Value of Kunitz

[bizzl]

The injuries to Kipper and Karlsson sealed my fate and I've started to get interest on Kunitz, who could be a huge boost to a contending team. The problem is that I don't know what's a reasonable ask for him.

Where do you guys fall on his value? I'm fully aware that he's 3rd overall in scoring, 4th overall in goals, and 1st in +/- because of the guy he lines up with, but wasn't Cheechoo a pretty highly sought after commodity once upon a time? I'm not saying Kunitz will win the Rocket Richard or anything, but there's certainly a comparison to be drawn there. Kunitz is on pace for 48 goals and 99 points over an 82 game season right now, and he's on pace for 200+ hits as well. His multi-cat strength is the reason I got him in the first place, in fact, but I never expected he'd approach this sort of pace.

Given the team in my sig, what do you think I should go after in talks for him? My biggest weakness, goaltending, is almost impossible to address if you aren't swapping goalies in the deal as well, so that's probably not an option. After that my biggest need is a scoring winger, which is exactly what Kunitz happens to be at the moment.

Thanks for your replies. Rep to anyone that can help!

[mhn8995]

Now that Kipprusoff is back, why don't you try packaging him with Kunitz? I know he isn't what he once was, but given the starts Kipper is likely to get, you might be able to upgrade with another team that has good depth at goalie. Given Kunitz's current stats, I'd swing for the fences at forward, but I'd be willing to "lose" that side of the trade (at least based on this year's numbers), in exchange for a better goalie. Good luck!

[ericdaoust]

His roto value is underrated so even with the points surge I worry that you will not get a fair return to justify selling high.

[#1Sakic]

I agree with Eric on the fact that Kunitz is underrated.

I will add: way underrated

[bizzl]

Now that Kipprusoff is back, why don't you try packaging him with Kunitz? I know he isn't what he once was, but given the starts Kipper is likely to get, you might be able to upgrade with another team that has good depth at goalie. Given Kunitz's current stats, I'd swing for the fences at forward, but I'd be willing to "lose" that side of the trade (at least based on this year's numbers), in exchange for a better goalie. Good luck!

That's a good idea, and something I've tried in the past, with very limited success. The character limit in the signature meant that I couldn't include salary info. Kipper is making 12.9 mil this year (the max salary available, with out cap set at 70.2 mil) and that makes moving him very prohibitive. We have an arbitration process in this league and the only way to acquire him was to put in the max bid. There were a ton of GMs that put in the same max bid, but I was first. Even then, the GM matched the offer and I had to trade for him.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that thinks that Kunitz is hugely underrated across the board. Thanks for the support! The counter argument is always that Crosby is spoon feeding Kunitz the points - which is hard to deny - but does that matter? He's getting the points either way.

There's an offer on the table right now. It's a mid-late 1st (10th-13th) and one of Kulemin or Johansson. I'm not thrilled with that because I'll be going for it next year, and Kunitz will help much more than whoever I take with the pick, and neither Kulemin nor Johansson are anything special.

If I deal Kunitz I'm giving up on this season, having already lost Karlsson and Kipper for a big chunk of the year. My thinking is that I should be getting a real future impact player back, because that's what Kunitz has been and will be for the rest of the year. Is someone like Granlund or Nugent-Hopkins a ridiculous ask? My gut tells me that that's at least in the ballpark of a 'going for it' type deal.

[The Great One]

I traded my Kunitz for Hiller 3 days ago. I seriously needed an upgrade in goals but just hope I did the right move. Hiller got the SO the other night so I'm happy but Kunitz got another 3 pts yesterday. Kunitz is Hot so it's a great time to sell Hight on him.

Yahoo! 14 TEAM - ROTO - KEEPER - C(2), LW(2), RW(2), D(4), UTIL(2), G(2), IR(3), BN(6)

G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, GWG, W, GAA, SV%, SHO

Note: We get to keep 10 keepers!

C:
Jonathan Toews
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Ryan Getzlaf
Jonathan Huberdeau


LW:
Taylor Hall
Dany Heatley

RW:
Jeff Skinner
Jarome Iginla
Vladimir Tarasenko
Justin Williams

D:
P.K. Subban
Brian Campbell
Jack Johnson
Matt Carle
Slava Voynov
Justin Faulk
Lubomir Visnovsky

G:
Jonathan Quick
Jonas Hiller
Justin Peters
Cedrick Desjardins
Nikolai Khabibulin

[mhn8995]

Is someone like Granlund or Nugent-Hopkins a ridiculous ask? My gut tells me that that's at least in the ballpark of a 'going for it' type deal.

I like the idea of asking for RNH. It's hard to know what will fly in your league (your rules are WAY different than my league), but if you assume this is a good time to "sell high" on Kunitz, I think that RNH's value is lower than it will be next year. I'd be sure to get value if you trade Kunitz now, but I don't think its realistic to be anywhere near this pace next year, so keep that in mind. Hope it works out for you.

[bizzl]

He's upped the ante and is now offering Granlund for Kunitz straight up. He's one of the guys I inquired about, so that's progress. It would leave me with Crosby, Backstrom, Sedin and Granlund at C, which would be a huge position of strength. It would help with salary issues as well. On the other hand, Granlund isn't exactly a multi-cat guy, which is something I need. I lead the league in assists, so the last thing I need is another assist heavy C. What do you all think?