NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft Live Blog: Bruins Stick Together on Team Chara While Tyler Seguin Avoids Getting Drafted Last
9:35 p.m.: The rosters are set for the rest of All-Star weekend, and everyone seems to be happy with how the draft turned out.
Phil Kessel was picked early, Zdeno Chara didn’t draft any Canucks (although he was saddled with rookie Cody Hodgson) and Tyler Seguin didn’t end up going last.
On the surface, it’s shaping up to be a matchup that casts Team Chara as the villains. Team Alfredsson held onto all the Ottawa Senators, which — as if they weren’t already — will make them the de facto home team come Sunday.
Should be fun.
9:25 p.m.: Couture handles himself well and is pretty excited to have himself a new Honda. Someone from the crowd yelled out that he would be awarded Phil Kessel’s car, but that would have been too perfect.
9:23 p.m.: Team Chara has the first pick of the final round, and with the selection of Jamie Benn, that means Logan Couture is the last pick. Alex Ovechkin and his cameraphone are nowhere to be found.
9:20 p.m.: The trade was not to be. Instead Seguin hugs it out with his captain after getting chosen with the 33rd pick.
Jason Pominville goes to Team Alfredsson, which means Logan Couture and Jamie Benn are the only two left.
9:18 p.m.: Fun little behind-the-scenes moment captured by the camera as Senators teammates Karlsson and Spezza talk about the Sedin twins with the two sitting less than 20 feet away. The highlight of the conversation had to be the discussion that they’re “aliens.”
9:15 p.m.: This could be fun. With one trade allowed between the two teams, would Chara dare swap Kessel to Alfredsson for the rights to draft Tyler Seguin?
9:12 p.m.: Marian Gaborik and Jordan Eberle to the Blue Team. John Tavares and Scott Harnell join the Red Team.
Bit of a Bronx cheer for Hartnell. Tyler Seguin is one of four remaining undrafted players.
9:10 p.m.: The biggest question remaining for Bruins fans is where Tyler Seguin will go. The draft host went backstage to joke with Seguin about not bribing Chara to take him, but with eight players remaining it may not be time to worry just yet.
The NHL split the rookies up into two groups of six before the draft began, and they decided their affiliations for the Skills Competition after Round 15. Team Alfredsson picks up a group including Sean Coutourier while Gabriel Landeskog and friends side with Chara.
9:00 p.m.: All the goalies are off the board and as expected, a run on defensemen has taken place since they all had to go by Round 15.
Brian Campbell, Patrick Kane, Dion Phaneuf and Jerome Iginla go to Team Chara. Team Alfredsson takes Keith Yandle, Milan Michalek, Henrik Sedin, James Neal and Alex Edler.
Having drafted all of the Senators, I believe that makes Team Alfredsson the heavy crowd favorites for the rest of the weekend, in case it wasn’t clear before.
Dion Phaneuf also gets an “Overrated” chant from the crowd and it feels like we could have Team Chara playing the villian on Sunday. There are no Canucks on Chara’s squad, but Dennis Wideman is on board.
So there’s that.
8:50 p.m.: I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty bummed Kessel went so early. It’s a shame Lupul bailed his teammate out instead of working out a shady handshake agreement to force Kessel to sweat it out while waiting until the later rounds.
Ryan Suter and Jimmy Howard join Team Chara for picks No. 9 and 10. Daniel Sedin is taken by Team Alfie but Henrik remains on the board as Dan Girardi is drafted for the team’s tenth selection.
8:45 p.m.: Phil Kessel is off the board!
Joffrey Lupul sucks it up and drafts him despite a chorus of boos from the crowd greeting him onto Team Chara.
Kessel says it “doesn’t matter” where he got drafted and says it’s “not a big deal” to whoever gets picked last this year.
Shea Weber goes to Team Alfredsson.
8:40 p.m.: Round 6 goes with Corey Perry to Team Chara and Steven Stamkos to Team Alfie. Chara shows he isn’t afraid to draft Canadiens by taking Carey Price in Round 7 while the red team nabs Brian Elliott.
Perry won the Shootout Elimination Challenge in last year’s game, so that makes him a value pick. Nicely done by Chara and the boys wearing blue.
