kingraph Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 Blitz 09 had the first re-draft in the 8 season Blitz history. Enough people felt that through the years the keeper system led to some uneven distribution, and with so many new coaches, it wasn't fair to start off with an imbalance. This, in addition to more knowledge of the game (CB check did come into play during the draft), led to the decision to start from a clean slate, and renew the keeper system going forward, with some minor restrictions.First of all, everyone was concerned that our favorite Blitz coach and #1 vocal opponent to the redraft, LA Robbie, would lose all of the hard work of crafting his amazing team over the last few seasons. As he said: "I would be totally against a reboot. I have spent 3 seasons forming my roster. I love my team & i'm looking forward to tweaking it for 09. I feel like i've got them to a point where just 1 or 2 additions would make it a really strong team. It's been brilliant developing the roster & I want to keep that going." -- LA Robbie Posted 03 June 2014 - 08:40 PM "There are players I now feel very attached to. That way guys like me who love their team & are sentimental to want to keep certain players aren't disappointed" -- LA Robbie Posted 04 June 2014 - 08:14 AM So what happened?LA Robbie Season 09 Draft by Order Dino Ciccarelli - same as season 08 Russ Courtnall - same as season 08 Tom Barrasso - could have drafted CuJo, but chose Barrasso - UPGRADE to season 08 (update) Luke Richardson- UPGRADE over Lidster, who was drafted later. Richard Smehlik - SAME as season 08 Wendel Clark - drafted ahead of Pat Verbeek -- UPGRADE to season 08 Stephane Quintal - same as season 08. Hoooray for Robbie! Or is it? Alas, the fan favorite and secret weapon of the Detroit Red Wings, Sergio Momesso, did not make the cut . Hokkeefan scooped him up and quickly used up his 5 trades to end up with his usual ultra-fat, ultra-slow roster of goons. (see: Andreychuck , Probert and Momesso star ting forwards).So aside from the Momesso debacle, we could go out on a limb and say the redraft did not cause Robbie to lose of his hard work over the last 3 seasons. In fact, a redraft seems to have upgraded his team!One other vocal opposer to the redraft was Pearate, who promptly quit in round 1 after Ed Belfour was selected and Patrick Roy was not an acceptable alternative. .Good luck Pearate, welcome Donnybrook!Speaking of Belfour and Roy, I kept track of which players were drafted the highest and lowest ever this season. Here are some of the more interesting examples:HIGHESTEd Belfour - Depch drafted Eddie B 6th overall, the highest he's been since season 02, where he was drafted 8th overall. Eddie has been a 1st round keeper 3 times, 2nd round once, and actually dipped to 30th in season 08. Belfour and Roy are always interesting every year because you never know how early they will go. Goalies quickly become scarce after the 3rd round run that happens, so perhaps securing a top G early can help. Interestingly, Depch's next two picks, Gord Murphy and Slava Fetisov were also drafted higher than ever! Both men went over 20 picks higher than normal, suggesting they were nearly a round early. It all goes down to personal preference, which is what makes drafts so much fun, but you have to wonder if Depch will get more value out of Belfour , Murphy and Fetisov than sa y Hull, Ranford and Chelios, for example. Can anyone guess the relationship between these 3 players? Stephane Richer, Valeri Kamensky, and Wendel Clark?They're the only 5 SHP forwards that don't get drafted in the 1st round (Hull, Sandstrom, Gartner, Modano, Dino, Roenick) and they all went earlier than they have historically! Shot power was more sought after this draft than ever before!First to go was Stephane Richer, picked #34th overall by IceStorm. He's gone as high as 50 before (S3), but also as low as 77th (S6). It's clear Ice wanted that rocket 5/3 shot with weight and speed to anchor his F lineup. He may have started the trend as the next to go was Valeri Kamensky to Freydey at #52. Kamensky was even more drastic as historically he's gone closer to pick #80. Wendel Clark went at the even #100 to hokkee (later traded to LA Robbie), but that was only slightly higher than he normally went before, such as #107 in S5. Wendel's 3 speed really separates him from the other two.Can anyone guess the relationship between these 3 players? Richard Smehlik, Luke Richardson, and Stephane Quintal?They're the top 3 D-men for the Detroit Red Wings, drafted by LA Robbie all higher than their historical averages. Smehlik was the largest difference, going almost 38+ spots above his historical average, but he was also on Robbie's team last season. This goes to shows that you can fall in love with your players in draft leagues!Finally, the 3 largest variances were:Frank Musil, drafed #98 overall by Skeletor, drafted about 74 spots ahead of his previous averages. That's quite a large variance, but at the same time I assume Skeletor was valuing speed and agilty as Frank is 4/4 