UFHL Draft 2008 team by team picks

Just like last year, and the year before, I am pleased to offer a short review of each team's performance hot on the heels of the draft. This year it was particularly difficult to accomplish due to small dispute with Google on whether yours truly should be allowed to keep this little gig, even if I make use of the opportunity only once a year. Fear not, I have won and so you can not only enjoy this year's installment, but also have something to look forward to next year.

Team	Picks	Comments
	#5-Alex Pietrangelo #37-Jiri Niemi	It is a draft of the defensmen. In Anaheim's case, two defensemen.
	#35-Corey Trivino #36-Tyler Ennis #63-Jimmy Hayes #65-Patrick Wiercioch #70-Kelsey Tessier #77-Philip McRae #86-Patrice Cormier	There is a good reason to believe that Boston's 2008 draft will be remembered for reasons other than drafting a player whose name no one else could spell
	#17-Jacob Markstrom #28-Jordan Eberle #78-Kevin Poulin #85-Ilmari Pitkanen	It is becoming the tradition in UFHL for Buffalo GM Randy to stockpile an enormous collection of draft picks only to deal them for a bigger stockpile next season. This can't end well, since at this rate Buffalo will flat out own the whole draft by 2014.
	#10-Zach Boychuk	Less is more.
	#14-Josh Bailey #55-Cody Goloubef #67-Derek Stepan #80-Peter Delmas	Carolina only picked once last year, but warmed up and selected FOUR times in 2008. I say, based on the selections, that maybe Carolina should do even more picking next year.
		Chicago is playing it close to the vest. No picks is as mysterious as you can get.
	#20-Colby Robak #40-Colten Teubert #68-James Wright	If these picks do not turn out, do not blame the Colorado GM, blame THN. Colorado GM missed the draft altogether.
	#11-Kyle Beach #41-Jamie Arniel #83-Kruise Reddick	Wouldn't it have been perfect if Jekyll/Hide-esque Beach went 13th? Well, he didn't. That's the kind of guy he is.
		Yet another team with no picks. I blame Randy.
	#21-Aaron Ness #29-Jake Gardiner #72-Dmitry Kugryshev #76-Michael Hutchinson #81-Taylor Stefishen	I think Edmonton is picking all those Minnesotans hoping that these guys wouldn't mind the North pole cold Edmonton winters.
	#12-Michael Del Zotto #27-John Carlson #38-Jake Allen #53-Luke Adam #60-Danny Kristo	If you believe Don, he made all these great picks while being driven to distraction by hordes of gorgeous females vying for his attention. Well, do you believe?
	#16-Mattias Tedenby #26-Joe Colborne #39-Viktor Tikhonov #51-David LeNeveu(UFHL) #57-Vyacheslav Voinov #66-A.J. Jenks	LA went for a hockey version of the Hollywood hit "Twins" picking Tedenby and Colborne. Needless to say both need to put on some weight before they make it to the show.
	#2-Nikita Filatov #74-Justin Schultz #82-Henrik Eriksson	Half of the NHL announcers will call last Minnesota pick Erik Henriksson instead of Henrik Eriksson half of the time. Clearly, half of this guy's name is wrong. Which one?
	#13-Chet Pickard	13th pick on Friday the 13th. Spooky.
	#46-Brayden Holtby #48-Roman Josi #52-Mike Sillinger(UFHL)	How did Roman Josi fall this far? Well, the Devils aren't complaining.
	#3-Drew Doughty #58-Mitch Wahl	With Mike Sillinger off the board, the Islanders select a younger version in Mitch Wahl.
	#32-Jared Staal #71-Dustin Tokarski	You'd think that a Staal would be picked higher and higher every year as the league learns how good these guys are. Nope. Go figure.
	#19-Mikhail Stefanovich #47-Anton Gustafsson	An absentee GM was given these gems thanks to THN. No fair!
	#4-Zach Bogosian #22-David Toews #33-Thomas McCollum #50-Evgeny Grachev #69-Adam Comrie #84-Brodie Reid	Philly went off the board with Toews. If you believe Shattuck's coach, the rest of the GMs will be kicking themselves.
	#1-Steven Stamkos #23-Harri Sateri #42-Kristoffer Berglund #43-Yann Sauve #44-Justin Jokinen #54-Brandon Burlon #61-David Carle	Just like last year the Coyotes will face some tough decisions on whom to sign. At least the first decision is going to be super easy.
	#56-Michael Stone #75-Joel Champagne	I do not know what to say about these picks. Really, I do not.
	#7-Cody Hodgson #15-Tyler Myers #24-Zac Dalpe #34-Greg Nemisz #62-Eric O'Dell #64-Andre Petersson	Possessing a good young defensive core the Sharks still could not pass on the towering defenseman who skates like Sergei Fedorov.
	#6-Mikkel Boedker	See Calgary.
		Last year every team had a pick. This year it's already the third team with no picks. You watch out Randy. I am onto you man.
	#8-Colin Wilson #9-Luke Schenn #18-Luca Sbisa #31-Kirill Petrov #45-Nicolas Deschamps #59-Daultan Leveille #79-Anssi Salmela(UFHL)	Ok, the first four picks were already great. But people, how the hell did you let Deschamps and Leveille fall to the bottom of the 2nd?
	#30-Tyler Cuma	Boooring. As in, who needs a top 4 defenseman at the bottom of the 1st? Kyle, put you arm down now. The rest of the class gets an F.
	#25-Erik Karlsson #49-Maxime Sauve #73-David Ullstrom	This year, due to Detroit's lack of picks, Hakan Andersson decided to help Washington. His advice? Simple: "Pick more Swedes"

