2014 Awards!

In keeping with traditions established by the NHL, the Professional Keeper League Writers Association have voted  in secretive, opaque and entirely unaccountable fashion to determine the winners of this year's awards.

Congratulations to all winners.

Calder: 

The best fantasy player drafted for the first time in the Keeper League.

This year's winner is a tie between the Los Amjawors Kings and the Wilkes-Benham/Scranton Parkers. They drafted Ben Bishop and Nathan Mackinnon respectively. Ben Bishop's 91 points made him one of the most productive goaltenders in the entire Keeper League, while Nathan Mackinnon breached 60 points as a rookie.

HM: The G-Phil's Flyers picked Andrej Sekera, who led all previously undrafted defencemen with 44 points, good for 15th in defensive scoring in the NHL. Also, I guess we give credit, by default, to the Los Amjawors Kings for picking Johnathan Drouin, who despite not getting a single point is a damn fine hockey player. 

Doug Wilson:  

Awarded to the most active GM.

In a SHOCKING development, the most active team was the Patrik Stefans, with 10 entries in the trade ledger.

 

HM:The Fylanders, obviously and unsurprisingly.

Ken Holland:  

Best draft pick.

Like most years, this award is one that generated significant debate amongst the members of the PKLWA. Ultimately, Mark Giordano (7th round, Mackhawks) narrowly edged Evgeni Kuznetzov (9th round, Dicklas Lidstroms) for the award. Kuznetzov is very probably going to be a hell of a hockey player, but it is hard to argue with getting a top 10 defenceman in the late rounds.

HMs: Many, but Mats Zuccarello was taken 143rd overall by the Moilers, producing a stunning 59 points. Gustav Nyquist was taken by the Schizzarks 108th overall with 48 points. The G-Phil's Flyers probably won the Krusell Cup on the strength of 97th overall selection Andrej Sekera's 44 points.
 

Rick DiPietro: 

Worst draft pick.

Gudbranson and it ain't even close. The Los Amjawors King's picked him 35th overall and got 9 points out of that asshole. At the time no one thought it was a that bad of a pick, but one of the advantages to reviewing this in hindsight is exactly that - hindsight. For the record, Ryan McDonagh was available (taken 4 spots later) and had 43 points. 

HMs: None. I mean, Marty Erat was really pretty bad, but not Gudbranson bad.

George McPhee:  

Best Free Agent signing.

Sometimes in life there are beautiful moments of synchronicity, and I present to you a wonderfully complementary pair of awards. 

Tied for the best free agent signing: The Milan Micahleks dropping Matt Frattin for Charlie Coyle, and the Mackhawks dropping Pascal Dupuis for Wayne Simmonds. Both GMs improved their teams with the careful and judicious use of their precious free agent add/drop slots...

Glen Sather:  

Worst free agent signing.

... unlike the Quebec Rordiques and the Matthawks, who respectively dropped Charlie Coyle for Chris Higgins, and Wayne Simmonds for fucking Tommy Wingels. The only reason the George McPhee winners were able to acquire the players they did was because of these decisions.

Mike Milbury:  

Biggest fleecing.

Surprisingly, there was actually not a clear-cut winner this year. After a great deal of debate (which is a credit to the league), the best the PKLWA could come up with is a trade which saw the Moilers send Kris Letang, Alex Edler, Max Domi and a 2014 7th round pick to the Patrik Stefans for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Marc Arcobello, and Dmitri Orlov. The trade is really more a credit to the Patrik Stefans than it is an indictment of the Moilers, who had no way of knowing that Letang was going to bounce right back from a frigging stroke.

Dave Nonis:  

The most useless transaction.

This is a new award category, given to the GMs who generated the most useless, irrelevant transaction over the course of the season. 

On December 15, 2013, the Los Samjawors Kings sent Ryan Malone + 2014 5th round draft pick to the Quebec Rordiques for Chris Higgins. Two non-keeper players trading spaces on two non-playoff teams. If the trade never happened, both teams would have ended up in the exact same place. Entering trades takes several minutes, and this is one chunk of time the administration team will never get back.

