Keeper Help - The Value of PIM & Hits

[prymetime]

Hey everyone, I'll try to offer some advice of my own in return for advice on my keeper situation.

My keeper league (H2H, stats) is deep in forwards (9 + 2 Util) and includes Hits as one of many stats beyond the standard set. I need to choose 3 keepers from:

Datsyuk
Spezza
Voracek
Stepan
Lucic

Datsyuk & Spezza seem like no-brainers. My problem is, do I go for Lucic to secure a strong number of hits & PIMs along with a solid points total? Or do I stick with the better scorers in Voracek or Stepan?

I know one manager plans to keep Clarkson & Ott. Backes is a keeper for another team. So I expect this type of player to be rare in the draft. There's a max number of 40 moves on the season, so streaming goons to fill these categories won't be an option.

My gut is telling me to keep Lucic but I'm not convinced!

Thanks in advance for any advice I can get.

[sasquatch]

Welcome to the boards,

Pretty much need more info, how many teams in league etc etc but out of those 5 guys i say go with your gut, Looch is a good player.... Cannot fathom why anyone would keep Ott, clarkson types, seems like a pretty bad strategy to me

[Mattp913]

What are all of the categories and how are they weighted?

[Shiva Blaster]

List all the cats and how they are weighted. I play in a keeper multi-cat league with hits , PIM, BS (team and league in sig), and I find that focussing on these areas gives a manager a huge advantage. Most managers will focus on pure offense, because offense is sexy, and go for the big name offensive starts instead of selecting the best players based on their league's categories.

Take a look at my team: I don't have any top tier offensive players, yet I comforatably finished first during the regular season last year and eventually brought home the title. I did this my focussing heavily on multi-cat players in my draft....check out the monthly-updates top 300 keeper rankings as they are a great guide for players you should target.

My strategy was to build my team around toughness/grit with offensive upside, and solid goaltending. As a result, I drafted (and will be keeping) guys like Backes, Brown, Callahan, Benn, Patches. All these players are gold in multi-cat leagues and pile up the hits, SOG, SHP with solid PIM numbers and good offensive upside. Early to mid rounds I focussed on loading up these multi-cat studs (which wasn't tough as most of these guys are hugely undervalued in a lot of league settings), later in the draft I focussed on defencemen who hit and block lots of shots with strong PIMs but also had offensive upside like Phaneuf, Carlson, Girardi, etc. Look at my team and how many of my players are their teams' captains....those are the kind of players I target.

A lot of people laughed at a lot of my picks, but I breezed through the regular season. Why? I dominated every grit category....I went undefeated in hits, and only lost BS and PIM once. That means that every week, I essentially had 3 categories won before the matchup even started....all I needed was decent goaltending and 1 or 2 offensinve categories and I was laughing! With Ward getting hurt, I didn't have very good goaltending after Lundy (Pavelec was my #2) and I still won. Having categories almost gauranteed is a HUGE advantage, and the best cats to so this with are the most predictable......offense comes and goes, but toughness and grit doesn't slump. Guys that hit and block shot and rack up PIMs will always do those things consistently, and in far greater abundance than players who do not.

When drafting and choosing between players , I will always opt for the player that has a little less offensive upside but had a strong multi-cat game across the categories. In multi-cat leagues, there are players that I will just flat out avoid as they are total duds and only provide offense. Guys like Patrick Cane, the Sedins, Eberle, Datyuk, etc. are all far less valuable in these formats because they dont hit or block shots, and get very few PIMS. If you avoid players like these and instead select players a step below them offensively, but with much friendlier multi-cat stat potential, you will be a distict advantage.

[Rad64]

100% agree with Shiva. I keep Lucic. I would keep Lucic over Spezza. if you value Spezza that highly....and your competitors also do, I would trade him. Spezza will likely need a full season (unlikely) and 90 points to match a 50 pt season from Lucic.

The monthly roto guide is a great start to find the true value of a player.