Will a strong forward crop offset less than great G and D?

This team was drafted using a forward emphasis in terms of drafting strategy and then filling up with G and D much later than I normally would. Due to the steep dropoff in talent at RW this season, I chose to draft two righties straight away with my first two picks, thus quickly solidifying the entire side with a couple top notch players.

I snatched up Iginla and Hossa, easily two of the best RWs in the league. Right away this sets me up at the scarce position of RW. Now, onto the other forwards. I normally wouldn’t grab a center until much later, as evidenced by the previous draft with goalie emphasis, where I didn’t grab a center until pretty late. However, in this draft, with a distinct forward emphasis, I had to grab Getzlaf while he was still on the board with my 3rd round pick because he’s a really strong and still young and improving player. With the next pick, I grabbed the best LW still left on the board, in my estimation, who was Thomas Vanek. As I mentioned in the goalie emphasis post, I have a feeling that Vanek will have a pretty big season this year. Check out the Sabres fantasy breakdown to see what we’re expecting this season from Buffalo.

Although this particular draft was set to focus on forwards first, that doesn’t mean I’m totally ignoring D and goalies until the very last picks. That would make for a very poorly balanced team. Roto with max games calls for solid starters, as depth/bench players are less important. With this in mind, I drafted Andrei Markov with my 5th round pick because there was a run on d-men and I had to grab one before they were all gone, because Markov surely would’ve been taken even before my next pick came back around. With Markov providing a strong D anchor, I went back to forwards and took another strong center, Anze Kopitar.

Soon, it was becoming evident how sparse top goalies are and similar to the D-men situation, goalies were starting to go quick. I had to grab Biron, who should have a good year with a strong Flyers team this season. With Biron, I’ll at least have a solid #1 goalie and not be too worried at all. After taking a goalie, I again went back to forward with the Elias pick to round out my starting LW. However, since then, someone has dropped Milan Michalek and I’ve put in a waiver claim for him, and he would replace Elias as my second LW after Vanek.

With the 101st overall pick, I grab another goalie in Manny Legace. Again, because goalies were going so fast, I had to take Legace before a second D-man or any other forwards. Also the fact that goalies make up a higher proportion of category impact per starting position than any skaters do, I definitely needed to grab a second goalie. My grabbing a goalie did not prevent me from taking Gomez and Semin with my next two picks, two high potential forwards, both of whom are coming off somewhat disappointing seasons and should nicely rebound. Also, after them, Martin Erat was a nice addition to the bench as a 3rd RW and getting him pretty late in the draft was good value.

Obviously, with only four rounds left, I have to fill up my 3 D slots still. I drafted Blake, Enstrom, and Spacek to round out my D. I also took Gerber with my second to last pick as insurance for my other goalies. However, in retrospect, I perhaps should have taken a second D a lot earlier and held off on one of the forwards, due to the thinner talent pool on the blue line.

The goalie situation really isn’t too bad at all, especially with Gerber being a relative steal with the second to last pick. He can’t be that bad in Ottawa, right? My thinking is that he’ll be able to put up some decent numbers, and I already have Biron and Legace in front of him anyway. Speaking of Legace, he should be solid a steadily improving St. Louis team. Additionally, I do still have Biron to rely on for the wins category, as Philly should hopefully be able to put up plenty of those this season.

Overall the team looks pretty decent. The two pacific division centers of Getzlaf and Kopitar, two of the most sought after players in keeper leagues, set me up at C quite nicely. My weakest forward position is probably LW. Although Vanek and Semin should both have nice comeback seasons after coming up slightly short last season, it remains to be seen if Elias can get back to his highest level after his encounter with Hepatitis overseas. As stated earlier, I have since put in a waiver claim for Milan Michalek, who will take over Elias’ spot because I feel Michalek is more of a sure bet out in SJ than Elias is at this point, especially because I’m slightly concerned about New Jersey’s ability to score this season. Whether that’s the right move or not remains to be seen. NJ has proven to be rather resilient, even after doomsayers have claimed their team will fall apart and it still hasn’t yet, and Brodeur sure helps keep NJ afloat.

Clearly, the forward emphasis draft started off well but it’s evident that the D is really, really weak. It remains to be seen if my strong forward crop up front, especially at RW, will be able to overcome the weak defense. However, this of course is the entire point of the draft experiment: to see which general strategy works the best, to an extent. Check out the initial draft experiment post for more info.