Editor's Note: The Pendulum's resident hockey expert, Zach Horner puts in his two cents about Friday night's All-Star Draft, and where he sees each player going, as captains Nick Lindstrom and Eric Staal make their picks. You can tune in to the live draft on Versus at 8 PM on Friday night to see for yourself!
Let me just go ahead and say ahead of time that I will probably be wrong about a lot of this. These are young guys, for the most part, so they’ve probably got some tricks up their sleeves.
Friday holds the NHL All-Star Game Fantasy Draft. Carolina Hurricanes captain Eric Staal and Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom are captaining the two teams on Sunday’s All-Star Game and are responsible for picking the players for their teams. Seeing as how this is a friendly competition, I expect there to be some shenanigans.
Team Staal is currently comprised of Staal and his alternate captains Mike Green of the Washington Capitals and Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks. Lidstrom is aided by Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks and Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning. I personally love these selections. They work perfectly; they picked a captain from each conference and two alternate captains from each conference. It also is a great mix of veterans and young guns.
Now that all the All-Star replacements have been made, I figured it would be fun to do a mock draft of the fantasy draft, take the roles of Nick Lidstrom and Eric Staal. Seeing as how the order will not be determined until right before the draft itself, I chose to have Team Staal select first. Note: the teams must select all three of their goalies by Round 10 and all five other defensemen by Round 15.
Round 1
Team Staal: Carolina G Cam Ward
Eric has said that he wants to pick all the Carolina Hurricanes players so he has the home-ice advantage. This will be the first step to that. And with Lidstrom threatening to pick Ward with his first pick, I figure Eric will snatch his good friend up first.
Team Lidstrom: Vancouver F Henrik Sedin
Banking on the fact that Staal will try to take both of the Hurricanes representatives, Lidstrom may go get the Canuck twins. This is the first step.
Round 2
Team Staal: Carolina F Jeff Skinner
Staal picks up the youngest All-Star in the NHL’s history and the other Hurricanes player.
Team Lidstrom: Vancouver F Daniel Sedin
Lidstrom completes the Sedin twin pairing.
Round 3
Team Staal: Chicago D Duncan Keith
Eric needs to pick up a defensemen. Keith was one of the players chosen by fan ballots, so why not pick him?
Team Lidstrom: Tampa Bay F Steven Stamkos
Stamkos leads the league in goals right now. Imagine him on a line with the Sedin twins. Lidstrom must be salivating over this opportunity.
Round 4
Team Staal: Washington F Alexander Ovechkin
Alternate captain Mike Green convinces Staal to pick up Green’s teammate from Washington, who is having an off-year for him but has those skills necessary to be a contributor.
Team Lidstrom: Chicago F Jonathan Toews
After losing out on Keith, Lidstrom picks up the other Blackhawk elected to the game.
Round 5
Team Staal: Boston D Zdeno Chara
When the ‘Canes play the Bruins, Staal is often hounded by this behemoth of a hockey player. I think he might pick him up to get that nuisance out of the way.
Team Lidstrom: Boston G Tim Thomas
Realizing he’s running out of time to pick three goalies, Lidstrom chooses the league leader in save percentage and goals against average.
Round 6
Team Staal: New York Rangers D Marc Staal
Eric’s momma wants him to pick Marc, who says he’s never played on a team with Eric. This might be the time to fix that.
Team Lidstrom: Pittsburgh G Marc-Andre Fleury
Lidstrom knows Fleury well. When the Penguins won the Cup in 2009, Marc-Andre stoned the Red Wings defenseman in the waning seconds of the game on a shot.
Round 7
Team Staal: New York Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist
Seeing that Lidstrom is picking two goalies in a row and seeing the great ones disappear, Staal snatches up the goalie his team has faced multiple times recently.
Team Lidstrom: San Jose D Danny Boyle
Lidstrom picks his first defenseman in Danny Boyle, a solid D-man who would pair wonderfully with Lidstrom.
Round 8
Team Staal: Nashville D Shea Weber
Weber played on the Canadian Olympic team in 2010 with Staal that won the gold medal.
Team Lidstrom: Anaheim G Jonas Hiller
Detroit has fallen victim to Hiller’s outstanding play many times.
Round 9
Team Staal: Anaheim F Corey Perry
Perry also played on the Canadian Olympic team with Staal. Realizing he still has one more round to pick up the last goalie, Staal will take this golden opportunity.
Team Lidstrom: Columbus F Rick Nash
Perennial All-Star Nash is stolen from Staal by Lidstrom. Great steal here as Nash is a world-class player.
Round 10
Team Staal: Montreal G Carey Price
Staal fulfills the requirement and picks up the final goalie in the mix. Not to say that Price is a weak link by any stretch of the imagination.
Team Lidstrom: Minnesota D Brent Burns
Burns brings a great combo of offense and defense. Not that the defense matters or anything.
Round 11
Team Staal: Dallas F Brad Richards
Up until Richards got traded to Dallas, Staal faced him often in Tampa Bay.
Team Lidstrom: Atlanta D Dustin Byfuglien
Lidstrom faced this behemoth when Byfuglien was in Chicago the past couple years.
Round 12
Team Staal: Dallas F Loui Eriksson
Richards plays with Eriksson in Dallas and had 91 points last season while playing with him. I’m sure Brad will inform Eric of that.
Team Lidstrom: Chicago F Patrick Sharp
Lidstrom finishes the Chicago trifecta by adding Sharp to Toews and alternate captain Patrick Kane.
Round 13
Team Staal: Pittsburgh D Kris Letang
Staal picks up another defensemen to wrap up his 6 blueliners.
Team Lidstrom: Phoenix D Keith Yandle
Yandle, a replacement, plays against Lidstrom in the Western Conference. That and Lidstrom still needs to get two defensemen.
Round 14
Team Staal: Philadelphia F Danny Briere
Briere, who replaced Sidney Crosby, was the All-Star Game MVP in 2007.
Team Lidstrom: Colorado F Matt Duchene
Duchene was last year’s leading rookie scorer.
Round 15
Team Staal: New Jersey F Patrik Elias
Elias has 37 points on a struggling Devils team. Still a great player.
Team Lidstrom: Ottawa D Erik Karlsson
Lidstrom picks the final defenseman on the board just in time, but Karlsson is no slouch (28 points in 48 games this year).
Round 16
Team Staal: Los Angeles F Anze Kopitar
I’ve always loved Kopitar, I’m sure Eric Staal will as well.
Team Lidstrom: Colorado F Paul Statsny
Lidstrom picks up the other representative from the Red Wings’ old rivals the Avalanche
Round 17
Team Staal: Toronto F Phil Kessel
Like Elias, Kessel is having a solid year on a struggling team. 19 goals for the former Bruin going in to the break.
Team Lidstrom: Minnesota F Martin Havlat
Havlat is another replacement player that who has 44 points in 49 games.
Round 18
Team Staal: Philadelphia F Claude Giroux
With this selection, Eric can put two Flyers on the same line.
Team Lidstrom: St. Louis F David Backes
Backes has the infamous distinction of being the last player selected in the first NHL All-Star Game Fantasy Draft.
Again, this could all be messed up if Nicklas Lidstrom wins the coin toss. But you never know.
I’m super excited for this draft because of the freshness and intrigue involved. It’s like those fantasy drafts you have for your football pools or baseball pools, only the players are picking amongst themselves. It should be an immense amount of fun.