Man, I know absolutely nothing about hockey. All I know is that you hit the puck into the goal, and fight like there's no tomorrow. However, when some friends set up a fantasy hockey league a few weeks ago, I decided I'd give it a whirl. I'm afraid I'm not quite paying as much attention to it as fantasy baseball, mostly just putting my players in every day and leaving it at that.
Just my luck I got twelfth draft position in the twelve-man league, but whatever, we'll make the best out of it. I drafted almost completely out of the pre-draft rankings that were given me.
In the first round (twelfth overall), I drafted this guy:
I'm not entirely sure who J.T. Miller is, but he was ranked at pre-season 11 and was the highest ranked guy available, so I grabbed him. I guess he's really good, as he is 100% rostered and scored the most points last season out of anybody on my team. He plays his first game of the season today.
In the second round and 13th overall pick I got Matthew Tkachuk. Again, I had no idea who this was, but he was pre-season 12. He played his first game (with the Florida Panthers) yesterday, and won 6-4.
When I was asked by the people of my league which was my favorite hockey team, I used an interesting method to choose. Since the only two hockey players I really knew coming into the season were Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid (this shows just how little I know), I didn't really have a favorite team. So, I pulled up good old Hockey Reference and chose the worst team to be my favorite. This team happened to be the San Jose Sharks, who went 19-54-9 last season.
I very briefly looked at which Sharks players I should draft. I ended up drafting Matt Walman, but dropped in favor of what was said to be a better defenseman. However, there was this one hot young rookie, no more than 18 years of age, who I aimed to draft. That man, or kid rather, was no other than.....
Unfortunately, I couldn't draft Macklin. But if somebody asked me who my favorite hockey player is, I think I would have to go with him. Let the records show that he's my favorite before he becomes a beast. Macklin hasn't played an NHL game yet, but the Sharks will play tomorrow against the Blues.
Well, there's my brief hockey history. I own probably about a dozen hockey cards, which cost a dollar or less at a card store, and all from the '90s. I expect to get shellacked in fantasy hockey, since a few of the guys in the league are big-time hockey followers. Oh well though. I'm in it for the fun.
Y'all have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting! Now I gotta go get my mind back to baseball matters....
As someone who knows just as little about hockey as you (if not less) I can confirm that I relate with everything you said, except of course, I cheer for my home town team and not the worst team in existence currently. 😅
ReplyDeleteI follow hockey and college even closer. I was happy Celebrini decided to leave Boston and go pro because he gave most college teams (including my Gophers) fits. It will be interesting to see how his stats match up to Bedard in the coming years.
ReplyDeleteGo Sharks! Celebrini scored the first goal of the Sharks 2024-25 season tonight.
ReplyDeleteI followed the Sharks for a solid 25 years... but haven't kept up with them since the Thornton/Marleau/Pavelski/Couture/Burns/Vlasic Era. Hoping Celebrini gets me back into the spirit of Sharks hockey.
If you end up sticking with them... and you start collecting their cards... I have a bunch of duplicates from the 90's to the 2010's. No Celebrini though. I'm guessing his rookie cards are gonna be expensive this year.
I probably won't end up following hockey too seriously, but if I stick with this fantasy league, I'll get a better understanding of the game and maybe even follow it a bit.
DeleteMy old card shop used to sell '90s hockey cards really cheap, but then stopped selling sports cards and raised their prices. That kinda stunk, because you could find some great deals on cards there. Maybe I'll look into buying some cards next time I visit the card store, assuming the prices are acceptable.
Go Blues!!! I played fantasy hockey last year, a bunch of friends sucked me in. It was really challenging. Good luck on the season.
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