I know this article is late, but I tried my hardest to think back to before the season started and how I thought teams looked and kept my comments on that same kind of mindset, so try to keep that in mind when reading lol.

Post-Draft Team Rankings

1. Detroit
2. Edmonton
3. San Jose
4. Colorado
5. Washington
6. Montreal
7. Philadelphia
8. Vegas
9. Toronto
10. Seattle

1. Detroit, GM Chad, making an insane number of trades for picks and resigns leading up the draft was some work well done to earn the #1 spot. Trading for Hypeyy while managing to Draft Hardiee and KyleJ83 with the 1^st and 4^th picks of the draft set him up to have the strongest right side in the league. Sneaking in late picks with MrlolChico and BK_0994 for a goaltending tandem was also a nice touch for a draft which showed a bit of weakness in the goaltending department. This team should finish #1 in the league at the end of the season, and knowing Chad he’ll probably fleece an owner one or two more times before the seasons done making this already strong team even stronger.

• Edmonton, GM Someonestopmeplease, making the big move to unite the beanzy Ustoopid brothers was very well done, leaving him with the best blueline in the league to start while having a top scoring forward in Bean to carry the offence, very solid foundation. Grabbing Ande91 (Yesc to some people) in the 2^nd round was also a clutch pick giving them a familiar face to gel with the trio that’s already there. Grahame47 (Clake) looking like the starter there, the guy can normally make the first save when hes dialed in so also not a bad pick up. With those 5 guys and some of the supporting cast they drafted puts them at 2^nd best team heading into the season.

• San Jose, GM Randy, (this one was a tough call, but I’ll admit I’m slightly biased) starting off the season by taking over the old Winnipeg jets and resigning Bartlett was an easy decision, arguably the best all around player in the league when he isn’t being a troll, and sometimes he still is even when he’s being a troll lol. Grabbing Noscxpe at LD with his first pick and Wardo_05 at RD with his 2^nd pick may have had a few people raising some eyebrows but Noscxpe may have been the best LD on the board and Wardo (after kyleJ was taken) was a risky pick but could prove to be one of the better Dmen by the end of the season. Also, the last time Wardo played SP he scored over 100 goals in a season so maybe some of that magic comes with that pick as well. Sneaking in a few goalies with skillz and ice_uck late in the draft was also lucky considering goalies were getting eaten up quick. Another solid blueline with some solid goaltending and having Bart using his backpack skills puts this Sharks team as #3.

• Colorado, GM SA_Pliskin, resigning Tommyboy and trading for Cpenn4204 made this team look real good heading into the draft, 2 of the top forwards this league has seen over the seasons. Following up by drafting xwillis, Benji frank, and pistolpete has this team looking strong out of the gate. Willis is one of the current top scoring RW’s in LGNHL which makes this team even more threatening with the ability to put Benji and cpenn on D. Pliskin looks like he will be the starting goalie for the squad which is also not a bad look as long as hes actually paying attention to the game and not patting his cat. I almost want to say this team is #3 but nah screw these guys.

• Washington, GM Eggman, resigning Fluri, drafting prodigytolegend and semple to round off that first line is a nice start, a slight tough look with 2 top LW’s in Semple and prod but these guys are talented enough to make it work. Grabbing xshepxrd as a starting dman was also nice, guy plays a solid two-way game, and then getting goalieman to start in nets was a real nice late pick for these guys, he definitely fell far in this draft which was a blessing to this squad. Lots of depth on the bench in the roster for these guys too so they’ll always have a competitive lineup out there each night.

• Montreal, GM Reapz, Same old song and dance with this guy grabbing LeCupidon with the resign. Cupi has been shredding nhl on the right side since I can remember so you can never go wrong with that pick. Drafting Jhursi with their 1^st pick at C was also very nice to see, I think they will heat up even more with a solid defensive minded talent as well as offensive between them. Then grabbing last season’s Vezina winner Brazghostt was a steal considering the goalie talent in the draft, Reapz teams have always relied on having a goalie who can make the first save and this is the guy they wanted to do it. Rounding off their blueline with a nice mix of Cheif2step, Capt Canada, and ChiefTrout is also a great start, although all these players are good, I feel like the fact that both Chiefs play the D one well but prefer the forward role hurts them a bit which is why I have them in the 6^th spot.

