The 2009-10 IOMTHL Season is beginning.

With the 2009-2010 NHL season fast approaching, several fantasy leagues are getting started or resuming for the next season. I was lucky enough to get in to Hockeybuzz Blogger (and all around nice guy) Brian Metzer’s new keeper league. This is a pretty deep, 16 Team League. Here is how the league shakes down.  All league drafts “snake”, meaning 1-16 then the next round its 16-1, then 1-16, etc.

30 Round NHL Dispersal draft.
– Eligible players must have at least one NHL game played to be in this draft.

25 Round Prospects Draft
– Players with less than 125 NHL games played can be had in this draft. Players who were drafted beofre 2009 and have no NHL games played also qualify. Interesting twist here…if a player is taken here, he is protected from the other GMs. However, should this player eclipse 125 NHL GP during 09-10, any GM can take a player on the Prospect roster without Penalty. Ex. Roman Polak can get over 125 NHL GP this year. At game 126, someone can “poach” him from my Prospect Roster.

7 Round 2009 NHL Entry Draft
– Eligible selections must have been in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

The league is set up as weekly H2H using common stats for points. Each night you dress 3 standard lines of LW-C-RW, 3 Forwards, 6 Defensemen, and 2 Goalies.

Through my 12th Round Pick I currently have:
Mike Cammalleri – Andy McDonald – Johan Franzen
Ryan Malone – Antoine Vermette – Martin Havlat
David Booth – – Nik Antropov

D – Zdeno Chara – Mike Green
D – Chris Pronger – Joe Corvo

G – Steve Mason & Nikolai Khabibulin

I did have to deviate from my plan. Right off the bat I saw I was drafting 13th in the first round. I traded down to move up in later rounds. In my opinion there are only about 8-10 legit fantasy difference makers as forwards, I felt I was better served going down. With my first pick (2nd Rd #4) I took Mike Green. My second 2nd Round pick went to Steve Mason at #15 in Round 2.

As teh draft shook down, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to steal Blues players. In leauges that count PIM, Backes is a beast. He went earlier than I thought. Berglund, TJ, and Perron all followed in short order after EJ was picked. I was able to make a deal moving up to get Pronger right after EJ went. Literally, in each round I targeted Boyes, Backes, Berglund, Perron and EJ…they were taken just a few picks before I was up.

I then shifted my focus from high cieling youngsters to players at the top of the teams depth chart, but might not be the best team. Targeting players ages 27/28 to 31/32. My goal was to get players all capable of scoring 20-25 goals, but would have up to 30 (or more) potential. My thinking was, be competitive now, and try to get key long term names in the prospect and entry draft. Which lead me to taking Nazem Kadri with my #5 Entry Pick. I felt he had a shorter route to the NHL than Brayden Schenn did.

Entry Draft Picks:
F – Nazem Kadri
D – David Rundblad
D – Simone Despres

All in all I think I am doing well so far. Soem deals to get better now have forced me to work more deals to get better later, but I am very happy with what I have so far. Right now I think I have the most productive Blueline in the league with Green, Chara, Pronger, and Corvo. Hoping to add some more punch to that line up. Hoping to add two more guys who will be in situations to add points to what they came up with last year.

Here is a link to my Roster Page – Let’s Go Blues.
Dispersal Draft Link

Prospect Draft Link

Entry Draft Link