KL Week in Review: Week 3

Week three sees the Blues maintain their lead from last week, although it seemed a different team was leading the pool every morning I checked (first thing I do when the iphone alarm goes off). The Mackhawks and, surprisingly, the Preydators had huge weeks. Preyde got 7 points from Duncan Keith, while the Mack's Heatley-Thornton duo combined for 15 points.

Just two points separate third from seventh! And some of the teams below that have solid players struggling early, so I wouldn't count out anybody at this point, other than Roos who has all but declared 2010-11 a rebuilding year. Hopefully it will be a battle to the end. Like I said in my very first email, you guys are the best of the best, so whoever gets the trophy named after them in April will have earned it.

There are a few undrafted players that I am surprised nobody has picked up yet. Look for a post on that tomorrow.

Poll Results

Are goalies worth too much in the KL? Yes                        3 (33%)
No                         2 (22%)
Too soon to tell     4 (44%)

Glad to see reason prevailed for now, but it's something we will examine again at the end of the year.

Transactions

10/29/2010   TRADE    Moilers send F Ales Hemsky and D Matt Taormina to the Shizzarks for F Mason Raymond and D Jay Bouwmeester.


Analysis: A Canucks fan at heart, Mo picks up budding second-line speedster Mason Raymond, who we figure is good for at least 50 points this year (he had 52 points last year - some say sign of things to come, some say the Canucks will never score that many goals again). Schizz adds 70 point forward Ales Hemsky (more if the Oilers keep scoring like they did tonight) to an already potent cadre of forwards that includes presently underachieving Backstrom and Parise. To facilitate the trade, the Moilers had to drop all-name defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk, and add Matt Taormina (the NJ defenceman, not the small coastal town in Italy). Note this does not count toward the Moiler's 2 free agent acquisitions this year, per rule 10 g). So whether this trade evens out will depend on whether Bouwmeester gets 24 points like he is on pace for, 29 points like he had last year, or 43 points like he averaged the four years prior.

Transactions (the first trade!)

10/29/2010   TRADE    Powder Rangers send G Tim Thomas to the Carmada for G Jonathan Bernier and the Carmada's 3rd round pick in 2011.

Analysis: We're not going to analyze our own trade. I am obligated to remind you of Rule 11 i), which states that "The GMs may, by a majority vote, veto or reverse any trade involving the Commissioner."

Altruistic Post

Well, to balance out my "self-serving" last post, here is a post that will not at all reference my own team. Also, my deepest apologies to Dave Claassen offensive post the other day. I should have emailed everyone individually.

I am charged with the task of unpacking two add/drops.

First, Fy "I have an idea" Virani drops Zack Boychuk to pick up hometown hero Clarke MacArthur. Before this year, MacArthur was most famous for playing for de facto AHL affiliate Atlanta Thrashers and sporting two legitimate last names. Now that he plays in the Centre of the [Hockey] Universe, he's being touted as the second coming of Alexander Steen. The most perplexing aspect of this change is that it wasn't done sooner - Zack was sent to the newly minted Charlotte Checkers of the AHL on September 29.

Then, Dickie swapped aging defencemen, dropping perennial Swede Matthias Ohlund for perennially misspelled Michal Rozsival. This is a great under-the-radar pickup. And I'm only a little bit pissed that I missed it, seeing as how I just advertised that I wanted an upgrade on defence. Maybe I should have looked into the free agent pool for a defenceman playing 25 minutes a night and quarterbacking a powerplay featuring Marian Gaborik and the other other Staal.

Sorry Dave, I mentioned my team again at the end there. That's on me.

Headscratch This

Many people, including myself, have been scratching their heads about my goalies. I knew I had made a terrible mistake the second I picked Varlamov, frightened by a goalie rush.

Then I picked Neuvirth, which at first seemed great (both Washington goalies!) but I now recognize that was a mistake.

As pointed out by Micah, the slot system (which I support) favours the bold, ie. making moves early to get the full benefit of the change. With Varlamov batting a zero, if I was going to replace him it had to be now, while there was still a chance Thomas could make up the necessary ground after missing his points for the first three weeks of the year.

Why this rambling post? I am listening to trade offers to either goalie. I am confident that both will get enough starts to carry my team this year. Thus, I will take on your dud goalie in exchange for an upgrade on one of my dud skaters (D or F) and maybe a draft pick. I put out what I think is a very reasonable offer to Roos, but (curiously considering he has no goalie points) he has not responded to it. So I'm opening it up to the world. Make me an offer.

I would also like to point out my best and worst pick of far in the draft:

Andrew Ference - Lia - Sure it was the 20th round, but instead of making a bold or interesting pick, Lia set feminism back decades by picking a hot guy. Way to be a stereotype.

