This was Bobby Lou going 5th overall.

Despite a combination of the hockey gods, Yahoo!, and various work schedules seemingly not wanting us to have a successful fantasy draft- it happened.  Quite well, in fact.  We only had one no show that I recall, and in a league of twenty people, that's damn impressive.

The Oddities

The draft started off pretty typically: Ovi, Geno, Crosby.  Parise at 4, while not a lock, is pretty normal too.  Then Luongo went faster than I've ever seen.  He'd also be the youngest player Chris7454 took until Nik Kronwall in round 7 (more on that later).  Aside from that oddity, which god only knows may turn out to be a stroke of genius though we as Flames fan pray not, the first round was pretty standard. 

Partly because of Luongo, partly because we're a bunch of hockey sheep, the goalie run started quickly, with 14 gone by the end of round 2.  An interesting side effect of this was quality players like Marc Savard and Mike RIchards slipping down to the end of R2.

The end of the draft was by far the most entertaining.  At that point, nobody is a sure thing to produce (even be in the NHL, a la Cody Hodgson in round 15.

Every so often, you look at someone's team and think, "Man, who'd want Wade Redden on their fantasy team?"  In the Bonfire it was Dangle City- but don't judge Dangle City- Glen Sather they are not.  Though it'd be pretty cool if they were: easiest fantasy week ever when you're playing him. 

No, in this deep of a league you take who you can get at that point.  Some people go ancient in the later rounds, drafting has been's (or in the case of Redden- never really were's) in the hopes of comeback seasons.  Others, like myself, draft young, praying for a break out season from Luke Schenn (Note: I'm already dropping him). 

And then you have people who draft types.  I'm one of them- I tend to go young, though not rookie young until late rounds. Others, like Chris7454 draft a team from three years ago, including Rob Brind'Amour, Chris Drury, and Alex Tanguay (that being said his team is actually very solid).

All in all, the draft was a fun experience with fun people.  Vees Voice was talkative, Kent informative (as usual), and Marian Gaborik probably got hurt by someone thinking about him long enough to click "draft".

EDIT: Kent already looks like a genius with his starting goalie posting a shutout in his first game back.