in those categories. Not easily found in a defensemen at that stage of the draft.Dominic Roussel, drafted #184 by Houly. Obvious attempt to weaken Plabax's goalie situation. Plabax won GDL with Roussel, but did not draft a goalie until the 11th round this year. To Plabax, goalies don't matter, so he will be starting with Rick Tabarracci in net.Finally, Plabax drafted Patrice Brisebois #166, about 102 spots higher than usual. With the CB check in effect, lightweight d-men can be just as useful as the fatties, and assume that is why this choice was made.Now on the flip side, which players slid this year compared to previous years? A few goalies went later than usual, which is interesting, but there wasn't as many surprised on the drops. Patrick Roy, drafted #24 by Probob. He has not dropped below 15th in open round years and this was the first year he was NOT the 1st goalie selected. Bob Essensa, season 08 cover boy, went 61st by kingraph (traded to Zalex), and has not lasted past 48 in open rounds. As an FYI, Mike Vernon and Sean Burke also dropped, but not much. Kelly Hrudey's stock dropped the most, falling down to pick #194, which was 31 spots lower than his previous low! Alexei "looks good on paper" Zhamnov, who is always taken in the 4th and 5th rounds and never used during the league, was drafted #117 by Chaos, the lowest since #114 in S2!Vladamir Malakhov, a keeper for 6 of the 7 previous seasons, dropped to IceStorm at #120, about 30+ spots above his average, which may have been inflated due to keeper system.Other noticeable large drops were Paul Ysebaert to number #173, drafted by kingraph, which was about 44 spots lower than his previous and low of 149.You can see all of the highs and lows on the ADP page of this sheet. http://tinyurl.com/lrqcaqoSo....what does all of this mean? I have no idea, but it will be a fun season! Good luck to all! Future Articles (hopefully): Requested Team Analysis by LA Robbie Vegas Odds by ? or kingraph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minpind Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 lol this is awesome. The first half seems like something witt would write, and the 2nd part's like the fun facts you see on the back of hockey cards. great stuff man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Depch Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 (edited) Nice writeup! We played some exis with swos as pre-draft testing some players and it eventually came off to B.Hull / E.Belfour to me. While Hull could pull off 3-5 goal games often, going the defence route felt more fun and challenging. My draft logic for this draft was to get off my shoulders the road to go defence first. I did not go for the best possible team by player attributes but rather try to get a team that can stick together and be hard to play against, might call it more of a draft by the feel of a certain player. I did not get everyone I anticipated but came close, mainly hurt by losing Francis who I could have replaced with Brind'amour, but he didn't have the "feel". If my season goes horribly wrong I know I can easily improve next season and I know to not try this ever again in the future drafts of GDL for example. Edited July 7, 2014 by Depch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA Robbie Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 (edited) Haha. I actually wanted to draft Verbeek but he went before my pick. Clark I never drafted. Had Probert but fortunately managed to trade him with Zmolek to Hokkee to get Clark in return. Unfortunately my 94 cult-hero Momesso went just before I picked Probert & then you even took my other 94 cult hero Corey Millen! No Momesso, no Millen = Reboot disaster. I'm devastated Edit: Quintal upgrade over Lidster? Don't think so. Very debatable statement. I'm sure he was drafted later because I was eyeing Lidster too. When he went I then took Quintal Edited July 7, 2014 by LA Robbie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 Fitzo traded up in the 2nd round to take Mats Sundin, who has never been on another team other than Calgary. I am devastated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceStorm70 Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 nicely done KingRaph! Damn you redraft, damn you all to hell. You did it, you really did it! Filthy apes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted July 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 Nice writeup! We played some exis with swos as pre-draft testing some players and it eventually came off to B.Hull / E.Belfour to me. While Hull could pull off 3-5 goal games often, going the defence route felt more fun and challenging. My draft logic for this draft was to get off my shoulders the road to go defence first. I did not go for the best possible team by player attributes but rather try to get a team that can stick together and be hard to play against, might call it more of a draft by the feel of a certain player. I did not get everyone I anticipated but came close, mainly hurt by losing Francis who I could