Matt Cullen - Claaassssennn - 20th round, 9 points. While most of us picked rookies that were probably 4 years away from being productive in the last round, Claassen took the easy route and picked reliable veteran Cullen. He's getting big minutes with the other Koivu and my Auntie Miettenen. A tip of my hat to DC.

KL Week in Review

K-Blat had an absolutely huge week with the SJB moving from 4th to 1st. They had 47 points on the strength of a 9 point week from Halak, while the next best team, the Powder Rangers had 36 (despite a weak Saturday) on the coattails of 3rd overall pick Steven Stamkos and his 8 point week. G-Phil had a terrible week that included Ovechkin going pointless in three games, possibly for the first time in his career. Look for Ovie and the Flyers to bounce back next week.

It's interesting that while the total gap between first and last widened, the middle actually contracted. Last week 21 points separated 2nd from 11th - today the spread is just 15 points. It's still a tight race and the lead seems to change every day, which is a lot of fun.

Transactions

10/23/2010   FA    Powder Rangers    drop: Semyon Varlamov (WSH)    add: Tim Thomas (BOS)

Analysis:  Bit of a head scratcher here. Varlamov is back from injury and started the last two games (both losses). By giving up half of their potent all-Washington goalie tandem, the P-Rangers are betting that Varlamov plays badly enough to lose the starting job to Neuvirth. On the other hand, Thomas has started four of five games for Boston this season and has yet to let in more than one goal. Left wing lock has Rask as the tentative starter tonight in a game the P-Rangers as well as the Manitoba Roos will be watching closely.

Team Structures

Given a roster of 20 where the only constraint is that scoring is limited to nine forwards, four defencemen and one goalie, any number of team structures are possible. What foundations were laid in the first year of the KL?

13 forwards, 5 defencemen, 2 goalies
This was the most common approach, with the majority of GMs (eight out of fifteen) loading up on forwards and wanting a backup goalie just in case. This effectively means you have four spare forwards and only one spare defenceman.

12 forwards, 6 defencemen, 2 goalies
Four GMs opted for an extra defenceman. It's certainly not inconceivable that you might experience two significant injuries among your defence, and if that happens, G-Phil, Lia, Teehan and K-Blat will be laughing at the forward-heavy majority.

13/6 or 14/5 and 1 goalie
Given that the goalie position has the potential to be worth more than any other player, taking only one goalie is a gamble. You have to be pretty confident in your pick, and that's why DC used his first round (13th overall) pick to secure Martin Brodeur. The other first-round goalie went to Mo, who is waiting for Luongo to pick up his game because Schneider is giving AV (and Canucks fans) second thoughts. Meanwhile, Roos is frustrated (I know because he emailed me) with his third-round pick, Tukka Rask, who sits with zero wins and only one start to date.

Transactions

Normally we will try to post each trade or free agent swap as it happens, with a little analysis. Today I'll post all of the transactions that have happened so far in the season.

10/11/2010   FA    Dicklas Lidstroms    drop: Daymond Langkow    add: Curtis Glencross

10/12/2010    FA    Carmada    drop: Kyle Okposo    add: Eric Fehr
10/12/2010    FA    Carmada    drop: Matt Hunwick    add: Kyle Cumiskey

Analysis

With Daymond Langkow still not cleared for contact, Dickie took the next best player on perhaps the league's worst team, Curtis Glencross of the Calgary Flames.

Dickie's move sent Micah into a state of panic, thinking the free agent gold rush was on. This, combined with an irrevocable desire to be winning the pool for at least a week, meant Micah would use both free agent adds in the first week. (This is why I limited it to two!) Micah has some regrets and hopes Okposo's concussion has long-lasting effects.

KL Week in Review

After the first full week of NHL action, a preliminary picture of the KL standings is shaping up.

(I missed grabbing the image on Sunday when the week actually ends. Will do that next week.)

Who's numbers are overinflated?

The Carmada. Blake Comeau and Josh Bailey of NYI fame are both near the top of the league in scoring. That just can't last. I'll admit I was planning on sitting on those 17th and 19th round picks for at least a year.

G-Phil's Flyers. Vokoun decided to have two of his three annual shutouts in the first two weeks.

Who's numbers are underinflated?
Dicklas Lidstroms - Dickie's top four picks are averaging under 3 points per game. Toews, Kane, Kesler and Lundqvist will pick it up soon.

Similar arguments could be made for the Angry Irishmen.

The most improved team last week was, I'm fairly confident, the Shizzarks. Pretty sure they went from 13th to 7th. I will keep better track of this stuff next week. Hope you guys are enjoying the pool as much as I am!

PS: The poll at the top right is somewhat related to this post.