Post by GoVoysGo on Sept 13, 2014 18:57:16 GMT -5
Hello guys. I figured I would make use of this board since the Dynasty Sports Empire four-sport league isn't operating on proboards. If anyone from the DSE league is notified of this, don't worry. This doesn't concern our league anymore. I'm using it for a local hockey league. If you are part of that hockey league, don't read this. Although... I guess it's too late for that.
These boards will be used for the weekly power rankings. I thought it would be nice to suggest how this league appears to shape up ahead of this upcoming season. I will be posting the weekly power rankings in two parts each week. The first part will be the bottom half, also known as the glass half full half. If you get offended that is OK we weren't going to spend Christmas together anyways.
The grammar will be bad and if you feel the need to point that out please be prepared to make a fist with your right hand and shake it back and forth so you can visualize my response to those complaints.
The Power Rankings are composed based on performance and a glance at the team rosters...........
And finally, please have fun with these as I intend to, and try to ignore the fact that I copied the beginning of Clint J. Gritt's weekly power rankings from the Triple Play Dynasty baseball league.
#4 RED DEER BLADES (5)
It wasn't too easy to rank the Blades, especially with some amazing drafting from the Milwaukee Blizzard, but in the end I must admit I fell for the beautiful Red Deer home jerseys. Red Deer entered the draft with probably the second worst keepers, yet owner Mark Korodetz immensely increases his team's stock with impeccable drafting. When approached after the draft, Korodetz commented on his drafting: "I had no clue, like, half the time, who I was going to take. It was all last-second." Still, he found players that eluded most other owners and stole them later in the draft. He selected Jeff Carter with the 8th overall (non-keeper) pick, Brian Elliott at 32, Brent Seabrook at 77, Mike Smith at 101, and Anthony Mantha as the second-last pick of the draft (113). Brian Elliott appears poised to take on his first starting job (which has arrived much later in Elliott's career than I foresaw), who posts a career save percentage of .911 and a goals-againts-average of 2.48 during a 9-year career as a backup. There appeared to be a time when Brian Elliott might become the starter in Ottawa years ago, when he played goal alongside past-their-prime veterans Martin Gerber and Alex Auld (2008-09), and played backup to Pascal Leclaire the next season (around the time Leclaire's career sputtered and died out). At that point, Ottawa's goalie situation was dire, and Elliott seemed to be the only viable option, or they would have to bring in another goalie from outside the franchise. Not only did they choose the latter, but traded Elliott away to do so. It remains to be seen how he will handle the increase in games, although he has surpassed 40 games in a season more than once (his career high is 55). There are some holes that must be addressed (weak at the wings), along with many question marks. Will Brent Burns adjust after coach Todd McLellan confirmed that he was moving back to the blueline? Will Mantha meet the hype and make an impact in his first season? After a brilliant year and a new contract, will Tyson Barrie continue to produce in his second full season? Will Ryan O'Reilly finally finish a single season with no penalty minutes? Only time will tell. But for now, Mark enters as the last team to crack the post-season, despite coming off of a brilliant season, where he finished as a finalist.
MVP - None, as the season has not begun. Every week, one player from each team will be chosen as the team's most valuable player from that week.
Reason for hope: While he may not have the best team, he does in fact have the best home jersey. By far.
