A final wrap-up of the Summer 2026 season.
Special thanks to everyone’s favorite D5 obsessive and top 10 league attorney Tony for grading this prop pool while I was on a Nashville bender.
How to read this: the whole thing is pretty long. Like quite long. But fun obviously (if you’re a sicko). Postseason comments are the new content and easily skimmable. The comments/pick from June are fun to look back on and for journalistic accountability. What a season it was (well, except for the nonstop rain).
Postseason Comments: Camo proved their hot start was no fluke en route to a dominant 9-1 record, a tight semifinal win and the most lopsided championship game in league history. The other two teams in their group may have lost their opening playoff game but it doesn’t matter; the second grouping was the winner here and a good argument for contrarian picks in this and future pools.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: The crowd was on Ev and Glatt with good reason considering what they had accomplished in their first two seasons. But Ryan, fresh off of missing out on being a player of the year finalist for the first time in ages, came in and broke league records for scoring in a season for the ages. Didn’t end with a cup, but it did end with a much deserved scoring crown and player of the year award.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Carl and Jeff Green were deserving choices for sure but even with Sonj barely playing this season, Tyler’s electric rookie campaign in front of a strong blue defensive unit was enough to get him the crown ahead of a surprisingly formidable challenge from Doug who would go on to win playoff MVP.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: I still think the value on the contrarian option was too strong to pass up but also apparently it wasn’t as Brooke held off a strong challenge from Mel to take this down. Then somehow Mel fell to the 8th round this season. Life isn’t fair.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: The comment about camo looking like a sneaky powerhouse proved to be quite prescient as they went 9-1, secured the #1 seed and won the cup. The 76% consensus took this one down and fairly easily at that.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: I was surprised that despite these two teams finishing last and 2nd to last in the preseason power rankings, pink and black only got 35% of the vote here. It seemed an easy choice to me and despite pink winning the first two games as mentioned in the original comment, Show Bobs really did come through and cash this one for me. Thank you Bob Saget. Truly much appreciated. I’m also going to attach the original preseason power ranking blurb on black as the final postmortem on the team.
“After taking the Spring to regroup, the boobs franchise is back and with three of their first four picks being Hicks, Zisser and Craig this is probably the most boob loving roster that has ever existed. Somewhere Everett is on the phone with his agent asking how he wasn’t selected to be on this team in the same way that last season there was a team called Street Meat that somehow didn’t have Hicks on it or there was once a team named after a prostitution agency that also didn’t have Hicks on it. Those were unfortunate circumstances indeed but he’s on Show Bobs now and clearly was the one who named the team after a very funny and possibly slightly racist meme situation. And he’s probably going to rack up a ton of points on assists to and rebounds from Craig shots. But whether it will lead to wins is another question entirely that no one knows the answer to. Actually, I probably do know the answer. It’s no.”
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: The 18-3 beatdown of yellow by camo this season will be tough to replicate as the final game on a long summer night with a goalie on his 4th or 5th game and a full strength powerhouse team on the other end. In other words, an unspeakably easy cash for the over, although it should be noted this was the only game of the season that went over this mark.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Even without the minigames, the under cashes. And despite me saying this was going to be the over by a mile, it was my own team that cashed this twice with two shutouts. Guess I have only myself to blame for missing this one.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: As expected, the under cashes despite league-wide parity and a few of late season minigames. My personal prediction was six and the final total was five. Next season this line is going to be 6.5.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: An incredible six shutouts this season with three more coming in just ten playoff games. Despite league-wide scoring being up yet again, there were apparently a number of outlier games, probably buoyed by goaltending being stronger than ever. How can scoring be up league-wide while goaltending is also at elite levels? I have no explanation except that maybe no one is playing defense anymore. Actually, it’s not a maybe at all. I watch the games. Step it up please (actually unless you’re on my team, please don’t).
