Hey! I did a trade!
 

The window of optimism was a short one, but it was still big enough for my one keeper league - the Forecaster league (keep 12, weekly lineups, defending CHAMP) to get excited again.

I have about 20 solid players left and I need to cut down to 12. Here is what remains of my roster (I cut the dregs already):
14 teams, 25 players per team...

C - E. Staal, Kopitar, Benn, Flash, Berglund
W - Kovalchuk, Giroux, Neal, St. Louis, Eriksson, S.Kostitsyn, Johansen, Williams, Kuznetsov, Conacer
D- Letang, Shatty, MDZ, Enstrom
G - Smith, Anderson, Dubnyk

I traded Strome and last pick of the 6th round (since I won) for an early 4th rounder. Meh, better than a kick in the teeth.

Cutting my roster down to 14 is easy. Cutting to 12 is hard. Ideally I'd like to get some picks rather than just drop guys.

C - E. Staal, Kopitar, Benn,
W - Kovalchuk, Giroux, Neal, St. Louis, Eriksson,
D- Letang, Shatty,
G - Smith, Anderson

I would go with the 12 above. I guess it's easier when it's not your team, but it still wasn't easy deleting Enstrom, Berglund, Conacher and Kuznetsov. Enstrom has the most talent currently from those 4 IMO but he is only as good as his team is and apart from Wheeler and Kane, the firepower on that team is limited. Also Big Buff is also used on the PP.

I think you have a good mix of youth and players in their prime.

I would flip a coin on Dubnyk though (instead of Anderson). I think he might break out soon.

Keeping all three goalies. Way too important in this league to have a question mark, and any two of these goalies doesn't give me a pair I'm comfortable with. But two of the three goalies...(i.e. keep all three and hope two turn out) I am very comfortable with.

Which would mean cutting Eriksson. So I need to trade a guy. Also want to make room for MDZ and Enstrom. So three guys I don't want to lose for nothing.

I'll make some assumptions here:
*Points-Only (?)
*Start 3C/6W/4D (?)

I'd keep:
C - E. Staal, Kopitar, Benn
W - Kovalchuk, Giroux, Neal, St. Louis, Eriksson
D- Letang
G - Smith, Anderson, Dubnyk

This means (if it's my team), I'm considering dropping your 3 defensemen.
I don't know... I personally feel like there an absolute slew of 30-45pt defensemen out there.
Last year, I helped a buddy win his 13-team 6F/4D points-only pool... we went into the draft with just Karlsson.
Drafted 3D... and ended up replacing them ALL with waiver D during the year (guys like MDZ & Leddy).
Just piecing in some decent D-points allowed him to win the pool. [With Malkin, Datsyuk, Neal, Pavelski, E.Kane, Heatley, Karlsson + 3D, Fleury and Corey effin Crawford!]

Let's say you value the players as follows:
50pts: Letang
45pts: Shattenkirk
45pts: Enstrom
42pts: MDZ

The guy I'd look to move here is Letang.
Sure, you downgrade your defensemen, but what you gain in trade return on Letang (2nd rounder?) may be much higher than what you might get for ShattenK (4th rounder?) or Enstrom (5th rounder?). And, you only lose 5pts.


In other words... I think you should look to move one of your defensemen... whoever you can get the best return/draft-pick on.

Hmmmm then I guess Eriksson would be the guy to go for Dubnyk as you said. Now cutting 2 more to add those D-Men... not sure if it's even possible for 1? Of course 2 for 1 trades/upgrades would be best here but are other managers in need of fillers in exchange for better players (ex: Eriksson and St-Louis for Eberle)?

C: Staal, Kopitar, Benn
W: Kovy, Neal, Giroux, St. Louis
D: Letang, Shatty, MDZ
G: Smith, Dubnyk, Anderson

In my mind, this is how it stands. I like MDZ over Enstrom (immensely better offense, far less competition for PP time), and I don't see how you can keep either of them over any of the other forwards. It would seem you're left with the prospect of a trade.

C - E. Staal, Kopitar, Benn
W - Kovalchuk, Giroux, Neal, St. Louis, Eriksson
D- Letang, Shatty, MDZ, Enstrom
G - Smith

That leaves you with 13. Take two players, find a GM who has decent goaltending depth and make them an offer. Assuming you can package Benn and Eriksson together, maybe get a top 10 goalie in the right deal.

Either way it's an upgrade over Dubnyk and Anderson. Dubnyk will likely continue to battle with Khabibulin for starts, especially since Nikolai loves to show up in contract years. Anderson has injury history, has not been stellar over the past few seasons, and has both Lehner and Bishop nipping at this heels.

Come on, you're Dobber. Don't tell me you can't make some magic happen...

The opportunity cost of keeping a 3rd goalie in a weekly starts league is pretty high - but I understand the insurance factor. Someone in that league is really hurting in goal I would guess.

I like the Strome trade. You traded an asset you weren't going to keep to get a pick upgrade of some significance - looks like you moved up close to 40 spots for that pick. Weigh that against having one more player in the draft pool to pick from and you win large.

If you are looking for input then I am going to scold you here - no starting roster positions set out and no scoring cats. Are you picking last in every round? You want me to mow your lawn, you probably should tell me where you live.

LOL I wasn't looking for input initially, but it kind of spun out that way. Originally I was just bragging that I made a fantasy trade during these difficult times haha

But here goes, now that we're in the discussion:
4C 8W 6D 2G

Points only, and .25+/-, .1SOG, .25PPP
Goalies I think are wins, shutouts and saves, less goals against, the usual formula I don't have it in front of me. But yes, I've been screwed by goaltending so I'm gunshy with them. Take no chances, full bore insurance.

Interesting take on the defensemen. You guys have me thinking.

I won last year using a big D focus, and the guy who won three years ago also had kickass D. With 6 D and 14 teams, half the teams are down to 20-point defensemen. And never never never anything on the wire. Whereas with forwards I can draft them and pluck them.

Besides those four D I owned Visnovsky and White - I had six good ones, trading Carlson at the deadline

To some extent your wart is your goal tending - not sure I have much to offer in that regard but intuitively I would be examining the possibility of an upgrade there with some skater keepers to give.

One of those leagues I would love to see all the rosters in.