2022-2023 Fantasy Hockey Draft Recap
This was an extremely fun draft for a league set up by @fantasyhockeypucks.
It was different from leagues I have played in previously: 24 teams instead of 10-12, points instead of categories, and weekly instead of daily lineup sets.
This certainly made it interesting.
I had the 14th overall pick in the 1st round and wanted to go defenseman given that they get an additional point on a goal/assist than a forward in this league and the positional value (top defensemen are scarcer than top forwards). Cale Makar and Roman Josi were the two defensemen off the board (I had both last year in a different league which was huge). The pick, 1.14 D Victor Hedman, was fairly easy at this point. Hedman has finished top-3 in Norris voting for 6 straight seasons, he’s very durable, and he racks up points on elite Tampa teams. This year should be no different. Adam Fox was the only other possible for me at this spot and he was taken right after Hedman.
I don’t know if they will make the playoffs just yet, but I am very bullish on the Senators’ top-6 ability to put the puck in the net along with Thomas Chabot. Therefore, 2.11 W Alex DeBrincat is an enticing pick. DeBrincat continually showed he can be a finisher for an elite playmaker in Patrick Kane. Now, he will play with a great young disher in Tim Stutzle and a longtime puck distributor in Claude Giroux. On top of playing his usual left flank for one-timer options on the powerplay, the goals should be there for DeBrincat to justify this 2nd round pick. Jake Guentzel was the other guy I looked at for this spot as a proven goal scoring winger in a prime situation, but he went two picks prior.
3.14 C Jack Hughes was limited to 49 games last season due to injury but was dynamite when he played. The scoring, assisting, and play-driving were all there for Hughes. He figures to take another step forward in his 4th NHL season at just 21 years old. A healthy Hughes can be a top-20 center in this format.
After going D-W-C, this pick would determine the direction of the team. 4.11 C Evgeny Kuznetsov was the player who jumped off the screen. He has racked up the assists his whole career and will play between Alex Ovechkin and Anthony Mantha, a great spot for a playmaking center. Nicklas Backstrom is out with an injury and Kuznetsov should get some serious run as the #1 center. Even if Backstrom returns, Kuznetsov features prominently in the offense, including the powerplay (which did slip a little last season compared to years past).
To get that 2nd top defenseman to pair with Hedman, 5.14 D Rasmus Andersson was the pick. He’s the powerplay quarterback behind a new-look Calgary offense with Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri in tow. He plays significant even strength and penalty kill minutes, too, for a strong Flames’ defensive group. This allows him to get his share of hits and blocks without taking penalties (-0.5 per PIM in this league).
Center tends to be deeper than either of the wing spots, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity on a two-way center who doesn’t take penalties in a strong offensive unit by the name of 6.11 C Ryan O’Reilly. He will play on a two-way unit with Brandon Saad and Jordan Kyrou, but will play on the top powerplay unit with Vladimir Tarasenko (the Blues pull from 3 different lines for their 1st unit) to hit his 60 points that he seems to do every season. He usually gets a handful of shorthanded points each season which would be a further boost to his value. O’Reilly provides good insurance should Hughes go down again. Or as a trade chip.
I had to start going with wingers here after 3 centers. 7.14 W Artturi Lehkonen - fresh off scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal and inking a 5 year/$22.5M contract extension - will play left wing with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen to start the season with Gabriel Landeskog hurt. It’s obviously a great spot. It’s possible he remains in that spot even when Landeskog returns to lengthen the lineup. He’s also on the first powerplay and, if things remain this way, Lehkonen should post a career-high in points this season.
Another winger in 8.11 W Jakub Vrana is the next pick. The Red Wings traded for him 2 trade deadlines ago. He was limited to 26 games last season but scored 13 goals in that time. Back in Washington, he didn’t play a whole lot with the top players and rarely saw the powerplay. A weaker team in Detroit will give him top-6 and PP1 opportunity to run with as he enters what should be a prime year (age 26). Like Lehkonen, Vrana is set up to post a career high in points. He's always had the talent. Now he should have the opportunity to go with it.
9.14 W Phil Kessel slots in as the 4th winger. This was my favorite pick. He’s slated to play with Jack Eichel after 3 seasons of 0.64 points per game hockey on poor Coyotes teams. For a team that struggled through injuries last season, Kessel was a nice add for Vegas since he plays every game. A healthy Vegas is a playoff contender and Kessel’s offense should be a large part of it. Now, he is slated for left wing rather than his normal right wing as Reilly Smith plays that side (at least on dailyfaceoff.com). This could benefit Kessel as it’s more natural for Eichel, a righty, to pass to his left. There is some risk that it doesn’t work quite as well as hoped if Kessel doesn’t take well to left wing or doesn’t gel with Eichel. Remember, Kessel didn’t work out well with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh as they are all puck dominant players at even strength. Vegas also splits their two powerplays up pretty evenly unlike other teams who predominantly ride one which could limit Kessel’s powerplay production. It’s still a fun pick that could go a number of ways.