#5 MILWAUKEE BLIZZARD (4)
I actually think Blizzard owner Sam Kantor did a very good job of drafting. His team moves down a rank due to the drafting of the Blades. Despite a weak first pick in Jackets blueliner James Wisniewski (3), he rebounded the following round with Ryan Miller (7). While majority of his picks were very, very good, a few poor ones prevent him from being the best drafter. Paul Stastny (22), Radim Vrbata (42), Ryan Kesler 46), Justin Williams (75), and Mikko Koivu (99) all make very strong cases for best drafter, but picks like Milan Lucic (34), Troy Brouwer (94), and Loui Eriksson (106) make it hard to do so. Kantor still has a lot of work cut out for him. Milwaukee's centres, despite being solid, simply don't match up to some of the other teams. Their goalies are Corey Crawford, Jake Allen, Ryan Miller, and Sergei Bobrovsky, which is quite poor. Other than Crawford, each of those have huge question marks. After a Vezina-winning lockout-shortened season, Bobrovsky followed with a decline in production last year. Which Bobrovsky will we see; the one that single-handedly brought Columbus up from the dregs of the Western Conference and nearly into the playoffs, or the one that could not help his team out of their first round matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins? As mentioned in the overlook of Red Deer, Brian Elliott seems poised to take on the starting role for St. Louis that he's awaited for years, but will Jake Allen sneak up from behind and take it away in his first full-time NHL season? Both appear to be very capable of heavy workloads, although Allen has not proven that on a strictly NHL level (47 games in a season for AHL team Peoria Rivermen, 52 games last season for AHL team Chicago Wolves, 53 for QMJHL team Montreal Juniors; only played in 15 NHL games in his career). The BIG IF is Ryan Miller. For years, he had been the prized backstop of the Buffalo Sabres. Due to the Sabres' poor fortunes, as well as a UFA-pending All-Star goalie, they were forced to trade Miller. At the time of the trade, Miller was supposedly a top 3 goalie in the NHL, and the Blues, who had just acquired Miller, seemed to make out like gangbusters. In actuality, he played worse than Vesa Toskala on a depleted Toronto Maple Leafs roster. And the most intriguing part is that his performance massively dropped as the quality of defence protecting him massively increased. That makes me think that Miller should excel behind crappy defence. Moreover, he should do fine in Vancouver. Milwaukee's wingers, however, pose as the team's strongest points and pose a serious threat to other teams. The defensive corps of the Blizzard has a terrific blend of stars and depth, starring Erik Karlsson - Ryan Suter, Oliver Ekman-Larsson - James Wisniewski, and Andrei Markov - John Carlson. Each of those players can provide solid production, and features two of the top 15 players at the position in (arguably the top blueliner) Karlsson and Ekman-Larsson (who posted a career-high statline of 15/29/44 in 80 games last year). With a few trades in Milwaukee's benefit, this team can surprise a lot of people.
MVP - None.
Reason for hope: Dairy Queen is having a sale on all ice-cream products.
#6 DALLAS DIAMONDS (6)
Let's assume for a moment that instead of David Clarkson, the Dallas Diamonds' owner Isaac Reich had used the 45th pick on Ryan Kesler, or even Jaroslav Halak, the latter whom he will have swapped with Clarkson soon. Mistakes are made, wrong players have been clicked. That won't be taken into account here. I still think the Diamonds left the draft as the least successful drafter. I would not say he was the "worst" drafter, as everyone had a relatively solid draft. With the first pick, Reich did not disappoint, drafting Tomas Vanek. He did not get another pick until the 30th selection, which he used to make another fantastic pick in Cory Schneider, then immediately followed it with David Krejci at 31. He used the 36th selection on a reach, taking Wayne Simmons. The latter of the back-to-back picks, the 37th pick, was another strong selection, Joe Thornton. One of the biggest steals of the draft was their selection of young stud Evgeny Kutznetsov (85). Some of Dallas's picks, like Dion Phaneuf (49), Mike Green (61), and Nail Yakupov (109) bring his draft stock down. Calling Reich the least successful drafter is nothing to get upset over. In just about any other league he would not be considered so; but this had to be one of the most balanced drafts in ESPN history. Looking at this team shows you that even the lowest ranked team still has a lot of bite. What I initially took for a group of centres that leaves a lot to be desired is actually better defined as a group of centres that are almost guaranteed to have career years (or an incline of production) that slid through the draft, falling to the Diamonds. Newly acquired Jason Spezza (by the real Dallas Stars) initially might not have been a solid keeper option, but Reich rolled the dice and was not let down, as the Stars made a terrific trade with Spezza's old team, the Ottawa Senators. Now, on a new, better team, Spezza appears poised to erase the previous season's drop in production. Nobody is suggesting a 90+ point season, as deemed his norm from 2005-2008, his second, third, and fourth seasons in the NHL, but it shouldn't be a surprise for him to surpass a point-per-game statline, or at least certainly better than last year's statline of 23/43/66 that he posted in 75 games. It will also be interesting to see how Brad Richards does, also joining a new team (the Chicago Blackhawks). It appears that he will anchor a second