2018/19 Rocky Horror Roto Show

[4T2]

Big trade:

Sean Couturier Phi - C
Victor Hedman TB - D
Miro Heiskanen Dal - D
Traded to Train to Subban

Jonathan Drouin Mon - C,LW
Aaron Ekblad Fla - D
John Klingberg Dal - D IR
Nico Hischier NJ - C
Traded to Kreidle Hands

Hate to give up the best player in the deal but needed to shake things up a bit. I may be on pace for one of the worst offensive stat seasons in league history. With Klingberg returning, I'm expecting Heiskanen to see a dip in offensive production too. Doesn't hurt that I'm landing a couple of former Halifax Mooseheads in Drouin and Hischier!

[Pengwin7]

I'll have to give an edge to ToS on this one.
I absolutely can't stand Ekblad in multi-cat fantasy, perhaps the most overrated player (due to his youth, #1 overall pick status, & salary).
Just no Hits/Block/PIM and that PP1 is all Yandle's these days.

I straight dropped him from keeper status in one league I joined this year... and don't miss him.
Drouin is OK but he no longer takes FOW from the wing.

Klingberg is the big gem for KH... we'll see how he is when he comes back.

[4T2]

I'll have to give an edge to ToS on this one.
I absolutely can't stand Ekblad in multi-cat fantasy, perhaps the most overrated player (due to his youth, #1 overall pick status, & salary).
Just no Hits/Block/PIM and that PP1 is all Yandle's these days.

I straight dropped him from keeper status in one league I joined this year... and don't miss him.
Drouin is OK but he no longer takes FOW from the wing.

Klingberg is the big gem for KH... we'll see how he is when he comes back.

Yeah, I'm a little nervous on Klingberg due to his hand injury but I've always been a fan of his and my offense needed the boost. Drouin fills the cats that I have the best chance to make up ground in. Ekblad was more of a throw in to replace Heiskanen as I didn't want 4 Dallas Dmen on my roster. And he's an upgrade to the bottom 3 D I've been rolling in Goligoski/Butcher/Heiskanen (yuck!)

Honestly I think Train to Subban has the edge here too, but I'm hoping this ends up being a win/win for both of us and helps me crawl out of the bottom tier of the league

[Pengwin7]

I give him credit, he's really good at the whole "Buy Low" / "Sell High" of one-year leagues.
Hedman is an incredible "Buy Low" here... as is Couturier, IMO.

[YzermansLegacy]

Hate to give up the best player in the deal but needed to shake things up a bit. I may be on pace for one of the worst offensive stat seasons in league history. With Klingberg returning, I'm expecting Heiskanen to see a dip in offensive production too. Doesn't hurt that I'm landing a couple of former Halifax Mooseheads in Drouin and Hischier!

We both needed to shake things up a bit as the leaders this year have just been dominant so far.

Only shot I have this year is to take a couple of big swings and hope I catch some positive regression with one of them. (Got burned trying to do that with J.Carlson last year, assuming he'd slow down). Even then, it's not very likely I can make up the difference.

But what's the point of playing in a one-year if you can't have some fun swinging a deal or two?

KH is always one of the best for just chatting trade and throwing ideas back and forth. This one actually began with me trying to grab Laine from him about a month+ ago, and despite nothing getting done there, it set the stage for something this time around!

Time to put the roster on auto-pilot over the holidays and dig in to some WJC goodness!

[horrorfan]

Rank Team Points
1 The Devil's Rejects 134
2 The Kings in Yellow 131
3 Natural Born Quiller 125
4 Closer to Gaudreau 117
5 Evgeni Dreadful 109.5
6 Drag Me to Hall 106
7 Train to Subban 104.5
8 Han's Labyrinth 91
9 The Hellbound Hart 85
10 Kreidle Hands 77.5
11 Curse of Tyler Myers 74.5
12 Maaaaaa-chete 66.5
13 Lil Propp of Horrors 52.5

[horrorfan]

Trade:

Tyler Seguin Dal - C
Ryan Johansen Nsh - C
Traded to Train to Subban

Nicklas Backstrom Was - C
Morgan Rielly Tor - D
Traded to Natural Born Quiller

[YzermansLegacy]

Although we made this deal before Jim Lites went off on Seguin/Benn, am hopeful for a solid 2nd half with the gauntlet being thrown down.