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: What an extremely painful blowout loss for August 4, 5 or 6 as despite a record number of rain dates we got rained out 11 times en route to an August 18 championship. The fact that we haven’t even started the fall season yet is also ridiculous and if it rains at a similar clip this autumn I might have to disband the league.
Comments From June: 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 From June: If I picked anything but August 4/5/6 and the season got delayed I would have only myself to blame.
Postseason Comments: There was a ton of parity this season as expected but the camo team was too strong and only lost one game all season to the 8th place defending champs. The over cashes in one of the few true coinflips of this poll.
Comments From June: 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 From June: I’m betting on parity. Thinking 8-2 gets it done this season.
Postseason Comments: At a certain point I’m going to have to stop betting on regression as we once again have a new record for points in a season for like the third straight season. Levine sets the new all-time mark with 34 points and the over cashes again. Ugh.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: I took the contrarian option with Glattman and lost in the weirdest fashion possible as despite Glatt scoring more goals than Ev for the first time in their D5 careers, Everett somehow took down the assists crown and beat him by one point. Tough times for Glatty but on the bright side at least he isn’t currently on Acme suspension.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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!
Postseason Comments: What a weird way to win this one as two of the top players in the league both finished with single digit points. However, despite only playing six games due to a midseason appendectomy, Chad still beat out Craig 9-8 due to the offensive issues of Show Bobs. Both will look to bounce back in the Fall or possibly quit D5. Hopefully it’s the former.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Despite widespread concerns about attendance and moving midseason into an apartment that seemingly floods anytime it rains for more than 10 minutes, Pete took this one down rather handily because apparently I don’t know how to score goals anymore. Sad times. One of us needs a sports psychiatrist and one of us needs a full time plumber on call. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is which.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: I thought Tony’s early season lead and the Glatt’s lack of depth would be enough to carry Tony to a surprise lead in this one but apparently his head start needed to be 10 points rather than a mere 4. Brooke cruises to an easy victory over her fellow ROTY finalist from the spring and her fellow Am100 lawyer.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: The contrarian option of Mel wins this one as she absolutely ate minutes on a team with virtually no interest in playing defense. Also had a five point game early on that basically sealed this, particularly with Cherie playing a bunch of games on defense.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Luc ended up rolling in this one and probably would’ve ended up being a 1st rounder this season if not for the fact that he had to go back to Boston (I think he’s possibly still in college). Not entirely sure but a great rookie season nonetheless. Will be fascinating to see where he ends up in next summer’s draft.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: A dominating win for Gelman as he earns yet another player of the year finalist berth and, if we had a league Hart Trophy, would’ve been my vote as the player most valuable to his team. James continues to be one of the top two-way centers in the league but Gelman’s scoring acumen, even in a league with record levels of scoring, lands him the crown here.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: As expected, Zuck wins on a high scoring Glatt’s team even if they underachieved a bit in the wins department. Sanchick had only two goals the entire season but the Glatt’s captains certainly hope he bounces back in fall as they drafted him in the hopes he’ll regain his springtime form.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: I received a lot of comments on this line, particularly from Mr Roasted Chicken himself, but a career high nine assists on an offensive powerhouse navy team lands this one for Tommy fairly easily by a score of 10-5. Will he score as much this season with his linemate as Yehuda rather than Ryan? I think you probably know the answer to that.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: In a battle of guys who almost died in Nashville (many such cases) it’s Joel who takes this down by a rather meager score of 4-3. Camo was a much higher scoring team than blue but also Joel is a legend. Would like to reiterate that.
Comments From June: 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 From June: Once again I obviously will be backing the guy on blue although it must be said that Joel is a legend.
Postseason Comments: What a whiff by me as despite a very strong showing from Bramson (14 points), Lucas finished 5th in the league scoring race and as the POY runner up. And he had a kid. What a season for the guy who singlehandedly carried the southeast light into place and set it up (super impressive btw).
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: When I made this pick I did not realize the extent to which Ariel now lived on a farm in New Jersey and rode horses, thus severely jeopardizing his overall attendance. The Simon/Pete tandem still missed games but not nearly as much and took this fairly easily.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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).
