Evaluate my way ahead with this team

[Jorge]

Hi all, for my team in sig.

I took over this team prior to the draft last season and have totally revamped it. I had many aging stars (+35) at D/G and felt that a total rebuild was in order and the only remaining players from the team I inherited are Huberdeau, Fleury and Filppula. I'm a patient kinda guy so I don't mind waiting a couple of years for this team to take shape.

So moving on to the upcoming season, I have Ward, Kostka and Pitkanen that I plan on dropping for WW pick-ups as soon as that window opens with the intent of finding further quality young talent. I'll be watching Stempniak and Colbourne to see how they start the season with new clubs and players respectively before making a decision on them. At about the 40gp point during the season, I will need to move Kucherov and Ryan Murphy into my main roster due to max GP.

I also have 6 picks in the 2015 draft and our league is a 3 round draft annually and with at least 1 of those picks, I should be able to upgrade my center position. I doubt this team will be bad enough to compete in the McD/Eichel sweepstakes but should be able to get a top 5 pick in the end. I have no intention on winning anything this year unless some of my players improve considerably from last season which is entirely feasible.

Two seasons from now, I envision my team looking something like this:

Huberdeau - XX2015XX - Nichushkin
Gaudreau - Kuznetsov - Smith
Roussel - TT - Kucherov
Filppula - Johnson - Hemsky
Scherbak-Vey-Trochek

Trouba - Barrie
Murphy - Wiercoch
Sproul

3 or 4 of the following tenders: Fleury - Lack - Johnson - Svedberg - Vasilievski

The 2015 draft will be used to fill in any holes such as the center outlined. Once the draft is completed, I should have enough quality assets, that I can move a goalie (or 2), with those assets to upgrade certain positions as required.

Am I on the right track here? Can we expect to see a solid 50+ pt seasons from these forwards and 35+ from the d-men down the road? Exceptions being Roussel(PIMs)/Vey/Scherbak (unknown upsides). With what I have available to me at the moment, can you see anything that you feel you would do? Or maye you have a differant approach on what to do with this team. Feel free to make some suggestions.

Just thought I would throw this in after the fact. This is the team I inherited.

C - B.Richards, Palmieri, Letestu
LW - Perron, Filppula, Doan
RW - Burmistov, Clarkson, Vrbata
D - Boyle, Coburn, Gonchar, Kronwall, Chara
G - Fleury, Brodeur, Nabakov, Vokoun
Bench - Hartnell, Huberdeau, B.Schenn, Franzen, Weiss, Laich,

[The Bottlenecker]

The team I inherited three years ago was filled with bums and over the hill vets too. Completely blew it up, and while I think you, like me, are on the right track, you will have to be patient. Very patient.

I am fine with most of the guys you have, but would be looking to replace Weircioch and Lack, and would consider trading Hemsky around halfway through the coming season when he should be at a "sell high" fantasy position playing besides Jason Spezza.

[Doug Glatt]

...consider trading Hemsky around halfway through the coming season when he should be at a "sell high" fantasy position playing besides Jason Spezza.

Haha that's pretty optimistic, thinking both Hemsky and Spezza will still be healthy by midseason.

[petegreg21]

General thoughts and questions from my end:
-Dropping Ward? Is this Joel or Cam? Whichever it is you can safely keep them and dump Stempniak instead.
-If you're going for the future, ship out Filpulla and Hemsky sooner than later. Filp I've never been quite sold on and Hemsky's value fluctuates like a roller coaster.
-I'd look for upgrades on the D corp
-Fleury will be 32 in 2 years. Lack will be a backup. Johnson is meh. Svedberg I like but I'd like to see some NHL games and same with Vasilevski. I'd try to shift your goaltending around considerably this year and see who you can pull away from opposing owners.
-Scherbak won't be an NHL'er in 2 years. Has a lot of developing to do from what I've seen.
- I'd probably play the name value of a few of your guys and go after a true young up and coming center instead of banking on a 2015 pick. If you aren't getting McD or Eichel, theres no guarantee you get that guy in to your team before Fall 2016, then you won't be looking at solid contributions til 2017 or 2018.

