Fantasy Hockey Mailbag - April 07 2015

[Dobbernomics]

Kucherov is a rookie?
Man, that's tough. Can't drop any of those five, wow...

If you can get MacKinnon for Simmonds and Stone then do that, rather than drop one of them. And getting Hedman for Barrie+ is not the way to go. Someone besides Barrie. But trade a veteran F plus Trouba for Hedman would be awesome if you can pull it off.

Yes, the problem is an embarassment of riches... Here's my team at the moment. I can only keep 13 with 3 of those spots reserved for players having less than 150 games played (so called "rookies"). In bold are my best guesses at my keepers.

Am I going at this wrong? Any suggestions for my keeper list?


F: Seguin, Benn, Tavares, Kucherov(R), Scheifele, Simmonds, Ovie, Granlund, Wheeler, Oshie, Nyquist, Kreider, Gaudreau(R), Stone(R)
D: OEL, Klingberg(R), Barrie, McDonagh, Trouba(R)
G: Crawford, Quick, Luongo


Thanks again!

[RizzeeDizzee]

More likely to happen next season - RNH gets 70 points or Wideman falls below 40? I know it seems like a random question, but it relates to retentions in my limited keeper.

[StuntsC]

Hi Dobber, thx for doing this!

For my team in signature we have a double expansion coming up meaning I will lose 2 players. We can protect 10 players, would you change my list at all?

Ryan, Byfuglien, Backes, Monahan, Bjugstad, Kucherov, Johanson, Boedker, Spezza, JvR.
Rattie and Draisaitl are on my junior squad and are exempt from the draft.

[theIceWookie]

Hey Dobber! Thanks for answering questions! It's sweet.

So I just won my league, which is awesome...but in gunning for the win I loaded up on some players and now I need to make some tough decisions for my keepers. We get to keep 10 roster players, and 12 minor players. Minor players are players who have played under 110 games (which is awesome for me with Forsberg).

So my roster is in my signature and the categories for the league are also there.

Right now I'm definitely keeping

1) Ovechkin
2) Byfuglien
3) Lundqvist
4) Varlamov
5) Tarasenko
6) Weber
7) Giroux

Now that leaves me a choice of Kreider, Bjugstad, Palat, Trouba, Marchand, Callahan, OEL, Kopitar for the final 3 keeper spots.

I'm a little worried about Kopitar's season but I'd have a real hard time just letting him go. OEL is also a hard guy to let go. Defense are pretty valuable in our league with 6 spots to play them daily and blocks/hits being worth a decent amount. So I'm thinking I have three options.

Option 1: Keep Kopitar, OEL and choose between Kreider/Palat/Bjugstad for the 10th keeper spot

Option 2: See if I can sell Kopitar and keep OEL, Bjugstad and one of Kreider/Palat for the 10th spot

Option 3: Keep Kreider, Palat and Bjugstad, skew my keepers a little younger and sell Kopitar/OEL (OEL might be at his highest value for a while with the 23 goal season and Yandle gone and people assuming he can take his spot on the PP)

Part of me is leaning towards option 2. What do you think?

Thankfully I can put Forsberg in my minors which look like the following:

Forsberg, Hayes, Lowry, Jaskin, Rieder, Nick Ritchie (could be gold in my league format), Hellebuyck, Matt Murray, Joni Ortio, Ghost, Honka, Connougton

[horrorfan]

If you answer this question before tonight's games begin (as it could become clearer after them):

Assuming Minnesota and Vancouver are in, who misses the playoffs in the West? Calgary, LA or Winnipeg?

Remaining games:

CGY: vs Arizona, vs LA, at Winnipeg
LA: at Edmonton, at Calgary, vs San Jose
WPG: at St. Louis, at Colorado, vs Calgary

[His Dudeness]

What do you think Kuemper's chances are of having a decent fantasy season next year? My league (in sig) counts only wins and shutouts, and it's a cap league based on salary (he makes $1.5 next year). tx

[Pit Bulls]

Thanks for doing this Dobber!

Will you be offering the Ulimate Fantasy Pack again this year?

[Dobber]

Hey Dobber. Thanks for doing this. Mine is a two part-question as they are related.

#1: 12-team points only keeper pool. Keep 15 any position. Top 8 forwards, five dmen and two goalies count. I have one draft pick this offseason, a fourth rounder. I will be keeping Malkin, Ovi, Kessel, Benn, Pavelski, Letang, Carlson, Shattenkirk, Yandle, Streit, Price, and Fleury for sure. Who should my last three keepers be out of this list: Little, Iginla, Backes, Foligno, Kesler, Bozak, Pominville, Goligoski, Visnovsky, and Chara.