Postseason Comments: Brooke wins this intra-Rens which was one of the closest votes on the entire poll. Jess did have to play a few games on D but pink was also in many games carried by the scoring of their women. Jess is mostly known for ruining people’s shirts with mustard stains anyways.
Comments From June: A very tight race as it’s another 16-15 decision, this one for Brooke.
My Pick From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Mason had a great season and is now a D5 champion but Minsky went ham in the scoring department, particularly in the final week of the season as he went up to forward and pumped a beleaguered pink team. Sadly he’s out for the fall with a hamstring injury in, of all things, a goaltending appearance while Mason has ascended to the ranks of the 3/4 turn.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Unlike his rookie season on blue, Maulik missed a ton of games this time around while Yehuda pretty much never misses games and in fact considered skipping his good friend Tommy’s birthday for a regular season game in the spring. Easy win for Yehuda.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Amanda really cooked this season with nine points to Milstein’s six and asserted herself as the true captain as a result. They then lost in their first playoff game, leading Milstein to drop her from the leadership group immediately.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
Postseason Comments: Satok wins this one partially due to higher attendance but also partially due to a down season by Tarnow. Both guys ended up playing a surprising amount of games on defense but I think it evened out.
Comments From June: 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 From June: 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.
ICYMI, Part I results here.
Postseason Comments: Vezina campaign fulfilled, top goalie drafted in the Fall to boot. To be fair though Sonj wasn’t in this draft.
Comments From June: The public is on Sonj, but not by as much as I would think considering that she’s been the top goalie chosen (or at worst top 3) in most drafts she’s been in while no one’s seen Tyler play a D5 game yet. Is that more a commentary on what people suspect will be the quality of the defenses in front of them, worry about Sonj’s injury, hype on Tyler or just good old fashioned sexism?
My Pick From June: I traded up in the draft to take Tyler and am obviously throwing my support behind him and his beautiful defense. Vezina campaign incoming.
Postseason Comments: Another big season for Cam as his team finishes 2nd in the standings while Max has to endure a season with zero defense. Unfortunate.
Comments From June: Glatts’ goalie last season vs their goalie this season. Max usually gets drafted first but is starting this GAA race in the hole having let up 14 goals in two games to start the season in week one. Does he have enough time to make it back?
My Pick From June: I love Max as you can see in the below photo but starting out with a 7.00 GAA is very difficult to overcome. Cam’s probably winning this.
Postseason Comments: Contrarian wins yet again as Jeff Green, despite playing for a team of finance bros ripping darts on the bench and in the pregame warmup, takes down Swedish man Carl.
Comments From June: There is a lot of love for Carl after one of the best playoff runs we’ve ever seen and also a lot of uncertainty surrounding Jeff Green considering he’s traveling for at least 3 weeks of the season, if not more. Add it all up and it leads to a somewhat surprising but maybe not entirely so margin of victory for Carl that’s one of the biggest in this entire poll.
My Pick From June: I expected Jeff Green to be the contrarian option but I never expected him to only get 16.1% of the vote. Even if I have some concerns about the orange defense, it’s an incredible value. Sign me up.
Postseason Comments: Although both were on teams that finished in the bottom three, there’s really no comparison. Sophia’s was often strong when everyone showed up and even won a playoff game, dealing Hockey At Glatt’s their first ever postseason loss. Meanwhile Zisser’s team played such bad defense there were multiple games where he collapsed on the rink and I thought he might be dead.
Comments From June: Small goalies who pack a major punch in the net and at the bar. And both on teams that will have some uncertainty defensively. I expected the public to be on Sophia and they did not disappoint.
My Pick From June: Sorry Ziss but even at reduced ownership, I’m taking Sophia, Pink’s defense was historically bad last season but they are going to be much, much better with the Simon/Pete Tandem anchoring this season. And while Craig is a two time Leetch Award winner, he’s much more of an offensive scoring threat from the blue line than a true shut down option. I should note this pick was made before black gave up more goals in a single game than pink gave up in two on Tuesday night, but I don’t expect anyone to believe me.
