-oriented presents) mailed to Messrs. Benedict or Krutov will be intercepted unopened by O.G. staff. The outer envelope will be signed by the GM and Coach Shero, and the material(s) shall be auctioned, with the proceeds going to charities dedicated to helping the victims of sexual predation. Mr. Keith will be responsible for deliveries of the proceeds.]

Thanks for the review and in general all your efforts in continuing this draft's conversation @ChiTownPhilly, it is very much appreciated.

Leadership

Well this is so obviously Paul Coffey's team, and I want to get the best out of him. I agree it isn't ideal in having both letters on the same pairing, but Robinson is the mainstay on the kill, while Coffey is the mainstay on the powerplay, so at least that works out. I just feel bad not giving Robinson a letter here (obviously both Niedermayer and Leetch qualify nicely but they don't have seniority), and of course, I feel compelled to always give a letter to Lindros when I pick him. At least on this team as compared to the other times I drafted him, I remain unsure if he is the team's best player or if it is Bobby Hull. Someone else can take his letter if/when he is out lol

Modano/second line

Agree in a sense that Modano isn't the best second line center possible, but it was among the best I could do given Yzerman and then Schmidt were taken. He has the chemistry with Brett and the speed to hand with Bobby. Growing up, I never felt Dallas gave up anything with Modano as compared to Yzerman/Fedorov in Detroit or Sakic/Forsberg in Colorado. @ImporterExporter made visceral what I always knew theoretically, center depth is so good. The unpredictability of this draft made me miss out a bit more than expected, but getting Lindros was a big course correct, and Modano I feel stacks up fairly well.

I'm quite happy with the line's construction, it should play a bit less at even strength (the guys are special teams mainstays), draw weaker matchups, and score in bunches. It is worth nothing, that with the major exception of Lindros, the guys on the second line have better road splits than the guys on the first. Matchups do not seem to be a factor too much, if teams wish to focus on this line.

Gustafsson/third line

Well, I wrote up a lot on Gustafsson in this and previous drafts, I even wrote up a detailed case on how he should be considered in terms of position, and he still showed up in the draft list as a RW lol, so not sure if writing more will help my case or not. To summarize, Gustafsson is just a sublimely talented finesse player, who was one of the better defensive forwards of his time. He languished in defense first Washington and still put up nice numbers while playing a role. Originally he was to go to Edmonton, imagine his career and the numbers and accolades in that context. His versatility in terms of position and role are invaluable as I have a couple of injury prone guys on the first line. I feel he can slot on any of the four lines nicely.

For what it's worth, the both Stastnys and Gustafsson have wonderful home/road splits. Touger matchups didn't seem to bother them when they were (among the) main points of focus in reality. Here they play a third line amount at even strength, providing yet another wave of offense, and feature prominently on special teams.

I don't follow the common blueprint of line casting in these things, and felt no need to shoehorn a "corner guy" or "two way guy" (though in that case both Gustafsson and Modano fit the bill oh so nicely) or so forth. Lines like these worked in real life so well, and players rarely follow the caricatured characterizations they are cast with here. Who exactly was the "corner guy" on the actual Stastny line lol?

Defense

I really tried to get a righty D but they kept getting plucked so quickly, and the core four were always set. At least Kasatonov and Robinson played a ton on the right, and Leetch did a stint as well. With my pick of Stanley, I ended up passing on the last righty options for a player of a higher caliber. I guess nowadays especially, with the new rules and increased focus on stick checks, the lefty/righty thing becomes more important.

Very interesting that Robinson preferred the left, I will make that switch now. I always saw Kasatonov myself as the more defensively focused member of his pairing, obviously he still possessed very good finesse skills. You are likely right on Stanley being best suited for the third pairing as well. I will take your advice somewhat and rejig the pairings to be:

Larry Robinson (A) • Paul Coffey (C)
Scott Niedermayer • Brian Leetch
Allan Stanley • Alexei Kasatonov

I'm actually still quite pleased with the way the backend turned out here. It fits the theme of the team very well, and provides an immense amount of firepower, which is what this team needs.

Goalies

Of course, I remain of the opinion of the minute differences between goalies in this thing. It is nice to have a guy like Sawchuk, who like Hasek, might slightly separate from the pack in his peak years, but more important, he played well in the context of a quite offensively focused team.

Smith, well, there is another pick I'd likely remake if I could. I really wanted Beezer for the Miami connection, but guess he's considered a Ranger for this thing. I couldn't slot as great a goalie as Luongo as a backup either.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

​

The 1st line is likely the weakest in the draft, but that's bound to happen when your 3rd best center is on the 1st line.

