I built my team.... Now what?

[theslymonkey]

League and team details are in my signature.

So I have spent many hours trading/building my team with all the players I wanted. But I have created a problem, that I can't decide how to get out of. I need to keep 6 players, and I have 8-9 that are legitimate candidates.

The players that I consider to be keeper candidates are:
F- Giroux, Backstrom, Tavares, Kovalchuk, Getzlaf, E.Staal, Iginla
G- Price, Rask

Let me set some background so you know my situation.
- I usually dominate in most trades that I make, so most of the managers are hesitant to trade with me because I have built a reputation of always winning any trade.
- I have made a solid run at Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, Ovechkin, Lundy, and Quick. The owners have basically told me that they are not moving them regardless of the offer.
- I don't want to own a Sedin.
- Goalies are valuable in our league and all managers keep at least one goalie, if not two.
- I am a die hard Flames fan, but I am the only one in our pool. The rest of the managers are Flames haters, so I can usually draft my favorite Flames at a discount.
- I won the league two years ago, and was the runner up last year. I would like to keep winning for a while if possible.
- I really like Price, but don't want to overvalue him given our scoring counts just W's and SO's.
- Almost all teams have six players that they are happy with and are not too keen on trading a first or second round for one of my players. I think they're foolish, but whatever.
- My picks in the first two rounds are 5, 11, 12, 19.

The players that should be available at the draft are (not including who I drop):
F- Benn, Eriksson, Stastny, Ryan, Carter, Vanek, E.Kane, Sharp...
D- Yandle, Buff...
G- Smith, Hiller, Anderson, Pavelec, Backstrom, Lehtonen, Lindback, Varlamov...


So I have a couple questions that need to be answered:

1. Who are my six that I have to keep.

2. Other than the players listed above, are there players that I have missed that I should be targeting to improve my keepers?

3. Is it a foolish risk to keep all forwards and draft goalies while everyone else trys to pick up forwards in the first couple rounds?

4. Please hit me with any other advise that you think would be helpful for the rest of the off season.

Thanks for the Help. I'll give REP out like candy if I can ;-)


*****EDIT*****

Here is the league and the players that they have that are worth looking at.

Team 1:
Goalie: Bryz, Schneider, Hiller
Top players: H.Sedin(untouchable), Kopitar, Skinner, Semin, Lupul

Team 2:
Goalie: Ward
Top Players: Crosby(untouchable), Datsyuk, Spezza, Hall, Green, Vanek

Team 3:
Goalie: Halak
Top Players: Thornton, Marleau, Kesler, Richards, Letang

Team 4:
Goalie: Rinne, Neimi
Top Players: D.Sedin(untouchable), St Louis, Weber, Suter

Team 5:
Goalie: Brodeur
Top Players: Stamkos(untouchable), Gaborik, B.Richards, Hossa, Duchene

Team 6:
Goalie: Lundy, Quick
Top Players: Malkin, Seguin, Koivu, Heatley, Carter

Team 7:
Goalie: Luongo
Top Players: Parise, Perry, RNH, Kessel, Nash, Ryan

Team 8:
Goalie: Fleury, Smith
Top Players: Ovie, Toews, Eriksson, Neal, Benn, Doughty

Team 9:
Goalie: Miller, Howard
Top Players: Kane, Eberle, Zetterberg, Karlsson, Byfuglien, Yandle

The untouchables are because they have a huge man crush on the player, and won't trade the player for anything.

[rataylor22]

I'd look at exchanging Getzlaf or Staal for Price. Can't think of any other players to target, keep 6 is probably too shallow but maybe target like an oilers kid, Seguin, Parise, umm that's all that comes to mind.

[cpalermo84]

1-Given that you need to start 2 goalies, and what is available i think you should strongly consider keeping one of Rask or Price. The other players id keep would be Giroux,Tavares,Backstrom,Getzlaf,Staal.