Postseason Comments: Huge whiff by me. I stand by Corey’s suaveness but he played behind just a truly bad defensive team (hurtful for me and Craig) while Doug had a career season capped off by a cup and a playoff MVP. No contest here.
Comments From June: Two goalies looking to rebound as Corey’s coming off a season marred by injury and a last place finish while Doug looked great in limited action for Street Meat at the end of last season but struggled a bit the last time he was a full time goalie for Cup Size / MilkMob (there was a midseason trade).
My Pick From June: I think both of these goalies are going to have strong bounceback seasons behind what are likely to be two of the top teams in the league. But if I have to pick one, it’s going to be Corey. This pick definitely looks worse after a Tuesday night where yellow gave up six goals and camo only gave up one but I’m riding with Blay the sex machine. I’m not sure if anyone else calls him that but they should definitely start. Doug I’m sure has sex too. Not at the same level though.
Postseason Comments: Shake n’ Bake was the correct answer indeed although the Pranksters deserve credit for finishing 3rd and making this as close as can be, only being passed by navy on the final night of the regular season.
Comments From June: Despite what happened in week one, the public is all over Shake n’ Bake to close the gap and surpass the Pranksters. Whether that’s based on roster construction or bias from the body of work from previous seasons, it’s a somewhat surprising development as the Pranksters beat Shake n’ Bake 5-3 in a game that wasn’t really as close as the score indicates.
My Pick From June: Count me among the sickos who took Shake n’ Bake. I think they have the potential to be a top team this season.
Postseason Comments: 48.8% was indeed a huge bargain as camo ended up being the dominant team of the season.
Comments From June: Public is split among two of the middle teams in the initial power rankings. Both of these teams drafted better than I expected this season and I think they’re likely to battle it out for top four seeding right up until the final week.
My Pick From June: Camo for me. They benefitted from some really beneficial draft slottings because I assumed as new captains they would draft rather poorly but they actually drafted quite well. 48.4% might honestly be a bargain.
Postseason Comments: As expected, two of the bottom three teams but pink was significantly better and took this one down by pretty much the midway point of the season.
Comments From June: The two bottom teams in the power rankings and a sneaky rivalry at that as the last time these teams met in the Fall of 2025, pink won 13-2 and in Yehuda’s opinion ended the black franchise. Well, they’re back now and with probably a stronger roster than they had last time around.
My Pick From June: I didn’t think pink would be great but I also didn’t think they’d be quite as bad as people predicted. They made that look good lsat week in winning two games in a row which I certainly did not expect but for the purposes of this bet will certainly take.
Postseason Comments: A late surge by orange made this one interesting but the early growing pains of the Jefferies crew prevented them from having a real shot at beating the ever reliable red crew. 4th seed vs 6th seed is fairly close but it’s a win for Red Day.
Comments From June: Public’s on red and with good reason as they have the Weaver Bros back and usually finish pretty highly in the regular season. Of course, orange is the team which has never missed the final four and that does usually come with a fairly high standings placement; 2nd, 6th, 2nd and 1st in their four seasons.
My Pick From June: Red for me considering all the uncertainty behind orange and their roster of first time ball hockey players. I might regret this pick in a month’s time if they’re able to put it together quickly, but I think red has a much higher floor, if potentially a lower ceiling.
Postseason Comments: Blue did make another run to the semis as a top team but the regular season featured too many comeback losses to garner a top three seed. Sad.
Comments From June: Public has blue as a top 3 team which is kind of surprising as this was the first season blue was not ranked #1 in the preseason power rankings. Then again, they did rank blue 3rd which I suppose is literally top 3.
My Pick From June: There is no universe that exists where I wouldn’t rank my own team as a top 3 squad.
Postseason Comments: 7th seed for purple as the fade was the correct play.
