Let The Fantasy Begin!

October is fast approaching and that means the start of the 2006-2007 NHL season. The northwest division looks to be even tougher than last year. Calgary added to it's already solid defensive core and looks to Alex Tanguay to help Iggy score 50+ goals once again. Minnesota has added a ton of new veteran D-men (Carney from Vancouver, Johnsson from Philly and Skoula from Dallas) and has brought over Pavol Demitra to work some magic with Gaborik. Vancouver is a bit iffy giving up Jovo, Bertuzzi and Anson Carter for franchise goaltender Luongo. He should see less rubber than back down in Florida and he could carry the team singlehandedly. Edmonton looks to be in a rebuilding year as they gave up tons of players. Gone are Pronger, Spacek, Peca, and Samsonov. The only notable addition was Joffrey Lupul from the Ducks. I don't expect them to make it to the playoffs this year but they definitely have a nice young roster that will be bright in the near future.

And finally, my Avs... After losing so many guys post-lockout, they have lost even more talent this year in the form of Tanguay and Blake. They've brought in Arnason and Leopold but I don't think they will be able to fill the gaps. Like Edmonton, Colorado will need to rely on their young players. Liles, Svatos and Wolski will need to start to shine really fast. Theodore will be the x-factor. Hopefully the off-season has given him enough time to recover and to find his Vezina form. If he does, the Avs should be able to secure a playoff spot and maybe even second place in the NW again.

So I'm not going to play Sportingnews fantasy hockey this year. Don't really like the salary cap style where everyone can have the same players. This year I'm probably going to roll with two Yahoo teams in head-to-head leagues. Here are the two teams I've drafted:

Rainbow Flipflops
(8 player league)

Centre: Datsyuk, Forsberg, Arnott
Left Wing: Tanguay, Havlat, Brunette
Right Wing: Jagr, Alfredsson, Ryder
Defense: Schneider, Chara, Blake, Spacek, Boyle, Rafalski
Goalie: Giguere, Joseph, Theodore

Goaltending and goalscoring might cause difficulties on this team.


Curry Fish Balls
(12 player league)

Centre: Elias, Briere, Lecavalier
Left Wing: Tanguay, Frolov, Tkachuk
Right Wing: Hemsky, Afinogenov, Hejduk
Defense: Zidlicky, Liles, Bouwmeester, Berard, Leopold
Goalie: Brodeur, Vokoun

I'm pretty happy with this team. Solid goaltending and a lot of steals in the draft like Tkachuk in the 15th round and Frolov in the 14th.