So what's my next move?

[Jorge]

Good day all. I've made a few moves over the course of this awfully long "off-season" and have gotten to a point where I don't really care to make anymore until a season starts. As you'll note from my team below, I'm currently holding six tenders. I recently dropped Peverly to pick up Khudobin to handcuff with Rask. This is a full keeper league btw. As our league is weighted towards goaltenders and I drafted 13th out of 14, I decided early that any ground that I've lost due to a lack of scoring will need to be made up on the back end. I intend to keep 5 goalies for at least this season and depending on what happens down the road, I may move to 4 keepers. As of right now, Rask and Ward are my 1-2 guys for this season. I also have Reimer (his #1 status will be determined by what happens with Luongo), Vokoun (could be a good back-up on a good team, with B2B games and especially if Fleury goes down again) and then two rookies, Khudobin (from what I've seen this season has been faltering a bit but with Rasks injury history...) and Lehner (has been lights out in the AHL and could steal the #1 in Ottawa this season or next).

Do you agree with my assessments above? As well, when I look to move a tender, which two would you suggest I get rid of at this time? And why? I will attempt to trade, but there's never any gaurantee there and may have to just suck it up and drop one. There are currently 7 franchises carrying 3 goalies and 2 carrying 2 goalies so there should be some trading partners out there, especially if any of them have poor starts.

I'm leaning towards holding off on any move until training camps end and the start of the 2nd week of the season as I'm hoping to contend but will need to add some scoring before we get too long into the season. Right now, the season's only going to be 9 weeks long so waiting much beyond the 2nd week to do anything could be damaging as I would expect most leagues to be quite tight races.

Thanks for your comments.

[Pengwin7]

I think your team is solid & will contend.
Looking at it again... I'd guess that you'll end up dropping Nikitin. While he may put up a few points on the CBJ PP, he doesn't rack up any PIM and will probably be a big MINUS on that awful CBJ team.

You are fine holding 6 goalies... knowing that you can win W & SV weekly just by quantity of goalies is excellent. When you get to the H2H playoffs, you can look a little more closely at scheduling (which you won't know until a schedule is released!!!) and then you may decide to just straight drop a few back-ups so that you can bolster your skater group.

I'd say hold pat for now... this will be a good team.

[Jason_Banks]

All your thinking above is great and on the $$$


For the future, I can see Reimer and Vokoun being the mover...

Reimer has hype and value but very little substance... he will hold value as a starter, but will always be a well below average one, and I feel is better suited to be a fun, laid back, backup at the NHL level... That said he is young and should be around for a while... If He starts in Toronto and gets hot, I'd sell high and get something more pure...

Vokoun, his age makes him unattractive to hold or as a trade chip... but as a backup he should post solid #s and if an injury falls on Fleury, Vokoun becomes a short term top 10 starter... He is more valuable to you for stability than he likely is as a trade asset... If your not in the hunt around your trade deadline, thats when I'd flip him for something else...

Khudobin is a bit of a questionmark in the future... With Svedberg and Subban coming through Boston system Khudobin is likely the one moving out... but it may be next year as he is a UFA or 2-3 years from now... That said he is talented and plays cheap enough I believe he will always have NHL teams looking for him to backup and at 26 he does have starter upside... He has twice been ready to jump to the KHL, was brought back and talked into staying to North America (last time I heard was a few million $$$, but Boston talked him into coming back to Providance as the 3rd stringer somehow)... Russian $$$ will always be there for Khudobin... (also take note I've heard he has been poor in the KHL this year but his SV% is in the .912 range... I'll take that .912 vs % even tho he is 6-14)