For hockey pool fans who come to their fantasy drafts prepared, ’tis the season for pre-draft homework.
Who would you take if you get the #1 pick? Who will be your #3 defenseman? Who’s the top available goalie?
Since every pool has its own scoring system and guessing the future is impossible, we can’t give a perfect picklist. But, that won’t stop Sneezl from trying anyway…
2010-2011 Fantasy Hockey Top 10 Picks: Forwards
- Alex Ovechkin
- Sidney Crosby
- Joe Thornton
- Steven Stamkos
- Henrik Sedin
- Daniel Sedin
- Nicklas Backstrom
- Martin St. Louis
- Evgeni Malkin
- Dany Heatley
People will sit around and debate the order of this list more than any other, but Ovechkin has to be near the top of nearly everyone’s list. Rather than debate it here, just be happy if you get any 3 of these guys on your team.
Fantasy Draft Top 10 Defensemen
- Mike Green
- Dan Boyle
- Drew Doughty
- Sergei Gonchar
- Tomas Kaberle
- Chris Pronger
- Duncan Keith
- Mark Streit
- Zdeno Chara
- Dion Phaneuf
With the offensive powerhouse in Washington, Mike Green again should go #1 among D-men.
2010-11 Hockey Pool Top 10 Goalies
- Roberto Luongo
- Ryan Miller
- Jimmy Howard
- Marty Turco
- Mikka Kiprusoff
- Cam Ward
- Marc-Andre Fleury
- Martin Brodeur
- Ilya Bryzgalov
- Jonas Hiller
Goaltending skill is not the right question when picking a fantasy draft goalie – its all about the # of games they’re going to play and how many games the team will win. Not many goalies regularly play over 65 games, and not all of them are on teams that win 65% of their games.
2010-2011 Fantasy Hockey Top 10 Picks: Enforcers
- Colton Orr
- Ian Laperriere
- Zenon Konopka
- Matt Carkner
- Jared Boll
- George Parros
- Cam Janssen
- Zack Stortini
- Dan Carcillo
- Steve Downie
As a dark horse to win this category, Zack Stortini of Edmonton will have the most work to do protecting 3 rookies at once. He may not be the biggest heavyweight, but he’ll have to drop the gloves every night if no-one else on the Oilers does.
2010-2011 NHL Rookies Top 10
- Jordan Eberle
- Taylor Hall
- Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson
- P.K. Subban
- Tyler Seguin
- Nazem Kadri
- Brayden Schenn
- Tyler Ennis
- John Carlson
- Mikael Backlund
Aside from being highly talented, the reason 3 Oilers top this list is that they’ll all be getting powerplay opportunity and top-6 forward minutes. The only real question is, “which will finish 1-2-3?”
John Carlson could score 50 points if Washington’s goalies play well enough that they can gamble on his untested defensive abilities.