[yougo]

General thoughts and questions from my end:
-Dropping Ward? Is this Joel or Cam? Whichever it is you can safely keep them and dump Stempniak instead.
-If you're going for the future, ship out Filpulla and Hemsky sooner than later. Filp I've never been quite sold on and Hemsky's value fluctuates like a roller coaster.
-I'd look for upgrades on the D corp
-Fleury will be 32 in 2 years. Lack will be a backup. Johnson is meh. Svedberg I like but I'd like to see some NHL games and same with Vasilevski. I'd try to shift your goaltending around considerably this year and see who you can pull away from opposing owners.
-Scherbak won't be an NHL'er in 2 years. Has a lot of developing to do from what I've seen.
- I'd probably play the name value of a few of your guys and go after a true young up and coming center instead of banking on a 2015 pick. If you aren't getting McD or Eichel, theres no guarantee you get that guy in to your team before Fall 2016, then you won't be looking at solid contributions til 2017 or 2018.

This is pretty good advice. I would consider keeping Lack though. I think you should go all-in in your tanking attempt. Sell Filppula and Hemsky to contending clubs for their prospects. Fleury could net you a pretty good ransom also This is the year to finish last in a pool, don't be like the Calgary Flames and not stink enough to land the #1 pick.

[vitun-tyhmä]

Best advice is to go full out with this, trade your veteran assets and build the whole team off draft picks and young promising players. Fleury, Brodeur, Hemsky, Filpula, you should be able to get a decent return on many of these guys if you sell them to a team trying to win now. Not that you have to sell them right now, but before your trade deadline i would look to cash out

[Jorge]

General thoughts and questions from my end:
-Dropping Ward? Is this Joel or Cam? Whichever it is you can safely keep them and dump Stempniak instead.
-If you're going for the future, ship out Filpulla and Hemsky sooner than later. Filp I've never been quite sold on and Hemsky's value fluctuates like a roller coaster.
-I'd look for upgrades on the D corp
-Fleury will be 32 in 2 years. Lack will be a backup. Johnson is meh. Svedberg I like but I'd like to see some NHL games and same with Vasilevski. I'd try to shift your goaltending around considerably this year and see who you can pull away from opposing owners.
-Scherbak won't be an NHL'er in 2 years. Has a lot of developing to do from what I've seen.
- I'd probably play the name value of a few of your guys and go after a true young up and coming center instead of banking on a 2015 pick. If you aren't getting McD or Eichel, theres no guarantee you get that guy in to your team before Fall 2016, then you won't be looking at solid contributions til 2017 or 2018.

Thanks for the responses everyone, very much appreciated. I'm closing in on 60 and coached sports for 40 of those years so I've had years of being patient and know what that's all about, lol. The least of my worries.

- It's Joel, I'm planning on letting him go as I don't expect him to have a career year again and Stempniak, I'm not really expecting much but depending on who he plays with (I've heard Brassard/Zuc) will determine what I do with him.
- Filppula and Hemsky are next to go. I'm just holding out to see who the contenders and those close to playoffs are in order to determine who has the picks or prospects I want.
- Upgrading the D is something I've put off to the end of the re-build as I feel that these will be the cheapest to fill and may be able to make those moves with any extra pieces I have.
- I'm probably going to hold on to Fleury for a few seasons as he is the only one that will provide stability in that position. 3 game per week requirement so unless I can find a way to get those games/numbers back, I probably won't move him. Vas will be at least another season away as a back-up.
- I'm not really expecting anything from Vey and Scherbak as they were the product of last minute deals so that I would actually have some picks this year. Considering that I got them with the 30th and 43rd picks respectively in our draft, I'm pretty happy with that.
- I'm currently holding picks 2015:1,2,2,3,3,3 and 2016: 1,2,3 so I have lots of value there to deal with. I'll see how my team starts the season and try and determine where I may finish out of 16. If I'm close to the top of the draft (top 5 or 6) I may be able to add picks to move up or if I'm competing then I might be able to use those picks to secure that center.

Anyways, thanks guys. You've pretty much confirmed that my strategy with this team was valid. I thought I would be better at this tanking stuff but considering I took over the 14th place team, blew it up and replaced with players all under 25 years and still moved up to 10th doesn't bode well for me in the McD sweepstakes,lol. My problem is I'm too damn competitive!!!