line, along with Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane. He has arguably not had such good linemates since his Tampa days with Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, although an argument could also be made for his Dallas Stars days (Modano-Richards-Morrow). He has only posted 90+ points twice in his career. The first was the 2005-06 season, with Tampa Bay (23/68/91 in a full 82 game season), and the other was during his third of four seasons with Dallas in 2009-10 (24/67/91 in 80 games). It is also to be seen how his presence will affect the ice time of Chicago first-line centre Jonathan Toews, also a player on the Diamonds roster. The wings are the team's source of BIG IF. I won't get deep into it, but I do not predict Tomas "Vanish" will re-appear, although in a desired location that is the Minnesota Wild he might prove me wrong. I do not think Yakupov will improve one bit either. Calling him a piece of shit is a very mean and hurtful thing to say about a piece of shit. And will Joffrey Lupul manage to set a new record for least amount of games played in a season? (not including lockout-shortened seasons, his current record is 23 in 2009-10) The blueline looks to not make headlines as star-studded, but has probably the deepest defence in the league (except for maybe the Blizzard). Dan Boyle looks to take over as the NYR powerplay quarterback following the departure of aforementioned Richards. Phaneuf looks to ignore ongoing heckling and continue his slightly-above-mediocre production. Drew Doughty should continue his impressive statline and continue to be one of fantasy hockey's top defencemen. Mike Green will (I stand by it with certainty) play poorly as he is demoted to the third defensive corps. The crease is top-notch with the likes of Antti Niemi, Jonathan Quick, Cory Schneider, and Jimmy Howard. If Reich can get the ball rolling, and wheel-and-deal a bit, he could easily lift into the playoffs in what should be the team's strongest season in its three-year existence.
MVP - None.
Reason for hope: Reich was reportedly debating (I don't care that he was joking!) changing the team name back to "Hold Ma Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick" that previous owner Zack Goldstein had become so famous for. If he does, he may carry on the legacy of the greatest name in fantasy sports history, which should on its own be enough to pull the team into the playoffs.
These boards will be used for the weekly power rankings. I thought it would be nice to suggest how this league appears to shape up ahead of this upcoming season. I will be posting the weekly power rankings in two parts each week. The first part will be the bottom half, also known as the glass half full half. If you get offended that is OK we weren't going to spend Christmas together anyways.
The grammar will be bad and if you feel the need to point that out please be prepared to make a fist with your right hand and shake it back and forth so you can visualize my response to those complaints.
The Power Rankings are composed based on performance and a glance at the team rosters...........
And finally, please have fun with these as I intend to, and try to ignore the fact that I copied the beginning of Clint J. Gritt's weekly power rankings from the Triple Play Dynasty baseball league.
#4 RED DEER BLADES (5)
It wasn't too easy to rank the Blades, especially with some amazing drafting from the Milwaukee Blizzard, but in the end I must admit I fell for the beautiful Red Deer home jerseys. Red Deer entered the draft with probably the second worst keepers, yet owner Mark Korodetz immensely increases his team's stock with impeccable drafting. When approached after the draft, Korodetz commented on his drafting: "I had no clue, like, half the time, who I was going to take. It was all last-second." Still, he found players that eluded most other owners and stole them later in the draft. He selected Jeff Carter with the 8th overall (non-keeper) pick, Brian Elliott at 32, Brent Seabrook at 77, Mike Smith at 101, and Anthony Mantha as the second-last pick of the draft (113). Brian Elliott appears poised to take on his first starting job (which has arrived much later in Elliott's career than I foresaw), who posts a career save percentage of .911 and a goals-againts-average of 2.48 during a 9-year career as a backup. There appeared to be a time when Brian Elliott might become the starter in Ottawa years ago, when he played goal alongside past-their-prime veterans Martin Gerber and Alex Auld (2008-09), and played backup to Pascal Leclaire the next season (around the time Leclaire's career sputtered and died out). At that point, Ottawa's goalie situation was dire, and Elliott seemed to be the only viable option, or they would have to bring in another goalie from outside the franchise. Not only did they choose the latter, but traded Elliott away to do so. It remains to be seen how he will handle the increase in games, although he has surpassed 40 games in a season more than once (his career high is 55). There are some holes that must be addressed (weak at the wings), along with many question marks. Will Brent Burns adjust after coach Todd McLellan confirmed that he was moving back to the blueline? Will Mantha meet the hype and make an impact in his first season? After a brilliant year and a new contract, will Tyson Barrie continue to produce in his second full season? Will Ryan O'Reilly finally finish a single season with no penalty minutes? Only time will tell. But for now, Mark enters as the last team to crack the post-season, despite coming off of a brilliant season, where he finished as a finalist.