Comments From June: Must be noted once again that answers were submitted before purple dropped two decisions on Tuesday night without Jo and Milstein. Still, I think this split is about right. Purple is likely to be fighting for top four seeding and despite two losses this week I think the increased parity leaguewide is going to leave the door open for them to make a run at top 3 if they can get hot.
My Pick From June: The door will be open and they’ll have a shot…but I don’t quite think they’ll make it. 4th or lower is the pick for me.
Postseason Comments: Top four team was again an understatement for this camo squad who absolutely rolled through the regular season and playoffs.
Comments From June: Public is split on this one as well which tells me this is a well-made line but slightly leans in favor of top 4, presumably after watching them destroy a shorthanded red in week one. Of course, the last team to pound a shorthanded red squad early in the season had to disband just weeks later. Hopefully that doesn’t happen to this franchise because I kinda like them.
My Pick From June: Once again, made before a 6-1 beatdown of Show Bobs (although doesn’t mean much because that was somewhat predictable), but I have Doug Fish as a top four team. Through two weeks of play they might honestly have put together the most impressive game tape of any team. Going to be absolutely fascinating to see where they land in the next round of power rankings.
Postseason Comments: This one was never really close as Shake n’ Bake was a top three team pretty much wire to wire throughout the season and finished as the overall #2. Then the team disbanded for the Fall as Ryan tours Europe while Pete and Tommy take their talents to Yehuda’s house.
Comments From June: As you could see from the answer to the head-to-head vs Pranksters, public doesnt put much stock in their season opening loss and still ranks this as an elite team. Over half of poll respondents have this as a top four team despite the fact that they lost their first game and have only finished top 4 once in the past four seasons.
My Pick From June: Count me among the believers. They may struggle in playoffs when certain players that they got bargains on because they are missing playoffs are out (namely Amit and Mitch), but for regular season at least they are going to be quite good.
Postseason Comments: Contrarian play was correct again. I didn’t think they’d struggle as much as they did but an 0-2 hole did indeed make it extremely tough to finish top five. Rebound likely incoming for the Fall.
Comments From June: A shocking opening night where Glatt’s lost their first two games since September of last year has done little to really dissuade the public. Over 83% of people still see this as a top five team. I guess I should have made this top four to make it more interesting.
My Pick From June: Contrarian again but I have 6th or lower. I think this is going to come right down to the wire but my personal prediction is a 6th seed on the dot. At 0-2 and giving up a ton of goals (the 5th tiebreaker), they will likely have to go 6-2 in their remaining 8 games to finish top 5. Can they do it? For sure considering they were undefeated just last season, but in a summer with more parity than I’ve seen in years, I think getting contrarian pricing on 6th or lower which is most likely a coinflip is great value. Don’t count this team out by any means but they will really miss Sanchick and Dax, two of their sneakiest play-drivers last season. This one is going to be extremely close imo.
Postseason Comments: They finished in 6th place exactly making this a win just by a hair for the bullish Pie Pie crowd.
Comments From June: The public similarly is not at all concerned about the Jeffrey’s crew needing to acclimate to ball hockey and rates this as a top 6 squad. Early returns on Tuesday were promising even if it didn’t quite lead to a win and pink’s subsequent domination of a 1-0 Pranksters squad give orange some hope that they ran into a hot teamand will be ok in the long run.
My Pick From June: I think there will be some growing pains and the parity among teams this season is really really impressive. 8th is my prediction.
Postseason Comments: Bearish Bobs was also as correct as it gets in what I termed “one of my most confident predictions in the entire pool.” The team somewhat disbanded and then reformed as this season’s Chocolate MilkMob. If they don’t do better Hicks might actually move to the suburbs.
Comments From June: They were ranked last in the preseason power rankings but over half of respondents think this team is going to finish top 8. I’m not sure how that works logically but the point is taken. Rankers like their core and clearly see the Craig/Hicks connection working this season, at least enough to keep this team out of the play-ins.