8:35 p.m.: The two captains have have had no problems choosing their picks in the early going. With so much talent available early, it’s hard to blame them. You really can’t go wrong deciding between all these players. Besides, everyone knows you win a fantasy draft in the late rounds hitting on a sleeper pick.
Marian Hossa and Kimmo Timonen go to Team Chara. Claude Giroux and Kris Letang join Team Alfredsson.
8:30 p.m.: Lupul announces Evgeni Malkin as Team Chara’s third pick. Jonathan Quick goes to Team Alfredsson, which means they will only need one more goalie the rest of the way.
8:25 p.m.: Team Chara does the right thing with the second pick, taking Tim Thomas.
Thomas briefly touched on his no-show at the White House on Monday, talking about following his conscience and the support he’s gotten in the aftermath.
In other news, Jason Spezza was “pissed” he wasn’t taken instead of Karlsson, but gets nabbed the next pick for Team Alfie anyways.
8:24 p.m.: No surprises for Team Alfredsson. Teammate Erik Karlsson is off the board right away to play with his captain with their first-rounder.
8:22 p.m.: Shocker!
Team Chara takes Pavel Datsyuk with the first overall pick. It’s not so much a surprise because The Magic Man is one of the best players, but considering he’s not Chara’s own goaltender and all that, it does surprise.
“I know he plays the game the right way,” Chara says. “He’s magic on the ice.”
8:20 p.m.: Team Chara has won the puck toss and is deliberating on the first pick.
I did not know this until now, but one trade is allowed between the two All-Star teams. That’s a nice little new wrinkle.
8:15 p.m.: Tyler Seguin just got ratted out on-air for tweeting at TSN’s social media sideline reporter-type lady. Not cool, TSN.
8:10 p.m.: Before we get started with the coin toss, let’s take a moment to reminisce on that time in 2011 Phil Kessel was picked last. Just because.
8:05 p.m.: And we’re off. Zdeno Chara received a very mixed reaction from the Ottawa faithful and refuses to reveal who he’s leaning towards taking first.
Will he draft a Canuck?
“Anything’s possible,” Chara says with a smile, “but we’ll see.”
7:45 p.m.: Daniel Alfredsson just spoke with Pierre McGuire, and says that he expects a warm welcome for Zdeno Chara from the Ottawa fans on Sunday. It makes sense, considering Chara played with the Sens for four years before signing with the B’s.
On a side note, if this is anything like the fantasy drafts I’ve been involved with in my life, there’s at least one person involved who did zero research coming into it. I just hope someone warns that person before he walks up to the podium to draft someone who’s injured.
7:25 p.m.: Oh, and of course, the last player selected wins a car and gets to pick a charity to have $20,000 donated to. That should dull the pain a little bit. Plus, Alex Ovechkin isn’t around to snap pictures.
There will also be a short break after Round 15, when the NHL rookies selected for the Skills Competition will align themselves with either Team Chara or Team Alfredsson.
7:15 p.m.: A quick reminder about the rules of the fantasy draft as we get a little closer.
Each team has been assigned a captain and assistant captain, leaving 38 remaining All-Stars, which means 19 rounds of picks.
Each team will consist of three goaltenders, six defensemen and 12 forwards, but to make sure that the last rounds aren’t just teams filling out their rosters by position, the league has put in specific rules about when certain players must be drafted.
Each team must have picked three goalies by the end of Round 10 and six defensemen by Round 15, leaving forwards as the final picks. Which, hopefully, will make Phil Kessel nervous again.
8 a.m. EST: The day is finally here. NHL All-Star team captains Zdeno Chara and Daniel Alfredsson will choose their teams on Thursday night, setting the rosters for the weekend of festivities planned in Ottawa.
Aided by alternate captains Joffrey Lupul and Henrik Lundqvist, Chara and Alfredsson will both have plenty of tough decisions to make as they play NHL general manager for the day and try to put together a competitive roster for the Skills Competition on Saturday followed by the main event, the All-Star game itself, to be played on Sunday.
Alfredsson has admitted that he’s leaning towards taking teammate Erik Karlsson with his first choice, but Team Chara has not yet committed itself to any one player. It’s expected that Tim Thomas could be that pick, but anything’s possible.
Will Phil Kessel go last again? Will Chara listen to Shawn Thornton’s advice and avoid drafting any Canucks? All those answers will be answered on Thursday night.
The draft begins at 8 p.m., but check back for updates throughout the day.
