Who to Keep - Only 4!

[dirklance]

Hey Everyone,

I am having some trouble deciding who to keep in my keeper. I was hoping to hear some input from some people here.

I just finished up the first year of our 3 year partial keeper league (Yahoo! H2H) where we keep 4 (I finished 2nd in season, and 2nd in playoffs). There are 10 teams. We play 3 of each position (LW, C, RW, D, G) plus 6 bench (3 IR spots). Here are our categories:

G, A, +/-, PIM, PPG, PPA, SHP, GWG, FOW

W, GA, SV%, SO

Here is my team:

C - Stastny
C - Johansen (RW)
C - Henrique
LW - Carter (C, RW)
LW - Couture (C)
LW - Zetterberg (C)
RW - Jagr
RW - Wheeler
RW - Burns (D)
D - Subban
D - Giordano
D - Letang

G - Rask
G - Luongo
G - Kuemper


Bench: Bonino (C), MacArthur (LW), Roussel (LW), Vermette (C, LW), M. Richards (C, LW), Van Riemsdyk (LW),

I am having a hard time picking my 4 keepers. I have a good idea on 3 of them, but would like some input on my 4th. Here is what I am thinking...

1) Rask
2) Subban
3) Couture
4) Zetterberg or Johansen or JVR

I'm nervous about keeping Zetterberg. He's getting old and I'm not convinced he'll have a healthy year next year.

I LOVE Johansen. I love that he is C/RW. He's the #1 guy on an up and coming team. Great for FOW, and PPP.

JVR. Top line with Kessel.

Thoughts?

Thanks!!

[sammynos]

Johansen IMO...kid is GOOD. With 10 teams, I bet you could re-draft a guy like JVR easily.

[lucifer316]

Zetterberg

[hockeymanG23]

Zetterberg. He will be the best producer even if he misses a handful of games and with so few keepers you can easily redraft or replace guys like RJ and JVR.

[Teh Doktor]

I don't know, man. I got a real soft spot for Forwards listed as Defense.

I'd heavily consider Burns. 22 Goals from a defenseman is very nice-a.

[lucifer316]

I don't know, man. I got a real soft spot for Forwards listed as Defense.

I'd heavily consider Burns. 22 Goals from a defenseman is very nice-a.

in a 10 team keep 4 there is only 1 defenseman i am keeping

especially when you only start 3 D vs 9 Forwards

[dirklance]

Thanks for all your responses!

Lucifer, I totally agree. Only 1 D man for me (Subban).

I think it will come down to Zetterberg, Johansen, and Couture for my last 2 keepers (Rask and Subban being my obvious keepers).

Anyone else???

[The Hockey Hitman]

Don't blame you for not feeling comfortable about keeping Zetterberg here.

I'd keep Rask, Couture, Johansen and Subban.

[The Comish]

I'm nervous about keeping Zetterberg. He's getting old and I'm not convinced he'll have a healthy year next year.

I LOVE Johansen. I love that he is C/RW. He's the #1 guy on an up and coming team. Great for FOW, and PPP.

JVR. Top line with Kessel. Thoughts?

I was so concerned about Zetterberg's back three years ago that I traded him. The fact he had a couple of really great years didn't make it a bad move in my opinion, managing/limiting risk.

Of course you are right, Rask and Subban are obvious selections.

For me, for the final two spots, it would come down to Wheeler, Johansen, Couture or JVR.

Wheeler is under-rated in many formats. He had 28 goals and 63 penalty minutes. He's had two 60+ point seasons and scored at a 70 point pace during the lockout season in between those two 60 point campaigns.

Johansen has very good potential and we saw that this season, but he could easily regress next year. He did finish 27th in FO% and tied for 20th in FOW, so he's not a bad keep by any metric.

I prefer Couture over JVR in part for his plus/minus (+21 on a very good SJ helps) and special teams points (4 Short-handed points).

Okay, decision time. For those final two protected slots, I'd go with Wheeler and Couture, partly out of fear that Johansen regresses.

[Laendarian]

Rask
Luongo
Zetterberg
Johansen

Unless I missed something you start only 3 D, which really lowers there value and is why I wouldn't keep Subban.

On the flip side, you have 3 starting goalie stats, which when added to the 31% goalie stat value makes them extremely valuable, as such I think keeping Luongo is a better strategy even if his name value isn't as sexy as Subban's is.

[Magicstew]

Don't blame you for not feeling comfortable about keeping Zetterberg here.

I'd keep Rask, Couture, Johansen and Subban.

Agree with Hitman , back injuries scare me, I expect Zetts to miss 10-20 games going forward each year. Johansen going forward for me.

[lucifer316]

this is a 3 year keeper and year 1 is gone unless 100% certain of a Zetts injury next season you go with the guy that will produce the most next season imo and there is no reason to not think that will be Zetts

if this were a longer term league i could see being weary of keeping Zetts but not with only 2 seasons left to go