With entries for the D5 Prop Pool officially locked as of Monday, a look at how everyone voted (along with my own picks for every question):
Comments: The top three teams in the power rankings unsurprisingly carry the most votes, although the bottom quadrant does represent five teams or almost half the league, making them a solid value. Getting navy as part of that group might honestly be a steal considering their championship pedigree and how hot they’ve started the season.
My Pick: I obviously took blue, brown and yellow. The two teams I drafted plus the two time defending champs. Absolute no-brainer as far as implied odds, even if none of the three has exactly gotten off to a flying start.
Comments: Ev and Glatt came in 1st and 2nd in scoring last season and 1st and 3rd the previous season. Unsurprisingly they are the consensus choice here with 64.5% of the vote. Chad and Ryan carried three of the previous five scoring titles and are both top ten all time in points-per-game but only garner 29% of the vote. How quickly we forget.
My Pick: The value on Chad and Ryan is really high from an expected ownership perspective (even before I knew the actual ownership) and the fact that this poll was sent out after Ryan scored eight goals on opening day really seals it for me. I’m willing to take the contrarian option on this one, particularly considering that contrarian option contains two former players of the year averaging four points per game in week one. Sign me up.
Comments: Unsurprisingly the public is on Carl and Jeff, the former coming off one of the most impressive playoff performances we’ve ever seen and the latter being one of the league’s top goalies for seven years and 15 seasons.
My Pick: Once again, give me what I correctly expected to be the contrarian option. Yes, this pick does not look quite as sexy after the Pranksters gave up eight goals to pink the other night night and consequently kinda tanked Sonj’s GAA but considering I traded up to take rookie goalie Tyler and considering I myself will be playing defense for him, it would be weird if I wasn’t bullish on his prospects for the season.
Comments: Public all over the top two lady scorers from last season (minus Emma, who’s out of D5 this season so she can represent Team USA in the world championships…terrible priorities). I can’t really argue with either pick as they were the top two girls taken for very good reason. Maddy is looking to follow up a career season where she averaged two points per game while Brooke is looking to follow up a season where she won rookie of the year, the rookie of the year referendum and almost murdered Tony.
My Pick: For the third time in a row I’m taking the contrarian option. You’re telling me that out of 22 ladies in this league I can get 20 of them at only 19.4% ownership? Too good of value to pass up here with a lot of talented ladies in this league. Give me the field.
Comments: Over 3/4 of the league takes the four team grab bag. Very surprising as I expected much more of a split. I wonder what this would have looked like if Glatt’s hadn’t dropped their first two games in 9 months last week.
My Pick: I like going for contrarian options but a) once again, I drafted two of the four teams in the first option and b) I honestly couldn’t tell which one would be the contrarian option on this one. Purple losing two on Tuesday night definitely makes me second guess my decision as they looked primed to make a run at a top seed after week one but camo is looking like they could be a sneaky powerhouse this season. Honestly this one might be close to a true 50/50.
Comments: Amazingly, despite pink and black opening the season in the bottom two slots in the preseason power rankings and black losing their first game (albeit in OT), 64.5% of respondents do NOT think one of these teams will be the bottom seed. I am actually very curious to see who they would say is going to be that bottom seed.
My Pick: I took pink or black. After Tuesday night, it’s not looking like a particularly great pick as pink won two games in regulation which means they really only need one more win out of their next eight games to seal not being the bottom seed. It’s really up to Show Bobs to cash this one for me.
Comments: I guess everyone is looking at insane levels of scoring league-wide and thinking there’s absolutely no way the 15 goal mark from Week 1 is going to hold up. I can certainly see their logic, particularly after we had a 13 goal game and a 10 goal game just this week. And those were both games with top goalies involved. I honestly have no idea what’s going on with the defense in this league.
My Pick: Call me a wide eyed optimist but I’m betting on players in this league rediscovering that defense is actually a somewhat important part of hockey and also the general mathematical concept of regression to the mean. 16 goals could certainly happen but considering the all-time league record for goals in a game is 17 and both instances came on Friday nights (of which we only have two this season), I actually think the 15 is going to hold.
Comments: Once again everyone is looking at insane levels of league-wide scoring and assuming that the answer to these questions has to be over. This time, I actually agree with them.
My Pick: Over by a mile. Under 2.5 only cashes in a 1-0 and 2-0 win. A goalie has to get a shutout AND his team can only score 1 or 2 goals in that game? Yeah…probably not happening in this ridiculous league.
Comments: This is slightly above average league-wide and in a 55 game season equates to over 14% of games. People seem to think that’s a bit much, even in a season that does seem to have more parity than recent ones have.
My Pick: It’s a close one but I agree with the people. We’re currently right on pace as one game in 10 has gone to OT and there have been a couple near-misses with games that seemed destined for OT ending in one goal decisions on late tallies. My personal prediction for this one is six.
Comments: As is tradition, people momentum trading the crazy increase in goals don’t expect there to be many shutouts, if any. Believe it or not though, last season there were FIVE. It may not feel like it due to the overall orgy of goalscoring but there were many pockets of outlier goaltender/defense performances contained within.
