gkmkiller

Oceanside, CA • United States • 33 Years Old • Male

Fantasy Hockey Time

I will admit it; I don’t know about most of you but I am a fantasy addict. I play fantasy baseball, football and especially hockey. In fact, this year I have joined 3 leagues, two of which are keeper leagues. This will be my first foray into a keeper hockey league so I am looking forward to it. In one of the keeper leagues, the league manager paired up all of the teams and we are allowed to keep two players from each of “our” teams. We were allowed to select the “team pairs” on a first-come-first-served basis. Naturally I chose the pairing of the Rangers and Kings and I kept Gaborik (hope he stays healthy), Lundqvist, Koptiar and Doughty. The other league is a salary cap league.

The most interesting of the two keeper leagues is the salary cap league. We can have 17 players on the roster (2 C, 2 LW, 2 RW, 4 D, 1 G, 6 bench spots and 1 IR spot) and our salary cap is $40 million. The NHL’s salary cap is currently at $56.8 million with 21 or 22 players (13 F, 7 D and 2 G possibly). That means the maximum average salary per player in the NHL is about $2.58 million. In our salary cap league the maximum average salary per player allowed would be about $2.35 million per player. That is even lower than what real NHL teams are working with. There are going to be many good players that won’t be drafted.

We are conducting an off-line draft which means that it isn’t live; there are no time constrictions on when we have to make a pick so things are moving slowly. Apart from that fact I am really enjoying this format. We are only in the second round but we have already seen a number of players on entry-level contracts chosen (i.e. Devin Setoguchi, Steve Mason, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos and Bobby Ryan) that likely wouldn’t have been selected this early in more traditional formats. We have already realized that cap space is at a premium and we have bypassed players like Eric Staal, Henrik Lundqvist, Joe Thornton and Vinny Lecavalier, all of whom would typically have been selected by now, because of their expensive contracts.

So far, I have drafted Roberto Luongo in the first round with the 12th pick overall and Jonathan Toews with the 17th overall pick. I chose Luongo because A) he is the best goalie in the game and B) his cap number decreases next season since signing his new extension. Toews was a no-brainer as I needed offense and with his relatively low cap hit of $850,000, I have a better chance of staying under the league cap number. Of course I have to consider that Toews is a RFA after this season so if I elect to keep him I will have to budget his certain increase in salary into next year’s cap limit. I wish I had gone offense in round 1 and followed up with Steve Mason and the 2 years remaining on his entry level deal that pays him only $820,000 per. Another factor to consider is that we can only keep a player for 3 seasons, including this one.

I will freely admit that I am a geek; especially when it comes to stats. I have a spreadsheet with 40 players on it that will hopefully comprise the core of my team. I have included their cap hits for each of the next three seasons (if applicable), their projected fantasy points and their projected fantasy points per million $ of salary. That helps me determine the value in terms of their projected production versus salary. Naturally I have to weigh in the fact that that some of my players will be free agents after this season so I have to be careful how I budget; not only for this year but for subsequent seasons.

I am curious how many of you also play fantasy hockey and what type of format you enjoy playing. Do you guys think this format will be fun? I am open to suggestions from you guys as to whom I should draft next. Here is the board currently:

1.Team Stewart:----------------Alex Ovechkin, 9.53mil
2.Creepsville Stalkers:--------Evgeni Malkin, 8.70mil
3.Ventura Vikings:-------------Jarome Iginla, 7.00mil
4.Touchdown Jesus:---------------Zach Parise, 3.12mil
5.Devilish Ducks:---------------Ryan Getzlaf, 5.32mil
6.Left Coast Lumberjacks:------Sidney Crosby, 8.7 mil
7.LoneStar Crusadres:-----------Pavel Datsyuk,6.7 mil
8.Brattleboro Senators III:------Daniel Sedin, 6.1 mil
9.Team Tronsgard:----------------Marc Savard, 5.0mil
10.Team Farrar:------------Henrik Zetterberg, 6.08 mil
11.What the Puck!:----------Nicklas Backstrom, 0.85 mil
12.Hartford Whalers:-----------Roberto Luongo, 6.75 mil
13.dustin brownies:--------------Rick Nash 5.4 mil
14. Winnipeg Jets:--------------Ilya Kovalchuk 6.38 mil


Round 2:

1.Winnipeg Jets:---------------Mike Green, 5.25mil
2.dustin brownies-------------Patrick Kane, 0.87mil
3.Hartford Whalers:-----------Jonathan Toews 0.85 mil
4.What the Puck--------------Alexander Semin 4.60M
5.Team Farrar----------------Steve Mason, 0.82 M
6.Team Tronsgard-------------Devin Setoguchi 0.82M
7.Brattleboro Senators III-----Henrik Sedin, 6.10M
8.LoneStar Crusadres-------------Brad Boyes, 4.0M
9.Left Coast Lumberjacks------------Cam Ward 2.67 mil
10.Devilish Ducks------------------Bobby Ryan 0.82M
11.Touchdown Jesus--------------Mikka Kiprusoff, 5.83M
12.Ventura Vikings
13.Creepsvile Stalkers
14.Team Stewart

ROUND 3:

1.Team Stewart:----------------
2.Creepsville Stalkers:--------
3.Ventura Vikings:-------------
4.Touchdown Jesus:---------------
5.Devilish Ducks:---------------
6.Left Coast Lumberjacks:------
7.LoneStar Crusadres:-----------
8.Brattleboro Senators III:------
9.Team Tronsgard:---------------
10.Team Farrar:----------
11.What the Puck!:----------
12.Hartford Whalers:-----------
13.dustin brownies:-------------
14. Winnipeg Jets:--------------

I am the Hartford Whalers and as you can see I don’t draft again until the 3rd round (40th overall). If you have any suggestions as to who I should select, feel free to leave them in the comments section. Note: I took Luongo over Lundqvist solely because of the cap hit in the next two years. It was difficult as a Rangers fan to do that but I want to win and saving $1.5 million in each of the next two seasons was the key to that decision.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.gkmkiller.

Thanks,

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