B Ryan, P Kane+ for Malkin+

[Rrabbit]

Quite an interesting trade developing in one of my leagues. My team is in a heavy rebuild phase and I'm not looking to contend this year. Categories are:
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SOG, SHP, W, SV%, GAA, SO.

The trade would be B Ryan, P Kane and Andy McDonald for Malkin and Steve Mason.

10 keeper limit even though keeper slots are traded frequently (on a one year basis). My team is limited to 8 keepers for the next offseason due to a couple of earlier trades I pulled.

My team is as following:

C: Andy McDonald (C/LW), Matt Duchene, Mikhail Grabovski, Vinny Prospal (C/LW)

LW: Patrick Sharp (C/LW), Bobby Ryan, Chris Kunitz, Tyler Kennedy (LW/RW), Tomas Fleischmann

RW: Patrick Kane, Jeff Carter (C/RW), Wayne Simmonds, Devin Setoguchi

D: Jack Johnson, Marek Zidlicky, Dennis Wideman, Stefan Elliott

G: Ondrej Pavelec, Ray Emery

AHL-Farm: (200gp limit)

Jaden Schwartz
Kevin Poulin
Justin Faulk
Al Montoya
Mark Dekanich
Ryan Ellis
Cam Atkinson
Taylor Beck
Craig Smith
Andrei Loktionov
Alexander Avtsin
Brendan Smith
Nick Bjugstad
Carter Ashton
Mathieu Perreault
Emerson Etem
Eddie Lack
Brett Maclean
Joey Hishon

Minor League Farm (10gp limit)

Kevin Connauton
Ty Rattie
Matt Puempel
Ryan Murphy
Nathan Beaulieu
Dmitrij Jaskin
Brandon Saad
Boone Jenner
Magnus Hellberg
Cristopher Gibson

I have a very nice young core in place, but a chance to land Malkin and improve my goaltending situation might be too tempting to pass. I don't really put much value on McDonald in that trade as he's a one year rental anyway. I'm a bit worried about my team getting too heavy at center as I don't think Carter will retain his RW for much longer and I have 4x top8 picks in the next years entry which has some center options I'm certainly looking to land.

I tried to provide as much information as possible so if anyone of you made it through the wall of text I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.

[bondon]

Such a tough call because I love Bobby Ryan and P.Kane is a great young player.

However seeing as its a limited keeper I think I'm gonna have to go with the Malkin side. Best player in the deal and you're getting another goalie which I assume is at a premium since your backup is Ray Emery?

Really tough call though...but I'm sticking with the Malkin side.

[fantasyhockeygeek]

I'd be all over the trade.

Your goaltending really hurts. I don't think Mason is the answer, but you know what? He could be. If he rebounds (and he's looked great in the preseason) he's more valuable than Kane or Sharp.

Malkin. Top-10 player. None of the other guys are.

It hurts to give up strong wingers like that, but in a limited keeper it's all about talent concentration. I'd be inclined to get Malkin then shop around later to shore up your wingers, using Carter or Duchene (whichever gets off to the best start) as bait.

[newper114]

Not sure why you think your rebuilding. You loom like a team that just needs to make some moves to fill out depth and you hve a shot. That being said I think you should do this deal. I really hate trading Kane or Ryan and it would be hard for me to do but malkin is tue best here and you are limited to 8 keepers next season you need to consolidate

And then you still get mason. You need another goalie and he has looked amazing this preseason. I'd take a chance and do this deal before malkin scores 140 points this season

[dmvincent]

Its a very tough call, but I understand if you want to accept this deal.

Best of luck.

[fantasyhockeygeek]

I really don't think this is a tough call at all! I think this is a fair price for Malkin alone, let alone including Mason in the deal... with goaltending being as important as it is in this setup, you absolutely need two full-time starters to be competitive. You don't have two... and by your own words you only have one year until you want to challenge for a title.

Besides, Kane isn't all he's cracked up to be in this format: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SOG, SHP... the bolded categories are ones where he really doesn't carry enough weight as a RW. Even worse if he plays more C.

[dmvincent]

I really don't think this is a tough call at all! I think this is a fair price for Malkin alone, let alone including Mason in the deal... with goaltending being as important as it is in this setup, you absolutely need two full-time starters to be competitive. You don't have two... and by your own words you only have one year until you want to challenge for a title.

Besides, Kane isn't all he's cracked up to be in this format: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SOG, SHP... the bolded categories are ones where he really doesn't carry enough weight as a RW. Even worse if he plays more C.

I don't know what I was thinking before, but Malkin is the way to go. Take Malkin and run, he's looked fantastic in pre-season and I've acquired him in every pool I could afford to do so.

[Rrabbit]

Thanks for your advice everyone. Went on and pulled the trigger on the deal (actually did that before this thread got replies, but it was good to get some confirmation anyway). Happy Malkin owner now!