Critique My Draft Strategy

[Ho Borvat]

Looking for some insight towards my strategy going into this draft

14 Teams
Roster Spots
2- C, LW, RW, G
4- D
6- Bench

Skater Stats - G, A, PPP, GWG, PIM, Hits, Blocks
Goalie Stats - Win, GAA, Save %, Shutouts

Here is My Thought Process (Unless I get a top-4 pick)
- Take a goalie in Round 1 and 2 (2 of Lundqvist/Rask/Quick)
- Load up on offensive players from round 3-on
- Around round 6-8 try to get a couple overlooked offensive d-men (Burns/Campbell/Voynov)
- Start picking up my sleepers (Grabovski, Whitney, Drouin etc)
- Draft a 3rd goalie, around round 10-12 (hoping for Markstrom, more on this later).
- Round out my d-men with shot blocking/hitting/PIM guys like Luke Schenn.

Rationale
- I would like to draft a sleeper goalie like Markstrom (or Reimer/Bishop etc).
- I am (pretty much) guaranteed good goaltending w/ Lundqvist/Quick. ~1/3 of stats
- IF my sleeper goalie can put together an average season, it makes one of my top goalies more expendable
- Since there is 14 Teams in the league, goaltending will be scarce.
- I can likely get a desperate owner to overpay for a goalie (and fix any holes on my roster).

Summary
- Draft 2 elite goalies right away
- Draft sleeper goalie late
- Hope sleeper goalie plays well
- Trade 1 elite goalie later to a desperate GM for a premium.
- Goalies make up 4/11 stats (4 goalie, 4 offensive, 3 defensive).

Click to read more...

 

[Leviathan]

I have a different philosophy on goalies. I try to get one of the superelite in the 2nd round, but if I dont get one, I dont panic. What I do instead take a pair of good goalies in the 3-7(ish) rounds and draft some late goalies once everyone has already got their tending situation settled. Last year for example I wasn't happy with my first goalie pick Mike Smith, so I sat and waited around and took Crawford, Holtby and Lindback late. 2/3 of those picks were gems. Each to their own, but just thought I'd throw in my 0.02.

 

[Ho Borvat]

just thought I'd throw in my 0.02.

Appreciate the input. Im not usually so goalie-centric in my philosophy but there are a few differences that make me feel I should put an emphasis on goaltending.

- 4 goalie stats, 4 offense stats, 3 defensive stats. 2 players could win me 4/11 categories so I feel theres value from that

- I feel like offensively, there are some real good sleeper picks (quality guys who are ranked 300+)

- I can pick d-men late in the draft to fullfill my PIMS/Hits/Blocks stats, so I dont have to worry too much about drafting dmen early.

- I also feel like, if need be, there will be a handful of teams desperate for goaltending, so I could flip one of my elite goalies for some high end forwards.

 

[Coreyr5]

kack.... Great minds must think alike. I myself pretty much use the strategy lol

 

[Ho Borvat]

kack.... Great minds must think alike. I myself pretty much use the strategy lol

Do you win though? Haha

But this is the first time Ive done a 14 team league. Ive only ever done 10 team leagues, so everyones able to get decent goaltending.

Here, I kind of want to try to take advantage of the people who get caught with their pants down.
I also dont know if everyone will take advantage of PIMS/Hits/Blocks so I think i can do some damage in the tail end of the draft

 

[McHortton]

Very good strategy , only problem I see is getting 2 out of 3 goalies you mentioned. Rask , Lundqvist and Quick will probably all go 1st round can't really see you getting 2.

 

[McHortton]

Also I've learned from the many mock drafts I've already done (No life) that Nabakov is almost never picked and so he can easily be picked very late sleeper and will likely put up a good # of wins. Saves and save percentage not sure of but still.

 

[DoubleDose86]

Sounds good, got to know how it turns out in the end though.

Last year I had issues with 2 of my leagues.

League 1: Had some great goalies, but couldn't unload one like I was hoping later in the season.