HM: Free agent add/drop of Marc Staal for Kris Russell. Really, Teeyotes?

GM of the Year

In spite of the above, the 2013-14 GM of the year is the Teeyotes on the strength of a sound draft, and a couple shrewd moves that will serve the team well for years to come. They saw value in Ben Bishop, who, as noted above, was one of the best goaltenders in the league, giving up Evgeni Nabokov (and Brent Seabrook for Tyler Myers). As well, they managed to swap aging Henrik Zetterberg for Paul Stastny, who who looks to feature on their scoring roster for the next decade. Sometimes it isn't the quantity of moves, but the quality that earns this award. Congratulations Teeyotes!

HMs: The Winter Claassics. On the trade front it was a quiet year, but a series of clever draft selections and moves have moved the Claassics firmly out of the basement and into the top half of the league. 

Perpetual GM of the Year winner/runner-up, the Fylanders have the best overall record in the league and can always be counted on to be active throughout the year, making good moves that improve their team.

The Mackhawks also deserve recognition for a money finish and two consecutive playoff pool wins.

2013 Draft success

Hey all,

Out of curiousity (read: vanity) I wanted to see how successful our 2013 drafts were, and I had an inkling mine was pretty good. I can't say I wasn't happy to find the results, though it's only cold consolation for having come 8th in the league last year.

Points from the 2013 draft in 2013-2014

1. Krupuls 443
2. Teeyotes 388
3. Claassics 384
4. Flyers 370
5. Mackhawks 367
6. Fylanders 362
7. Stefans 352
8. Micahleks 344
9. Moilers 323
10. Lidstroms 318
11. Rangers 307
12. Parkers 306
13. Rordiques 305
14. Kings 279
15. Canicks 238
16. Schizzarks 221

Now, of course, GMs have different strategies and draft needs from year to year, and a total-points-from-draftees score will be lowered considerably if you stash a hot prospect like, say, Jonathan Drouin (Samjawors Kings) who nabs you a big fat donut in his "first year" in the NHL.

I can't say that I'm surprised the Schizzarks (with their penchant for drafting obscure prospects and highly rating players based on their potential inclusion on "all-name" teams) came in last. :)

If you weren't drafting a potential starting goalie with one of your early round picks then your draft points would obviously be lower as goalies have higher average point totals. Also, if you traded away early round picks and drafted later you might have lower points. Though we do know that the points per round average after the first round is fairly consistent. Lots of value still left in that 7th round apparently. Again, this is likely due to hot prospects going in early rounds who don't produce high points right away while staid and true veterans able to consistently post 35+ points are going in later rounds.

In the end, you only need 9 forwards, 4 D, and a goalie to rank in this league, so it's worth taking some lottery tickets on young unknowns from the Baltic nether regions. But finding some 45 point scorers and a solid 4th D-man is also essential, as the Flyers proved out in their run to the championship last year (Andrej Sekera, seriously?).

Best of luck as we roll up on another great year,
Lord Krusell

The Best Draft Picks of 2013

One of the things I enjoy most about fantasy hockey is looking back at the draft to find the best and worst picks. Randomness or luck plays a huge role in the outcome, and sometimes objectively good decisions lead to bad outcomes, and vice versa. Moreover, different GMs will have different objectives, so picks can't always be compared straight across. Nonetheless, a great pick, even in hindsight, is still a great pick. Here I present my list of the top ten twelve draft picks of 2013, and a few runner ups. I based this list on the following criteria:

1. Production this year (especially if drafting team made the playoffs).

2. Keepability - Likelihood of being a life-long keeper and productive player going forward (includes "hype" bonus).

3. The steal factor - how many times did everyone pass on the guy.

This was actually more difficult than I thought, especially the final ordering. Without further ado, the list, counting down from 12 to one:

12. Nathan MacKinnon, WBS Parkers. Round 1, 1st overall.

In hindsight, MacKinnon seems like the only real choice for first overall. But at the time, I know I was thinking Drouin might have a better year, and there was talk of Kadri as well. And Matt felt it should have been Adam Henrique. Rome deserves credit for making the right choice and not thinking he's smarter than Roy/Sakic.  