2-Tough to say, without knowing the other teams rosters, your top 6 look solid. Like the previous reply suggest, you can take a gamble with one of the Oilers kids, Seguin,Toews,Neal,Perry, just to name a few.

3-Seeing as though you start 2 id try and keep 1, most of my leagues goalies are important.

4-I'd look into moving Kovalchuk, not 100% sure but i believe he will miss the start of the season. There also seems to be some quality forwards available ex:Ryan,Benn,Vanek,Eriksson. Have you thought of trying to aquire E.Karlsson? In a limited keeper a possible PPG defensemen can be huge.

[kevinsrangers]

some tough cuts here but id go with this.
F- Giroux, Backstrom, Tavares, Kovalchuk, Getzlaf,
G- Price,

if you want to gamble keep staal instead of a goalie. a fairly shallow league you may be able to draft goalies with your earliest picks.

[3rtpaper]

F- Giroux, Backstrom, Tavares, E. Staal, Getzlaf,
G- Rask - He will get you more wins than Price which means he is better in your format than Price.

All of these forwards are still relatively young.. as much as it pains me to keep Kovy of this list in a points based league he is having a lot of back problems which could be an issue going forward. Iginla is to old and should be easily redrafted.

If you can't make a 2 for 1 swap then this is who I would go with.

[jkspartan05]

With your scoring setup, holding onto one goalie should be a priority. Your goalies (Price, Rask and Kipper) are all in the 70-80 point range. Top goalies in your league score around 100. I wouldn't hold onto more than one goalie and stick with your PPG+ forwards to fill out your 6 keepers. Its a tough call as to who to keep out of those three goalies. Id probably go with Rask as he should get you the most wins.

[theslymonkey]

League Rosters added to the Initial Post

[IggyIggyIggy]

Good thing you took the time to show what the other teams' keepers would be like. You have to look to see who has the weakest keepers. Team 8 is insanely good IMO and probably won't get a deal done with you at all, your players don't improve their team at all. From this, I see team 9 being very defence heavy. You could try and pry Karlsson in a 2-for-1 if you want to target a D (depending on how valuable they are). Team 3 looks very weak, but has no upgrades for you. The only other players I would target is Seguin in team 6 as Carter/Koivu/Heatley aren't that strong of keepers. You could also target Skinner or Hall from their respective teams depending on how much you like their potential and youth, but you only posted 5 keepers for each of those teams so it would depend on what their 6th keeper is.

In summary, I'd target Seguin, Karlsson, Hall, and then Skinner, probably in that order.

Hope this helps!

[theslymonkey]

Good thing you took the time to show what the other teams' keepers would be like. You have to look to see who has the weakest keepers. Team 8 is insanely good IMO and probably won't get a deal done with you at all, your players don't improve their team at all. From this, I see team 9 being very defence heavy. You could try and pry Karlsson in a 2-for-1 if you want to target a D (depending on how valuable they are). Team 3 looks very weak, but has no upgrades for you. The only other players I would target is Seguin in team 6 as Carter/Koivu/Heatley aren't that strong of keepers. You could also target Skinner or Hall from their respective teams depending on how much you like their potential and youth, but you only posted 5 keepers for each of those teams so it would depend on what their 6th keeper is.

In summary, I'd target Seguin, Karlsson, Hall, and then Skinner, probably in that order.

Hope this helps!

I didn't post any more players for their teams, because the rest of the players are worthless.

[theslymonkey]

Thanks for the help. I Rep'd everyone, except KevinsRangers because it won't let me... You help out too much. But I do appreciate it.

If anyone else has other thoughts, I'd appreciate it.

[Pengwin7]

The players that I consider to be keeper candidates are:
F- Giroux, Backstrom, Tavares, Kovalchuk, Getzlaf, E.Staal, Iginla
G- Price, Rask

- Goalies are valuable in our league and all managers keep at least one goalie, if not two.

- I really like Price, but don't want to overvalue him given our scoring counts just W's and SO's.

- My picks in the first two rounds are 5, 11, 12, 19.

