IceHL Premiere & Player Pool Problems

(Don’t count on me checking in every day, but I had to talk a bit about the first day of the season!)

Good start so far to the season for the Wave. You should have heard me when I saw Claude Giroux’s shorty to start my season. Based on the giant sample size of today, the Wave, Salt Lake City Scorpions and Houston Hellcats should have a pretty exciting race in the Robbins Division.

The Wave have come to an agreement with the Calgary Cavalry to trade Steve Mason in exchange for Nathan Horton. Horton had a pretty good year last year on a pretty bad team in Florida. With the quality of players around him improving in Boston, I figured I’d be willing to trade my high risk/high reward 3rd goalie.

In other news, please welcome the other new addition to the Wave: Cal Clutterbuck. He steps in as Maxim Afinogenov steps out. Btw, I’d like to thank the Cavalry for pointing out my stupidity about picking up Maxim Afinogenov. (Btw, thank you, Milwaukee, for making the same mistake as I did. Now I don’t feel quite as dumb. ;] )

That brings me to my big gripe of the day: ESPN’s player pool. It’d be nice if they took out the players who went to the KHL in the off-season like Afinogenov. Or those who retired like Scott Niedermayer or Phillipe Boucher. I mean seriously? Phillipe Boucher? How long ago did he retire? Listen ESPN, there’s a very good chance we’ll be looking at picking up players at crazy hours of the night.  Please don’t tease us with players who aren’t in the league anymore.

As always, keep it real. Keep it fresh. And keep it real fresh.

A Friendly Wave Hello

(Expect many terrible puns over the course of this season.)

Ah, the first day of the hockey season is nearly upon us. And if you’re reading this post about a fantasy hockey team on a blog about hockey jerseys, you’re probably at least as excited about this as I am.

Let’s start from the beginning. My name’s Jon. I’m a student at San Jose State, a Sharks fan, and the manager of the California Wave in the IceHL. I’d like to thank Chris for giving me that opportunity and JFred for designing such a great logo.

Living out here on the west coast and being the night owl I am, I was actually awake when the IceHL draft went down at 2 am local time. My strategy going in was to take a stud goalie first round unless I got a great pick. But I ended up getting that great pick, and so it turns out I got Ovechkin. That pick alone equals a pretty good draft overall.

For the most part, I was quite happy with the draft. The lone exception was my fourth rounder Derrick Brassard. I wish I had done a few more rounds worth of pre-draft rankings so I could have gotten someone like Jason Spezza or Miikka Kiprusoff with that pick. But that’s the risk with an auotpick draft. I did end up pretty well off with goalies. I’m very happy with Marty Turco, Dan Ellis should be solid and Steve Mason could end up being a steal (or worst case scenario, a 3rd goalie who actually get starts.)

I’m still tinkering a bit through the waiver wire, and I still think I’m a good forward or two away from being where I want to be, but I may end up fixing that through a trade along the way.

I’ll be checking in at least once a week or so here at Icethetics, but this will wrap it up for today. So, to borrow a line from a certain SJ Sharks broadcaster: Keep it real. Keep it fresh. Keep it real fresh.

    Ah, the first day of the hockey season is upon us. And if you’re reading this post about a fantasy hockey team on a blog about hockey jerseys, you’re probably at least as excited about this as I am.

    Let’s start from the beginning. My name’s Jon. I’m a student at San Jose State, a Sharks fan, and the manager of the California Wave in the IceHL. I’d like to thank Chris for giving me that opportunity and JFred for designing such a great logo.

    Living out here on the west coast and being the night owl I am, I was actually awake when the IceHL draft went down at 2 am local time. My strategy going in was to take a stud goalie first round unless I got a great pick. But I ended up getting that great pick, and so it turns out I got Ovechkin. That pick alone equals a pretty good draft overall.

    For the most part, I was quite happy with the draft. The lone exception was my fourth rounder Derrick Brassard. I wish I had done a few more rounds worth of pre-draft rankings so I could have gotten someone like Jason Spezza or Miikka Kiprusoff with that pick. But that’s the risk with an auotpick draft. I did end up pretty well off with goalies. I’m very happy with Marty Turco, Dan Ellis should be solid and Steve Mason could end up being a steal (or worst case scenario, a 3rd goalie who actually get starts.)

    I’m still tinkering a bit through the waiver wire, and I still think I’m a good forward or two away from being where I want to be, but I may end up fixing that through a trade along the way.

    I’ll be checking in at least once a week or so here at Icethetics, so, to borrow a line from a certain SJ Sharks broadcaster: Keep it real. Keep it fresh. Keep it real fresh.