Zipper

I wasn't sure if I'd care, but I'm getting in to it. That young team looks like it'll be really fun to watch! And it's pretty cool anytime you get the best players together and actually trying their best. Ladt night it looked like Canada was ready for an exhibition game, but the US kept hitting until Canada got pissed off.

Most of my scouting success came when I was an expansion team in the pcfl. The CHA started as just as 12 team PCFL, but expanded to 14 teams after two years. In my first year as a GM, I didn't have a team, but I did have a jv roster to manage. It was interesting only focussing on young guys, but I ended up with some really good talent just by keeping an eye on the leagues around the world. Stepan was the second player I ever added to the team. Not sure I can ever trade him. Travis Hamonic was one of my first guys, too. I remember I made James sad when I added Roman Josi. I almost tried to trade him to James at that point. Sorry, James! Adam Henrique was also awesome for me in his rookie year. Looking at my drafts, I don't have a Barrie like story. I got Justin Faulk in the 5th round, but couldn't handle his cap when he finished his elc. I got Panarin as a free agent in both leagues, last March. That's helped a lot.

Chris Tanev is a pretty amazing new wave 'defensive' d-man. He doesn't contribute much for offense, but he gets the puck out of his own end pretty quickly. But I guess he wasn't a hyped college FA.

When I drafted my HUEL team, the plan was to build around Paajarvi, B. Connolly, Filatov and Johansen. 1 out of 4 ain't bad? I really loved Grigorenko when he was coming up. Good thing I didn't have any high picks in that draft.

Those guys were all regarded as can't miss picks, which is why they are in the top 5. Juolevi is not regarded as can't miss. It's even debatable as to whether or not he's the best dman in the draft class, and the second Dman drafted didn't go until #9. I think there's a chance he's a Griffin Reinhart (4), Derrick Pouliot (8), Adam Larsson (4), Erik Gudbranson (3), Luke Schenn (5), Thomas Hickey (4), or even Erik Johnson (1), who is solid, but he was taken instead of Toews or Backstrom. I do think Benning's scouting is probably his forte, and I think he probably did try to trade down, so I'm not heartbroken about the pick. It's just strange that he didn't take the obvious power forward pick, when he took one with the first pick in the last two drafts, and when dmen have a lesser chance of working out It's too bad he couldn't have taken a shot at a dman with the 33rd pick, but that was given away in the Gudbranson deal.

With the sheer volume of people playing, some of them are gonna be not very smart, or jerks, so if you want to find stories of the game causing harm you can. But as a whole people are getting outside and being more active, and it's pretty easy to find stories of the game causing good. I know I go for a lot more walks these days!

I am playing in Canada. Got myself this bad boy last night.

I think this is their problem now. They're too focused on keeping the streak alive and it's leaving Detroit as a middle team. They're not drafting as well as they used to so there are not enough prospects to replace their aging vets. This leads them to overpay free agents and not have enough cap space to fill holes. I'd be frustrated if I was a wings fan. On a Canucks note, Benning managed to frustrate me again. He loves power forwards so I thought picking Tkachuk was idiotproof, turns out it wasn't. I don't mind Juolevi, but picking a dman so high is a bigger risk, and they take longer to develop.... And now Benning is talking about how he wants to trade for a big winger...

So glad to be back! I missed checking up on things on a daily basis!