MVP - None, as the season has not begun. Every week, one player from each team will be chosen as the team's most valuable player from that week.
Reason for hope: While he may not have the best team, he does in fact have the best home jersey. By far.
#5 MILWAUKEE BLIZZARD (4)
I actually think Blizzard owner Sam Kantor did a very good job of drafting. His team moves down a rank due to the drafting of the Blades. Despite a weak first pick in Jackets blueliner James Wisniewski (3), he rebounded the following round with Ryan Miller (7). While majority of his picks were very, very good, a few poor ones prevent him from being the best drafter. Paul Stastny (22), Radim Vrbata (42), Ryan Kesler 46), Justin Williams (75), and Mikko Koivu (99) all make very strong cases for best drafter, but picks like Milan Lucic (34), Troy Brouwer (94), and Loui Eriksson (106) make it hard to do so. Kantor still has a lot of work cut out for him. Milwaukee's centres, despite being solid, simply don't match up to some of the other teams. Their goalies are Corey Crawford, Jake Allen, Ryan Miller, and Sergei Bobrovsky, which is quite poor. Other than Crawford, each of those have huge question marks. After a Vezina-winning lockout-shortened season, Bobrovsky followed with a decline in production last year. Which Bobrovsky will we see; the one that single-handedly brought Columbus up from the dregs of the Western Conference and nearly into the playoffs, or the one that could not help his team out of their first round matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins? As mentioned in the overlook of Red Deer, Brian Elliott seems poised to take on the starting role for St. Louis that he's awaited for years, but will Jake Allen sneak up from behind and take it away in his first full-time NHL season? Both appear to be very capable of heavy workloads, although Allen has not proven that on a strictly NHL level (47 games in a season for AHL team Peoria Rivermen, 52 games last season for AHL team Chicago Wolves, 53 for QMJHL team Montreal Juniors; only played in 15 NHL games in his career). The BIG IF is Ryan Miller. For years, he had been the prized backstop of the Buffalo Sabres. Due to the Sabres' poor fortunes, as well as a UFA-pending All-Star goalie, they were forced to trade Miller. At the time of the trade, Miller was supposedly a top 3 goalie in the NHL, and the Blues, who had just acquired Miller, seemed to make out like gangbusters. In actuality, he played worse than Vesa Toskala on a depleted Toronto Maple Leafs roster. And the most intriguing part is that his performance massively dropped as the quality of defence protecting him massively increased. That makes me think that Miller should excel behind crappy defence. Moreover, he should do fine in Vancouver. Milwaukee's wingers, however, pose as the team's strongest points and pose a serious threat to other teams. The defensive corps of the Blizzard has a terrific blend of stars and depth, starring Erik Karlsson - Ryan Suter, Oliver Ekman-Larsson - James Wisniewski, and Andrei Markov - John Carlson. Each of those players can provide solid production, and features two of the top 15 players at the position in (arguably the top blueliner) Karlsson and Ekman-Larsson (who posted a career-high statline of 15/29/44 in 80 games last year). With a few trades in Milwaukee's benefit, this team can surprise a lot of people.
MVP - None.
Reason for hope: Dairy Queen is having a sale on all ice-cream products.
