Quick Positional Review of the Last Four Draft Seasons

Last year at about this time, I had a look at the positional drafting for the top three teams in the standings over the last few years.  I thought I would have another quick look at it today, see if there was any changes to the patterns over time.

The biggest difference in 2011 was the number of participants in the pool, which really spread out the wealth of talent that the NHL has to offer.  In 2008 through 2010, the pool only had 17 teams, but in 2011, we finally cracked 20 teams and there was an impressive amount of points collected in the year.

2008	Points	Forwards	Defense	Goalies
1st Place (Stuart)	820	3rd	4th	3rd
2nd Place (Clayton)	817	1st	12th	13th
3rd Place (Chris)	780	5th	2nd	7th
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2009	Points	Forwards	Defense	Goalies
1st Place (Clayton)	787	1st	16th	4th
2nd Place (John B.)	769	5th	6th	9th
3rd Place (Peter)	769	7th	7th	3rd
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2010	Points	Forwards	Defense	Goalies
1st Place (Leon)	779	5th	4th	3rd
2nd Place (Wayne)	773	1st	8th	6th
3rd Place (Dale B.)	763	9th	10th	2nd
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2011	Points	Forwards	Defense	Goalies
1st Place (Allan)	809	2nd	T-1st	1st
2nd Place (Kristy and Don)	715	7th	4th	6th
3rd Place (Chris)	708	10th	6th	4th

Well, Allan really ran away with the 2011 pool, just having the right combination of players in every position, which led to the near 100-point cushion he had by the end of the season.  Tops in defense and goalies, not too far behind the leader in forwards, it really makes for a lopsided victory.

The placement of the 2nd and 3rd place teams in the 2011 looks actually quite average, because neither team actually finished in the top three in any of the positions, which gives you an indication how spread out the points were in the pool, beyond Allan.  There was a certain level of consistency in the top of half of the pool by the two teams, which is likely the only thing keeping them up where they were last year.

Here's hoping there are a couple more participants in the 2012 season and maybe a team that doesn't quite runaway with the whole thing, making it a little more interesting.