It's Getting Drafty In Here!

So a couple days ago we here at TOFTT got an e-mail from Carlo over at Poolhardy about taking part in his "Battle of the Blogs" fantasy hockey league. Now how could I resist? Especially since I'll get to take on the gang over at Abel to Yzerman and lay the proverbial smackdown on some Wings fans. So we just finished the Live Draft about a half hour ago and here's how our team shaped up. We had the 5th pick and it was serpentine style.

The Team

1. (5) Alexander Ovechkin - LW
2. (18) Jason Spezza - C
3. (27) Ryan Whitney - D
4. (40) Marc-Andre Fleury - G
5. (49) Martin Havlat -RW
6. (62) Alexander Semin - LW
7. (71) Brian Rafalski - D
8. (84) Cam Ward - G
9. (93) Andy McDonald - C
10. (106) Kimmo Timonen - D
11. (115) Brian Gionta - RW
12. (128) Vesa Toskala - G
13. (137) Chris Kunitz - LW
14. (150) Petr Sykora - C
15. (159) Teemu Selanne - RW
16. (172) Ruslan Salei - D

Reactions:

• Part of me really wanted to land a "top-tier" goalie, but it became clear pretty quick that wasn't going to happen. At that point Spezza fell into my lap with the 18th pick and then I had to sweat out trying to land Whitney and MAF with my third and fourth round picks.
• Our Right Wing is one big question mark. Can Havlat stay healthy? Did we get the Brian Gionta from two seasons ago who scored 48 goals? Will Teemu play this season? If the answer to at least two of those questions is "yes" we could be sitting pretty. Petr Sykora can't get RW eligibility soon enough!
  
• Getting Selanne with the 159th pick could turn out to be genius. If he doesn't play I'm not really out that much. I see it as a more than worthwhile gamble for the guy who was 4th overall in the Yahoo game last season.
• Cam Ward is a steal if the 'Canes have the kind of season I think they will. If they don't this could be a long fantasy season.
• I have AO, Semin, and Havlat on both of my fantasy teams. If any of those guys get hurt it won't be pretty around here.
• Yes, I feel dirty for drafting AO.
• No, I have no problem saying I'm hoping for big Semin production this season.
  
• Sykora, Timonen, and Gionta could all end up being real good picks. Lotta upside on this squad.
• At the end of the day, we have MAF... life is good.