No, it's not. Even though Abel-Apps-Geoffrion is three strikes on "The Bill Cook Standard," it doesn't have a ravine like Robitaille on it. It IS bottom-three, though.

You have the best 3rd line in the draft, and it mimics the real life Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak line, but with Iginla providing the extra toughness/bodyguard that you want with Nighbor. One of my favorite lines of the draft.

Now THAT judgement (on the Marchand-Nighbor-Iginla line) is a statistically-supportable conclusion.

Clarke - Mikhailov are a solid combo on the 2nd line, I need a refresher on the case for Nels Stewart at LW, so I'll refrain from commenting on that aspect.

Re: Stewart-Clarke-Mikhailov... if they were just a set of statistics you put into a computer simulation, I'd agree that they're solid. However, Clarke (that most unapologetic of competitors from the Summit Series) and Mikhailov (that most bitter of rivals from the same event) cooperating on a line together feels like one "weird science" chemistry experiment. I don't know if there's an alternative. If we flex Iginla up to the 2nd line, Marchand loses HIS bodyguard. One thing I WOULD do- and that's give an 'A' to Iginla.

Defense is solid, I'd say neither a strength or a weakness. 1st pair has a lot of nastiness. Samuelsson is a bit weak on the bottom pairing.

And with that, now's as good a time to address the elephant-in-the-room, and acknowledge that Edmonton went all-in on pestilence this year. Clarke is right there with Messier & Prime Harvey for being next-level sneaky-dirty. It's a skill-of-sorts, in itself- and (as my own Coach famously said) "18 choir-boys never won the Stanley Cup, and probably never will." However, the lineup is filled with irritation- Clarke, Marchand, Chelios, Cleghorn (who's even capable of breaking an axle in the playoffs*), Tikkanen, C. Lemieux, U. Samuelsson. This WILL be the most penalized team this season. [*If subject to modern psychiatric diagnosis, Cleghorn seems to present as someone with Intermittent Explosive Disorder.]

Open question is- can irritation be a skill one can rely upon, at this level?! I kind of view it like the willfully obnoxious "table-talker" in Poker, who can put less-experienced players on tilt, and cash in on "yum-yum." When at the table with people who have 7-figure net-worth because of their Poker-skill, that craft doesn't translate as well.

Elite goaltending with Hasek

Yeah.

Quenneville is a solid coach

One thing I noticed about Quenneville- and relieved to see it's consistent with my memory- and that's Chicago was among the better 3 to 4 in-the-league for Power Play Opportunities Against in the Championship Years. Favorable PPoA stats ain't gonna happen here.

Best- 3rd Line
At-or-near-best: Goaltending
Chance for being at-or-near-best: 2nd line, if Clarke & Mikhailov embrace glasnost
Reverse-podium: 1st line
Bottom- Penalties Against

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

The top line is fantastic and awful to play against. My only question is are Messier and Lindsay good enough playmakers to give Conacher the best oppourtunity to score? Lindsay has a lot of good finishes, but did play with Howe which definitely would juice the numbers a bit. Overall a good line however.

Thanks for the review. Just one comment from me on the bolded...

I believe Messier was generally the primary playmaker on his lines in real life, I think of him as a balanced scorer. Now, it is true that Conacher's real life center, Joe Primeau, was a pass first guy, but Lindsay is a much better playmaker than Busher Jackson, so there's a give and take there.
Also, let's not forget that right before Howe's peak began, Lindsay led the league in points and assists, and the year prior was 3rd in points and assists (first on the Wings in assists, tied with Abel in points).

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

​

As you know, I always love the detail you bring to your Assassination Thread Roster Presentations. I believe you deserve extra credit for your additional documentation. This is a really nice team on many levels- but not without a flaw or two. Let's look in a bit...
Leadership- in-the-running for Best in League. Lester Patrick is a Podium-level coach, Mark Messier is a podium-level Captain, and Dit Clapper could be a Captain on other squads (but not this one). I've already mentioned how I don't like letters on the same line, but Ted Lindsay is such a Leader in his own right that I think about that old Hans Sachs wisdom that says "the value of a rule may be gauged by the possibility that it allows for an exception!"

First Line- Lindsay-Messier-Conacher is a nasty line. If looking for a weakness, it's that Lindsay will pick up PiMs, and Conacher is an injury-risk. One thing I like about Chicago, though, is that they're well-positioned to survive injury-loss to Conacher. If he goes down, Hooley Smith can spot-start some shifts at RW, Foyston can do his Victorinox-Thing, and even Dit Clapper can pitch in, if needed. This is a clear upper-half first line. Might even be a candidate for top-3, depending upon how healthy they stay, and how much you value toughness and shrug off Penalties.

