
I don't know about your, but those 27 weeks just flew by.
Yes, we're all done another NHL regular season and now we have the final tallies in for all the players on all the teams in all the various categories. But before we get to the year-end features, let's have a peek at the week that was and go through all of the motions.


Tavares played in four of the five games scheduled for the Islanders in the week, where he was able to register 4 goals and 9 points. He started off with a goal and 2 assists against the Lightning, another goal and 2 assists against the Capitals, a goal and an assist against the Rangers and then one more goal against the Sabres on Saturday.
It wasn't an amazing season for Tavares, but by no means was it a bad season. The 25-year old finished the year 28th in pool scoring with 33 goals and 70 points in 78 games in Brooklyn, which by our pool count this year, would have made him the opening pick in the 2nd round of our draft, if it was redone by the scoring standings. Last season, the Islanders captain finished 8th overall in pool scoring, so you can obviously say that it was somewhat of a down year for him.
For Eric, it was a bit of a disappointing year, because he had picked Tavares with the 5th overall selection, which made him into somewhat of a bust pick. In order to have been 5th overall, where Martin Jones of the Sharks finished, he would have needed 16 more points and if that was to have happened, Eric would have been in the money conversation, as I wrote up this blog post.


His good week stems from having the Player of the Week nod, plus a guy like Dustin Byfuglien of the Jets, who finished with 5 points as well. Ryan Johansen of the Predators, Milan Lucic of the Kings and Thomas Greiss of the Islanders were also key contributors this week, all finishing with 4 points a piece.
Only three of his active players failed to register points in the week, one was due to illness, the other due to being a healthy scratch and the other was actually ice cold in the production category. Still, 11 of 14 players picking up points was a good thing.
Eric's team certainly finished the season on a high note, as his peak position was his final spot in the standings, at 4th place. He made some positive moves in both Waiver Drafts, as all three of his pick-ups were positive in points and penalty minutes, so his team was able to take those moves and slowly move up from the midpoint of the pool, whereabouts he got started this year.
Thanks for joining the pool, Eric... hopefully, you had a good time!

If there was a silver lining to that, it was that his team was so far ahead of 16th place, that he wasn't going to fall out of his 15th place position, where he finishes the year. He had finished the last three weeks in that position and wasn't going to give that up, if only just barely.
Dale's team was led by Scott Hartnell of the Blue Jackets this week, finishing with one-third of his points, 4 points, while Andre Burakovsky of the Capitals and David Krejci of the Bruins each had 2 points a piece.
The real disappointment for Dale was that his team got off to a rocket of a start to the year, up in 1st place in Week Two, touched it again at the end of Week Seven, but the wheels really started to come off in Week Eleven and the downward spiral dropped him down to his eventual finishing spot of 15th. A tough pill to swallow by the end of it all.

We'll start with the mini-games and then move down to the real money, really giving this post a sense of dramatic fashion, right?

Allan could also throw in a few thanks to Penguins' back-up goalie, Jeff Zatkoff, who was on his roster for the first nine weeks of the year, before being dropped for Hellebuyck, which was a pretty good move in the end... for this pool, I mean. Hellebuyck was sent down to the minors around the NHL trade deadline and wasn't seen afterwards, really leaving a hole in Allan's roster.
Nevertheless, in what probably is Allan's last draft, he comes away with his money back, as a mini-game winner.

Congratulations, Ryan... your rookies set a record that will be hard to match, with 170 freshman points.

Wes wasn't alone in this competition, but Derek & Dan, they dropped hurt players or legitimately cold players to exercise their Waiver Draft rights and goon it up and they did okay. It wasn't until the Week Nineteen Waiver Draft, when they thought they were out of it, that they found it was quite the opposite. They did a slight upgrade with one pick and then opted to upgrade their goalie.
That worked. Well, the duo's numbers were staggering in the third segment of the season, met only by the even more staggering number of injuries that Wes' team suffered after the start of Week Nineteen. Wes' team finished the year with six key players on the shelf, from the end of February on.
Derek & Dan's team dominated the third segment, accumulating more minutes in penalties, in that segment alone, than 11 teams did all year. That domination saw their team finish with 762 PIM in total, taking 1st place by 115 minutes. What a huge year from another pool debut.
As for mini-games next year, we'll likely be incorporating some new wrinkles into the selection process of these games and there is also some talk that the Waiver Draft may be modified to keep the integrity of the competition intact. Stay tuned!

Brenda & Seward had a taste of 1st place, a few times this season, and their last came at the end of Week Twenty-Two, but after that, they couldn't finish a week any closer than 4 points away from 1st place, losing the title by 6 points in the end. Still, it was a great push, which they can thank their bargain picks for, which included: Jonathan Quick of the Kings, Filip Forsberg of the Predators, Derrick Brassard of the Rangers, Marcus Johansson of the Capitals, Adam Henrique of the Devils, Frans Nielsen of the Islanders, Zdeno Chara of the Bruins and Matt Beleskey of the Bruins. For your efforts, $325 is all yours!
Finally, in 1st place... a stunning pool debut, as Jeremy walked in, sat at a table all alone in a darkened corner of the Voodoo Lounge basement and picked himself a winner. No distractions, no bums bringing him down and just pure unadulterated hockey pool picking thought. 661 points was the winning total this season, which was actually higher than the result of our 2014 pool with three less teams in it. That's some good picking.
Jeremy's team finished 5th in goals scored, 3rd in wins, avoided the rookies, 11th in PIM, 6th in forward points, 8th in defenseman points, 6th in goalie points, 3rd in skater games played and 9th in goalie minutes.
Well, in terms of bargain picks, Jeremy's team did incredibly well. Only four players, out of the 14 he originally drafted, scored below their draft position and he dropped two of them in Week Nine. His best pick of the draft, in terms of biggest bargain, was Reilly Smith of the Panthers, who finished 160 places better than his draft position, thanks to a 50-point year.
Jeremy's take in this win is a pool-high, $800! Congratulations! The trophy will be engraved and given to you for the Summer soon!


Kane was one of two players to finish the season with more than 100 points in the pool and the first skater to do so since Evgeni Malkin did it in the 2012 season.
Unfortunately, the season that John S. had did not reverberate from the choosing of this year's MVP, because he also had the chance to take the 2015 MVP, Montreal goalie Carey Price, with the 1st overall pick, but that move blew up in his face in December, when Price went down for the count for the rest of the year. Still, he went from one MVP to another in one year, but his team still finished 17th in the standings.
Does Kane immediately make it to the top of your list for next season or do you like the goalie options first? That runner-up, Braden Holtby of the Capitals, he finished 2nd in both 2015 and 2016. How's that for consistency?

Of course, if this pool continues to grow, which it may or may not, there could be some changes made to the system, I know that there is a call for taking only one goalie per pool team, but that will be a decision that will be made at the draft in September.
I would like to thank everyone again for coming out this year. I know I only get to speak to most of you three times in the year (the draft and two Waiver Drafts), but I hope for all of you, that you'll gear up for another exciting year in 2017. There's no question that there is a lot of talent available in the NHL for a lot of pool teams, so I would encourage you to invite another person in, I can certainly accommodate more people who enjoy a fun and easy draft.
Congratulations again to all of our winners, including those who got their money back. Don't forget, the Playoff Pool is now live, you can check out the sheet here. Stay tuned to the blog all Summer long, I'll be keeping an eye on team rosters at the Entry Draft and the Free Agent Frenzy and we'll also be publishing more details about next season's draft before too long.
Cheers!
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