Round One Summary

Friday night the UFHL held the first round of their annual entry draft. This is the first year that the draft has followed the NHL and had the first round on a different day than the rest of the rounds.

As anticipated, there were a number of trades as teams moved around. However, despite the uncertainty of draft day, it seems as UFHL managers had a fairly intimate knowledge of draft rankings as there were few surprises.

To come up with a ranking of players, lists from The Hockey News, ISS, the CSB, Bob Mckenzie (midseason), and a blogger called CUP have been averaged WITH the actual UFHL draft position to create a ranking of players prior to the NHL draft.

This gives interesting insight to where players have been selected. Here is the breakdown.
Stamkos ranked #1, selected # 1 - 0 spots earlier than predicted
Doughty ranked #2, selected #3 - 1 spot later than predicted
Bogosian ranked #2, selected 4, 2 spots later than predicted
Pietrangelo ranked #4, selected 5 - 1 spot later than predicted
Filatov ranked #5, selected 2 - 3 spots earlier than predicted
Schenn ranked #6, selected 9 - 3 spots later than predicted
Boedker ranked #7, selected 6 - 1 spot earlier than predicted
Hodgson ranked #8, selected 7 - 1 spot earlier than predicted
Wilson ranked #9, selected 8 - 1 spot earlier than predicted
Beach ranked #10, selected 11 - 1 spot later than predicted
Myers ranked #11, selected 15 - 4 spots later than predicted
Boychuk ranked #12, selected 10 - 2 spots earlier than predicted
Bailey ranked #13, selected 14 - 1 spot earlier than predicted
Teubert ranked #14, not selected
Sbisa ranked #15, selected 17 - 2 spots later than predicted
Tedenby ranked #16, selected 16 - 0 spots earlier than predicted
Del Zotto ranked #17, selected 12 - 5 spots earlier than predicted
Pickard ranked #18 (based on only 3 lists), selected 13 - 5 spots earlier than predicted
Markstrom ranked # 19, selected 17 - 2 spots earlier than predicted
Carlson ranked #20, selected 27th - 7 spots later than predicted
Robak ranked #21, selected 20 - 1 spot earlier than predicted
Colborne ranked #22, selected 26 - four spots later than predicted
Dalpe ranked #23, selected 24 - one spot later than predicted
Cuma ranked #24, not selected
Deschamps ranked #25, not selected
Eberle ranked #26, selected 28 - 2 spots later than predicted
Nemisz ranked #27, not selected
Stefanovich ranked #28 - selected 19th - 9 spots higher than predicted
Gardiner ranked #29, selected 29th - 0 spots earlier than predicted
McCollum ranked #30, not selected

Players selected outside of top 30 rankings:
Ness at 21 was ranked 36 - 15 spots earlier than predicted
Toews at 22 was ranked 38 - 16 spots earlier than predicted
Sateri at 23 was ranked 46 - 23 spots earlier than predicted
Karlsson at 25 was ranked 34 - 9 spots earlier than predicted

Biggest riser: Sateri
Biggest fall: Teubert (and still dropping)

When round two begins, some GMs may look at the guys who are still on the board unexpectedly, or perhaps there are more surprises in store! It will also be interesting to see where these players go in the NHL. Will the teams that took guys like Ness, Toews, Sateri, and Karlsson look like geniuses or suckers? In the end, its not really about the draft position but what a player does after being drafted. Only time will tell, but draft position plays into hype, which certainly has tangible value in a fantasy league.

Enjoy round two! Canucks pick first!