• Philadelphia, GM Cuban, trading away his resign in Cpenn and having the 5^th and 7^th overall pick was a plan that I think fell apart during the draft. I could be wrong, but I think he thought he would be able to get the John Dean, Hughsy tandem that have won back-to-back cups to start off his squad, but then John Dean got taken earlier than he predicted. Which lead to him drafting a great friend of mine in Freezemothasucka with his 7^th overall pick. If Freeze didn’t refuse defence this season I would’ve seen the value in it, but passing up on players like Bejimo, Ande, wardo, or noscope was a bit of a tough look, freeze could’ve easily fallen to round 3 in this draft with only having forward as an option, but he still has value at LW so don’t count these guys out yet. Cuban finished off the draft strong by picking lxppy (who easily could’ve been that #7 pick) and pickletickler and grabbing conn smythe winner Sgt Vandoos for nets. Also, with a solid supporting cast in Rookie, Druwyy and hot wheels this team will be competitive every night. Hughsy will need to start practicing his faceoff skills cause these boys are gonna need him to come up big in Philly, especially with pickletickler out there, guys awful.

• Vegas, GM DustyGlove22, new GM to the league and didn’t do a bad job in the draft. Resigning top forward in Zinczy was a great start and grabbing john dean with the 3^rd overall pick locked up one of the Best C’s in the league this team is looking good, their forwards and depth of forwards looks real nice with zercy, saucy, and nitro. The big issue I see is lack of RW depth considering its refused by most except for zin and john. This top line will be lethal but their average blueline and potentially average goaltending looks like its going to cost them a lot of games this season, but if they manage to get into playoffs this will be a team that could upset anyone.

• Toronto, GM Dirty-Dietrich, things fell apart a but before the draft for Dirty, had some locker room troubles causing him to move Beanzy (who he recently acquired through trade before the draft) and his resign hypeyy. He lost his 1^st overall pick and dropped down to picking in the 8^th position. Now having said that he didn’t have a bad draft at all grabbing Yojonsn, Bejimo, KarlssonisGod and Uberpwned on the blueline with Bufford as a starter G. This top line will be tough to play against as well with some good depth in the roster too. The potential lack of C and RW depth is a bit concerning and only having one true LD is tough as well, this team will be juggling lines around a lot and will be battling to get into the playoffs. Although they’re ranked #5 in the East, I am not counting them out.

1. Seattle, GM iearntofiy, another new GM to the league, his drafting approach and outlook on the draft had most puzzled (myself included) but he went for solid, dependable players to fill out his roster every night. The biggest issue with that is most guys are dependable if their team is good, if the team isn’t good that’s when you’ll run into problems. I hate to say it cause hes a good friend, but NowYoDead was not a 1^st round choice in this draft, he easily could’ve slid to the 3^rd round before being picked. Also resigning teamrun (although a good solid defenceman) was another tough look when kylej83 was an option for him, could also managed to grab teamrun with a late 2^nd or mid-3^rd round pick. Getting Kidmoney was their best offensively talented pick in the draft and then also grabbing blademuffin was solid as well, but you can only expect so much out of those guys when you read the names listed above and seeing that talent night in and night out. I don’t expect these guys to win many games and I would be shocked if they managed to get into playoffs with the roster they have.

Now onto the rankings after the first 6 games of the season.

Week 1 Rankings:

1. San Jose
2. Detroit
3. Toronto
4. Edmonton
5. Washington
6. Philadelphia
7. Montreal
8. Colorado
9. Vegas
10. Seattle

Had to give the #1 spot to my boys the Sharks, being the only undefeated team after 6 games (which isn’t a huge sample size) but should be enough to make them top dogs for now, they have the stats to back it up so far, but we will see what the rest of the season brings.

The most notable jump would be Toronto up to #3 after being ranked #9 to start the season, these guys put their foot in my mouth going 4-1-1 and leading the East. The only reason I didn’t put them ahead of Detroit was because Detroit had a huuugee Tuesday night putting up 23 goals in 3 games.

Biggest drop would go to Colorado, a Forfeit loss and not having great availability to start the season was what most likely caused this, wouldn’t expect them to stay at #8 for too long.

I’m not going to dive too deep into week 1 since it was only 6 games, just wanted to give everyone something to read. Seattle, Vegas figure it out over there, we all know both your wins so far were FF wins.

Keep it gutless out there,

Randymarsh