11. Jaden Schwartz, Los Amjawors Kings. Round 4, 51st overall. 

Schwartz has 52 points and is third on the Blues in shots. The 21 year-old has already established himself as Sam's best player not named Crosby or Niemi, and should be a solid complimentary piece for years to come.

10. Tyler Johnson, Teeyotes. Round 9, 135th overall. 

With 47 points, Johnson is third in rookie scoring, making this a great pick. But Tampa Bay has another rookie, Ondrej Palat, who is second in rookie scoring. Making this a terrible pick. 

9. Torey Krug, Patrik Stefans. Round 4, 63rd overall.

With 37 points, 5'9" Bruin Torey Krug stands head-and-shoulders above all other rookie blueliners. 

8. Andrej Sekera, G-Phil's Flyers. Round 6, 97th overall.

Sekera's 44 points came out of absolutely nowhere, unless you ask Greg. The Slovak is 9th among defencemen in scoring, but somehow probably not a keeper on Greg's team (over Karlsson, Kronwall and Shattenkirk, all in the top 15... wow.) 

7. Kyle Okposo, Joshfrey Krupuls. Round 1, seventh overall.

A shamed-then-revered pick, Okposo has finally become a legitimate fantasy player. 69 points is tops among all drafted skaters. What prevents this pick from being ranked higher is that at seventh overall, there was really only one guy picked ahead of Okposo that shouldn't have been (that guy being Chris Stewart). 

6. Ryan Johansen, Joshfrey Krupuls. Round 4, 55th overall. 

54 points in 72 games, after 12 in 42 last year. The 21-year-old 225 lb centre is the present and future of Columbus. Hype bonus: high.

5. Alexander Steen, Dicklas Lidstroms. Round 2, 25th overall. 

Steen has 31 goals and 57 points in 61 games, the 2nd-highest point-per-game pace of all drafted skaters. This is the year Steen finally transitioned from non-keeper to permanent fixture.

4. Ben Bishop, Los Amjawors Kings. Round 9, 133rd overall.

The eighth goalie off the board (after Karri Ramo?!), Bishop was drafted as Antti Niemi's backup before being traded to the Teeyotes, filling a massive hole in Teehan's roster and carrying him into the playoffs. Today Bishop has 85 points to Niemi's 86, the top two goalies in our format. Only reason he's not higher is he's a goalie, and the best goalie drafted will pretty much always outscore the best skater drafted.

3. Gustav Nyquist, Schizzarks. Seventh round, 108th overall. 

Nyquist gets 1000 hype bonus points after scoring 20 goals over his last 24 games. He loses points because a) his shooting percentage is an unsustainable 19.2%; b) his opportunity was due to major injuries to Red Wings regulars; and c) he's a Red Wing not named Datsyuk or Zetterberg, so I'm still not 100% sure he won't start next season in the AHL. 

2. Ryan McDonagh, Joshfrey Krupuls. Round 3, 39th overall. McDonagh has shown real offensive upside this season, currently sitting fifth among blueliners with 14 goals and 11th with 43 points. The 24-year-old was the 10th defenceman off the board and quickly established himself as the Krupuls' badly-needed #1 keeper dman.

1. Mark Giordano, Mackhawks. Round 7, 107th overall. 

Giordano's 43 points in 55 games, prorated, is second only to Erik Karlsson. That's pretty much what everyone thought heading into the year, right? The big three: Karlsson, Letang, Giordano? The Mackhawks' best defenceman, Giordano, along with other savvy veteran picks like Alfredsson, Doan, Nielsen, Zidlicky and MacArthur, have the Mackhawks headed for a surprising top-four finish.

Honourable Mentions

• Tomas Hertl, WBS Parkers. Round 6, 90th overall. 25 points in 35 games.
• Sean Monahan, Fylanders. Round 4, 49th overall. 19 goals as a rookie.
• Mats Zuccarello, Moilers. 143rd overall. 50 in 69.
• Semyon Varlamov, Quebec Rordiques - 134th overall, right after Ben Bishop (above). 76 points.
• Jonas Hiller, Winter Claassics. 82nd overall. 75 points.
• Tyson Barrie, Joshfrey Krupuls. 71st overall. 32 points for 2nd-year dman.
• All savvy veteran picks of the Mackhawks (see above). 

