Fantasy Hockey Update II

Well, things are looking pretty good.

We now have 10 people signed up for the league, with a few more potentials. Last year we had only 8 people, and i found it a challenge at times to find quality talent to fill my roster with. Given roster sizes (19 players per team) we'll be at least 190 players deep. According to Yahoo's pre-set draft rankings, that means we'll be drafting down to the range of Ladislav Nagy, Jere Lehtinen, Jordan Staal, Mike Sillinger, and Doug Weight. Really not that bad. I think we can survive taking a few more people on board.

So anyone else interested?
Here's who we have in the league so far so you know who you're up against:

Brandon Felder - HockeyBuzz blogger, Sports Journalist student
Christy Nicholson - my wife, hockey blogger, general fan (6)
David Carlson - general fan, friend of mine from work
Dirk Hoag - aka "The Forechecker", Nashville area hockey blogger
Gary Nicholson - my dad, general fan, first-time fantasy sports player
Kevin Hicks - sports nut, and frequent fantasy player, friend from work
Kevin Peters - general fan, friend of mine (7)
Paul McCann - HockeyBuzz blogger, PA announcer for the Preds
Paul Nicholson - Me, sometimes hockey blogger, general fan (1)
Ryan Cassell - general fan, Denver native, friend of mine from work (2)

The numbers listed indicate their standing in the league last year, for those who played. So Ryan and i are back for more, Christy and Kevin are here for redemption :-)

I think with all the hockey bloggers among us, it is going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Several of these guys (McCann and the Forechecker in particular) tend to get news very quickly from time to time. I'll be curious to see how that might effect their strategy. Do they post news on their blog first, risking that someone else in the league takes action first? Or do they pickup/drop a player from their roster then post about it online, risking that someone else online gets the scoop? The rest of you should probably start reading those guys blogs regularly.

One things for sure, i think this is going to be a lot of fun. Kevin and Christy can both tell you that they should have done much better than that last year, but injuries hit them hard. This is also just a game of stats, so it is very possible for a first-time fantasy player like my dad to beat someone like McCann. Anything can happen.

I will probably set the draft to 'ready' status over the weekend. I'll make sure to send out a note to all the 'managers' at least 2 days in advance to give you plenty of warning so you can fix your pre-draft rankings.

If you are interested in signing up:
Just visit- http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/hockey
when prompted for the league ID, enter 15408. Password is "mason" (without quotes).