My Pick: I’m in on this under. Outlier performances do happen more than people think, but the five shutouts last season in and of itself seems like an outlier to me. With 93 goals in ten games so far this season, I don’t see three shutouts happening in the remaining 45 games.
Comments: As always I will do what I can to keep the championship on schedule and unlike most seasons I have a lot of runway with reschedule dates due to roller being off for the summer.
My Pick: If I picked anything but August 4/5/6 and the season got delayed I would have only myself to blame.
Comments: This is an interesting one as the expected amount of parity this season would seem to indicate we’d go below this mark. That said, I think there’s also some recency bias in the heads of the voters in two teams attaining undefeated regular seasons last season, something which has literally never been done in league history.
My Pick: I’m betting on parity. Thinking 8-2 gets it done this season.
Comments: Last season Everett notched 33 which is an all-time league record. The previous season he and Craig tied what was at that point the record with 28. So now over 2/3 of the league believes that the previous record, which represented the high water mark for like 20 seasons, is going down?
My Pick: Going to continue hammering the regression lines which are somehow also defacto contrarian lines until I’m out of quarters. Levine is really making this tough one me but give me the under on this one as well.
Comments: Matchups section! This one is generally the toughest as they play together and have finished 1 & 2 and 1 & 3 in the scoring race in their two seasons. The public, unsurprisingly, are taking the chalk here in Everett who has won two scoring titles in his two seasons and set league records in points each time.
My Pick: Sorry Ev but I’m going contrarian here with Glatty for a few reasons. First, because I think this is basically a coin flip and I had a feeling the public would be all over the guy who’s won it the past two seasons. And perhaps more importantly because I have it on good authority that if Glatt’s continues to give up an average of 7 goals per game Everett may actually be pressed into some defensive duty. Do your research people!
Comments: The public is almost evenly split on this one. In fact, considering there’s an odd number of votes in this poll, this is as close as it could possibly get with 16/31 taking Craig and 15/31 taking Chad.
My Pick: 100% Chad. Yes, he’s on my team. But also he played center instead of defense, his team has a much higher expected goals projection than Craig’s does and he’s hungry for a rebound after a down season in spring. Also after two seasons of a dman scoring over 25 points, I am once again, you guessed it, betting on regression. Also this poll was sent out after week one and Chad had four points. Assuming no phantom injury or pop-up EDM shows on Tuesday nights (both of which have been known to happen), this is one of the picks I probably feel most confident in in the entire pool.
Comments: Pete and I usually poll about even in my preseason player polls to determine draft slotting but he’s definitely more offensively minded, younger, takes about 10 more shot attempts per game and started the season with four points on opening night to my one. Unsurprisingly, he got 61.3% of the vote.
My Pick: What kind of man would I be if I didn’t bet on myself? Going to be training with that parachute for the foreseeable future.
Comments: Much to the chagrin of Teemu Selanne, this generally would be such a blowout for Brooke that I wouldn’t even post such a matchup. But with Tony not only being given huge minutes in week one after being slotted as the 2nd overall pick in the draft (an honor he immediately told his in-laws about) but also notching five points on opening night, this is suddenly a real race. Voters disagree and, just like they did in the rookie referendum, have picked Brooke with overwhelming force.
My Pick: I can’t believe I’m saying this but the pick here is Tony. Not only is he eating minutes alongside Glattman but Hockey At Glatt’s looks like they’re going to be playing 12 goal games all season while Brooke missed her week one game because she was on a luxurious vacation in Greece. I hope it was worth potentially being outscored by Tony.
Comments: I offered this line last season on the assumption that Mel was going to eat minutes for Street Meat and put up huge point totals. Munch minutes she certainly did but huge point totals she certainly did not put up. Some of that may have been Mel needing to move to defense in many late season games out of necessity for a lineup that was missing multiple dmen for multiple games but it wasn’t particularly close as Cherie dominated this matchup 14-4 in the spring.
My Pick: No one’s going to believe I made this pick before Mel’s five point night in Week 2 of the season but I did and she did. I’m betting what I projected to happen last year will happen this year as Mel plays forward all season, eats minutes and all her mornings shooting around at the rink pay off. And with five points in the bag in game one, I think she’s around -400 at this point. That said if the Jeffries crew on orange start popping off, watch out.
Comments: Name recognition vs a rookie who had four points in week one. 1st rounder vs 6th rounder. The question is are you willing to take your chances on a rookie that not many people know with a four point lead over a guy who’s been one of the top players every season?
My Pick: I don’t know if you know this about me but I’m a bit of a gambler and the four point edge is nothing to sneeze at, particularly when you consider that Jo’s game is more of an all-around one than a pure scoring stat-based one. Add in the fact that I think Luc is legit and I’m surprised this one is 50/50. Once Jo missed the doubleheader last night to top it off, this one is approaching its so over territory barring a Jo Robin legacy game or injury/suspension to Luc.
Comments: The former running mates from the Summer 2025 Pie Pie team face off here as the captains of their own franchises where each is centering the top line. Voters seem to think Gelman is a shoo-in for this one with a surprising 77.4% of the vote despite James finishing 8th in points last season, only three back of Gelman.
