Keeper Strategy - Advice!

[icevenom]

HI Friends,

Another keeper season comes to a close... and with a horse shoe up my arse... I pulled out a back to back championship in my 14 team pool. Some savvy trading and some luck has bestowed upon me some flexability now in my keeper selection.

Our pool is a simple one, limited keeper w/ 5 keepers. 4 of any type and a 5th of requirement to be under 150GP (any position). Obviusly this favours young goalies. Last year I had Desharnais but I acquired Rask via trade w/ Reimer/B Ryan/2nd round pick as bait (he is 130 games or so?).

League Setup: 14 teams, H2H, Daily Changes
Forwards: G,A,+/-,PIM,SHP,PPP,GWG,SOG,FW, Goalies: W/GAA/SV/SV%/SHO
Positions: C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, F, D, D, D, Util, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, IR, IR

My Squad: (this is what I finished with... I dropped some guys for extra games in playoffs)
C: E Staal, Duchene (C/LW), Brodziak, Goc (C/LW), Fiddler (C/LW)
RW: Malkin (c/rw), Backes (C/rw), Voracek,
LW: Parise, Clowe (LW/RW), Morrow, Cammalleri (C/LW)
D: Chara, Yandle, OEL,
G: Rask ('>150GP'), Howard, Khudobin,

Last year I kept Backes, i think I could redraft him with his iffy stats now. VERY versatile guy. Notice we use FW, which makes wingers with multiposition who take huge FW a good value.

My top picks are: Howard, Backes, Voracek

Most teams keep top goalies and it becomes a goalie rush in the first. Keeping Howard (solid goalie) let's me have at top forwards all draft

I won't be able to keep Rask as a youth player next season's end... so i'll need a new player under 150gp. Most goalies are taken... so likely a top forward.

[bizzl]

Obviously the 4 you've got are locks. After that I would be looking at Duchene, Howard and Voracek. You mentioned that centers with wing eligibility are huge in your league, so Duchene would be a pretty solid choice. If you want to lock up the goaltending then Howard is your guy, and Voracek is a potential PPG guy so he could be great as well. I would keep Duchene and hope that they have a fairly quick turn-around. We've seen teams go from the basement to the top of the standings pretty consistently the last few years (Montreal and Anaheim this year, New Jersey the year before that) and with a new head coach and the 1st overall things could change pretty dramatically in Colorado. Being able to cash in the FOW from the wing is a big consideration as well. An argument could be made for any of these guys and Backes as well, but I lean towards Duchene.

Not being able to keep Rask as a <150 GP guy after next season isn't something I'd worry about until then. If you need to move Parise or Staal to accommodate him as a regular keeper you shouldn't have any problem finding a trading partner.

[4T2]

I like the idea of keeping Howard and Rask with your obvious 3 forwards.

I think you need to target Backes early though as he is very valuable with the dual eligibility and counting FW. If you counted Hits I would be keeping him over Howard.

But with 14 teams and daily changes, having two solid goalies into the draft is huge!

If he's not a keeper this year, try to target Markstrom or Holtby in the draft. One of them could take over as your >150 GP goalie going forward.

[BlackGold]

I don't think there should be any debate here.

Staal, Malkin, Parise, Rask, Yandle.

14 teams requiring 2 starters means they are very valuable. Yes Backes provides stats across the board, but there are a number of FW wingers that you can target in the draft. Also Malkin seems to have improved greatly as a FW winger this year.

[Pengwin7]

This one is easy.
Jimmy Howard.

Goalies go scarce quickly in a 14-team league.

With 14-teams, and I'm imagining you have the last pick of the 1st redraft round, I think you'll need to ensure yourself that you have two solid G.
They'll all fly off the board in round 1.

7F/3D/2G and 14 teams.

GOALIES are huge in the league.
HUGE.

Plenty of skaters to go around.
Not goalies.

Howard.
Period.

[icevenom]

Duchene DID cross my mind... I also believe they can bounce back well... yandle was a bit of a shock. D men seem to slip by in my league perhaps... giving me that misconception.

Perhaps some more context would help... our last draft is below
Goalies Kept Last Year:
Quick, Rinne, Lundq, Luongo, Fleury, Lehtonen, Ward, Price, Bryz, Miller, Elliot, Dubnyk, Crawford, Schneider, HOltby

