Limited Keeper Draft Strategy

[tml4everpz]

The keeper deadline has come and gone for my league in sig and I am not sure how to approach this years draft. My keepers are Crosby, Stamkos, Kopitar, Benn and Karlsson and there are a lot of intriguing names available for redraft. Now where things get tricky for me is which direction i should take with my first 4 picks - I have 5, 14, 15 and 17 (a 1st and 3 2nds). I am torn between going all out on forwards (Lots of good wingers available) or mixing in a goalie.

The top Forwards available (based on yahoo):
Taylor Hall (!! - not sure why he wasn't kept but won't reach my pick)
Pavelski
Pacioretty
Backes
Skinner
Landeskog
Van Riemsdyk
Simmonds
Sedin
Eberle
Ryan
Thornton
Johansen
Steen
Carter
Lucic
Krejci
Gaborik
Wheeler
Kane
Iginla
Hornqvist (not the next best avail on yahoo but worth mentioning)

Top G Available:
Bishop
Fleury
Niemi
Lehtonen
Rinne
Howard
Smith
Mason


As of now my thinking is that unless Bishop or Fleury falls to me at 5 I will go forward and take one of the better multi-cat options available. For my 14/15/17 picks obviously it depends a lot on what happens before me but unless Bish/Fleury/Niemi/Lehtonen are there am I wrong to still go after the top multi-cat F available and get 4 of those forwards listed? Anyone think i need to absolutely take a goalie in the first two rounds? If you guys want to provide a top 17 that would help me greatly as i'm not sure where to slot those goalies in. Minimum 3 goalie starts a week.

Thanks.

[Shoeless]

minimum goalie starts per week?

[tml4everpz]

minimum goalie starts per week?

Added it into original post but it is 3 per week

[Shoeless]

Figured as much - okay here is how I look at your situation.

If you can figure out how to draft goalies who will get you 3 starts a week and produce better than average GAA and SV%, then I think you should use those first 4 picks to draft forwards and D guys.

In a 10 team pool there is going to be a pretty nice pool of goalies to pick from to meet that requirement - with backups getting more starts these days you could easily run with a tandem like Andersen and Gibson and a starter like Bernier to be competitive in those two key stats and still get your starts in. Yeah you likely give up on wins, but sho are more random and good goalies with fewer starts still get their share of them.

So I think focusing on drafting forwards and don't forget to take 1 D guy among those picks makes the most sense for your situation. Make sure to draft shooters and goalscorers to the extent possible as they are rewarded with your cats. With no PIM's guys with hits need to be much more than one dimensional for you to be interested in them early in the draft.

[tml4everpz]

Thanks Shoeless, glad to hear that I am not crazy for thinking about holding off on goalies. Just curious how would you rank those players at least for my first pick at 5th overall? for reference top Dmen available are Yandle, OEL, Hedman, Chara and Letang.

Right now i have it as Hall, Pavelski, Bishop, Pacioretty, Landeskog, JVR, Eberle, Backes.

[Shoeless]

Wow that is a tough one. I think Hall first for sure, Bishop falls only because I think you are fine to get goaltending later, I love me some Pavelski but I think Landeskog is pretty special and he is going to play with a stud C this season - so I have them bunched at 2, Pacioretty, and I think Eberle before JVR. With no PIMs, Backes struggles to rate here even with his high hit count.