Keeper Cap Issues (rate my roster)

[guyladouche]

Hey gang, long-time lurker - first time poster. I've seen a few really insightful posts here and thought I would register and see what you guys think. I think I've built a pretty good team here, but in my league the cap is pretty tight. I've made one off-season move (Coyle for Jones) and now I'm really doing my best not to tinker too much. 12 team keeper league with our salary cap at 75mm. Rosters are max 25, min 20 and we keep 18 players. As of right now I'm highlighting the players I'm planning on keeping in bold. Our new cats this year are : G, A, PIM, SOG, STP, Hit, Blk, Tk, FOW, W, SV, SV%. I made some offers around for Benn but I got such poor offers back that I figured he's better value if I keep him. Issue is this leaves me likely with less than 8m in space after Wennberg is sorted and which isn't much to draft 7 more players. In the past I preferred running with a bigger roster but it might just not be feasible this year. All comments and input appreciated.

player	salary
Benn, Jamie	9500000
Karlsson, Erik	6500000
Bergeron, Patrice	6875000
Wheeler, Blake	5600000
Staal, Eric	3500000
Kucherov, Nikita	4766666
Staal, Jordan	6000000
Marchessault, Jonathan	750000
Wennberg, Alexander	1400000
Lowry, Adam	1125000
Smith, Zack	3250000
Steen, Alexander	5750000
Johansson, Marcus	4583333
Engelland, Deryk	2000000
Letang, Kris	7250000
Beaulieu, Nathan	2400000
Hanifin, Noah	1775000
Lindell, Esa	2200000
Benn, Jordie	1100000
Andrighetto, Sven	1400000
Dotchin, Jake	616666
Bernier, Jonathan	2,750,000
Greiss, Thomas	3,333,333
Jones, Martin	3,000,000
Raanta, Antti	1,000,000

[PenguinHunter]

Welcome to the forums!!!

I wonder if there is someone else you can move.... I would suggest trying to move Letang and his cap size. If you could move his contract and his injury history that would be great. even if you move it for draft picks or young guys that are cheaper.

This would free up cap space to be closer to the maximum number of players rather than the minimum.

And if you do drop him that could mean you could keep Jordie Benn at his reduced salary and let him get you points from the peripherals.

[Eskimo Brother]

Welcome to the forums.

Offseason cap issues are never fun to deal with, but sometimes it just takes a little creativity. It doesn't surprise me that you didn't get much offered as a return for Benn. You could try targeting something like Johansen++ or Stamkos+ in order to keep the value and shed a touch of salary. There's no way to trade him without taking a big contract back anyways.

My best move here would be to shop Wennberg. He'll make in the 5M range, and if Staal was droppable at 6M, Wennberg isn't hugely far behind. He should have some real trade value right now compared to your other assets that are pricier towards the cap. Goalies and D look good, though Letang is tough to know what to do with.
He's worth his cap when healthy, but a headache the other half of the time. You won't get a decent offer for him at this point either. I would look into trading him in November if he's still healthy at that point.

[guyladouche]

thanks for the replies guys, on both fronts, i'm in sort of a wait and see with Letang, as I know that I'll get more in return if he's starting the season healthy rather than trying to trade him while he's been on IR since who knows when. The other reason is because last season I pretty much banked on his injury status to let me stream more notable players. since 7m is a lot to work with week-to-week.

@Eskimo Brother You don't think Wennberg playing on Panarin's wing is going to give him an even bigger season this year? I do like the idea of trying to target a different high salary player.

The biggest problem I'm having is literally everyone in the league has cap issues and no one is willing to take on cap.

[Eskimo Brother]

thanks for the replies guys, on both fronts, i'm in sort of a wait and see with Letang, as I know that I'll get more in return if he's starting the season healthy rather than trying to trade him while he's been on IR since who knows when. The other reason is because last season I pretty much banked on his injury status to let me stream more notable players. since 7m is a lot to work with week-to-week.

@Eskimo Brother You don't think Wennberg playing on Panarin's wing is going to give him an even bigger season this year? I do like the idea of trying to target a different high salary player.

The biggest problem I'm having is literally everyone in the league has cap issues and no one is willing to take on cap.

Completely fair. In that case just keep Benn.

I do think you can turn that Panarin card into a great return. Especially since someone may think Wennberg only gets 4M. Meanwhile he's probably looking for something similar to comparable Cs Zibanejad/T. Johnson. So yes I think it's at least worthwhile exploring trade options.

As long as you have a decent IR system I would have no problem keeping Letang.

[RizzeeDizzee]

You don't need both Steen and Staal. I'd try to package one of them with a good value player/salary to get one player in return who's in the $2-4M ballpark.

[guyladouche]

Completely fair. In that case just keep Benn.

I do think you can turn that Panarin card into a great return. Especially since someone may think Wennberg only gets 4M. Meanwhile he's probably looking for something similar to comparable Cs Zibanejad/T. Johnson. So yes I think it's at least worthwhile exploring trade options.

As long as you have a decent IR system I would have no problem keeping Letang.

thanks, now just to figure out who is interested

You don't need both Steen and Staal. I'd try to package one of them with a good value player/salary to get one player in return who's in the $2-4M ballpark.

I'm planning on dropping both Steen and Staal, sorry if my formatting didn't make that clear.

[tobias]

Beaulieu just signed for $2.4 million. Should that reflected in your roster listed above?

[guyladouche]

Beaulieu just signed for $2.4 million. Should that reflected in your roster listed above?

good catch. i calculated it in my math but my list wasn't updated

[RizzeeDizzee]

thanks, now just to figure out who is interested




I'm planning on dropping both Steen and Staal, sorry if my formatting didn't make that clear.

In that case, try to move Marchessault and a bloated salary for something halfway decent. Marchessault will be terrible in Vegas, but he has value in the eyes of most GMs due to what he did last season.

[Eskimo Brother]

In that case, try to move Marchessault and a bloated salary for something halfway decent. Marchessault will be terrible in Vegas, but he has value in the eyes of most GMs due to what he did last season.

Decent idea. He only has one year left though so if you can move it, great, however it's possible that the impending new contract scares some buyers off. Would have to be sold to a contender, and I assume they're all close to the cap.

[Moses]

I have Zack Smith in a similar cap league set up. I don't quite know what to do with him for next season. $3.25M is not "expensive" but I wonder (for my team at least) if addition by subtraction is the way to go.

"Can I squeeze better value out of that cap space?"

I'm not sure I have an answer yet.

[Eskimo Brother]

I have Zack Smith in a similar cap league set up. I don't quite know what to do with him for next season. $3.25M is not "expensive" but I wonder (for my team at least) if addition by subtraction is the way to go.

"Can I squeeze better value out of that cap space?"

I'm not sure I have an answer yet.

I would be seeing what I could get for Greiss before Smith at that same price. I don't have too much faith that he's actually a starter.

You are right though, the categories play to Smith's strengths, but he does seem replaceable for that salary.

[guyladouche]

I would be seeing what I could get for Greiss before Smith at that same price. I don't have too much faith that he's actually a starter.

You are right though, the categories play to Smith's strengths, but he does seem replaceable for that salary.

Pretty much this. Smith was my last keeper and I wasn't sure whether to hold on to him or not but I'll probably aim to draft a better player at his position/salary and return him to the waivers. If not, then I'll have to see where he fits in before the season starts but at his production/salary it's worth waiting it out. Similarly with Greiss as we get more information closer to the season I may have to move him for cap space, 2 starters is probably plenty.