My Pick From June: I like a lot of the players on this team and it’s not like they’re going to go winless or anything, but this is one of my most confident predictions in this entire pool. 9th or lower.
Postseason Comments: I said that pink is better than people think but I just can’t think of three worse teams. Proved prescient again as they finished exactly 9th.
Comments From June: 71% of people have this team rated as a bottom three squad. This pick looks really bad after they beat Pie Pie and then smoked the Pranksters the other night.
My Pick From June: I have said on record that this pink team will not be as bad as people think, but I still picked 9th or lower because I can’t really name three teams that I think they’re definitively better than. Considering they’re 2-0 and currently 2nd in the standings, I may need to rethink this one.
Postseason Comments: After a game or two I thought the chemistry of the camo captains would carry one of them to the points lead but a career season from Lucas in which he finished runner up for Player Of The Year made him the easy winner here.
Comments From June: 80.6% of people think it’s going to be Hootie or Bramson and only 19.4% took the field. A fairly shocking result as I expected most people would be on Lucas, Ken or Brooke, all of whom were drafted ahead of the captains of this team.
My Pick From June: The chemistry between these two has been something to behold thus far. I thought I was going to get a contrarian pricing on this but I’ll Hootie & Bramson either way.
Postseason Comments: Chad dominated the polling here but it was actually the Brooke/Horton tandem coming in out of nowhere off the top rope to lead blue in scoring. His midseason spell of missed games for appendicitis certainly didn’t help his cause but regardless, one hell of a performance which ended up netting Brooke a spot in the front office.
Comments From June: Chad absolutely dominates the polling in one of the most lopsided questions in this entire pool. It probably looks even more lopsided when you realize the raw vote totals were 29 in favor of Chad and only 2 for anyone else on the team.
My Pick From June: Chad will have be injured or miss half the season attending midweek EDM concerts to lose this award. I have no idea how I was allowed to lead blue in scoring last season but I can assure you it’s not happening again. Chaddy for the win.
Postseason Comments: Contrarian City was correct here as Hicks just barely edges out Craig 9-8. Tough to expect a dman on a low possession team to lead the team in scoring.
Comments From June: Craig dominates the polling here and it’s not tough to see why as black took him with the #1 overall pick this season after he set a league record for goals in a season with 22 last season.
My Pick From June: Contrarian city. I’m buying tickets for the Hicks revival and even if that doesn’t work out I have 11 other outs here. Give me the field.
Postseason Comments: I went contrarian again but Tuohy cannot be faded by any man and wins the team scoring crown for what must be the 4th season in a row.
Comments From June: Kevin Tuohy, red’s stock late 1st round pick virtually every season, gets 61.3% of the vote particularly with red’s attendance issues up and down the lineup this season. Carter, Campbell and Tarnow are all slated to miss multiple games and Kevin is usually pretty reliable. Plus some people consider him the best player in the league.
My Pick From June: I’m taking the field again, mostly because of Carter. If he can get 7-8 games in, I think he sneakily takes this one down.
Postseason Comments: Luc was indeed the real deal and easily led purple in scoring (and would’ve had a real shot at top three if he didn’t miss so many games at the end of the season).
Comments From June: Despite Luc scoring multiple points in week one, almost half of the respondents believe he’s going to get passed by someone on purple. The multiple points in week two certainly don’t help their cause.
My Pick From June: I don’t see it happening. Jo Robin, Oskar and Pigozzi are the only real contenders for this and they’re all more all-around types of players than just rack up points types. Actually kind of surprised this is only at 54.8%; should be closer to 75-25 imo.
Postseason Comments: Does anyone play defense anymore? With 439 goals in the summer the over once again cashes with extreme ease.
Comments From June: Public is heavily on the season total goals over and it’s tough to really blame them considering what we’ve seen the past two D5 seasons and through the first two weeks of this one.
