This is the second update in the draft experiment series, for the Defense Emphasis draft. If you’re unfamiliar with the premise, go back and read the original post: the great draft experiment.
This team was drafted with an emphasis on taking defense first before the goalies and forwards. The initial goal was definitely accomplished and the D group was (and still is) the best in the league, however, the injury to Gonchar really diminished how strong it potentially could have been. This team is currently 5th place in the standings and has lots of room for improvement after the All Star break.
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The first row is the ranking in each category (this is a roto league) and the second row is the total year-to-date accumulation for each category.
This defense emphasized team is in 5th place out of 12 at the moment. It is middle-of-the-pack in many key categories, which is rough. Ironically, the team is doing quite nicely in GAA and SV% and even is okay in shutouts with only 4 total on the year. Ground can be made up in the other categories in the coming weeks as more games get used up and the other teams have to slow down because they are way over in their max games pace.
Here is the roster:
Overall, the roster is not that bad at all. There have been some trouble with injuries, especially right at the outset with Gonchar going down for a long time. Currently there is one injury, Alex Tanguay, who is still out for another few weeks.
The main emphasis when drafting this team was clearly defense. Gonchar was the first one taken but after him came Rafalski, Green, and Boyle, who are still around are doing extremely well. Pitkanen was a later pick-up but even though he is slacking, the other three are carrying so hard that it does not even matter as much. This is easily the best defense group out of all the teams in this league. They show no signs of slow down and in fact should get even stronger in the second half stretch after the All Star break allows them to rest a bit.
Crosby, Horcoff, and Arnott lead the pack at center. Crosby is obviously the offensive powerhouse on the team at forward, as well he should be. Horcoff and Arnott are switched in and out depending on the matchups, but they have both underperformed a bit this season, to be honest. Still, they provide good support to Crosby, who is counted on heavily.
The winger group is probably the weakest overall out of all the draft experiment teams. Gagne is performing the most admirably this season but has missed time here and there with injuries. Brad Boyes is pointing but his +/- rating is absolutely terrible. Luckily, the other skaters on the team make up for it and overall the team is +55, which is good for second in the league. Booth has filled in nicely for injured Tanguay. Dustin Brown, who was highly touted going into this season, has not produced up to expectations. The emphasis being on defense and now goalies as the season goes on, it is unlikely that Brown will be dropped in favor of anyone else unless another team drops a quality RW, which is possible towards the end of the season. For now, though, Brown and Boyes will have to do.
The goalie outlook is actually not that bad with the group of Huet, Ward, Vokoun, and Anderson, who are surprisingly doing okay in the relevant stats. Second place in GAA and 3rd place in SV% is somewhat unexpected from this group. The win count is rather on the low side but that is easily explained by the fact that the team is way behind pace in goalie games used year-to-date. The win count will inevitably go up as more games are used. In fact, a forward will probably be sacrificed for a goalie at some point in the future, as the season gets closer to the end. The biggest worry is that as the games start getting averaged in, if the goalies are performing poorly, it will actually bring down the stats for GAA and SV%. It will have to be monitored closely to see if it is even worth it to try and catch up in wins.
Overall, the roster is not that bad. It is not that great but it is still performing decently. The team is in 5th place and Crosby and the defense are certainly carrying the load on offense. If the wingers were as strong as the other experiment teams, this team would be that much better. The goalie group is not great but it is still doing a decent job and will have to have a good stretch run to really boost the team back into the top 3 in the standings.
The most glaring max games issue is obviously in net, just like all the other draft experiment teams, it seems. Currently, going into the All Star break, this team is at a pace of 31 games behind where it should be for goalie games utilization. This is good and bad. Being so many games behind is good because it is essentially having games in hand vs. the other competitors who are ahead in the standings, as most of them are closer to even or over, but at the same time, the goalie group for this defense emphasized team is really weak at using up games consistently because there three of them are not full-time starting goalies; Huet splits with Khabibulin, Vokoun and Anderson split games, and even Ward is prone to underperforming and being forced to share starts with backup goalie Leighton. The other starting spots are also behind but they are negligible compared to the goalie spots. Once the skater slots are used up quicker in the next few weeks, it is highly likely that a drop of one of the forwards will have to be made in favor of a goalie in order to make up games faster. That should also give better choices of starts per day, hopefully. All things considered, though, it is better to be behind in games used than way ahead.
The only transaction that has occurred for this team since the last update is that Erat was dropped for David Booth. Also, since then, Alex Tanguay has been injured and so Booth was a necessary pick-up and Erat was expendable because he was usually benched in favor of Boyes and Brown anyway. Once Tanguay gets back, it should be interesting to see what happens in terms of game usage because Booth has been doing well this season.
This team was at one point first in the league, for the first several weeks of the season and shortly slid down right before the first updates for each draft experiment team. In fact, besides the BPA draft, all the draft experiment teams were in first place in their respective leagues to start the season. It is still anticipated that this team will end up in the top 3 by season’s end.
Check out the original post: The Great Draft Experiment and also the main page with links to all the teams: http://saucerpass.com/draft-experiment.
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