Colton Parayko and Esa Lindell were picked 8 and 5 spots ahead of me, respectively. Those were the guys I wanted for the 3rd defenseman spot. I settled for 10.11 D Adam Larsson who will have the hits and blocks but provides a tad less offense than the first two. It’s a projected loss of ~30 fantasy points on the season.
Sean Couturier is out for at least the start of the season and it might extend beyond that. 11.14 C Kevin Hayes takes over the #1 spot for a Flyers team that is in for a tough year. Somebody has to play a lot and accumulate stats though, right? Hayes will be that guy at even strength, on the powerplay, and on the penalty kill.
Finally, a goalie in 12.11 G Jonathan Quick. I like to wait on goalies due to the volatility of the position and did so again for this draft. Often a goalie will pop up who is a free agent during the season and can be cheaply added or goalie roulette can be played. That strategy is much harder to pull off in a 24-team league. Most of the goalies who play are already accounted for. This pick is a vote of confidence that Quick can approximately repeat last season (.910 save percentage in 46 games). The Kings were a playoff team last season so a competent skater group should remain in front of him. Also, the Pacific was the lowest scoring division last season which will be a benefit to Quick (and my next goalie pick) if it remains that way. He doesn’t need to get Vezina votes in this spot for this to work. League average save rates in ~50 games is all that is required.
Quick is backed up by 13.14 G Laurent Brossoit who was the actual backup behind Robin Lehner for the Golden Knights last season. Lehner is out for this season and Brossoit will play behind Logan Thompson who has just 20 NHL games under his belt. Brossoit, himself, is a career backup across 3 organizations and has never played more than 24 games in a season. It’s a highly uncertain situation in Vegas’ net. With fewer injuries, the Vegas skating group figures to be a strong all-around team in front of the goalies. But, will Brossoit play much? Will he be good? This is a dart throw.
He gets hurt a lot, but 14.11 W Jaden Schwartz is a highly effective forward when on the ice. Jordan Eberle was actually the Kraken forward I was eyeing with this pick, but he went 5 picks sooner. Schwartz should provide nice insurance behind the other wingers and could definitely crack the lineup in weeks where he plays more games than one of the four wingers I picked before him.
I thought there were two more rounds so this pick should have been a defenseman to back up the 3 starters. 15.14 W Brandon Saad is redundant with Schwartz and one will likely be dropped in favor of a defenseman soon.
The center depth is really nice and Hedman/Andersson should form a strong top-2 on defense. Larsson should be fine as the 3D, but I think I missed out on a handful of fantasy points by a few picks for this spot.
Goaltending is a definite question mark if Quick (37-years-old now) can’t repeat the bounceback he had last season and Cal Petersen starts stealing a majority of the starts. Additionally, there is more downside risks with goalies who get minus points for goals against and losses than with skaters. Finally, in this format with one goalie spot and weekly (not daily) lineup setting, there is tons of value in just having a guy who will play 60 or more games without question (barring injury) like a Juuse Saros, Andrei Vasilevskiy, or Thatcher Demko. A set it and forget it goalie can save a lot of headaches given the context of the league. Prioritizing goaltending a little more than usual seems to be a sound strategy.
Since I already had O’Reilly as the 3C, a solid goalie tandem should have been the higher priority than getting a 4C in Hayes with that 11th round pick. There was a run on goalies and Brossoit ended up being a forced pick rather than having options (Linus Ullmark in Boston, Antti Raanta in Carolina, and Alex Nedeljkovic in Detroit were a few picked during the run). If Quick works out, then it’s moot. And maybe Brossoit forms a nice tandem with Thompson. But if there are goalie concerns during the season, it can be traced back to getting Hayes instead of trying to target a goalie when options were still there. If all the centers perform well and the goaltending is an issue, then a center for goalie swap should be in the cards.
Alex DeBrincat-Jack Hughes-Phil Kessel
Artturi Lehkonen-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Jakub Vrana
Jaden Schwartz-Ryan O’Reilly-Brandon Saad
Kevin Hayes
Victor Hedman-Rasmus Andersson
Adam Larsson
Jonathan Quick
Laurent Brossoit