Both Rielly (obv) and Backs have been killer for me this year - so really tough to move them. But if I'd been offered this 3 months ago, I'd have accepted without hesitation.

Also with Comish losing Dumba, thought I might have a window to grab Seguin (for Rielly), who I think is due for a bit of a bump in production. Same with RyJo once FF, Arvy & PK are back and rolling.

A cat-based move for me, wanting to find more SOG (and ideally G). Hopefully have enough depth to compensate the A/PP I'm losing with those two.

Always fun trying to keep pace with the GMs in this league!

[horrorfan]

Trade:

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Edm - C,LW
Ian Cole Col - D
Traded to Lil Propp of Horrors

Torey Krug Bos - D
Traded to The Devil's Rejects

[horrorfan]

Trade:

Jamie Benn Dal - C,LW
Traded to Kreidle Hands

Ryan O'Reilly StL - C
Traded to Drag Me to Hall

[Pengwin7]

Well... Evgeni Dreadful has somehow climbed to a season high 2nd place in this league.
So - I thought I'd rejuv the thread with a little HALFWAY POINT team review.

My pre-season STRATEGY:

This season, I get to re-think about past successes and past failures and settle on (what will hopefully be) a better strategy:
1. Take the damn BPA. Take sure-fire high-scorers if they are there. Let's try to roster the highest end "skater point" team. Get 12-uber slick forwards, no more are needed.
2. Get PIM built in. Last year was the last year for fight-prediction. It's done. Micheal Haley & Antoine Roussel don't have jobs this year. If your main players aren't getting normal PIM, forget about finding them.
3. Goalies. Always key. I'm going after "WINS" only. Carolina goalie(s) as value draft and draft a shit-ton of back-ups for match-ups: 6 to 7.

1. This went pretty well. My combination of Drew Doughty (round 3) and Anze Kopitar (round 5) have been disappointing. If I had drafted a goalie in Round 3 (Gibson, Rinne, Rask went next), I'm in first... but that's not my MO. But that's really my only draft-glaring mistake - and my in-season add/drops have been great. My BPAs were really pretty well working out as the guys that were close to the BPA at those spots, so overall did that pretty well.
2. Nailed this one. Haley has less than 20PIM and Roussel (who I rostered for a good 40-50 PIM early) has really cooled off. *There's a sweet spot to getting spot-PIM, it's an art form. I shall not yet share.
3. Well, I thought FLA & CAR would be value "win" teams this year, but that has been wrong. Both teams aren't winning and my team win-rate (34/89 = 38%) is worst in league. I mean, the worst two clubs in hockey, OTT & NJ, have 33w in 88gp... so maybe I'm simply exactly where I should be... though I'd hoped to be better.

Worst Picks:

3-30: Drew Doughty. RHRS has always been a 12-team league, so when the league expanded to 13-teams I very much expected this keen GM group to realize goalie scarcity would rise and make goalies fly in rounds 2-3. Yup, they would go flying. I like to have one rock on D and Doughty has been a 30-50 performer last three seasons. I'll take that. I'm trying to not blow a skater pick and had him as top D after the big four. (Stamkos-M.Jones-Matthews-Doughty-Gibson-Rinne-Rask)

...

5-56: Anze Kopitar. Besides having last year's #1 (Malkin) and #2 (Crosby) fantasy players, I was able to add the #7 player (Kopitar). Not sure why he was left on the board so long. This year he gets Kovalchuk added to his line. (Raanta, March, Panarin, Kopitar, Scheifele, Kessel, Price)

...

12-153: Ryan Pulock. Pulock is the next young up & comer in multi-cat D. He's pegged at Yahoo! 206 or so... and seemed this was right zone to reach for him. (Kreider-Ziba-RNH-Pulock-Serg-Dadonov-Kadri)

LA has had a rocky start. Kopitar (& LA & Dughty) really missed Dustin Brown to start the season.
They've started to turn it around... but Doughty, man, his stats have never been this bad.
-14 right now. He has only had one minus season since his rookie year... he's been averaging +10 the last six.
If only I had gone with a goalie...



