August Poll: Who Goes First?

Well, the poll in August was 'who would you take first in your hockey pool?' Boy, oh boy, that was a good poll, which ended up being really close in the end. I was pretty happy to even get 30+ votes, since a lot of my readers are just Google searchers and maybe the odd shout-out here and there. Let's face it, there were five names and place to put an 'Other' vote down, but really there were only two names who really took the poll by storm, Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.

In the end, of the 32 votes, Ovechkin took 14 of them, which gave him the 'unofficial' first pick overall in the make-believe pool of the world. Ovechkin will come into this season as a pretty safe guy to take in the number one spot, since he is a very durable player and it could be a case of 'what have you done for me, lately?'

With 13 votes, Crosby still has a lot of pull, thanks to his good playoff run, and is still believed to be the best point producer in the NHL, despite his long-term injury last season. As a poolie myself, I would support this idea and wouldn't be disappointed with either player on my pool team's line-up.

Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo and Jarome Iginla each registered a vote in the poll, while a couple votes went the Other way and you could argue that Evgeni Malkin, Vincent Lecavalier or Pavel Datsyuk could lead the league in points as well.

Having the first pick overall is a big decision. You can only do so much with it, but it does give you any player you want. When you are building your team, you are, in essence, trying to win the pool, but you should be able to have fun with it as well. So, be sure to get a player you can also cheer for, which makes the year a little more exciting.

Now, you can decide who the third pick in your draft is going to be in the new poll for the month of September. If Ovechkin and Crosby go number one and two, who would you take in the third pick of the draft? There are some pretty good options, but there is also an Other selection as well, if you wanted to possibly sneak another player out in the third pick.