My Pick: If I knew the ownership percentages when I made my pick I would’ve taken James at the massively lower ownership. But I took Gelman as I give him the slight edge here based on his familiarity with his linemates (Maddy & Satok) vs James playing with a bunch of his co-workers who I don’t think have ever played ball hockey. Then again they do spend all day in the office together. Who knows.
Comments: Two top-pairing dmen who I wouldn’t say are necessarily scoring machines but can certainly contribute offensively and on the PP. Teammates last season for the cup run but rivals here for our entertainment.
My Pick: Like I’ve noted a few times in this space, Glatt’s is likely to play insanely high scoring games weekly and that juices the opportunity and the need for their top players to take more chances than usual. When they were up 7-3 in games last season Zuck could sit back a bit more and play defensively. This season he’s likely to be more involved in the offense so he’s the pick for me.
Comments: The classic matchup between Ryan’s usual 1st line winger/wingman and Chad’s sometimes wingman / sometimes defender. After a season spent on D Cardello will no doubt be amped to get back to his scoring ways at wing which he showed by burying one on opening night. But also with Levine having a resurgent season, Tommy looks poised to potentially pick up his highest point total in several seasons.
My Pick: Obviously I’m going to back the guy on blue despite how confusing that graph looks and despite how impressive Shake n’ Bake has been to start the season.
Comments: Joel’s team has been dominant to start the season but he also doesn’t play quite as aggressively as Mikey who sometimes has to be reminded that he’s a defenseman and not a soccer striker with 10 guys behind him to cover.
My Pick: Once again I obviously will be backing the guy on blue although it must be said that Joel is a legend.
Comments: Bramson is favored in this one and with good reason as he picked up more points in camo’s first game than Lucas and doesn’t have a kid on the way this season. Well, at least that he knows of.
My Pick: I think the Bramson/Hootie line has some serious chemistry going on and with Bramson’s attendance more certain than Lucas’, he’s the pick for me. With full attendance from Lucas it will be an extremely close one though.
Comments: I wasn’t sure which way this one would go but this result is kind of surprising. The Simon/Pete Tandem deserves to be favored sure but by a 4:1 ratio seems like a slight overreaction to Ariel’s horrific attendance last season.
My Pick: I took Ariel thinking this was indeed an overreaction. Hours later, Ariel would mark himself out for the opening game and Simon would bury a goal in his pink debut. Still, with pink’s scoring likely to regress and Ariel set to eat minutes when he’s back in the yellow lineup I think this one goes down to the wire with baldness beating mullet, as god intended (probably).
Comments: A very tight race as it’s another 16-15 decision, this one for Brooke.
My Pick: I was the swing vote and took Brooke. It was probably one of the questions I thought longest about but while Jess plays for a higher scoring team and is their highest drafted lady, I also see the potential of her having to play a few games on D this season while Brooke is not only looking to rebound after a brutal season in the spring but also plays on a franchise that is also historically offense-first and I’ve been told Kate misses games which may press her into ironwoman duty a few times. That consideration was just enough to swing my vote her way.
Comments: I don’t think most people know who Mason is but he’s a very solid player, scored the game winner for purple in the semis last season and has four points already this season. Minsky has the exact same scoreline though and is much better known, but may be pressed into defensive duty this season making this a trickier question than it looks.
My Pick: I took Mason assuming that a) most people would take Minsky, making this another contrarian opportunity, and b) that Minsky would miss a bunch of games for the most random of reasons as he does every season. Run clubs, shabbat mixers, half-marathon training, roller hockey coaching, blind dates…who knows why, but his expected games played total is 6-8 while Masons is 7-10.
Comments: I cooked with this one. It’s the guy that no one wants to pick vs the guy that most people don’t know. I had no idea which one would be the contrarian option.
My Pick: I took Maulik Shah as yellow has a higher goal projection than pink and due to the fact that they have a ton of dmen he’ll get solid minutes at forward. As many minutes as Yehuda gives himself? Not sure, but I think it’ll be enough for him to take this one down, even if Yehuda did score two goals in pink’s opening game the other night.
Comments: If this was a yelling from the bench contest it would be a dead heat but probably advantage Amanda. Seeing as this is a points scoring contest and Milstein missed both games the other night, he’s in tough shape here.
My Pick: I took Milstein as he’s not only the stronger player but generally has great attendance. Seeing him miss two games on Tuesday was not ideal but there’s still plenty of time for him to come back and the scoring in this league is honestly outrageous.
Comments: Two top 10 all time scorers, Satok has mostly moved to defense with the Pranksters but Tarnow not only sometimes plays defense himself but also has multiple trips planned this season. Red somewhat scheduled around them but it’s unlikely he makes as many games as he usually does.
My Pick: When in doubt, take the higher expected attendance player. I went with Satok of the run-and-gun Pranksters for this one. He’s firing more shot attempts per game than Tarnow generally gets in a season and has more body hair than any man I know. Considering Tarnow’s still posting pics on a mountaintop in Portugal (his own version of a thirst trap), I feel good about this one.