#2: Same pool, I am tired of Malkin being injured every year and feel I am always leaving points on the table that someone else could get for me. I feel like offering Malkin to get the number one pick (once our draft lottery is done in a month or two) and then draft McDavid (obviously, it probably wouldn't be a straight up deal). I could also keep one more player from that list above to replace Malkin. Am I crazy for even considering this?

1. Little, Ugh...Foligno (still can't believe that guy), Goligoski
2. I'm thinking of the same thing. Still thinking about it. I know some people who wouldn't take Malkin for McDavid. True story.

[Dobber]

Points only keeper, how would you rank these two sets of 4 ?

Lee
Nyquist
Dubinsky
Palat

and

Klingberg
Trouba
Vatanen
Barrie

1. Nyquist
2. Palat
3. Lee
4. Dubinsky

1. Klingberg
2. Vatanen
3. Barrie
4. Trouba

[Dobber]

Points only
5 keepers locked: Stamkos, Malkin, Ovechkin, Parise, Price.
If I decide to keep a D, it would be Josi, easy pick.
But, finding D depth at the draft is easier than F depth with a 9 F and 4 D lineup.
So, I would prefer to enter the draft with 5 F.
I have a buch of similar players to fill the spot.
Can you rank these players for their keeper value:
Foligno
Ladd
Ribeiro
Marleau
Plekanec
Backes
Thank you!

Under those conditions, I would rank as follows:
1. Dubnyk
2. Foligno
3. Josi - even preferring five F, Josi is putting up points like a forward. Wouldn't shock me if he got 55 next year and the six players you list got 54.
4. Ladd
5. Marleau
6. Ribeiro
7. Backes
8. Plekanec

[Dobber]

More of a overall question. Do you feel it's better for the fantasy championship rounds to be this week or the week before the final regular seasons week of games? Our league's championship goes this week but I don't think we'll see many of the stars (Ovi, Crosby, etc.) play much, if at all, on Saturday.

Yes, championship rounds should be second last week. Final week is not the same in the NHL when it comes to the six or seven top teams and how they play their players. Same with the tankers - they try out their prospects too much.

[Dobber]

9 Team Keeper League - 12F, 6D, 3G, 3 Bench (Keep 9, Bolded are planned keepers)
Daily starts, no position requirements
$250 Cap (0-9 +3; 10-19 +4; >20 +5 increase each season)
WW = 20

G, A, +/-, PPG, PPA, GWG, SHG, W, GAA, SV%, SO

F: Benn(18), Pavelski(9), Pacioretty(18), Oshie(4), Ribeiro(8), Wheeler(8), HSedin(12), Brouwer(20), Giroux(43), Perry(41), Toews(46), Vrbata(5), Dubinsky(20)

D: OEL(10), Yandle(10), Burns(5), Beauchemin(20), Shattenkirk(11), Russell(20)

G: Dubnyk(20), Holtby(13), Varlamov(20)

Bench: Talbot(20), Allen(12), Wideman(20)

+++++++++++++

Dobber, thanks for doing this mailbag, so nice of you.

Do you agree with my bolded keepers for next season? Are there any other F, D or G you think I should keep over someone bolded?

Actually, I would keep OEL and Yandle over Pacioretty and Ribeiro. Your D would be set at the draft, and you can focus on G and F

[Dobber]

Assuming that Ekblad doesn't reach 40pts this season (the cut-off to be considred a rookie in our league for defencemen), would he be a better keeper rookie than Granlund (C), Lindholm (C) or Toffoli (RW)?

For the league in my sig.

Yes. I always skew my keepers towards G first, then D, when choice is close

[Dobber]

How do you see M.Nieto next year and beyond? Will he be top-6 in SJ? What's his upside?

Do you think Semin can come back to some kind of form next year in CAR or anywhere else???

Thanks for doing this!

I think he may have high 60s upside, but I don't think he'll reach it. I don't consider him a top sixer right now. Could happen, but I'm not there yet with him.

Semin - I would bet against it. Probably good money against it, too. Somewhere else, maybe. He'd flourish in the KHL!

[Dobber]

1-Points only keeper league please rank: Bergeron, Pominville, Simmonds, Filppula, Vrbata, Stastny, Backes and Callahan.

2-What's your 3YP for Bjorkstrand (227th in your top 300)?

1. Pominville, Bergeron, Vrbata, Backes, Simmonds, Filpp, Cally
2. High 50s