Due to the high volume of requests, for the first time ever the Nation Network will launch a hockey pool open to all of our faithful readers! Details are after the jump.
A little further down the page, every entrant will be asked to construct their own team – 14 forwards, seven defensemen, and four goaltenders (we cheated a little on the number of goaltenders because we didn’t want to leave certain players out). The scoring will be explained in each section, and it’s going to be slightly different than what most will be used to, so please keep it in mind when making selections.

Forwards

Scoring:
  • Goal: Worth 1.25 points
  • Assist: Worth 1 point
  • Plus/Minus: Worth 1 point
Example: Last season’s Hart Trophy winner was Corey Perry. He recorded 50 goals, 48 assists and a plus-9 rating. If he matches those totals exactly, he will be worth 119.5 points – 62.5 points for goals + 48 points for assists + nine points for plus/minus.
Why are goals valued more? It’s simple: goals are rarer in the NHL than assists, and so players that score them should get a little extra consideration.
Please pick one player from each category below:
PositionPlayerPlayerPlayerPlayerPlayer
First Line 1
Evgeni Malkin
Alexander Ovechkin
Corey Perry
Daniel Sedin
Martin St. Louis
First Line 2
Nicklas Backstrom
Ryan Getzlaf
Anze Kopitar
Henrik Sedin
Steven Stamkos
First Line 3
Loui Eriksson
Marian Gaborik
Marian Hossa
Patrick Marleau
Alexander Semin
Second Line 1
Jarome Iginla
Ilya Kovalchuk
Rick Nash
Bobby Ryan
Henrik Zetterberg
Second Line 2
Pavel Datsyuk
Brad Richards
Eric Staal
Joe Thornton
Jonathan Toews
Second Line 3
Taylor Hall
Dany Heatley
Patrick Kane
Jeff Skinner
Thomas Vanek
Third Line 1
Daniel Briere
Jeff Carter
Shane Doan
Phil Kessel
Zach Parise
Third Line 2
Sidney Crosby
Matt Duchene
Vincent Lecavalier
Jason Spezza
John Tavares
Third Line 3
Daniel Alfredsson
Jordan Eberle
Patrik Elias
Claude Giroux
Teemu Selanne
Fourth Line 1
Alex Burrows
Martin Havlat
Brendan Morrow
Patrick Sharp
Chris Stewart
Fourth Line 2
Logan Couture
Ryan Kesler
Mikko Koivu
David Krejci
Mike Richards
Fourth Line 3
Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Ales Hemsky
Jaromir Jagr
Ryan Smyth
Alex Tanguay
13th Forward:
David Backes
Mikhail Grabovski
Mike Ribeiro
Derek Roy
Paul Stastny
14th Forward:
Cody Hodgson
Ryan Johansen
Nazem Kadri
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Brayden Schenn

Defensemen

Scoring:
  • Goal: Worth 1.25 points
  • Assist: Worth 1 point
  • Plus/Minus: Worth 1 point
Example: Last season’s Norris Trophy winner was Nicklas Lidstrom. He recorded 16 goals, 46 assists and a minus-2 rating. If he matches those totals exactly, he will be worth 64 points – 20 points for goals + 46 points for assists – two points for plus/minus.
Please pick one player from each category below:
PositionPlayerPlayerPlayerPlayerPlayer
Defense 1:
Dan Boyle
Mike Green
Nicklas Lidstrom
Lubomir Visnovsky
Shea Weber
Defense 2:
Dustin Byfuglien
Drew Doughty
Duncan Keith
Kris Letang
Dion Phaneuf
Defense 3:
Brian Campbell
Tobias Enstrom
Alex Goligoski
Tomas Kaberle
Marek Zidlicky
Defense 4:
Brent Burns
Alexander Edler
John-Michael Liles
Mark Streit
P.K. Subban
Defense 5:
Christian Ehrhoff
Cam Fowler
Sergei Gonchar
Erik Karlsson
Tyler Myers
Defense 6:
Zdeno Chara
Joe Corvo
Mark Giordano
Erik Johnson
Keith Yandle
Defense 7:
John Carlson
Andrei Markov
Chris Pronger
Ryan Whitney
James Wisniewski

Goaltenders

Scoring:
  • Shutouts: Worth 5 points
  • Save percentage: Worth 2.5 points for every 0.001 above 0.900.
  • Goaltender must play in at least 10 games to qualify – if he fails to meet the threshold he’ll be worth a basic value of 50 points.
Example: Last season’s Vezina Trophy winner was Tim Thomas. He recorded nine shutouts and a 0.938 SV%. If he matches those totals exactly, he will be worth 140 points – 95 points for save percentage and 45 points for his shutouts.
Why are goalies valued this way? For years, hockey pools have based goaltender value on wins and goals against average. The problem is that these are heavily team-based measures – good goalies on bad teams are constantly overlooked because they rack up the losses and face a lot of shots, driving up their GAA. It’s impossible to remove team effects entirely, but under this system goalies get credit mostly for their save percentage. The shutout category recognizes a) goalies that play a lot and b) goalies that put together perfect games.
Please pick one player from each category below:
PositionPlayerPlayerPlayerPlayerPlayer
Goalie 1:
Marc-Andre Fleury
Henrik Lundqvist
Roberto Luongo
Carey Price
Tim Thomas
Goalie 2:
Ryan Miller
Antti Niemi
Pekka Rinne
Tomas Vokoun
Cam Ward
Goalie 3:
Ilya Bryzgalov
Corey Crawford
Jimmy Howard
Miikka Kiprusoff
Jonathan Quick
Goalie 4:
Martin Brodeur
Devan Dubnyk
Jonas Hiller
Kari Lehtonen
Semyon Varlamov

Entering

To make recording everyone’s entries a little easier, I’m going to ask entries be formatted in a specific way. IMPORTANT: ENTRIES NOT FORMATTED IN THIS WAY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. For each set of players, please record just the last name, followed by a dash, and please do so in the order presented above.
Example: Aaron A. Aardvark loves the alphabet (and alliteration), for obvious reasons, so he decides to pick the player with the highest name each time. His entry would look like this:
Malkin – Backstrom – Eriksson – Iginla – Datsyuk – Hall – Briere – Crosby – Alfredsson – Burrows – Couture – Bouchard – Backes – Hodgson – Boyle – Byfuglien – Campbell – Burns – Ehrhoff – Chara – Carlson – Fleury – Miller – Bryzgalov – Brodeur
This contest will close promptly at 7:00 PM EST on Thursday, October 6 – the starting point for the NHL regular season. Please have your entry in by that time by placing it in the comments section below.

Mandatory Product Placement

Have we mentioned that the Nation Network offers a high-end hockey pool guide, specifically designed to help in situations like this? Have we also mentioned that at its current price – $5.00 – no other comprehensive fantasy hockey guide is less expensive? Still not convinced? The link above also includes a sample of what is included with the Nation Network Draft Primer.

Prizes?

Naturally, for a big, season-long contest like this there must be prizes, right? I went down to Wanye Manor (pictured above) to ask for prizes from the Nation Network’s grand poobah himself. He reacted poorly, throwing a discarded coffee cup at me and taking off down the street. Eventually he stopped running, and turned to talk to me:
  • Me: Please, Wanye, can we have some prizes?
  • His Excellency Baron Wanye Von Gretz IV: Of course! Take anything you like out of the top bag in my shopping cart!
We will continue to negotiate with Wanye. Rest assured that prizes will be included, once we convince him to hand over something more value than the black milk crate (‘What do you mean nobody will want it? Look how sturdy it is!’) that he originally wanted to give to the first-place entrant.