Ranking Defensemen in the Draft

Definitely one of the most interesting philosophy differences between poolies is how they draft defensemen for their fantasy hockey team. The defense position doesn't generally generate a lot of offense, but they can help push a team past a rival or sink a fantasy team if they are slumping.

The first drafting philosophy that should be touched on is the 'push for the better defenders early' motive, just so you can capitalize on big points from the blueline. If we were to average out the top 100 defensemen in the league last season, we would find that with goals and assists as the counting points, the average point total would hover around 30 points, the lowest at 17 points. If you were to go and make the move for big defensemen, say in the second and third rounds, maybe picking up Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Gonchar, Brian Campbell and/or Dion Phaneuf (in any sort of combination), you could be gaining some big points on the average defensemen.

I have seen some good results out of this drafting this way, but there are a few catches. The defensemen you take early won't nearly be as good as the forwards or goalies you could take in those early positions, so your forwards and goalies that you have to make-up with later picks have to be better than others. You may gain some points on other defensemen that other teams take later, but you risk losing around 10-20 points to forwards taken in the same round. This could mean some shrewd picks later on in the draft, down around the last couple rounds, picking some good sleepers... and by good sleepers, I mean those who will eclipse the 30-point range out of nowhere.

The second philosophy I see most often would be the 'save the defensemen for last' mentality. This means maxing out your goaltender and forward potential and then picking up the scraps from the blueline. If you have a certain talent that can determine which defensemen are going to come out of nowhere and produce over 30 points in the season, then this would be the route for you. You wouldn't have to sacrifice letting go of good young talented forwards in order to fill out your weaker blueline, especially if you feel your blueline is going to be weaker anyways, according to your list. You might be a person who is on the Jeff Finger bandwagon in Toronto, or is certain that Chris Phillips will see more offensive ice-time in Ottawa now that Wade Redden is gone, or even banking on Kristopher Letang to have a breakout season in Pittsburgh.

This is the riskier of the first two philosophies, as there isn't a great deal of certainty about the lower-level defensemen, especially when it comes to scoring. A lot of times the lower-level defenders are not established. They are usually rookies, sophomores, third-pair defenders and they don't give you that safe sense when you consider them for your pool team. Granted, if your pool isn't deep, you should be able to luck out with some half-decent defenders while some of your opponents gamble big on Lidstrom and Gonchar, while you're taking Marian Gaborik or Cam Ward.

The next philosophy comes from more of the beginner in the fantasy pool sense. Pick from last season's list and see how it goes. Generally, if you have a new person in your pool, new to the whole idea of picking a team, but is definitely interested to see how it all goes, I would generally recommend showing them the scoring list from the past season at the draft and tell them to somewhat go after the next available player. When your limit for position is hit, keep on moving down until you can fill all your voids. Of course, there are plenty of faults to this idea... no one wants to generally help your opponent, letting them know that a certain player was injured in the pre-season or that they signed in Europe over the summer, but a lot of times it helps. It keeps them in the game and they're more likely to give you the entry fee next season as well.

This way to go becomes a real crap shoot, because it can really do just about anything. A team can be lucky, get a real good drafting spot and end up with all sorts of good defensemen without even trying. Another team could have the worst luck with defensemen and end up with a whole bunch of injury prone guys and he'll be lucky to get a 60-game season out of any of them. Possibly the more likely of all the options is that the person ends up drafting a player from column A, one from column B and a couple average guys and has a pretty average year from the blueline.

Finally, you have something a shade different than working off of last year's list, but you're still working off a list. The prognostication method of predicting points a player is going to get and then working off the list accordingly. If you're a big time poolie, you generally find yourself going over lists of players and working out in your head what they did last season, what they are going to do this coming season and order them accordingly. Sure, it's pure educated guessing, but if you're at it all the time, you've probably developed a knack for it. The prime targets in these categories are generally the guys that may have had sub-par seasons looking to rebound (Sheldon Souray), rookies who can emerge (Drew Doughty) or players that have been traded into a better situation (Lubomir Visnovsky).

In this case, you're now betting on yourself to forsee the future. There are plenty of variables to take into consideration when you're prognosticating, which foresight in that matter does come with experience. It doesn't just cover the prime targets, you'll also have to be on the ball on where the usual suspects will land. Is Andrei Markov going to keep his pace going in Montreal? Does Tomas Kaberle excel in Toronto? How does Zdeno Chara do in Boston? The best thing you can do in this situation is continue all your reading and get a good understanding of how all these players will fit in their current situation and how the players around them will do as well. New teammates can just as easily swing the pendulum from the wrong direction to the right one in one season.

There is no real substitute for preparation when it comes to drafting in a hockey pool, unless you've cornered the market in horseshoes that you can stick up your rear end. You'll need a fair bit of luck, no question in the year, but forecasting players can usually give you a leg up on the competition. Statistics and trends are helpful to understand to a certain degree, but you can always go with your favourite players (if they are available for you) and that way, you can just cheer them on and hope to goodness that some money comes out of it all for you.