Need opinions for my 2017 offseason moves (LOADED team)

[spacecowboy]

Hey guys,

Need opinions on my offseason moves for the team in my signature.

Since it's a 12 team 10 keepers (120 total) league and I tanked hard last year (2015-2016) for that extremely valuable 2016 1st overall pick (picked Matthews by a hair after the World Cup), I got myself a nice problem on my hands where I am loaded with talent but I need to make key important offseason decisions and unfortunately sell players for pennies on the dollar before losing them for nothing in our 2017 draft. I was also lucky enough when I was tanking to add off waivers young goalies like Murray and Vas for free and they soon thereafter went off. My thought was that if they didn?t, I simply wasn?t going to protect them.

Thoughts?
(Here are mine)

Even though his owner views him as an untouchable and he turned down multiple very good trade proposals during the season, I?m thinking about aggressively pursuing Laine with an offer he couldn?t refuse like (Kuznetsov, MacKinnon + Nylander) proposal. I would then protect guys like Ehlers and Drouin to maximize wingers with my two open spots.

I LOVE my talented young trio of centers (McDavid, Eichel, Matthews) so I think the odd man out is Kuznetsov so I will be shopping him hard since he was only C eligible this year. Same reasoning applies to the disappointing Nate Mac (MacKinnon).

I LOVE having three solid goalies (Rask, Murray, Vas) since they are hard to come by in the redraft. I can then take a flyer on waivers for my 4th goalie without using any of my picks.

Unless I have a Karlsson type player, I?m not too keen on protecting a defenseman over these forwards unless that D-man was very young and uber-talented since I am allergic to older players as assets tend to depreciate after 30 years old.

Thanks!

[lucafen4]

Nylander & Hamilton for me. Hamilton is an emerging beast.. not EK level, but 2nd tier - Josi/Weber/Subban level. Nylander met the production of anyone else you're considering in his first full season with two rookies on his line all year.. not to mention his C is Matthews.

[hockeyrobot]

I would rank them as follows...

MacKinnon
Ehlers
Nylander
Drouin

I think Leafs will see a bit of regression next year given that they have so many rookies.

[spacecowboy]

Interesting.

I wish I could protect them all, but I can’t. To be honest, other than Eberle, Dougie was probably second to last in terms of the keepers I was considering protecting in that bubble group but he just gained points knowing you’re so high on him. Nylander though I’m highly considering instead of Drouin.

What’s 100% certain though is that all of these valuable guys in my bubble list that won’t make it will be traded for picks and not lost for nothing.

[hockeyrobot]

What’s 100% certain though is that all of these valuable guys in my bubble list that won’t make it will be traded for picks and not lost for nothing.

That is the smart way to do it. In that case, I would look to sell a bit high on Nylander and hope for a great pick in return.

[RizzeeDizzee]

I suggest you read my recent cage matches in order to show that Drouin is a non-keep and Hamilton is a keep, and that Kuz is someone to trade.

[Bass56]

MacKinnon and Ehlers for me

If you can package Kuznetsov and one of your other fringe keepers like Drouin for an upgrade, I would do it too.

[spacecowboy]

I suggest you read my recent cage matches in order to show that Drouin is a non-keep and Hamilton is a keep, and that Kuz is someone to trade.

Just read them. Thank you for the hint.

I guess who I protect will also depend on who isn't included in a package for a guy like Laine and what value I can get for a draft pick for each individual player.

[spacecowboy]

Considering my league settings are protect 10 keepers (any position) and I had 13-14 worthy players to protect, I ended up making a godfather offer for Laine and the other guy accepted.

I gave up: MacKinnon, Kuznetsov & Drouin
VS
I received: Laine + two jabronis that I won't protect.

I essentially had to do this because you don't want to lose your surplus for nothing. It was either I packaged many assets to get a super asset (which I did) or trade my surplus for draft picks while receiving pennies on the dollar.
Besides, Laine made sense since I already had McDavid, Eichel and Matthews as centers.

Thoughts?

[RizzeeDizzee]

As you said, it was get something or lose out completely. The only worry is if you gave the other guy assets that will help him more than you get helped by Laine, but in fantasy you have to think about your team first and foremost and I think you did just that. Gutsy but arguably smart move - I approve.