have replaced with Brind'amour, but he didn't have the "feel". If my season goes horribly wrong I know I can easily improve next season and I know to not try this ever again in the future drafts of GDL for example. I can totally understand that drafting logic...getting team chemistry is important. Love your activity and It's great to have you in the recent leagues! Haha. I actually wanted to draft Verbeek but he went before my pick. Clark I never drafted. Had Probert but fortunately managed to trade him with Zmolek to Hokkee to get Clark in return. Unfortunately my 94 cult-hero Momesso went just before I picked Probert & then you even took my other 94 cult hero Corey Millen! No Momesso, no Millen = Reboot disaster. I'm devastated Edit: Quintal upgrade over Lidster? Don't think so. Very debatable statement. I'm sure he was drafted later because I was eyeing Lidster too. When he went I then took Quintal I'm sorry, Quintal should have read Luke Richardson, who you drafted in the 5th round. Lidster was 7th round. So Richardson was the big upgrade! I updated the post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA Robbie Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 (edited) Lol. I didnt have Richardson in 08. defensively an upgrade on Lidster. Offensively definitely not. I hope his overall impact will lead to better results. The stats seem to have gone but I think Lidster was my #3 point scorer last season? Nice writeup all the same Edited July 7, 2014 by LA Robbie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted July 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 Also, one of my favorite things is when people get creative with their selection pick. Either by giving the person a nickname, or just announcing it with a little flare. So, here are your selections that went beyond the ordinary: Teemu "Finnish Flash" Selanne gimme the rocket (bure) JR baby!!! The Dallas Stars select JAMINA DAGR from Mutant League Hockey! 1.24 hokkeefan selects the disrespected Patrick roy 2.1 hokkeefan selects Scotty beam me up Stevens Fitzo picks Mats "Sudden" Sundin. Plabax selects Mark wrecking ball Recchi Calgary selects "Lucky" Luc Robitaille Chicaga selects Captain Kirk, Muller Joe "Ball" Sakic Fat ass Marty McSorley. Gimme caveman Dave man Manson The Dallas Stars select cover boy Bob Essensa Ulf Robocop Samuelsson Bo selects Al Mac n cheese innis Frey selects Tony 'freakin mingya' Granato Ron Barr Hextall BRIAN BELLOWS! BRIAN BELLOWS!...SAFARI PLANET! I bring back the Ruzicka Phil "not in my" Housley Plabax selects Don "Magic Juan" Sweeney Eric DJ Desjardins Frank "Meta" Musil Sergei Makar "ony and cheese" ov Alexei Zhamnov will be taking his talents to the Olympic Saddledome CGY selects "Mr. Concussion" Mike Richter The Dallas Stars welcome Joe "didja know" Juneau to the squad. the oilers are going going, back to Calle Calle......johansson Gaylord Doug Wilson for the blackwacks Selecting Gerald (no relation to Geraldine) Diduck Pelle "World Cup" Eklund D Glen "hold the e" Feathrstone Darren "Supa" Puppa D Alexei "s**t pick" Zhitnik Jolt'n Joe Murphy i'll take garth butcher baker candlestick maker i'll take sylvain "not pierre" turgeon if he's there. if not i'll take dixon "mental" ward Chris Joseph in montreal, 2 way contract, 500 000$ + 200 000$ bonus if he plays 10 games "Empty Net" Petr Sidorkwicz Thanks to all! And thanks to Frey for giving us a French lesson in counting to 12 rounds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor Posted July 8, 2014 Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 Finally, the 3 largest variances were: Frank Musil, drafed #98 overall by Skeletor, drafted about 74 spots ahead of his previous averages. That's quite a large variance, but at the same time I assume Skeletor was valuing speed and agilty as Frank is 4/4 in those categories. Not easily found in a defensemen at that stage of the draft. You pretty much nailed it, although checking was also a big factor (I look at him as the Blitz equivalent of Petr Svoboda). I built my GDL team based on checking and got slaughtered by the fast teams, so my strategy was to pick size and speed for this draft. I don't like rushing with the defencemen, as that leaves me open to breakaways, so having little offence from him isn't a big deal. I also picked up Chiasson, who I can sub in for more offence if desired. The big question for me this year is if Puppa/Hrudey can keep enough pucks out of the net for me to win a few more games than last season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokkeefan Posted July 8, 2014 Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 lol it was a fun draft and im actualy satisfied with my goon squad with bourque n fuhr going to cause some anxiety Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRoBob38 Posted July 8, 2014 Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 probob's message to his staff going into the draft: "we have money now!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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