AHL Draft in Toronto

(if you don’t care at all about hockey I’d say that it’s safe to skip this blog) I love this hockey pool. It is without a doubt the most involved hockey pool in the world. Each year before the draft I spend countless hours searching for that next big hockey star. Normally in our pool we have five draft picks. In the AHL entry draft you can select any player with less than 10 NHL games under his belt that isn’t already on a team. You can select anyone you want, however if you pick a really young player that hasn’t been drafted by an NHL team yet you have to pay that player more when you call him up to the “big club.” This year, I have 8 draft picks due to a few trades I made last season. Each team has a roster of 23 players and three sets of goalies. We also have a salary cap. You can’t spend more than $60.00 on your team. Here is what my team looks like going into the draft: DEFENSE: Greg de Vries, ATL. 0.50
Tom Poti, NYI 1.25
Brent Seabrook. CHI. 1.50 FORWARDS: Eric Belanger, LA. 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
Jason Chimera, CLB. 0.25
Simon Gagne, PHI. 3.25
Mike Johnson, MON. 0.75
Jussi Jokinen, DAL. 0.25
Olli Jokinen, FLA. 1.50 1.75 2.00
Alexei Kovalev, MON. 2.50 2.75
Ryan Malone, PIT. 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
Corey Perry, ANA. 1.00
Jason Pominville, BUF. 0.50
Henrick Sedin, VAN. 3.25 3.75 4.25 4.75 5.25
Lee Stempniak, STL. 0.25
Keith Tkachuk, STL. 11.75
Raffi Torres, EDM. 2.00 GOALIES: NONE Obviously when you look at that team there is a gaping hole on defense, and no goalies. At the draft, I think my hand is somewhat forced in that I’ll need to go after some help on defense and get a couple good sets of goalies. At forward, I expect to call up a couple guys from my farm team. You can have up to 20 players on the farm and can leave them there as long as you like. Once you call them up, they can’t be sent back down to the minors. Here is my farm team: DEFENSE: Danny Richmond, CHI. 0.25
Dustin Kohn, NYI. 0.25 FORWARDS: Nicklas Bergfors, NJ. 0.50
Marcel Goc, SJ. 1.50
Petr Kalus, BOS. 0.50
Anze Kopitar, LA. 2.00
Andre Kosistsyn, MON. 2.00
T.J. Oshi, STL. 1.00
Benoit Pouliot, MIN. 2.00
Bobby Ryan, ANA. 2.00
Alexander Semin, WAS. 2.00
Jack Skille, CHI. 1.50
Stephen Weiss, FLA. 2.00 My farm team is better than any other teams in the league right now. Semin will be a big part of the Washington Capitals and I’ll call him up immediately. Also, it looks like Petr Kalus will make the Bruins so I may call him up as well. Goc already plays in San Jose, but I’m going to wait and see how he develops offensively. As for Weiss, he is a part part of the Panthers, but since I already have Olli Jokinen on my team I doubt he’ll get a call up this year. If you at all care about any of this you can follow the action at the league’s website www.alternativehockeyleague.com or in the NHL Hockey Forum here at FCP. Plane’s leaving.. gotta run!
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