Summer moves, possible big changes, thoughts?

[Dakkster]

12 team h2h full dynasty league. 19 categories, 25 player rosters, 25 player farm teams (temporarily upped to 28 until Christmas after the draft). I won the league last season after getting close a few times. Then I dropped Bryzgalov after his heroics got me past the semifinal. Time to say goodbye and keep my hair.

In the draft I had the last pick in each of the three rounds. Got Kasperi Kapanen with #12 and then traded my Jaskin and #24 for the #14 pick to select Dylan Larkin. I really like how he looks and I really wanted another good Detroit prospect. I'm very pleased to get both Kapanen and Larkin even though I picked last. Then I took Jeremy Morin with my #36 pick after cutting him loose a few months ago.

Since I got rid of Jaskin I had an empty farm spot, so today I picked up Mikael Backlund as a free agent when free agency opened after the draft. I felt like I needed center depth and he will most likely be my bench center or injury callup. I have a feeling this is finally his year after looking very good the second half of last season and at the WC.

I also swung a trade today. My Neuvirth and Chiasson for his Chad Johnson and Brock Nelson. He owns Enroth and I have Halak so the goalies help us both. I think I managed to sneak in Nelson because I'm really high on him this year. Even if he doesn't land on Johnny T's line he should get good multicat production on his own. I won't miss either Jaskin or Chiasson because I have RWs coming out of my ass.

I'm looking to keep improving the team, but what do you think I should focus on? Tomorrow I'm dropping Pickard to pick up a multicat D prospect.

This is how the team looks right now. Positions will be added as the players spend time there when the season starts.

C: Kopitar, Backstrom, Little, Stepan, Johnson, Weiss, Backlund, Pirri, Perreault, Petan, Larkin
LW: Lupul, Schwartz, Parise, Brown, Nelson, Martin, Clowe, Cammalleri, Silfverberg, Morin, Nieto
RW: Kessel, Nash, Nyquist, Pominville, Doan, Garbutt, Ritchie, Rattie, Mantha, Kapanen
D: Seabrook, Suter, Letang, Green, Dillon, Greene, Garrison, Hamilton, Beauchemin, Schultz, Rielly, Pulock
G: Holtby, Halak, Johnson, Pavelec, Andersen, Lack, Eriksson, Stalock, Pickard

So... Thoughts?

[Kane Ryker]

How many start at each position? Did I miss that somewhere?

Anyway, I really think you did well getting Kapanen and Larkin and snagging Backlund as a depth C, he will provide you some decent punch to the lineup.

Overall everything looks pretty good. You could use a little more firepower at LW and with you owning BOTH Letang and Green, maybe take a peek around the league where you could trade one of them for LW.

Other than that, really not many holes. You did well getting CJ to go with Halak so you handcuffed that position and Holtby as your other G gives you a solid tandem.

In short, LW would be something I would take a look at in addition to moving one of Green or Letang.

[Dakkster]

Oops. Was writing that on my phone. Knew I would miss something. We try to mimic hockey lineups, so we run 4C, 4LW, 4RW, 6D and 2G with 5 bench spots. No real limits on calling up and sending down guys, but we try to do it only to adapt to injuries, hot and cold streaks. No streaming going on. No max games before a player has to leave the farm or anything like that. We just straight keep everyone. With plenty of diverse categories I think that makes this league pretty entertaining.

Who would you target at LW? I'm not opposed to overpaying since I have a fairly loaded team.

I think I want to try to get a third solid bonafide starter instead of having to spot in Pavelec for starts.

Since I won this past season I also figure that I'm going to try and target some of my favorite players. I just haven't figured out who yet The only untouchable on the team is Nyquist since he's a Red Wing and from the same town as me. Thanks for the input!

[Kane Ryker]

Well that depends on who you like or would like to target. Evander Kane could be a good target right now, his value is lower than it has been and he could be a nice snag, but that depends on if his owner is willing to move him of course. Also, maybe put a feeler out for Niemi to partner with Stalock. That would give you another tandem handcuffed like Halak / Johnson. You would solidify your goalie spot.