#6 DALLAS DIAMONDS (6)
Let's assume for a moment that instead of David Clarkson, the Dallas Diamonds' owner Isaac Reich had used the 45th pick on Ryan Kesler, or even Jaroslav Halak, the latter whom he will have swapped with Clarkson soon. Mistakes are made, wrong players have been clicked. That won't be taken into account here. I still think the Diamonds left the draft as the least successful drafter. I would not say he was the "worst" drafter, as everyone had a relatively solid draft. With the first pick, Reich did not disappoint, drafting Tomas Vanek. He did not get another pick until the 30th selection, which he used to make another fantastic pick in Cory Schneider, then immediately followed it with David Krejci at 31. He used the 36th selection on a reach, taking Wayne Simmons. The latter of the back-to-back picks, the 37th pick, was another strong selection, Joe Thornton. One of the biggest steals of the draft was their selection of young stud Evgeny Kutznetsov (85). Some of Dallas's picks, like Dion Phaneuf (49), Mike Green (61), and Nail Yakupov (109) bring his draft stock down. Calling Reich the least successful drafter is nothing to get upset over. In just about any other league he would not be considered so; but this had to be one of the most balanced drafts in ESPN history. Looking at this team shows you that even the lowest ranked team still has a lot of bite. What I initially took for a group of centres that leaves a lot to be desired is actually better defined as a group of centres that are almost guaranteed to have career years (or an incline of production) that slid through the draft, falling to the Diamonds. Newly acquired Jason Spezza (by the real Dallas Stars) initially might not have been a solid keeper option, but Reich rolled the dice and was not let down, as the Stars made a terrific trade with Spezza's old team, the Ottawa Senators. Now, on a new, better team, Spezza appears poised to erase the previous season's drop in production. Nobody is suggesting a 90+ point season, as deemed his norm from 2005-2008, his second, third, and fourth seasons in the NHL, but it shouldn't be a surprise for him to surpass a point-per-game statline, or at least certainly better than last year's statline of 23/43/66 that he posted in 75 games. It will also be interesting to see how Brad Richards does, also joining a new team (the Chicago Blackhawks). It appears that he will anchor a second line, along with Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane. He has arguably not had such good linemates since his Tampa days with Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, although an argument could also be made for his Dallas Stars days (Modano-Richards-Morrow). He has only posted 90+ points twice in his career. The first was the 2005-06 season, with Tampa Bay (23/68/91 in a full 82 game season), and the other was during his third of four seasons with Dallas in 2009-10 (24/67/91 in 80 games). It is also to be seen how his presence will affect the ice time of Chicago first-line centre Jonathan Toews, also a player on the Diamonds roster. The wings are the team's source of BIG IF. I won't get deep into it, but I do not predict Tomas "Vanish" will re-appear, although in a desired location that is the Minnesota Wild he might prove me wrong. I do not think Yakupov will improve one bit either. Calling him a piece of shit is a very mean and hurtful thing to say about a piece of shit. And will Joffrey Lupul manage to set a new record for least amount of games played in a season? (not including lockout-shortened seasons, his current record is 23 in 2009-10) The blueline looks to not make headlines as star-studded, but has probably the deepest defence in the league (except for maybe the Blizzard). Dan Boyle looks to take over as the NYR powerplay quarterback following the departure of aforementioned Richards. Phaneuf looks to ignore ongoing heckling and continue his slightly-above-mediocre production. Drew Doughty should continue his impressive statline and continue to be one of fantasy hockey's top defencemen. Mike Green will (I stand by it with certainty) play poorly as he is demoted to the third defensive corps. The crease is top-notch with the likes of Antti Niemi, Jonathan Quick, Cory Schneider, and Jimmy Howard. If Reich can get the ball rolling, and wheel-and-deal a bit, he could easily lift into the playoffs in what should be the team's strongest season in its three-year existence.
MVP - None.
Reason for hope: Reich was reportedly debating (I don't care that he was joking!) changing the team name back to "Hold Ma Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick" that previous owner Zack Goldstein had become so famous for. If he does, he may carry on the legacy of the greatest name in fantasy sports history, which should on its own be enough to pull the team into the playoffs.