Did I miss anybody? Anybody ranked too high or too low? Is Mark Giordano for real?

For anyone keeping track, J-Kru had three picks in the top seven. Pretty good draft. 

KL Week in Review: Week 26

Here's how things sit on the home stretch, with about a dozen games remaining:

There are some interesting races shaping up:

The Money Shot Race

• Obviously, the top 3 remain interesting (to the top 3 anyways). The Flyers have had a big week and clawed back into 1st place, but this is a weird league and shit happens. A late season surge by any one of these teams could mean a new champion

The Charity Case Race

• The Mackhawks have had the best week in the entire KL and have consolidated their hold on 4th place. Nothing is safe, however, and the Teeyotes/Classsics are still within striking distance. I would still love to hear from any of MattMack, Teehan or Claassen with respect to their chosen charities so I can figure out who to root for. 
• Side note: No team in the KL has as many points as the Mackhawks in March. Probably a long shot but they cannot be discounted to actually end up in the top 3. 

The Playoff Bubble Race

• The Krupuls and Rangers (against all odds, having lost Stamkos for the season) are probably good bets to make the playoffs, but 23 points is far from a safe lead in this league, even this late in the season. The Los Amjawors Kings' 27 points last week is probably a disappointing result as a Moiler-esque 38 points would have put them within 12 points. 
• The Moilers aforementioned 38 point week is an excellent result and could position them to make things interesting down the stretch.

The Toronto Maple Leafs of the 2000s Race

• The Lidstroms and Patrik Stefans probably had higher hopes for this year. Instead they are probably going to end up competing for the worst possible finish - just out of reach of the playoffs but not a comparatively poor draft position.

With the 1st Overall Pick in the 2014 Draft, the _______ Are Pleased to Select.... Race

•  Let's be reality here, this is probably the Rordique's to lose - and a perfect position for a new GM taking over a struggling franchise to find themselves in. This will be a chance for our newest GM to show us what he's really made of. 
• That leaves the WBS Parkers, the Schizzarks and the Vanrooser Canicks all competing for the silver medal - the 2nd overall pick. With a mere 8 points separating 3 teams (14 if you want to include the Stefans in this group) the race for second worst team in the KL might actually end up being the most interesting one to watch.

Connor McDavid and the Draft Lottery

Draft lotteries are intended to discourage teams from tanking. While there is literature out there suggesting lotteries fail to achieve this objective, I'm less interested in discouraging tanking (we have no "on-ice product" to worry about, so once a GM decides their season is over (for the Patrik Stefans, never), they can do whatever they want), and more interested in adding an event that would only increase the excitement level of the KL.

Earlier this season we had a thread going about instituting a draft lottery (see email thread titled "Keeper League 2013-13 - Draft day!"). There was a lot of support for the idea, and then we started talking about odds and whether we should mimic the NHL's system, and then suddenly the season was upon us and the discourse fizzled. Also Romany said he didn't want it implemented for 2014 as he considered himself likely to finish last (Rory may have something to say about that). 

With Connor McDavid being draft eligible in 2015 and the Milan Micahleks, for one, already hearing fans encouraging the team to #FadeForMcDavid or #BeAwfulForEichel, it is important that we settle this matter before the 2014-15 season begins. (I mean, we could just impose it immediately (by majority vote), but we don't like to ruffle feathers - after all, we have so much at stake.) 

In the early days of the NHL draft, one team would win and move up, to a maximum of four places. The current CBA was amended to allow all non-playoff teams a shot at selecting first overall, weighted according to regular season finish. Today, the NHL is considering using a lottery to determine the top three, or even the top five selections. They are also considering a rolling five-year formula for ranking the non-playoff teams. 

There are many ways to structure a draft, with or without a lottery. For example, I'm starting to love this NBA wheel idea discussed in this Grantland article.

If we decide to implement a lottery, it could happen live at the start of the draft (meaning all the non-playoff teams get to salivate over the first round pick leading up to the draft), or ahead of time to allow more certainty in planning. The NHL, at present, randomly draws numbered balls to determine the order well in advance. 