Second Line- Firsov-Lalonde-Martinec... an inspired move to pick Firsov where you did- and imaginative that you wrong-footed many of us by picking up Lalonde at-the-end. Among the competitors, this is just shy of the top-rung. Like to know more about Martinec's distribution credentials, though. Lalonde likes to take the shots, where he can.

Third Line- Foyston-H. Smith-Hossa: on skill-level, the present as mid-pack 3rd-liners... but I believe they're greater than the sum of their parts. There's defensive conscience at all three positions, and countering skill. I'll peg them as upper-half.

Fourth Line- Nash-Thornton-D. Taylor-- Interesting to see everyone play "hot-potato" with Thornton this year, until you finally went-for-it and cast him in the role of Power-Play utility. That's absolutely what Nash will be doing, too. Finally, Dave Taylor remains underrated, and can easily take extra minutes for the (almost inevitable) Conacher injury.

First Pairing- Pilote-Clapper... I am sorry. I just can't get past it. Pilote at LEFT D?!? I have NO memory of that, just none. So I went searching through ATDs, half-a-dozen Main ATDs, and a quartet of OPPFs. I've found ONE instance of Pilote used on LD- it was in an OPPF, by a GM that didn't make The Playoffs. I'll say Chicago has the burden-of-proof to demonstrate that this isn't a LABOTHO (Laterality-Botch-of-the-Highest-Order). I'll do my "hang-up-and-listen" thing now... but if we can't find some receipts, the Cats just might have to Dropkick Murphy and add-drop their way out of this, even if it leaves some really junior partners there on the left side. [As talents, they're probably lower-half in this league, regardless...]

Second Pairing: C. Johnson-MacInnis-- on abilities, they're upper-half as a 2nd pairing. They're well-suited to one another, so full marks for that. It really is a testament to 10-team depth that players of such quality clock in around the middle of the pack here.

Third Pairing: Schoenfeld-Murphy: Murphy is a suitable 3rd-pairing man. Schoenfeld is spared from being the least-impressive D in the league by the presence of Ulf Samuelsson.

Goaltending- Brodeur-Vasilevskiy: If Glenn Hall isn't the third-best Goaltender in-the-league, Brodeur is. A little surprised that you went for Vasilevskiy, considering the card(s) you had left in your deck- but it's pretty irrelevant with Brodeur going.

Power Play=all right, Penalty Kill=VERY good (excellent with the Forwards).

I like this team- really I do. I just hope it doesn't have the Tragic Hero's Fatal Flaw.

 

[The Macho King]

And now for our other Southeastern entry...
We don't have Lemieux-Beliveau this year... but we have Gretzky-Trottier, which looks like the strongest central one-two spine in the League this year.

Leadership- Toe Blake is a podium-level coach, full stop. Gretzky will be the Captain on about any team for whom he's playing. I've already riffed on my reluctance to have two letters on the same line, right? I'd pass Toe Blake's 'A' to Pronger. Leadership very good- perhaps top-drawer counting the Blake-as-coach effect.

Offense--
Toe Blake-Gretzky-Makarov: count me among the people who were a little surprised you didn't plump for the other Montreal LW. Guess you wanted a defensive conscience more than you wanted a corner-battler. At any rate, VsX/7 fans should love the funhouse numbers generated between Gretzky & Makarov. Weird thing about Toe Blake (the player) I observed in the waning moments of the HoH top-100 project- he didn't feast on weakened war-years, statistically, to NEARLY the degree I would have expected. It was to the point that if he actually served like Abel, Schmidt, R. Conacher... I would have extrapolated numbers higher than the real ones, and have rated him higher. I don't know, maybe during that time he was all-in on chance-suppression and risk-mitigation(?)

Mahovlich-Trottier-Bathgate: I really like this line. Last year, I'd mated Mahovlich to Messier & Iginla on my acclaimed "Thunder Line." @zffssk gave it the thumbs-up by saying that it's a tricky thing to get a suitable Center for Mahovlich- asserting that Messier worked as a kind of hybrid between Red Kelly (as a Center) & Beliveau. Well, what's Trottier? He's like Messier- scarcely less physical, at least as offensively talented... just without the longevity. Bathgate's underrated- not quite the 'Rodney Dangerfield' that Iginla is (amongst the list-makers), but he won't miss a damn shift. [Edit- candidate for best 2nd line this year, I think.]

Elias-Schmidt-Perry: Steady-as-she-goes, with Perry providing the added irritation factor. [I like irritation as a seasoning, NOT as a main course. More on that in another review.]

