Trade Tactics

[jcairns]

Wondering what everyone out there in Dobber nation does for trade tactics. What stats do you reference to decide on a trade?

For myself, I typically look at injury history, career shooting percentage vs current shooting percentage, age, and PDO.

Anything I might be missing here that would be valuable? What do you reference?

[Pengwin7]

Depends... are you looking for long-term return? Or short-term return?

I rarely make trades in my leagues.
In most leagues, I make one or two very shrewd trades per year... not more.

Trading is simply an end-tweak on overall strategy.
And strategy starts with which categories you can consistently pluck off the waiver wire.

In your league, SOG & Hits are always on the waiver wire.
Wins are usually on the waiver wire too (when there are injuries).

So, with trades... you should be trying to nail down pure scorers (Goals, Assists) and quality goaltenders (SV%).

As trade "tactics" go... (different from "research"), the tactic I find most helpful is to simply ask somebody "Is PlayerX available? Do I have anybody on my roster you are interested in fair exchange?"

(There's been some debate on this topic, people have different opinions).

Typically, I've found that tactic is a good way to put the ball in his court and find out what he expects back for that player.

[jcairns]

Depends... are you looking for long-term return? Or short-term return?

I rarely make trades in my leagues.
In most leagues, I make one or two very shrewd trades per year... not more.

Trading is simply an end-tweak on overall strategy.
And strategy starts with which categories you can consistently pluck off the waiver wire.

In your league, SOG & Hits are always on the waiver wire.
Wins are usually on the waiver wire too (when there are injuries).

So, with trades... you should be trying to nail down pure scorers (Goals, Assists) and quality goaltenders (SV%).

As trade "tactics" go... (different from "research"), the tactic I find most helpful is to simply ask somebody "Is PlayerX available? Do I have anybody on my roster you are interested in fair exchange?"

(There's been some debate on this topic, people have different opinions).

Typically, I've found that tactic is a good way to put the ball in his court and find out what he expects back for that player.

When you make trades, you don't reference any data to try and take advantage of a possibly underperforming player? I find PDO to be immensely helpful.

[msb]

In my opinion, I think it completely depends on your league. For example, my league consists of a close group of friends. It's competition. Most GMs in my league are pretty intelligent, slightly overvalue their own players, and are always trying to win the trade. However, there are always players on a team that go through slumps and a GM thinks it's time for a change, or the player has lost value to the GM.When I say intelligence I mean it in a general way, there are various levels from superior to inferior regarding hockey knowledge/intelligence within the league.

Now to the point. Know who you are trading with. What is the team's weaknesses and strengths, how can you compliment each other with a trade. As Pengwin suggests, asking a GM which players are available directly tells you which players a GM currently values. Some players such as Vanek nobody really wants to trade for because of his incredible hot/cold streaks.

Personally, I don't make many trades per season, if at all. Last season a made a couple. This year was offered and declined Giroux and Marchand for Toews and Benn.