NHL Probabilities
1st: 25%
2nd: 18.8%
3rd: 14.2%
4th: 10.7%
5th: 8.1%
6th: 6.2%
7th: 4.7%
8th: 3.6%
9th: 2.7%
10th: 2.1%
11th: 1.5%
12th: 1.1%
13th: 0.8%
14th: 0.5%

Proposed KL Probabilities
1st: 32% (note: 1st is the 16th-place regular season finisher)
2nd: 22%
3rd: 15%
4th: 11%
5th: 8%
6th: 6%
7th: 4%
8th: 2%

This is just to give an idea of what the odds might look like. When I asked Stefan to crunch the numbers to give us odds perfectly analogous to the NHL, I didn't like the result (39% chance of the first pick not moving). But the specifics could be hammered out, say, this summer by a committee of interested GMs who would make a recommendation to the Commissioner. 

Ultimately a draft lottery (or other draft changes) is another thing I'd like to see the next Commissioner consider over the summer (I've been keeping a list), and implement for the 2015 draft, before the 2014-15 season begins. 

Speaking of the next Commissioner, I imagine Greg will be making a formal announcement about voting soon. 

All ideas expressed herein are solely the author's and do not represent the views of the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner, or the Keeper League (tm).

Positional points update

It was early November when #PS1 gave us a graphic showing each team's points from forwards, defencemen and goaltenders. Here is the updated graph, as of games played March 17, 2014.

Orange = goalies; red = defence; blue = forwards

Note the Y-axis begins at 300, to allow us to zoom in on the real differences between rosters.

A few observations:

1. Even if they didn't have a goalie, G-Phil's Flyers would make the playoffs.

2. 400 points from forwards seems to be the cut-off: if you're not getting that baseline, you're not making the playoffs. By the end of the season, it will probably be 450, with the best teams surpassing 500.

3. I don't think this adds or takes away much from Stefan's more in-depth analysis from November. He mentioned that there are many ways to skin a cat. The Fylanders and Milan Micahleks are built the same way: elite forwards, elite goaltending, mediocre defence. G-Phil's Flyers have vastly superior defence, but mediocre forwards and goaltending. If a team could have elite forwards and elite defence, I think that team would be untouchable, regardless of their goaltending situation. On the other hand, the Mackhawks are right there with the Fylanders' and Micahleks' forwards and defence, but Jonathan Quick's off year is keeping them out of the upper echelon.

4. The Schizzarks' and Patrik Stefans' forwards have been awful this year (for various reasons but particularly injuries) - bad enough to drag down perfectly good defences. Both GMs feel strongly that next year will be different.

5. Because we only score four defencemen, a great player can hide an otherwise rotten core. Case in point: the Schizzarks' Keith Yandle has 40% of their defence points.

Consolidated Trade Post

Trade deadline day started with a whimper and ended with a bang. 

A summary of trades, with my quickie thoughts. I encourage all GMs to chime in on these trades, especially those involved. Love hearing motives.

Trade: The Dicklas Lidstroms send Boone Jenner and Patrick Wiercioch to the Schizzarks for Jay Bouwmeester and David Booth.

Quickie Analysis: Schizzarks have an embarrassment of riches on D, and J-Bo could walk for nothing this summer. The get a promising forward in exchange that will be kept as a prospect this summer.

Trade: The G-Phil's Flyers send a 2014 4th round draft pick to the Patrik Stefans for a 2014 6th round draft pick (previously the Flyers) and a FA add/drop.

Pickup: The G-Phil's Flyers drop Pekka Rinne for Darcy Kuemper. The G-Phil's Flyers drop Jaroslav Halak for Pekka Rinne.

Pickup: The Dicklas Lidstroms drop Kari Ramo for Jaroslav Halak.

Quickie Analysis: The Flyers needed an upgrade in goal with Halak languishing in Buffalo. The cheapest option ended up being putting Rinne back on the scoring roster, who even on one leg will get more wins than Halak. The Patrick Stefans got a modest pick upgrade for the remaining FA add/drop, and the Lidstroms scooped an upgrade on Ramo as, I guess, free, modest trade bait for this summer.