Ga. Roberts-Kopitar-Broadbent: The Defensively-Oriented guardian-line. All right for what it does.

It's OPPF Southeast, so it's (once again) time for... oh, by-the-way-- Defense. To lock up so much Scoring Line offense, we have to pay a price somewhere. Here's where the fee gets assessed.

Pronger-Howe: Pronger was good value where picked, Mark Howe felt like a bit of an overpay (this coming from someone who might well have really overpaid on Weber, granted), but let's look at the numbers- Pronger is ranked #18 on the "Top-100" list, which is consistent with a worthy first-pairing defenseman (but on the low-end). Mark Howe comes in at position #33, which is like a mid-range 2nd pairing talent.

Suchy-Quackenbush: We'll set aside HoH rankings (for a second) & instead focus on my fan-boy perspective of Suchy. I have Suchy as a Top-20 defenceman, all-time. This opinion is shared by, well... no-one (outside the Czech Republic). Based on our respective History Lists, Quackenbush checks in at #44. Pace Van, this DOESN'T mean he doesn't belong on a 2nd pairing. The biggest problem here is that you've consigned Suchy to an LD-slot, a role he didn't typically fill in real life. We're also talking about two Ds best known for their O.

I wouldn't play Suchy as an LD. Just wouldn't do it. If Suchy was moved to RD, and mated with a mid-20s LD (like Gerard, for instance), then it would totally work for me. I don't know if it would work for the preponderance of the observers who have Suchy just barely sketching into the Top-50 Ds, All-Time.

I don't know if you can add-drop your way out of this.

Moose Johnson-Gonchar: Moose Johnson is a quality third-pairing guy. He's joined by Gonchar, whom I thought would help earn his roster-spot by providing Power Play help.

No, huh?

Finally, just like Miami, Richmond has an entire sextet of LHS Defencemen.

Special Teams- I'll withhold judgement on the Power Play- as I expect that Bathgate listed on both PP1 & PP2 was a misprint. And no Gonchar on PP is unusual enough [absent PP contributions, Gonchar's sort of a crevasse (at this level)], but no Suchy?!?

Penalty-Kill- your options are a little constrained by the Ds available... bit I'd consider reducing some of Trottier's Special Teams use, one way or another. I think PP1 & PK1 is a little too robust an ask in a 10-team league.

Goaltending- Glenn Hall is upper-half. This season, he might even be podium (in the Regular Season). Pekka Rinne is as much as you could ask for out of a back-up.

Summary- A Team that has a chance of putting up some real Pinball Wizard points. They look like they'll play it pretty clean-and-straight (which means they might be more likely to be on the PP than the Kill). Still, Coach Blake has a few decisions to make- and some of them won't be easy.

Thanks for the assassination.

Some replies - first thanks a lot for the insight on Suchy. I'll adjust his side as appropriate. Re: Gonchar - it was more of a guy who can get the puck up the ice on the third pair rather than PP help - in a ten team league I think the need for third pairing PP specialists is much less pronounced than in a normal ATD. Like who does he displace, especially considering how (offensively) stacked my forwards are that going 4F - 1D is a must? Pronger and Howe are just better in those roles. Suchy versus Howe is a more interesting debate maybe - I'll ruminate before the final rosters are posted.

Noted on Trottier - especially because his line is the type that I would really want getting a lot of EV minutes. Might just swap him and Kopitar there.

Re: Reaching on Howe. That's kind of a tough call to make in this format, right? I took him at a spot (I think along with Trottier or maybe Makarov?) and that let me get a good (if not spectacular) defenseman in his role without burning Detroit or Montreal. Of course at that time I thought Robinson was going to be my pick from Montreal, but then the run on Habs hit and I had to adapt a bit. That being said - drafting the forwards (and goalie) that I did, I was going to have to pay a bit of a price somewhere. The one regret is not going Plante-Chelios instead (thinking I'd have Robinson available the next time around) or Hall/Robinson, but I think I went Hall-Howe, so while I definitely took a hit, I don't think it's a crippling one.

Then we have Blake. I know that was the "shocking" pick with arguably two better Montreal LWs available, but I factored in a few things. One - scoring is not going to be an issue with that line. Gretzky and Makarov are going to be puck dominant players, and Gretzky has towed (heh) around some guys and made them put up video game numbers over their talent, so I thought that line needed something a little different. Blake is going to make that line *much* harder to play against in all three zones in a way that I think outweighs getting just more offense (especially considering my second line and to a lesser extent third line are also going to produce points). I'm going to assassinate a few in a bit, but the upshot is this tight of a league with the talent available is going to be more of a 4-3 league than a 3-2 league, but I think there's some diminishing returns when trying to make it a 5-4 team.

