I wouldn't want to vote blindly on playoff matchups. I feel they're too dependent on the arguments being made. I just submitted my votes and took a look at who had what team.
I don't know if these votes are "better" than votes I would have cast if I was part of the draft the whole way through. There's a benefit to being able to see the case made when a player is taken or when a lineup decision is made, then see what kind of feedback the GM receives, and how they answer it. You also have months to let things percolate in your brain as they develop.
still, there's no question that there would be some subconscious bias involved. If there are GMs that I feel continually make strong arguments, I'm going to tend to like their teams more. So this way, my opinions are completely based on what I feel is the quality of the lineups on paper. It's not a better or worse way to do things, just different.
Team Al Arbour: this was my favourite team in the draft. It overcame a pretty underwhelming top line to get there. This squad is at least average in every area, and excellent in some (love top 2 pairings, coaching and goaltending). Still, they only received 66% of the maximum possible score (that a team would receive if it was the very best in every area).
Team Lester Patrick: my 2nd favourite team overall. It had the strongest weaknesses of any team in the draft. I wasn't a huge fan of either their 1st or 2nd line (not terrible, just below average) but they were above average literally everywhere else.
If it wasn't for weaker goaltending and spares, that distinction would be given to team Bowman, which is just good-to-excellent everywhere else.
For the 2nd straight year, the same squad came last in my blind rankings. sorry.....
I didn't find any division to be stacked more or less than others.
Division A had teams 4, 11, 15 and 17 in my overall rankings.
Division B had 2, 8, 9, 12, 19.
Division C had 1, 5, 10, 16, 18.
Division D had 3, 6, 7, 13, 14.
If I had to pick one division that was the strongest it would be division D (Bowman, Blake, Sather, Quenneville, Gorman), with a 3-way time for 2nd after that (too close to call).