League 2: This was a keeper league, I tried to load up on some guys who could work with my keepers, by the time I got some goalies, I had leftovers and couldn't get one. Luckily I had bobrovsky who helped me more then I thought.

 

[McHortton]

So I did 2 mock drafts using 2 different strategies. They were both 12 team draft with 16 players, 2c,2w,2l,4d,2g and 4bench. Team A I picked up Rask and Niemi in the first 2 rounds, basically the strategy mentioned above , picking up reimer at the end. Team B I went for the top FW I could get with my first pick (in this case JT) and then top goalie in round 2 (Niemi). With Team B I got better fowards then team A but not as well rounded (kinda messed up on the end with D). Anyways let me know what you guys think.

Team A (Pick #7):

1.Tuukka Rask (Bos - G)
2. Antti Niemi (SJ - G)
3. Erik Karlsson (Ott - D)
4. Jason Spezza (Ott - C)
5. Jamie Benn (Dal - LW)
6. Jakub Voracek (Phi - RW)
7. P.A. Parenteau (Col - RW)
8. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edm - C)
9. Alexander Edler (Van - D)
10. Jonathan Huberdeau (Fla - C,LW)
11. Slava Voynov (LA - D)
12. Jason Garrison (Van - D)
13. Jonathan Drouin (TB - LW)
14. James Reimer (Tor - G)
15. Ray Whitney (Dal - LW)
16. Vladimir Tarasenko (StL - RW)

Team B (Pick #5):

1.John Tavares (NYI - C)
2. Antti Niemi (SJ - G)
3. Jason Spezza (Ott - C)
4. Rick Nash (NYR - LW,RW)
5. Thomas Vanek (Buf - LW,RW)
6. Marian Hossa (Chi - RW)
7. Joe Thornton (SJ - C)
8. Brent Burns (SJ - RW,D)
9. Evgeni Nabokov (NYI - G)
10. Vladimir Tarasenko (StL - RW)
11. Jason Garrison (Van - D)
12. Brad Marchand (Bos - LW)
13. Ondrej Pavelec (Wpg - G)
14. Chris Stewart (StL - RW)
15. Seth Jones (Nsh - D)
16. Zach Bogosian (Wpg - D)

To me Team A looks a lot better but still

 

[VasDimops]

14 teams = a good strategy.

First three rounds should be two goalies and a LW

 

[Ho Borvat]

14 teams = a good strategy.

First three rounds should be two goalies and a LW

I have about 6 rookie GMs in this pool, so I think a good chunk will follow the yahoo rankings fairly closely.

 

[Ho Borvat]

Also I've learned from the many mock drafts I've already done (No life) that Nabakov is almost never picked and so he can easily be picked very late sleeper and will likely put up a good # of wins. Saves and save percentage not sure of but still.

Yeah, its easy to forget the islanders made the playoffs last year. 23 wins in 41 games last year is pretty solid.

 

[Hutzler]

Very good strategy , only problem I see is getting 2 out of 3 goalies you mentioned. Rask , Lundqvist and Quick will probably all go 1st round can't really see you getting 2.

I find once the first goalie is drafted, people tend to start following suit right away.

 

[Ho Borvat]

I find once the first goalie is drafted, people tend to start following suit right away.

Im honestly hoping for a mid-late pick in this draft.

I kind of want pick #12-14 and I am hoping everyone else passes on a goalie in the 1st round so I can kind of go back to back with 2 quality goalies before anyone else catches on.

 

[Hutzler]

I am so glad I don't have a goalie issue in my 16 manager keeper league anymore.

About 14 months ago I didn't have a single starter...made some good moves and now have Rask and Price. Set for many years to come hopefully.

 

[McHortton]

I find once the first goalie is drafted, people tend to start following suit right away.

Exactly what happens. I'm not sure how my real draft will go but from what I've seen so far from mock drafts is that rask and lundqvist are ALWAYS taken somewhere between 5-10 pick.