And I do think coaching (and Hall) will be able to clean up some of the *oh shit* moments that the team I made is going to have. Sometimes a goalie just needs to stop a puck, and Hall is one of the best at doing it. Also - there's some "playoff duds" on the roster (although the extent is overstated), probably most notably with Bathgate and Hall's reps, but I also have like a dozen Conn Smythe trophies on this team (or Smythe-worthy runs), so I think having that depth of playoff experience is going to be worth a ton.

One thing I think you missed a bit (or maybe understated) - I don't just have 1-2 depth here. I have 1-2-3-4 depth at C, and especially in the top 6, I have the wings to compliment them. I don't think it's bragging to say that I have the best C depth in the league (and frankly I should considering where I drafted those guys).

Thanks again and I'll return the favor shortly.

 

[The Macho King]

Hammond(Indiana)Organ® Grinders

Coach-Fred Shero

#11 Sweeney Schriner-#7 Howie Morenz-#17 Jari Kurri
#9 Vladimir Krutov-#19 Joe Sakic (A)-#10 Pavel Bure
#26 Jere Lehtinen-#91 Segei Fedorov-#24 Cecil Dillon
#20 Jiří Holík-#28 Claude Giroux-#86 Nikita Kucherov

#21 Börje Salming-#77 Raymond Bourque (A)
#5 Denis Potvin (C)-#6 Shea Weber
#2 Duncan Keith-#27 Teppo Numminen​

#1 Clint Benedict
#30 Hugh Lehman
​

PP1: Giroux-Morenz-Krutov
Bourque-Weber
PP2: Kurri-Sakic-Schriner
Potvin-Fedorov
(spare PPers- Bure, Kucherov)

PK1: Lehtinen-Fedorov
Potvin-Bourque
PK2: Sakic-Dillon
Keith-Numminen
(spare PKers- Salming, Weber, Morenz, Kurri)

This team is definitely built around the back-end. Bourque and Potvin is (I believe) the best 1-2 in the league in my opinion, and Keith is a solid fit in a third pairing role here. I also think the other players compliment them in their roles well. Numminen is a bit of a cheap option, but you're strong enough 1-5 that I don't think that's a serious concern.

You're going to need that D too, because Benedict is on the bottom tier of starters. You've got some solid defensive forwards so I don't think it's fatal, but this feels like a team that's going to try to win 2-1 and 3-2, but is going to be facing much better forward talent for the most part.

Your forward group is a mixed bag. No notes on your top two Cs - Morenz is top end as a 1C and Sakic is a low end 1/top end 2 in this format. Fedorov is... fine. I'm pretty low on him myself but I don't think he's miscast as a 3C (whether there's a better spot to use that Detroit pick is a different question). Giroux is okay - but that fourth line is not what I would call a "traditional" fourth line.

And that gets to my concern. Your RWs are all fine, if a bit ... oddly placed based on traditional roles. Your left wingers are weak outside of Krutov. I don't think Schriner is a guy I love on the top line in this format. I *know* I don't love Lehtinen as a third liner (although I know why he goes there). He is providing zero offense from that position, and with my views on Fedorov, I feel like your third is more like a pure checking line rather than a two-way line that I prefer. I don't think Dillon is nearly enough to make up for that relevant discrepency. But then you have your fourth... Giroux is fine(?) defensively, but Kucherov is not a checking line player. But Holik is. But this line is getting 10 minutes a night, and lines that are there to generate offense you generally want to have more of.

Which brings me to your special teams. Weber is not a #1 PP option in this draft. Full stop. I would argue he's probably not a #2 PP option ideally in 10 teams. He has a shot and that's it. Then you have arguably your two most talented offensive players after Morenz in Bure and Kucherov getting spare PP time. That's miscasting. Even in this format, Kucherov is a legitimate PP threat, and Bure is probably your best goalscorer (when controlling for Kurri playing with 99 and 66).

For your PK - no real notes. I'd think about splitting Potvin and Bourque so you can have one of them on the ice the whole time, and I would probably sub out Numminen for Weber (after getting Weber off of the PP).

I mean - this is a strong defensive group, no doubt about it, but I think with a low-end goaltender I would want to see that value show up a bit more in the forward group.

