Keeper Decisions

[Dingy]

I am in my first keeper league and doing alright. I currently sit tied for 4th but only 9 points out of 1st with a lot of ground to make up and a hot Duby to pin my hopes to. With our trade deadline past we are nearing the deadline to submit keeper picks for next years draft. We keep 9 with no positional restrictions. My team is in the signature with what I think are my current keepers in bold. However, I can't decide if I am making the right decision. I have it in basic tiers:

Definitely Keeping:
Toews
Perry
Pacioretty
Subban

Probably Should Keep
Kopitar
MacKinnon
Simmonds
Quick

And then that leaves me with one spot left:

No Idea Who to Pick from this Group
Dubnyk
Ekblad
Hedman
Palat
Brodie

I am unsure of how to generate the right mix of Forwards and Defense to have my core for next season or whether to keep the two tendys and hope Dubnyk's hot streak is for real. I would appreciate any and all help you could provide for a rookie!

Thanks

[anthonybeaty]

I keep MacKinnon - age and upside dictate that.

With no restrictions, my guess is that a lot of goalies will be kept. Given that it is your first year, you have to keep at least one goalie. I would also not want to only keep one - so I would add Dubnyk to the list of keepers.

Hedman has done in 48 games what Ekblad and Brodie have done in 64+ games. He also plays for a high powered offense and is still pretty young - so I definitely keep him too.

I drop Brodie because he appears to be a run of the mill defenseman compared to your other two in question.

So my definites are:

Toews
Perry
Pacioretty
Subban
MacKinnon
Quick
Dubnyk
Hedman

So now you have to choose the last one. It comes down to Kopitar or Ekblad and to a lesser degree Simmonds or Palat. I think Simmonds is going to max out at 65 pts in his best year. Kopitar could be close to a ppg player but he is also much older than the others. To me the choice comes down to Kopitar, Ekblad and Simmonds. I am not sure you could make a wrong choice. The conventional choice is to keep Kopitar. Offensive defensive are tough to come by and as such are a bit of a higher value than the rest. Ekblad is having a great first year as a defenseman. Defensemen generally take years to come around so is he only going to get better or has he somehow already reached his ceiling. I think it's the former so I might keep him too.

[RizzeeDizzee]

There will be a total of 108 players kept, so you have to avoid making too many "reach" keeps, as you can't count on restocking your roster via the draft.

First things first - you need a second keeper goalie, since they account for nearly 50% of your league stats. But as great a story as Dubnyk is, who's to say he'll continue next season? I think your best play was to deal Dubnyk for a more proven goalie to cross that item of your shopping list. But since your trade deadline has passed you have little choice but to keep him and hope. Let that be a lesson - buy low and SELL HIGH.

All that having been said, here's my thinking on your 9 keepers:

FORWARDS - Toews, Kopitar, Desharnais, Sutter, Perry, Pacioretty, Bailey, Simmonds, Palat, Brouwer, J.Staal, Niederreiter
DEFENSE - Subban, Hedman, Ekblad, Brodie
GOALIES - Quick, Dubnyk, Lehtonen
BENCH - MacKinnon (IR), Vermette, B. Richards, Versteeg, Del Zotto, H. Lindholm

Hedman is the toughest omission, but in a no position league where FOW is a category he doesn't have the peripherals to justify retaining. And Kopitar appears to be fading, to the point where I don't think he's a 70 point lock going forward. But you could make a case for Kopitar over Palat, since you're otherwise weak in FOW.

[potatoetree]

Toews
Perry
Pacioretty
Subban
Kopitar
MacKinnon
Simmonds
Quick
Dubnyk

To me this was between Hedman and Dubnyk. Unfortunate to drop Hedman but, in a keep 9 , 12 team league I feel you gotta prioritize elite forwards and goalies.

[anthonybeaty]

a no position league

I missed that part. Ooops.

[Dingy]

Thanks for the quick responses! I should have been clearer there are position restrictions (4C 8W 6D 2 goalies) as far as in season lineup goes but no position restriction on who you have to keep.

I for sure would have sold high on Dubnyk at deadline but being so close to top three and the payout I decided to hang onto him.

I definitely wanna prioritize forwards over D. This year our starting lineup had 4d but is moving up to 6 next year. That is the Main reason my gut feeling was to keep Ekblad or Hedman to pair with Subban.

Based on feed back Im leaning
Toews
Perry
Pacioretty
Subban
MacKinnon
Simmonds
Quick
Kopitar
And then try and decide between Elblad and Dubnyk or swing a predraft trade if possible to upgrade goalie

[audiopile]

12/6/2 seems D heavy. Your keepers should follow closely (6/2/1 rather than 6/1/2). I'd keep 2 D and try to grab a second G during the draft. My choice would be to keep Hedman over Dubby who is hot now but is a question mark for the future. Hopefully you get to keep a bigger bench next year, depth coverage is gonna be a real trick.

[islefan31]

Toews
Perry
Pacioretty
Subban
Kopitar
MacKinnon
Simmonds
Quick
Dubnyk

To me this was between Hedman and Dubnyk. Unfortunate to drop Hedman but, in a keep 9 , 12 team league I feel you gotta prioritize elite forwards and goalies.

This exactly where I was going to go....I'm leary about Dubnyk though and personally would feel better with Hedman, but with 12 teams getting a 2nd starter may be harder than a d-man....tough call. I'd probably go Hedman and hope to nab a #2 goalie with one of your 2 1st round picks.

[Dingy]

I am also weary about Dubnyk but am concerned about lack of trendies in the draft. I was leaning more toward Ekblad then Hedman myself but seems to be opposite consensus