Holtby
Halak
CJ
Niemi
Stalock

Hold onto to Pavelec and wait for a hot streak and trade him when he ( hopefully ) restores some trade value.

[yougo]

Paccioretty, Benn would look really good on your lineup !

I think you did good so far this summer. I'm not a fan of your Larkin trade, but there is nothing wrong in adding players from your favourite team, this is a "game" after all.

I would follow Ryker's advice and try to bolster your LW. A thing you could also try to consider is improving your centers. You're obviously strong there, but if you could package one of Johnson/Little with a D or G, I think you'd be unstoppable.

[Dakkster]

Yeah, I know Larkin isn't exactly looked at as first line material. At least not right now. Most reports and videos from development camp were pretty encouraging about his skills on top of his very solid base of outstanding skating and work ethic. He'll be stashed on the farm as long as he's in college. Detroit was pairing him with Mantha every single time. You never know, right? But you're right, the main motivation was that he's a Detroit guy and I wanted to steal him from another Detroit fan who would pick around #17. I think I have a stacked enough team to indulge in a few fanboy picks I actually picked Mantha a bit early last year and that has paid off well so far

Interesting thought about the centers. I'm expecting Johnson to be more of a RW this year, but I'm already loaded there... I've had suitors for Little before. Could try to capitalize on that.

Benn is probably damn difficult to pry from his owner as he loves the guy, unless I overpay like crazy. MaxPac might be an easier get in that case.

[yougo]

I'm pretty sure Johnson will center Tampa's 3rd line next year but it's not a huge debate anyway for us here.

Yeah, Jamie Benn is very hard to trade for. I own him in all my leagues , except one, and I just can't get him. MaxPac is probably the easiest 35+ goal scorer to acquire as he has never been hype outside of Montreal.

I really like the idea of trading Pavelec once he gets hot (if he does). I just don't like him.

[Dakkster]

Johnson played quite a bit of RW with Stamkos and Palat to end last season. Hoping for that to continue.

Today I dropped Pickard to pick up Nikita Zadorov who I've just devoured information about the last week or so. He's looking like a future multicat beast and top PP written all over him with that cannon of a shot. Done with the FA pick-ups for now.

[Carcillo]

Johnson played quite a bit of RW with Stamkos and Palat to end last season. Hoping for that to continue.

Today I dropped Pickard to pick up Nikita Zadorov who I've just devoured information about the last week or so. He's looking like a future multicat beast and top PP written all over him with that cannon of a shot. Done with the FA pick-ups for now.

Didn't Stamkos play RW too while Johnson was the center? I do remember reading something like that. Didn't get to watch many Tampa games late in the season though.

Zadorov is a nice pickup and should be good hard hitting D-man in the future. Well worth rostering over Pickard who don't seem to have an NHL spot anytime soon without a trade and big time improvement at AHL-level first.

Not surprised to hear you winning the league as I remember commenting on your team in previous years and you've always had really stacked up team Not really any areas in need of improvement but you have so much depth, that moving quantity for quality certainly would be optimal choice for your team. Not sure how easy it is in your league if you can pick guys like Backlund and Zadorov via FA though but always worth exploring though.

[Dakkster]

Thanks! Zadorov and Backlund were both cut from their teams recently to get down to roster size before the draft. Then there are all those shiny new draftees that are more interesting, so a few guys slip through the nets.

I think Backlund's owner was mostly tired of waiting. Same thing happened a bunch of years ago when I picked up the recently dropped Steen just before he broke out.

So the draft we just finished were 31 newly drafted players and Connor Brown, Sekac, Lehtera, Kontiola and my Morin. Free agency so far has been Backlund, Zadorov, Fasth, Colborne, Athanasiou, Maroon, Zach Mitchell and Kevin Hayes. It's a pretty tough league. The top seven or eight teams are fairly bunched together, with a couple rebuilding and a couple middling ones.

There are enough interesting prospects out there for me to pick up if I make a bunch of quantity for quality trades, but maybe that's because I have a slight obsession with prospects