Do not laugh at the premise of the title. I remember years ago when Fantasy Hockey was a total pipedream. No one expected Fantasy Hockey ever to take off the way it has in the past five years. When you see sites like Dobberhockey.com get over six million hits in a month, it is time to recognize how far this genre has come.
However the rule is one can always go further and though there are so many ways to play fantasy hockey these days. It is time to introduce another that may be in the works. What if there was a KHL Fantasy League? Here are the Week 9 players of the week from Shawn McBride:
Week 9 honorees are:
· Best goalkeeper: Kevin Lalande (Vityaz Chekhov). The Canadian backstop posted a shutout in three games last week, allowing 0.92 goals per game to go along with a 96.1 save percentage
· Best defender: Kevin Dallman (Barys Astana). In three games, the Canadian blueliner had a goal and four assists and finished the week at +4
· Best forward: Lukas Kaspar (Barys Astana). The Czech sniper scored five goals and added two assists in three games, while also finishing the week at +4
· Best rookie: Bogdan Potekhin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk). The Russian rookie forward had a goal and +1 rating in three games
So the twist in all of this is the following. There is an audience but some of our fact finding missions. Now using a little Russian to Engligh translastion and a special thanks to Mr. Chesnokov of Puck Daddy, I came up with a potential first round mock for a KHL Fantasy League.
ROUND 1
- Alexander Radulov, F, (Salavat Yuleav)
- Michael Garnett, G, (Dynamo Moscow)
- Lukas Kasper, F, (Barys Astana)
- Mattias Weinhandl, F, (SKA Siberia)
- Alexander Gustov, D, (Lokomotiv)
- Alex Morozov, F, (Ak-Bars Kazan)
- Patrick Thoresen, F, (Salavat Yuleav)
- Pavol Demitra, F, (Lokomotiv)
- Stefan Liv, G, (Sibir)
- Kari Ramo, G, (Avangard Omsk)
- Bryuker Bernd, G, (Torpedo)
- Karel Rachunek, D, (Lokomotiv)
It really has been immensely fun watching the KHL via various internet streams all season. The goal is to gain enough knowledge to be able to put forth a very basic bare-bones type of fantasy league with the KHL next year. It will be a standard 5 x 5 league with Goals, Assists, PP, +/-, SOG, and then Wins, Saves, Save %, Shutout, and Games Started.
There is some potential in this and I figure since people do bet on KHL games quite a bit more than people think, then let’s step it up a notch and put together a preliminary framework for a KHL fantasy league. Is it going to take off like the NHL Fantasy Leagues you see now? Probably not. However, it is something different that could spark debate on an international level. Give us your thoughts and suggestions. We would greatly appreciate it.
