
Another NHL season has come and gone! How did we all let 27 weeks fly by so quickly? It just seems like a few weeks ago, we convened and drafted our teams. I dare say, it was a pretty exciting year until just after the second Waiver Draft and then it sort of got a little bit out of control up at the top of the standings. Nevertheless, we saw some good hockey this season, some great story lines and some that were flat out unbelievable.
Like most year end Newsletters, I'll finish off the week and then I will kick into the annual awards.


Despite the Stars having been eliminated from playoff contention a while ago, that wasn't going to stop Benn and is ability to flat out score goals. The 28-year old was absolutely dynamite in the final week of the season, scoring a hat trick against the Sharks on Tuesday, added a goal and an assist against the Ducks on Friday and then topped it all off with another hat trick on Saturday against the Kings. He went through California and practically surfed his way to this final Player of the Week nod.
Overall, Benn's season was pretty good, finishing 29th among all players in pool scoring with 36 goals and 79 points in all 82 games for Dallas. That would have had him as an early 2nd round pick in this year's draft. Unfortunately, he wasn't one of 40 players in the top 100 in pool scoring that finished at over a point-per-game pace, but he was damn close.
For Eric, Benn was his 2nd round draft pick, 44th overall, so there was pretty good value in that pick, almost to the point of a bargain pick. Sadly, that's where the good news stops, as he went very forward-oriented, but it didn't pay off, like the teams that we'll be highlighting later on in this post.


But yes, unfortunately, it wasn't enough for his team to finish in the top half of the standings. Still, his team did come in 3rd place a year ago, so I don't think he could be too disappointed.
Eric had the 7th pick overall this year and he opted to go with the forward route in his strategy at the draft, using his first four picks up front, before taking a couple of defensemen and not taking a goalie until the 9th round. Only four of his picks finished higher in the rankings than their pick position and his best bargain pick this season was the Jets rookie, Connor, seen pictured above, taken 307th and ranked 97th.
With that strategy being said, Eric's team finished 3rd in forward points, 20th in defensemen points and 24th in goalie points. There just wasn't enough support from the back end or maybe, the forwards were not quite good enough, to help his team get too much further up. It's all about how you spin the luck.

Steve's team found the 25th spot in Week Sixteen and never really looked up from there. It was a long finish to the year and not even 1st pick in the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft could help his side out.
I am not prepared to look up the number of times this happened, but I don't think it's very many... Steve's team finished last overall with the 1st pick overall in the draft and also having the best player in the hockey pool, coincidentally, the same player, another thing we'll touch on here shortly. I am not sure that has ever happened before.
Here's hoping that this first year was a good learning curve for Steve and that he comes back with a vengeance next year!


Yes, the 1st pick overall in the hockey pool draft this year, Connor McDavid, came from a ways back to edge Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning by 2 points, 108 to 106, to take his first hockey pool MVP honour. McDavid did win the Art Ross last year, but didn't have the season that Braden Holtby of the Capitals had and fell short of the pool MVP nod then.
It has been somewhat of a curse to have the 1st pick overall in the hockey pool draft, as it gets really difficult to see a lot of those other 1st round and 2nd round players go, before you get to see your 2nd pick. This could have very well have been the case for Steve, the pool's newbie (or one of), as he likely wasn't prepared for such a high pick. He got the best player, but it wasn't his season overall.

The trophy is off to the engraver's today and his season total of 790 points will be added to the wall, forever emblazoned on the historic bobblehead we carry around from year-to-year.
Stuart's team was also one of those teams that was all about the forwards first. His team had the 2nd overall pick and he was still able to pick up both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, #2 and #49 overall. How did we let that happen? His team was also fortunate enough to have one of the biggest bargain picks in Islanders rookie Mathew Barzal, who was taken 349th overall and finished the season 19th in scoring.
And then, let's not forget about the massive stroke of luck he had in the Waiver Draft, dropping Louis Domingue and picking up Keith Kinkaid, who was the new saviour in New Jersey this season. I think this guy was ridiculously lucky and we all had the chance to shut that down. I blame all of us more than his luck.

Looking back, I don't think I actually did a prize money post, but since we're 25 teams at $60 a head, it will be exactly the same as last year's prizes. Stuart will collect $750 for 1st place, Benson will collect $300 for 2nd place and Dale B. gets $120 for 3rd place. There is also $60 for the three mini-games, which will be highlighted below and only $150 for my fees, which include the website hosting, trophy engraving and all of the interac e-transfers this year.
Congratulations to all of our overall pool winners, let's recap how the mini-games shook out!


This race finished off fairly strong, as Dale B. finished atop of the standings with a +95 rating this season, followed closely by Clayton's team, which was +82, thanks to a +15 final week, falling just short of the money. Dale B.'s total now goes up to $180 of take home money, which is a great season, following a pool win the year previous.

Between Connor McDavid of the Oilers and Johnny Gaudreau of the Flames, Steve's side was able to capture the scoring title in this year's All-Star festivities in Tampa Bay, winning his money back, thanks to 7 points (in total) from these two players. You get your money back, Steve... I hope it was worth all the ripping!

Nevertheless, Wes' team was the goon side of the season, finishing with a pool-high of 577 minutes in penalties, 62 minutes better than Neil's team at the end of the year.

Sadly, the last minute surge of rookie points that Chris had in the last week of the season, vaulting him up to top spot in the mini-game, won't be paying him out this year. His team's 123 points was better than Clayton's 120 points and he can thank Alex DeBrincat of the Blackhawks, Pierre-Luc Dubois of the Blue Jackets, Adrian Kempe of the Kings and Thomas Chabot of the Senators for this honour.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
It was pointed out to me, that Tony's team, which picked 25th in the opening round of the draft (and then had the next pick in the 2nd round), exceeded most of his own goals and expectations, beating Kristy & Don by 34 points. That was just pointed out to me... at random?
As a collective, the pool amassed 15,985 points out of the grand total of 22,893 available to us from all 985 players that stepped foot on the ice for a shift. That's not too bad for a pool that only has 350 players maximum at any given time, when there are a maximum 713 active players on most rosters (before the trade deadline).
Last season, there were 20,755 points available to us in the hockey pool and the 14,719 and I think before looking at those numbers, I would have definitely said that this was a more exciting year for points, just on how the games were being played and I'm glad the numbers are there to prove it.
See you all in the playoffs, I hope!
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