My Pick From June: This line assumes about 7.5 goals per game which has been about what we’re averaging. But it should also be noted that outliers up have more pull than outliers down. What I mean is that there are far more 12 goal games expected that 3 goal games, and that the lowest possible goal total is 1 but it is very possible that a game will have more than 14 (it’s already happened). I’ve bet on regression in a lot of these lines today, but the over is the play here.
Postseason Comments: An extremely well made line as Pie Pie, with a comeback win in their final game of the season, just edges the ladies scoring champ 15-13. Had they lost that game this would have flipped the other way.
Comments From June: The public is close to evenly split on this one, possibly because they don’t understand what the fuck is going on with this question.
My Pick From June: The sportsbook’s internal EVs are 11 for Pie Pie Standings points and 13 for Ladies’ Scoring Champ point total. Considering those EVs were calculated by me, I’m taking the Ladies Scoring line.
Postseason Comments: An easy win for the average Gelman Points & Levine Goals which, incredibly, finished at the exact same number (24).
Comments From June: I had to get creative on this one because with 8 games remaining, my EV for the Glatt’s point line was 15-17. At the time I put this together Levine had 8 goals in 2 games and considering he rarely misses games and is involved in most of his team’s offense, my projection for his point total was around 25 which was a bit too high. But with 8 goals banked and 8 games left his goal projection was also 18-20 which a bit high. I needed to balance it out with something with an EV in the 14-17 range and Gelman picking up one point in his season debut made him the perfect candidate. Voters seemed to like this statistical grab bag as they took the Gelman/Levine average by a 71%-29% margin.
My Pick From June: I’m taking that line as well. Levine/Gelman both look like solid bets to overshoot their projections and could hit 20 while Glatt’s is going to have to turn around their defense immediately to hit that number. They could easily do it, but in this league it’s much easier to be on offense than defense. Ryan could honestly break the goals record at his current pace and I wouldn’t be surprised.
Postseason Comments: Ryan may be 2nd all time in points with multiple scoring titles and Player Of The Year awards but he will always have to live with the fact that he lost this contest to Tony by a razor-thin score of 31-29.
Comments From June: He may break the goals record, but can he beat Tony in this contest? Pretty much everyone believes he will. In fact, I’m just going to outright reveal that the only votes for Tony came from Joe (a rookie on blue), Carl and of course Tony himself. Is this a case of people believing that Ryan’s knowledge of the league and gambling ability far outstripes Tony’s or are they just used to seeing Tony lose after last season’s referendum ended with Brooke roasting his hockey ability and his legal acumen?
My Pick From June: Ryan for sure. Let’s say it’s because I think his experience in D5 (this is his 10th season) and the body of work I’ve seen from his gambling are far greater. In perusing their answers they actually disagreed on 25 questions. Maybe I’ll post those another time.
Postseason Comments: I proclaimed this the easiest question in the pool and indeed it was as Ryan garnered 93.5% of the vote. Public had no faith in Tony which makes it even more hilarious that he ended up winning. Is the scoring title next? Definitely not.
Comments From June: Like hammering calls after you’ve bought tons of shares in a stock, we have an even greater margin for how many people expect Ryan to garner the majority of the vote. This is partially a similar question to the previous one, but instead of being decided by actual performance it’s expected performance based on public sentiment. And wow is sentiment behind Ryan. In the 4 or 5 seasons I’ve done pools like this this question is always one of the closest and generally ends up 55/45 in favor of someone. 93.5% on how people will predict they’ll do in this pool is virtually unheard of.
My Pick From June: This was the easiest question in the entire pool. Faith in Tony is at an all-time low right now. On the bright side he does have five points in his first two games, although Ryan tallied 8 goals in those same two games. It’s the one question that I can already grade in this pool and since Tony was one of only two people to pick himself, he is now down a point against everyone in this pool except Jo Robin. Painful start.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A lot of fun questions here and with 32 respondents I’m fairly pleased with my performance, tying for 2nd place with Mike Agaby. But just like in the summer playoffs, Bramson has gotten the best of me and is the winner of this pool. Congrats you sick bastard.