 

[The Macho King]

Coach: Joel Quenneville

Sid Abel --- Syl Apps --- Bernie Geoffrion
Nels Stewart --- Bobby Clarke (C) --- Boris Mikhailov (A)
Brad Marchand --- Frank Nighbor --- Jarome Iginla
Esa Tikkanen --- Ryan Getzlaf --- Claude Lemieux

Sprague Cleghorn --- Chris Chelios (A)
Bill Gadsby --- Drew Doughty
Ulf Samuelsson --- Alex Pietrangelo

Dominik Hasek
Roy Worters

PP1: Cleghorn - Geoffrion- Stewart - Apps - Mikhailov
PP2: Gadsby - Doughty - Nighbor - Clarke - Iginla
PK1 - Gadsby - Chelios - Nighbor - Tikkanen
Pk2 - Samuelsson - Pietrangelo - Clarke - Marchand​

I'm not going to go line by line here. Apps is the weakest 1C in the draft, but that was a trade off you make with Clarke and Nighbor. Love the third line, and I love the fourth line.

Look - let's just put the elephant in the room up front. You have Bobby Clarke, Brad Marchand, Esa Tikkanen, Claude Lemieux, Sprague Cleghorn, Chris Chelios, and Ulf Samuelsson. You're going to be a "tough" team to play against.

You're also going to spend half of the game short handed.

And that's fine. That's a strategy. And with Hasek, fine you're taking that risk and hoping Hasek is going to bail you out on the PK - and that's not a bad bet. The problem I have with it is when you're a team built to spend a lot of time in the box, generally you are relying on "even up calls" to put your PP out there and make the most of your opportunities the other way. But... I don't know - the PP just doesn't have *it*. To use a real life example, Tampa is one of the most penalized teams in the league most years, because yeah we may be short handed 4 times, but we'll be on the PP 3.5 times, and our PP is going to make you bleed. This PP, in this league - it doesn't scare me. And if you're going to play like your team is built to play, your PP has to scare the other team a bit from retaliating.

I think I'd love this team a bit more in a bigger league, but the delta on offensive talent is just so high here that I worry it won't take advantage of the opportunities the shit disturbers on the team create.

 

[ResilientBeast]

Look - let's just put the elephant in the room up front. You have Bobby Clarke, Brad Marchand, Esa Tikkanen, Claude Lemieux, Sprague Cleghorn, Chris Chelios, and Ulf Samuelsson. You're going to be a "tough" team to play against.

You're also going to spend half of the game short handed.

If we can injure half of the opposing team who is really playing shorthanded /s

And I definitely think we'll be able to goad other teams into penalities playing on/over the line on physicality. Over the course of a regular season small psychological advantages like that will build up and hopefully even up. When we make it to a playoff series it will be a more direct weakness as 7 games might not be long enough for things to even up.

 

[ResilientBeast]

No, it's not. Even though Abel-Apps-Geoffrion is three strikes on "The Bill Cook Standard," it doesn't have a ravine like Robitaille on it. It IS bottom-three, though.Now THAT judgement (on the Marchand-Nighbor-Iginla line) is a statistically-supportable conclusion.Re: Stewart-Clarke-Mikhailov... if they were just a set of statistics you put into a computer simulation, I'd agree that they're solid. However, Clarke (that most unapologetic of competitors from the Summit Series) and Mikhailov (that most bitter of rivals from the same event) cooperating on a line together feels like one "weird science" chemistry experiment. I don't know if there's an alternative. If we flex Iginla up to the 2nd line, Marchand loses HIS bodyguard. One thing I WOULD do- and that's give an 'A' to Iginla.And with that, now's as good a time to address the elephant-in-the-room, and acknowledge that Edmonton went all-in on pestilence this year. Clarke is right there with Messier & Prime Harvey for being next-level sneaky-dirty. It's a skill-of-sorts, in itself- and (as my own Coach famously said) "18 choir-boys never won the Stanley Cup, and probably never will." However, the lineup is filled with irritation- Clarke, Marchand, Chelios, Cleghorn (who's even capable of breaking an axle in the playoffs*), Tikkanen, C, Lemieux, U. Samuelsson. This WILL be the most penalized team this season. [*If subject to modern psychiatric diagnosis, Cleghorn seems to present as someone with Intermittent Explosive Disorder.]

Open question is- can irritation be a skill one can rely upon, at this level?! I kind of view it like the willfully obnoxious "table-talker" in Poker, who can put less-experienced players on tilt, and cash in on "yum-yum." When at the table with people who have 7-figure net-worth because of their Poker-skill, that craft doesn't translate as well.Yeah.One thing I noticed about Quenneville- and relieved to see it's consistent with my memory- and that's Chicago was among the better 3 to 4 in-the-league for Power Play Opportunities Against in the Championship Years. Favorable PPoA stats ain't gonna happen here.