The players that should be available at the draft are (not including who I drop):
F- Benn, Eriksson, Stastny, Ryan, Carter, Vanek, E.Kane, Sharp...
D- Yandle, Buff...
G- Smith, Hiller, Anderson, Pavelec, Backstrom, Lehtonen, Lindback, Varlamov...

1. I would drop Price, Iginla, Getzlaf. People tend to overvalue goalies in Points-Only league. A 30W/4SO Price is worth 72pts... but a 72pt skater is also worth that much. Montreal is showing no signs of being a top team in a very, very competitive EASTERN conference. I'd let him go. Iginla is aging and you can get him back. Getzlaf had a big down year and you have to chance that you can get him back too likely.

2. I agree goalies are important, but knowing you can get one of Smith/Hiller/Anderson/Lehtonen/Price/Varlamov... that's not bad.

3. From there, I'd really target forwards since you have to fill 12 spots. Work towards your 9F (of 12), then switch gears to defense.


My 2 cents, good luck.

[theslymonkey]

Thought I would give this a bump given that there's no hockey and I am just looking over my league again, waiting until we can draft again.

Plus, Price just won the "4th best fantasy goalie" award, and I was initially going to drop him and hopefully pick him back up.

Any thoughts on where I sit and what I should plan on doing going forward.

[Shoeless]

Hey Sly, as far as keepers are concerned I think keeping Rask makes sense in a points league - Bruins are good to give him 35 wins at least and he is a SO type goalie so I would project him to be a fairly solid 85 pointer barring injury.

With only 6 keepers, Price isn't even a consideration - 2 years from now? yeah, maybe.

You have no D guys worth keeping so it comes down to forwards - Giroux, Backstrom and Tavares look to be automatics. I like Staal and would hang onto him - think the team changes bode well for his scoring.

Kovalchuk and Getz are both worthy of keeping - Iginla isn't - however since you only can keep one more, I would be looking to do a deal that might bring you a slightly better player and a draft pick in the first 3 or 4 rounds.

Here are a couple of offers I would consider making:

Getzlaf, Kovalchuk and a 9th for Schneider and a 3rd

Price, Getzlaf, Kovalchuk for Karlsson, Howard (dropping) and a 3rd

[DerekReese]

I would keep:
F- Giroux, Backstrom, Tavares, Kovalchuk, E.Staal
G- Rask

[bizzl]

For me the keepers are Giroux, Backstrom, Tavares, Kovalchuk, E. Staal, and Rask. The first 3 are gimmes, and I think Kovalchuk is going to be fine without Parise. He was great for years in Atlanta without much help, and he's been tearing up the KHL this season. The changes that Carolina made can only be good for Staal, and Rask is being hailed as the second coming.

If you're really sold on not keeping any goalies then why don't you try to move them? Team #5 in particular looks like it could use some help in net. Even with a weakened system in Montreal I'd much rather have Price than Brodeur, and in 2 years Montreal could be back in contention whereas Brodeur will have retired. You might even be able to pull it off by offering Kiprusoff, but even better would be if you could move Rask. Surely there would be a market for a guy like that. If you could swing something like Price for Brodeur and a decent pick, or even Price and a pick for Brodeur and a pick upgrade, I'd say it's worth it. You could target team #7 and Luongo with the same sort of thinking, but I'd expect it to be much less successful. In any case, it would be something I would explore.

The problem, for me, with moving/not keeping Price and/or Rask is that neither Iginla nor Getzlaf is an upgrade on them in this format. You mentioned being the only Flames fan in the league which to me means that you'd be able to redraft Iginla without much issue, because the other managers will see a 35 year old, 67 point player. Getzlaf had a terrible year which means he will fall farther than he should. I would be pretty surprised to see either of them go before Price or Rask if they were all available in the draft.

By all accounts you've got the best 6 keepers, top to bottom, in the whole league regardless of who you end up keeping.

You mentioned that you came in 2nd last year. Who came in 1st? Was it team #6?