This Season's Draft Results (first 3 rounds): Note, we use a snake draft.
Round 1
1 Marian Hossa (Chi - RW)
2 Mike Smith (Pho - G)
3 Scott Hartnell (Phi - LW)
4 Jimmy Howard (Det - G)
5 Logan Couture (SJ - C,LW)
6 Jaroslav Halak (StL - G)
7 Antti Niemi (SJ - G)
8 Semyon Varlamov (Col - G)
9 Jonas Hiller (Anh - G)
10 Nail Yakupov (Edm - RW)
11 Miikka Kiprusoff (Cgy - G)
12 Craig Anderson (Ott - G)
13 Martin Brodeur (NJ - G)
14 Anders Lindback (TB - G)
Round 2
1 Bobby Ryan (Anh - LW)
2 Niklas Backstrom (Min - G)
3 Milan Lucic (Bos - LW)
4 Tomas Vokoun (Pit - G)
5 P.A. Parenteau (Col - RW)
6 Jamie Benn (Dal - C,LW)
7 Jean-Sebastien Giguere (Col - G)
8 Matt Duchene (Col - C,LW)
9 Loui Eriksson (Dal - LW,RW)
10 Ondrej Pavelec (Wpg - G)
11 Johan Franzen (Det - LW,RW)
12 Alex Pietrangelo (StL - D)
13 Dustin Brown (LA - LW,RW)
14 Jose Theodore (Fla - G)
Round 3
1 Evander Kane (Wpg - LW)
2 Alexander Edler (Van - D)
3 Dan Boyle (SJ - D)
4 Jaromir Jagr (Bos - RW)
5 Matt Moulson (NYI - LW)
6 Shane Doan (Pho - LW,RW)
7 Max Pacioretty (Mon - LW)
8 Patrik Elias (NJ - C,LW)
9 Evgeni Nabokov (NYI - G)
10 Alexander Semin (Car - LW,RW)
11 Dion Phaneuf (Tor - D)
12 Jordan Staal (Car - C,LW)
13 Paul Stastny (Col - C)
14 Jeff Carter (LA - C,RW)

Looking at thsi draft... goalies were GONE after the first 16ish picks...
I own the 14th pick (traded my 15th overall)... then have a 19th and a 42nd this upcoming draft. THAT SAID... Howard seems wise. To Penguin's point, the goalies may be overly scarce and I don't have a lot of draft room. I either Keep howard and draft forwards all night. OR I keep a forward and draft a goalie in the first (what is left... at the end of the first).

You could almost say I can get HOWARD + DUCHENE (draft) or like a DUCHENE + Broduer-ish (draft)... In other words, I have more control over drafting a forward (lots of variety) then drafting a goalie at that point. I'm somewhat handcuffed. Does that make sense? I think if I keep HOWARD, i'd target Backes/Duchene at the end of the first round.

[One87]

HI Friends,

Another keeper season comes to a close... and with a horse shoe up my arse... I pulled out a back to back championship in my 14 team pool. Some savvy trading and some luck has bestowed upon me some flexability now in my keeper selection.

Our pool is a simple one, limited keeper w/ 5 keepers. 4 of any type and a 5th of requirement to be under 150GP (any position). Obviusly this favours young goalies. Last year I had Desharnais but I acquired Rask via trade w/ Reimer/B Ryan/2nd round pick as bait (he is 130 games or so?).

League Setup: 14 teams, H2H, Daily Changes
Forwards: G,A,+/-,PIM,SHP,PPP,GWG,SOG,FW, Goalies: W/GAA/SV/SV%/SHO
Positions: C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, F, D, D, D, Util, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, IR, IR

My Squad: (this is what I finished with... I dropped some guys for extra games in playoffs)
C: E Staal, Duchene (C/LW), Brodziak, Goc (C/LW), Fiddler (C/LW)
RW: Malkin (c/rw), Backes (C/rw), Voracek,
LW: Parise, Clowe (LW/RW), Morrow, Cammalleri (C/LW)
D: Chara, Yandle, OEL,
G: Rask ('>150GP'), Howard, Khudobin,

Last year I kept Backes, i think I could redraft him with his iffy stats now. VERY versatile guy. Notice we use FW, which makes wingers with multiposition who take huge FW a good value.

My top picks are: Howard, Backes, Voracek

Most teams keep top goalies and it becomes a goalie rush in the first. Keeping Howard (solid goalie) let's me have at top forwards all draft

I won't be able to keep Rask as a youth player next season's end... so i'll need a new player under 150gp. Most goalies are taken... so likely a top forward.

I would go:

Staal - C
Duchene LW/C
Malkin - RW

Howard - G
Rask - G

As much as I like Parise, I like Duchene more the next couple of seasons and beyond. His age, FW and dual eligibility REALLY evens things out NOW and only make him a better keeper moving forward.

[Pengwin7]

I would go:

Staal - C
Duchene LW/C
Malkin - RW

If fantasy websites get positions accurate to start next year, this list could look like this:

Staal - C
Duchene - C
Malkin - C

Left Wing could be (could be!) too thin to ignore.
Anybody that is in positional-forward pools (C,LW,RW) needs to seriously make a list of the top 10 LWs... it gets thin.
Datsyuk, Z, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Neal, Duchene... these guys didn't play LW this year!

[NikW71]

This one is easy.
Jimmy Howard.

Goalies go scarce quickly in a 14-team league.

With 14-teams, and I'm imagining you have the last pick of the 1st redraft round, I think you'll need to ensure yourself that you have two solid G.
They'll all fly off the board in round 1.

7F/3D/2G and 14 teams.

GOALIES are huge in the league.
HUGE.

Plenty of skaters to go around.
Not goalies.

Howard.
Period.

Pengwin nailed this. With 10 of the 14 players drafted being goalies, don't be one of the sheep to chase one of them. You should be able to land a legit forward to the fold while the others are getting their second goalie. Besides, you will have 2 legit goalies to bolster your goalie cats next season that probably won you the championship in the first place.