As I've mentioned before, our hockey pool follows an odd set of rules and processes in order to accommodate players, and groups of players with different levels of experience and knowledge of hockey pools and hockey in general.
The player selection process of our pool is half draft and half open - I know, it sounds ridiculous but works well enough when put into practice. It operates specifically as follows:1st - 2nd Round: Open Draft - (Any position)
3rd - 4th Round: Draft - (Center only)
5th - 6th Round: Draft - (Left Wing only)
7th - 8th Round: Draft - (Right Wing only)
9th - 10th Round: Draft - (Defensemen only)
11th Round: Draft - (Goaltenders only)
12th - 20th Rounds: Open Player Selections
To put it plainly: Drafted players are locked from the get-go and can only be traded, since a drafted player is owned solely by that participant/team. Players selected in open rounds are up for grabs for anyone and you had a week to finalize those choices - or make trades for drafted players, etc.
During the player draft, there was a bit of wheelin' and dealin' by poolies trying to score some draft positions, despite some protesting. This past week also saw a bit of the same as we had a week to finalize our player selections before the rest of our rosters were locked. Final rosters consist of 12 Forwards (4 C/LW/RW), 5 Defensemen and 3 Goalies - weird I know.
I haven't seen the final rosters for some of the other teams yet but I've heard some interesting things. It's hard to make a decision on a group of players after only one week, since that week can be a poor representation of the next 75+ games that are left in the season. When it came down to the wire I only swapped a couple of names out of my open selections.
My group of drafted players was actually, pretty surprising considering my draft position(s), and the choices people actually made during the draft rounds. I did get shafted by a few people who targeted some of my personal most wanted players right out of the gate, but I'm definitely not complaining about who I did get to draft first because of it. I also traded my 4th round pick for an extra 11th round draft choice, since a lot of Centers were getting taken early on, so I took a gamble on who would be left - but it worked out.
Here's my pool roster with the selections made during our October 2nd draft, before the regular season kicked off:
Team 6 - The Djentlemen
Round 1: Steven Stamkos (TBL)Round 2: Marian Hossa (CHI)
Round 3: Mikko Koivu (MIN)
Round 4: Traded for Round 11
Round 5: Henrik Zetterberg (DET)
Round 6: Thomas Vanek (BUF)
Round 7: Phil Kessel (TOR)
Round 8: Johan Franzen (DET)
Round 9: Drew Doughty (LAK)
Round 10: Tyler Myers (BUF)
Round 11: Jimmy Howard (DET) & Johnathan Quick (LAK)
Round 12: Jack Johnson (LAK)
Round 13: Derek Roy (BUF)
Round 14: Travis Zajac (NJD)
Round 15: Claude Giroux (PHI)
Round 16: Kristian Huselius (CBJ)
Round 17: Tyler Ennis (BUF)
Round 18: John Carlson (WSH)
Round 19: Pavel Kubina (TBL)
Round 20: Cam Ward (CAR)
Obviously I'm quite happy with a lot of the choices I had available to me in the draft rounds, especially getting to snag Steven Stamkos in the first round, much to my surprise.
Some of my friends organized their choices and trades to be very team centric, or by gunning for a specific list of players. I've gone a little bit all over the board but with a focus on some of my favorite teams and players that have proven themselves to be good choices in the past.
The results overall for the first week of the season have been more than good given this group of players. Except for the fact that Johan Franzen is out indefinitely. Of course we're only an average of 4 games per team, into the season so there's plenty that can change between now and April.
Personally I just want to see last years' winner lose to his girlfriend again, like he did during our playoff pool. Good times.
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