Commissioners post-Halak trade edit: OMG FML. 

Trade: The Patrick Stefans send Torey Krug and David Clarkson to the Vanrooser Canicks for Jake Muzzin and Marcus Johansson.

Quickie Analysis: Really Krug for Johansson. Interesting to see two GMs essentially put different keeper values on an offensively gifted defenceman, but the Stefans have not been shy about the value they put on using up keeper slots for d-men (hint: not much).

Trade: The Dicklas Lidstroms send Jakob Voracek and a 2014 7th round draft pick to the Vanrooser Canicks for Kyle Turris and a 2014 4th round draft pick.

Quickie Analysis: Voracek is consistent, earning between 46 and 50 points in each of his last 3 of this last 4 seasons. Last season, however, he was a PPG player. He is on pace for 58 points this year, which is up on his average, down on his previous year.  Turris on the other hand is a 20ish point player in the midst of a breakout season. Only time will tell how this plays out.

Trade: The Fylanders send Carl Soderberg and their 2014 4th round draft pick to the Patrik Stefans for Nathan Horton and their 2014 7th round draft pick.

Quickie Analysis: Not much to say here - this is simply a bet by the Fylanders that Horton will score more points in the final 20 games than Soderberg.  The Stefans, on the other hand, need consistency, not dudes who keep missing a ton of time.

Trade: The Vanrooser Canicks send Alex Goligoski to the Quebec Rordiques for David Rundblad and a 2014 3rd round draftpick.

Quickie Analysis: First Krug, then Rundblad - the Canicks' plan to get young D with upside in place for the future is pretty clear (or if they don't see the upside on Rundblad, then its a free 3rd round pick). The Rordiques, on the other hand, get much-needed veteran defensive help that will help them in coming years.

Trade to Announce (DOMINOS!!!!?!??)

The trade deadline is looming, and we have our first post-Olympic deal. 

Feb-26-2014
The Teeyotes send injured Henrik Zetterberg to the Joshfrey Krupuls for Paul Stastny

Both GMs provided me with their analysis of the trade, but in order to keep Teehan's interest I'm going to copy and paste his tl;dr version:

Zetterberg no play hockey. Stastny play hockey good.

Not much else to say. The Teehans are going for a money spot and the cost to do that was Stastny. The Joshfrey Krupuls made the decision to double-down of their previous Lupul trade to build towards future years. 

Long term a young Stastny > a declining Zetterberg, but it is hard to call a winner in this since the teams motivations are different. 

Stay tuned to this blog over the next while as teams begin to declare themselves buyers and sellers. Time is ticking. 

Trade: Two Elite Defencemen Switch Teams

With the Commissioner on in trial, I have the privilege of announcing and breaking down a big trade that happened back on February 7th. 

To the Moilers: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Mark Arcobello and Dmitri Orlov.

To the Patrik Stefans: Kris Letang, Tie Max Domi, Alex Edler and the Moilers' 2014 7th round pick.

ANALYSIS

The Moilers are currently 26 points out of a playoff spot. When the Moilers' medical staff revealed that Letang had a hole in his heart, caused by years of neglect from his own GM, the writing was on the wall. The very next day, Letang was gone. 

Having had time to digest this trade, I am firmly of the view that the Moilers will never regret the move. Letang, widely considered "second only to Erik Karlsson" in fantasy metrics, has reached 50 points only once in his career. He did score 38 in 35 last season, but that included 33 assists, so you have to wonder how much of his success is a byproduct of playing for the high-scoring Penguins. Guys like Ryan Whitney and Alex Goligoski come to mind as blueliners who have had trouble replicating Pittsburgh numbers outside of Pittsburgh and have haunted GMs in this league. Staying healthy has also been a problem for the 'Tang, and the recent stroke doesn't bode well for his future health. 

