Rate my team.

[coldsquad2002]

I know that I am light on offense and heavy on D and G.
Besides that, how does my team look?
See signature.
Thanks.

[Dobber]

Love it. Heavy on D and G is probably preferred. Would need to know how many teams in your league to say for sure, but nice mix of rookies and proven

[bondon]

How are the points structured? And is this a one-year or keeper league? Just wondering because you have Galchenyuk and I'm wondering if you're hoping that he plays in the big leagues this year or if it was posted in the wrong forum.

I really like your goaltending. Great trio to have.

[coldsquad2002]

Thanks guys. It means alot coming from two highly respected guys like you two.

One year H2H 10 team league.
Scoring stats
F/D: goals, assists, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, and SOG
G: wins, GAA, Saves, Save %, Shutouts.

Like I said, maybe light on offense. I figure by taking some high reward and high risk players I can drop or trade them if they do not pan out this season. The players taken in later rounds by other teams, I can easily get comps for in the free agent market.

[bondon]

With goaltending categories representing almost 40% if your categories, solid job going deep with goalies.

Your forwards are a little on the weaker side for a 10 team league but that was to be expected given your great depth at goalies and defense.

I would try to use some of your depth and strengths to address some high-end forwards if you can swing it.

[coldsquad2002]

That is what I was thinking. Thanks for the advice.

[kevinsrangers]

yup the goaltending is key and your lookin good there. should be a very competitive team.

[DerekReese]

I may be in the minority but I think you are going to struggle this year. You may win 4 out 5 of your goaltending cats every week but those 8 offensive cats are going to be really hard for you to win. Offense wins in H2H and you just dont have the fire power. I would try trading 2 of your dmen to get a couple of 70pt forwards.

[Pengwin7]

I may be in the minority but I think you are going to struggle this year. You may win 4 out 5 of your goaltending cats every week but those 8 offensive cats are going to be really hard for you to win. Offense wins in H2H and you just dont have the fire power. I would try trading 2 of your dmen to get a couple of 70pt forwards.

I think this is the best summary of the team to this point.

re: Forwards
Simply not strong enough. There's a big drop-off in talent after the top 4 (Tavares, Seguin, J.Thornton, Eriksson). I see this team struggling big time in G, GWG, SOG. You need to start 9F and you've got 4F that I'd identify as VERY GOOD or better. I've got serious doubts that J-Williams, Vrbata, and Ryder will come anywhere close to repeating their years.

re: Defensemen
Overstocked. And as Derek Reese says, hopefully you can trade these guys. You've got possibly 6D that I'd consider as VERY GOOD... but you've only got 4D spots to fill. So it's overkill. If you can move them, great - but as pure balance goes, should've gone after more forwards.

re: Goalies
A+. In most H2H leagues, I don't advocate going after so many solid goalies... but as soon as you throw in a category like SAVES, well, that's a category you can count on every week, so I like that you have 3 #1 workhorse goalies.

Overall, I think this is a 3rd-5th best team in a 10-team league. If you can move a couple D-men for upgrades at forwards (which you NEED to do, at some point), then you could flip this into a top 3 team.

[Dobber]

In a 10 team league (I looked everywhere for that information but didn't see it, as I noted in my first post - but looking now, a third time, I found it! lol) yes you're in trouble up front. Vrbata and Ryder are going to freefall and I wouldn't expect much from Galchenyuk in Year 1.
Tavares will be huge, I think people underestimate that, and with Green you will always have that massive upside. Versteeg is also going to be underrated, and Eriksson is steady. But you can't compete with the guys who have Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, or Stamkos because I'm sure the rest of their team has nice supplemental depth.

I would package Seguin and Marchand - you could make a killing off of those two. Then I would shop Thornton. The goal is to take those three players and turn them into four 72-point guys (or thereabouts).

Ryder and Vrbata are untradeable, so don't bother. It doesn't take a genius to know where they're going, and everyone is thinking the same thing.


Your team isn't that bad, as Reese opines. Winning 4 goalie cats and finishing 5th in 8 scoring cats is enough to get you in the Top 3.

[Hey Robbie]

yup the goaltending is key and you're lookin good there. should be a very competitive team.

I may be in the minority but I think you are going to struggle this year. You may win 4 out 5 of your goaltending cats every week but those 8 offensive cats are going to be really hard for you to win. Offense wins in H2H and you just dont have the fire power. I would try trading 2 of your dmen to get a couple of 70pt forwards.

This is a phenomenon which I find interesting, and which I feel I've been learning the hard way. I went into my first two seasons with the same thought that because the two goalies accounted for many cats while 10 skaters accounted for only a few more that emphasizing goalies was the key to success. I now agree more with DerekReese and Penguin that this isn't true.

The problem is that there seems to be more variance in the goalie stats, especially stats like W, GAA, SV%, and SO. I just tried to go into my league's stats from last season but apparently CBS does not have old weekly stats available. In any case, greater variance is what you'd expect if a stat is coming from far fewer players. All it takes is one of your two goalies to get shelled and two out of three cats (in my league's case) are gone regardless if your two goalies are superior to the other team's. With a bigger sample size the better goalies will likely come out ahead, but head to head isn't so much about the long term. A top goalie in save percentage will probably have fewer shellings than a meiocre one, but part of their elite status usually comes from the fact that the good weeks are much better than the good weeks of the weaker tender. But beating some teams by 50% while losing to others in other weeks by a few percent doesn't make a difference in H2H: a cat is a cat.

This is compounded by the fact that much of the season depends on the playoffs. You only need to do well enough to make the playoffs, and then you need some luck. Cats with more variance will depend more on that luck, so having stronger offensive cats would give you a better shot at #1 than being weaker at offense but stronger in net. Strength in net might give you a better shot at being in the top half of your league (but see above), but the difference between top three or four and winning it all is less likely to be due to strength in goal.

Another factor that has converted me to this way of thinking has been that goaltending is more amenable to grabbing a goalie off the wire (or having one from a late pick available) to ride a hot streak. One week of strong stats from a third tier goalie (and all that takes is an injury to the starter, a favorable schedule, a surge of confidence) can make him valuable, and you only need him to be valuable for a week. This is especially true with ratio cats, which can be fantastic even with only one or two starts.

I know many will object to this strategy, and I know there are prima facie arguments against it. However, after my (albeit limited) experience of the last few years, I will need convincing evidence to pull me back to the goalie-focus camp.

P.S. I think this would be a much stronger post with some data for me to lean on, and if anyone knows where I can get such I'll be happy to try to improve it.

[coldsquad2002]

Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.

Guess it gets back to my opening remarks. Light on offense and heavy on D and G.
Thing is I drafted 9th out of the 10 teams. Snake draft but by the time I drafted, the top offensive superstars were gone.

I figure I will hang onto my G due to the potential of injuries. Have to play 2 every week out of my 3 G.

I will likely try to package a good D and decent F for a top F. Likely need to add 2 more top F.
I will see how it goes.

[Pengwin7]

Have to play 2 every week out of my 3 G.

Oh darn... it's a "weekly start" league?
Ugh - your team isn't as strong as I thought then.
(Because a team with two #1 goalies could be just as strong as a team with three #1 goalies.)

You are going to have a lot of wasted defensive talent on your bench.

How many teams make the H2H playoffs in your league?