Best- 3rd Line
At-or-near-best: Goaltending
Chance for being at-or-near-best: 2nd line, if Clarke & Mikhailov embrace glasnost
Reverse-podium: 1st line
Bottom- Penalties Against

Thanks for taking the time to review some points

Sure they have a checkered history and it's unusually direct for an ATD between Clarke and Mikhailov but the chemistry fit is fine and they're both fierce competitors who would put aside their differences for the team.

Iginla definitely doesn't get an A over those I've chosen already. He led his team to a cup final and that's it. Clarke is the clear choice as captain, Mikhailov as the captain of the soviet national team is also a clear pick. And Chelios is the best choice from my D group.

You've hit on the same point as others, I'm taking a shit ton of penalties relative to the league average but that toughness will come with it's advantages over the course of a regular season which is what we're voting on at this time. Our PK will be excellent which will help mitigate those chances against.

I appreciate your defending my top line, it's definitely not great relative to the league but it isn't the worst. My second line is easily league average and my third line is probably the best. The top top 9 as a unit is easily as strong as most in our little league here.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

This team is definitely built around the back-end. Bourque and Potvin is (I believe) the best 1-2 in the league in my opinion, and Keith is a solid fit in a third pairing role here. I also think the other players complement them in their roles well. Numminen is a bit of a cheap option, but you're strong enough 1-5 that I don't think that's a serious concern.

Thanks- and a hat-tip for that comment. I think pride-of-place among 1-2 Ds goes to Laval's Fetisov-Harvey... but they're on the same pairing. This year, I decided to take a page out of the book of @zffssk and go with an A-C, B-D set-up at defense. 60 minutes in the game- 45 of them, opponents of Hammond will be dealing with either Bourque, or Potvin. One snipe, though- to call Duncan Keith "solid" on the third-pairing is kind of like the Aston-Martin DB-S brochure not providing a number for the engine horsepower- simply saying it's "adequate." Of course, the DB-S engine is more than "adequate," and Duncan Keith on a third-paring is more than "solid."

You're going to need that D too, because Benedict is on the bottom tier of starters.

Yes- even by my own reckoning, Benedict is "reverse-podium" material among starters. Taken as a quick-and-dirty calculation, the average Goaltending here is going to have a "Stanford Composite" of 99.3. Benedict comes in at 98.7. [This is under the flash-assumption that there have been roughly 800 Goaltenders in Hockey History who have played in the upper-tier.] Benedict was no worse than the 2nd greatest Goaltender of his era- and his era included Vezina, Worters, Lehman, Hainsworth...

I don't think Schriner is a guy I love on the top line in this format.

In the last draft, I had a mutter-and-curse as @scrappylilnobody snarfed Schriner in front of me. And why wouldn't he be coveted? His 7year VsX is 91.3 That's well north of Kariya, north of Bucyk and north of Busher Jackson. [And unlike those luminaries, he didn't exactly have a Selanne or a Conacher to help him out on what was otherwise a pretty hapless Amerks squad.]

I *know* I don't love Lehtinen as a third liner (although I know why he goes there). He is providing zero offense from that position, and with my views on Fedorov, I feel like your third is more like a pure checking line rather than a two-way line that I prefer. I don't think Dillon is nearly enough to make up for that relevant discrepancy. But then you have your fourth... Giroux is fine(?) defensively, but Kucherov is not a checking line player. But Holik is. But this line is getting 10 minutes a night, and lines that are there to generate offense you generally want to have more of.

As would be predictable, I kind of like my eclectic bottom-6. As third-liners, Fedorov is upper-half, Cecil Dillon (in spite of being a 21st round pick) is upper-half, so the only thing that could lead to the whole line being nerf-sticked out of (at least) the middle of the pack would be a brickbat aimed at Lehtinen. Maybe I'm only joined by @Habsfan18 on this one- but Lehtinen continues to be under-appreciated. I could only find NHL-wide Corsi/Fenwick from Lehtinen's age 34 year onwards- but Lehtinen was Corsi-event positive, both objectively and relative to his team, in both his age 34 year and his penultimate season. I guess it's really eye-test memories with me... but if he had that kind of impact near the very end, imagine what he was doing when he was a perennial Selke finalist. Even though he wasn't putting points in HIS column, he was doing a fantastic job of keeping opponents from putting points in THEIR column. Kind of like an anti-matter universe version of Brett Hull. One of the key points of these 3rd/4th lines is- absorb-and-counter. We know Fedorov can get up-ice in a hurry. So can Kucherov. Fedorov can break on his own if there's an opening- Giroux can thread a pass if HE has an opening. There's also the contributions of the D in this regard.