On his way to the Moilers is Oliver Ekman-Larsson, a coveted 22-year-old rearguard whose points-per-game has improved in each of his four NHL seasons (although his current 42-point pace suggests he may have reached a plateau). He'll likely never put up point-per-game numbers the way Letang is capable of (although you have to wonder if he could on a team like the Penguins), but he's a top-tier keeper in any event. Asked about OEL, the Moilers' GM was unable to comment, but stated that she was "sick of Letang and his shenanigans." Asked whether her team would make the playoffs, the always-frank GM responded, "probably not."

To balance the trade, the Patrik Stefans receive a reclamation project in Alex Edler and a prospect in Max Domi. Edler is certainly a viable keeper defenceman in the right situation, so the Stefans are hoping for a trade or some kind of miraculous turnaround in Vancouver. Eighteen-year-old Domi is leading his London Knights in scoring and is, in my opinion, an underrated prospect at "7.5 C." The "risk" in his projection is that he is 5'9", but I hardly consider it a risk given 5'9" is the ideal height for a man.  

Orlov and Arcobello are dead weight. Asked whether this was essentially a three-for-one trade, the GM of the Patrik Stefans replied, "Mark Archipelago was an expendable rock among the chain of islands that is my offence. And the Moilers' GM said she'd do anything f'Orlov." So, yes. 

Conclusion: Led by a compulsive gambler GM, the Patrick Stefans are absorbing all of the risk in this deal. If everything breaks their way, it's a huge payout. If not, the Moilers may have just committed grand Larssony. 

#PS4 - It's All About The Rings

In this fourth chapter of Hardly a Stat Holiday, I provide no insight whatsoever, but instead attempt to engage you in a purely frivolous analysis on the eve of Team Canada's first game in Sochi.  I’ve calculated each team’s total points earned in the Olympic Games over the course of their players’ entire careers.

To give some indication of what little can be taken from this in terms of KL success, KL points this season are almost “perfectly uncorrelated” with career Olympic points; the coefficient of variation is 0.0028.  In addition to listing players who have made it to the most prestigious international stage, I’ve included players who earned a trip to Sochi, whether they are in fact lacing them up or not. These are highlighted and totalled parenthetically to give at least some basis for keeper league pride and shame.  Belated, prelated, and unfeted Happy Family Day to all. Let’s get to it.

The Mackhawks GM is soon to become the president of my blog column fan club.  For the second straight piece, they find themselves atop the rankings, with an Olympic total of 83 points.  A lot of their KL success can be attributed to the aging vets still getting it done, and their invitation to Sochi once again confirms this. 

An all-time 78 point showing by the Shizzarks has got to make their GM feel a bit better at this juncture of the season.  I mean… it’s really all Teemu though, who alone has more Olympic points (37) than the entire rosters for nine GMs in our league.  Oh, and here’s a fun trivia question: who has the most career NHL points among active players never having played in the Olympics?  Can you guess who’s second?  What about third?  Hint: THEY ARE ALL ON THE SCHIZZARKS.  I feel this says something, though I don’t know what.  (NB: I’ve included Spezza because he actually went to Turin with the team, but never suited up). 

Given their namesake, the Dicklas Lidstroms have appropriately put up a strong Olympic showing.  This year, however, the Sochi dream has been marred by injury for two prominent forwards, Gaborik and M. Koivu.  Fitting too, that Sami Salo is kind of the injured ice hockey player poster child.

Just when I thought I was good at creating blog posts that avoided all G-Phil accolades, ugh… twelve Olympians going to Sochi this year.  FIVE defenders.  And he already put up 4 more points in the first game this morning.

I see a lot of Czechs and Canucks on the Moilers, who would all probably fair better playing for Canada… something something Petr Nedved.

The Powder Rangers boast the most Olympians if you include the ones bound for Sochi—and those that would have been but for broken tibias.  Fourteen is an impressive lot from this ethnically diverse squad, but aside from Jagr, they haven’t realy done much historically.  Lookout though, Juicy says he’s playing the best hockey of his life.

You can add six more to the Winter Claassics’ Winter Games total with Hiller’s shutout this morning and the ever talkative "Gabby" Landeskog’s helper.  The only other thing I’ll say is I wish Marleau had taken the Saku “I’m not good enough anymore so I’ll take myself out of the running” Koivu approach to these 2014 games.  Hope I’m wrong.  The Claassics have also interestingly dropped or traded 4 current Olympians in Erat, Gionta, Eriksson, and Olli Jokinen.

