KL Season in Review: 2010-2011

Congratulations are definitely in order.  GM Josh Krusell drafted his Krugars and, like a mother sea turtle, took to the ocean and left them to fend for themselves. Beginning the season under 6 feet of sand, the Krugars, over the next 20 weeks, would kick, scratch, and bite their way to the surface and to the open sea. This epic climb was foreshadowed in the graph post I did in week ten, where the Krugars were featured in the "The Long Road to the Top" graph. When Josh returned from Australia with four weeks left in the regular season, he barely recognized his first place team.

What makes this victory, the first in Keeper League history, especially notable?

1. Josh made exactly zero trades and used none of his free agent pickups. 

2. Josh drafted 15th out of 15. Sure, the snake draft is supposed to even things out, but given a choice in a keeper league draft, would you want to pick last?

3. Josh decided to participate in the draft approximately half an hour before the draft started. He happened to be in Vancouver, hanging out with Powder, and that's what Powder was doing that afternoon. While some of us had prepared for days, Josh did his research between picks with a discarded copy of the Score Forecaster and Chatelaine's holiday decorating issue. Josh was picking Claude Giroux in the 6th round and Lubomir Visnovsky in the 8th while the rest of us were picking Sergei Gonchar in the 4th and Wojtek Wolski in the 5th.

Again, congratulations Josh. The Keeper League Championship is hereinafter and irrevocably dubbed the Krusell Cup. 

Less important in the long term, but I suspect more appreciated in the short term, Josh will shortly be receiving a cool $240.

Schizzarks: Hell of a debut fantasy hockey season for Shizzarks' rookie GM Schizz "Schizz" Schissel - this was one of several pools he won or came second in. Notably, this second place finish came without first round pick Zach Parise. Schizz earns $96 this year. 

Teeyotes: GM Teehan fought hard for this one and he earned it. He probably sacrificed the next four years to place third, but here's hoping that's not the case. Hey, no team with Tavares can be that bad. Oh wait.  Anyway, Teehan takes home $72.

Wittmen: At times holding what looked like an insurmountable lead (I have the February 13th email where, picking up Grabner as a free agent, Stefan says "I think I've got this in the bag") the Wittmen stumbled down the stretch, slipping to fourth place. The consolation prize: a $72 donation to the charity of Stefan's choice (to be announced).

Honourable mention to Dickie and the Dicklas Lidstroms, who put up .77 points per game, enough for a four-way tie with the top three teams.  They finished ninth largely because their scoring roster played the fewest games - 108 fewer than the Wittmen.

Hope everyone enjoyed the pool this year as much as I did. Thanks for your patience as we worked the kinks out.

Trades in the KL can resume after the playoffs. Expect to hear from me sometime this summer about the procedures moving forward for 2011-2012. If you are dropping out for some reason, let me know asap. We have a waiting list and those would-be GMs will want some time to make off-season evaluations, trades, etc.

--Commissioner Carmody

KL Week in Review: Week 25

Injuries may play a pivotal role in determining the final standings over these last eight days of hockey. In an interview last week, GM Krusell of the Krugars observed that "with Ryan Miller not travelling with the Sabres, and Wideman and Nielsen now out of the season, I am all of a sudden super-vulnerable at the top." Pressed for details, he added, "OMG, you haven't heard of Dinosaur Jr?!"

The Schizzarks may have it even worse, missing four prominent forwards in Sharp, Nash, Williams and Hemsky.  Although pickuphockey projects them to finish second, that assumes that injured players play and earn points in the remaining games. I see them falling to fourth, maybe fifth if the Fylanders have a good week. The Fylanders, Wittmen and Teeyotes all have no current injuries to their scoring roster.

Prediction: Victoria Krugars christen the Krusell Cup.

1. Krugars
2. Wittmen
3. Teeyotes
4. Schizzarks
5. Fylanders