The Crosby Conundrum

[Michael Amato]

If you haven't already completed your fantasy draft for this season chances are it will be coming up quickly. For your standard weekly head to head or rotisserie leagues that start from scratch each season, the interesting question will be what to do about Sidney Crosby? Everyone knows when healthy Crosby is the premier talent in the NHL, but with such uncertainty swirling around his concussion issues it presents a real problem.

Fantasy football participants just went through a similar situation with Peyton Manning. Although the two sports are completely different, going into drafts Manning presented the same questions as Crosby now does. Both players are arguably the best in their sport, both have an injury where there is a level of concern on when they will return, and both present a high risk/high reward scenario for fantasy owners. Despite reports earlier this week that there is a good chance Manning will miss the entire season or at the very least return in December when many football leagues are wrapping up anyway, according to Yahoo Sports he is still owned in 47% of their leagues.

The major problem when players like Manning or Crosby go into the season with injuries is they have such high-end skill, it is hard to not take them or at least consider all possible scenarios. Normally Crosby would go right at the top of drafts but this year he figures to slip a bit. The intriguing thing is if you decide to take him, how long can you wait in the draft before someone else scoops him up. Of course you could always ignore him entirely, but then that is almost as big of a risk as not taking him.

One option would be to take Crosby hopefully after the first couple of rounds and place him on IR if he is still injured. Then grab someone off waivers to fill the void. If he becomes healthy then just simply drop someone and activate Crosby. The problem here is I can't see Crosby slipping past the third round in most drafts. Meaning should he be injured and miss substantial time, the player filling in off of waivers will be no where near the caliber of a pick in the first few rounds.

Another scenario would be to draft him high and use him as trade bait in your league. This way you may be able to score two or three quality players out of the deal and dump the risk on someone else. If someone in your league is a big Penguin fan or you notice someone in your league has always gone after Crosby in past drafts, then you may be able to convince them to take a chance. As of now he is owned in 97% of Yahoo leagues so it is not like there is no demand.

Lastly, you could just decide to keep him and hope for the best. In just half a season last year Crosby finished 32nd in league scoring with 66 points. Ahead of guys like Ilya Kovalchuk, Jeff Skinner, and Dany Heatley, who all played full seasons. Even if he misses significant time there is still a great chance you are getting a 60 or 70 point player.

What ever happens with Crosby he will no doubt affect the draft strategy of most fantasy owners because how typically high he is taken. If this was a player lower down the rankings it would be much easy to substitute someone else in his place. Of course there is always the chance someone takes him before you even get to draft. If he does come into play just make sure to consider all the angles before making a decision.

[Ross The Boss Palmer]

I have a feeling that Crosby will ruin a ton of leagues this league, because of people who drafted him late or bought/sold low. If he comes back and plays 70+ games, those leagues could end up being pretty lopsided.


Great job Michael!

[suvojitde]

Well said Mike!

If he plays close to 70 games (hell even if he plays 60!) and with the early glimpse of Gino, the Penguins will be dynamite and a nightmare for opponents.

I would risk taking him in Round 2 and not wait till Round 3 in my 1 hr Pts only league (Elite G in R1 unless I get to pick 1 - 3). For my H2H leagues too, I would go Round 2 unless I have 1 of the 1st 2 picks in R3

[mister_mcgoo]

in H2H he's a great risk...even if he sits on your bench for the first 2 months and your team suffers for it, if he comes back at that point and plays the way we've come to know and love you will finish the season on a high and have an ace in the hole