The Fylanders are really the Austrian Islanders, which has its humour bound by the fact that Austria is entirely landlocked.  Fy should have dropped Brunner for Raffl long ago to really complete the triumvirate.  Or convinced Brunner to play for Austria.  No-one would have questioned it.

Evgeni “now back-up” Nabokov keeps the Los Samjawors Kings’ Olympic total respectable. Aptly, it’s pretty much all on Sid’s shoulders otherwise, because Denmark, Belarus, and Germany are not playing in Sochi.

The Rordiques are characterized by a bunch of disappointed Bonhommes in Ryan, Malone (that’s two separate snowmen), and Mike Richards. Players like Del Zotto and Grigorenko also went from having outside chances of playing in Sochi to having developmental meltdowns.

This is just so pathetic looking. The Patrik Stefans' Olympic showing is led by two players that should enter into an early retirement pact. And I’m embarrassed for the USA that Eric Cole ever played for them. Of course, the biggest travesty of all is that Anton Khudobin did not get the call to Sochi.  Lastly, and a spoiler alert, just when you think I might have reason to smile by OEL’s performance today, I traded him for a stroke victim... details to come from the Commish.

The W-Benham/Scranton Parkers remember a better time when host cities bore double-barrelled names such as Garmische-Partenkirchen.  Up and down, this KL roster has a bunch of mediocre Europeans, including impostors Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Matt Niskanen, and Marty Havlat (Havlat is an impostor of an NHL caliber player).

The Joshfrey Krupels exemplify exactly why this post is completely meaningless.  Ryan Miller put on an absolute show in Vancouver 4 years ago, but is a current non-contributor to the Krupels scoring roster.  More to the point, however, Matt Duchene, Claude Giroux, and Kyle Okposo have put up 166 points in the NHL this season, and none have played a game for their respective nations at the Olympics.  Duchene is rumoured to be warming either the bench or the press-box in Sochi, while Giroux and Okposo are arguably the biggest snubs of the tournament, having tallied the highest NHL totals of any two players staying home.

The Milan Micahleks boast the second most Olympians in Sochi (10) and the most debutants (7).  That number could have been higher had Vrbata, Baertschi, and Colin Wilson not been blatantly overlooked.  Haha, minus whoever that last guy is.

The Teeyotes have the double honour of owning the fewest Olympians ever and sending the fewest players to Sochi.  Teehan tl;dr.

 

  

Ilya Kovalchuk.

KL Week in Review: Week 20

Uh remember how I said last week that this was going to be very short on account of a forthcoming Month in Review post? Well, shit. It's still coming. In the meantime, here we sit after 20 (!!) weeks of competition:

A few notes:

• The Micahleks just can't crack 1st place.
• The TEEYOTES ARE IN A MONEY SPOT. I'm really happy about that. The happier Teehan is in this league, the happier the league is.
• Sadly it is at the expense of the Winter Claassics. That 4th place spot is hotly contested right now and I'd love to see some GMs in that zone make some moves before the roster freeze (March 6th). 
• The Powder Rangers have, despite losing Steven Stamkos, taken 14 weeks to hit 8th place. It is a credit to the strength of the rest of the team that they have remained even remotely competitive.
• On the same note, they are proportionately not much further behind 1st place now than they were on November 12th, on a Points:Points Behind Leader basis. Of course, an inverse of that is the Games Remaining:Points Behind Leader ratio which is not nearly as favourable. 
• Is 8th place a race between 3 teams? 17 points separate 8th and 9th place, whilst 30 whole points separate 10th from 11th. The Dicklas Lidstroms are 56 points back of a playoff spot. 
• I am heartened to see the Kovalchuk-less Vanrooser Canicks in 12th place. After spending the first half of the season in 16th place, they have steadily clawed their way up to 12th. They may run out of road before they run out of gas, but they are my long-shot favourites to take the 8th and final playoff spot.

KL Week in Review: Week 19

There isn't much to say this week, because I am also posting the Month in Review. This is here for completeness.