NHL Top-five Ds All-Time [1927 & beyond]- 7 year VsX:
1. Orr
2. Coffey
3. Bourque
4. Kelly*
5. Potvin

*[Confirmed: Kelly's ranking above Potvin is reliant upon two of the 7 seasons involved in the calculation occurring as a Toronto Center. If counting only seasons as a D, Kelly drifts behind not just Potvin but also Karlsson+Leetch in this statistic. Clapper (who shows up between Karlsson/Leetch) is excluded here, as he had more Forward-relevant seasons than even Kelly.]

Fair cop on the set-up of the points on PP1- maybe I'm overpaying for the LHS/RHS combo up top. [Schriner STAYS, though(!)] He's a perennial PP guy- even in OPPF- and he will remain so. Appreciate your input. As Jim Thorpe said (to the Swedish monarch at the Olympics), "Thanks, King!"

 

[BenchBrawl]

Coach: Joel Quenneville

Sid Abel --- Syl Apps --- Bernie Geoffrion
Nels Stewart --- Bobby Clarke (C) --- Boris Mikhailov (A)
Brad Marchand --- Frank Nighbor --- Jarome Iginla
Esa Tikkanen --- Ryan Getzlaf --- Claude Lemieux

Sprague Cleghorn --- Chris Chelios (A)
Bill Gadsby --- Drew Doughty
Ulf Samuelsson --- Alex Pietrangelo

Dominik Hasek
Roy Worters

PP1: Cleghorn - Geoffrion- Stewart - Apps - Mikhailov
PP2: Gadsby - Doughty - Nighbor - Clarke - Iginla
PK1 - Gadsby - Chelios - Nighbor - Tikkanen
Pk2 - Samuelsson - Pietrangelo - Clarke - Marchand​

Abel-Apps-Geoffrion works well together IMO, albeit low on defense, but that doesn't matter with Clarke and Nighbor supporting them on other lines. Apps-Geoffrion is very reminiscient of Béliveau-Geoffrion on an offensive basis, and Abel brings the corner work + his own offense and leadership. I think Apps is underrated because of the war, and his star shone very brightly, but it's hard to really push him up the ranks despite this.

Stewart-Clarke-Mikhailov has sick leadership level, and I like the gritty Clarke-Mikhailov combo. Stewart at LW, my head says it's fine, but my eyes and heart are not convinced. Aesthetically, it's kind of ugly, and I haven't been able to flip the switch in that regard.

Marchand-Nighbor-Iginla is indeed close to the modern Boston line, but what pops out for me is just how similar Clarke-Mikhailov and Nighbor-Iginla are as combos. I don't think I've ever seen a pair of duos that are so similar, and playing more or less the same role in the lineup. The two lines are pretty much interchangeable. Some would say it's redundant, others would praise the clear team concept. The truth might be anywhere in this continuum.

I don't care about 4th lines, but Tikkanen-Getzlaf-Lemieux is very good here, as long as you accept the penalties and the heatedness that will result from their shenanigans. Havng Clarke and Nighbor on the PK helps a lot, not to mention Chelios.

Cleghorn-Chelios is a beauty of a pairing, and both on their correct side (at least as far as I know for Cleghorn, who played LD with Eddie Gerard (RD), and who I saw on tapes practicing with the Montreal Canadiens on the left side again). They will take a lot of penalties, but as a hockey pairing they are magnificent. Neither is a full-blow #1D, but they're both borderline, and they really bring everything, and will be tough to play against.

Solid 2nd pairing, Gadsby is held in higher regards by old timers than our younger wisdom, and I Doughty is a stabilizing presence. Value-wise, they are good.

Samuelsson hey, whatever. Pietrangelo is solid on the 3rd. Pairing is OK.

Hasek one of the top goalies, even if in my personal opinion of him is lower than most, I still play fair and consider him a force. As for Worters, while a truly excellent backup, I would have prefer a "Billy Smith-like" clutch goalie behind Hasek, but whatever, it's just nitpicking.

Special units: 1st PP is well-constructed, and I love Stewart as a net man, but the value is just not there compared to most other teams.

PK: Have you considered Mikhailov on the PK? I've seen clips of him being phenomenal there, but his entire body of work would need to be verified compared to a Tikkanen. Maybe Tikkanen was better. Otherwise your PK is a great strength.

Overall, as I see it the main weakness of your team is a lack of elite game-breaking talent, especially offensive, both upfront and on the blueline. I know taking Hasek early is partially responsible for that, but it still feel you should have at least one top skater somewhere in there.

Otherwise, I like the depth upfront, and your blueline has some nice things going for it. The Clarke-Nighbor combo makes the team a sort of fortress that will be hard to penetrate, and the blueline is in harmony with that.