Kopitar has started to turn it around - he was outside the Yahoo! top 100 for first 30gp, but is inside top 90 now.
Pulock has been "meh", it's Leddy's team. I've borderline dropped Pulock several times, but he's barely still better than the wire.


Best Picks:

6-75: Mitchell Marner. I usually try to stray from non-hitting wingers... but the upside in Marner winging next to any-center in Toronto is huge. Plus PP1 time, plus PLUSES! (ROR-Carlson-Hamilton-Marner-Ehlers-Carter-M.Tkachuk)

10-127: Kyle Palmieri. Again, nothing sexy. Across-the-board stats, PP1 and line1 player. (Varly-JVR-Hubs-Palmieri-Toews-Suter-Shatty)

11-134: Tomas Hertl. I didn't have many players on my "must draft" list, but Hertl - who takes the lion's share of SJ line2 faceoffs - was one. He's ready to pop and showed it in last year's playoffs. With C/LW/RW, it's also FOW from wing - something I usually over-focus on, but 2-3 are needed for top FOW finish, and he's my only wing FOW-guy. (Saros-Muzzin-Connor-Hertl-Ekblad-Point-Nylander). *If I'm not sitting at 4C, Brayden Point is a beauty pick here.

My D would be completely filled out with solid peripheral guys... looking for PLUS guys and laying off massive MINUS guys on teams like MON, OTT, BUF, CHI, NJ, etc:
rd19 Mattias Ekholm. NAS, pluses, spot PP, solid.

Not mentioned is Evander Kane - my 4th round pick that I self doubted... whose PIM/SOG have been excellent. I don't even have to worry about those - and justifies my strategy note #2.
Man, I knew Marner was good and that his wing spot in TOR would be a lock-good... but I didn't honestly know he'd be THIS good. I never draft non-hitting wingers, but man am I glad my gut told me to take Marner.
Hertl has caught fire lately and 298fow is really critical because I just haven't been able to find spot wing-FOW (except from a stretch from Luke Glendening) this year. It will be a key-cat down the stretch.
Mattias Ekholm is tearing it up over the last month. Wow. He was the definition of solid with limited upside when I took him.. but, good golly - there's UPSIDE!!!

Take a bow boys.

And hopefully win% value-drafted goalies. (Hoping for 164 starts as: Mrazek-50, Reimer-35, Dell-30, R.Miller-25, Bernier-20, Hart-10)

In projections, I'd imagine/hope this is a top 3 skater unit and a bottom 2 goalie unit.
The RHRS has gotten REALLY competitive over last few years with better & keener GMs.
So, if I can rake 80%-85% of 10-skater cats and take 40% of 4-goalie cats, that'll put me in the 3rd-5th range.

With goalies, its been a bit unfortunate that Curtis McElhinney stole some CAR time. He's been good.
Carolina is still a team I really like, they are WAY better than their record - I wish Mrazek's #1 status would be more solid.
I was glad that I didn't consider Darling seriously.

Shoulda held/grabbed Carter Hart when Hextall was fired. Kudos to LOTR for doing that.

Overall - my strategy/planning is an A+.
My team is pacing as about 3rd place right now.
Personally, I think Kings in Yellow (LOTR's team) is strongest, but the Andersen injury hurts.
And I think Train of Subban (Quentin, the defending champ) is right there. He's made solid trades, he's trending up, and about to pass me in a few cats.
That should settle me in at 4th, with exactly that "top three skaters" & "bottom three goalies" that I projected.

Lots of season left still...

[horrorfan]

Nice review, Peng!

Which leads me into a recent trade involving him:

Jonathan Toews Chi - C
Traded to Evgeni Dreadful

Mathew Barzal NYI - C
Traded to Curse of Tyler Myers

[horrorfan]

Rank Team Points
1 The Kings in Yellow 140
2 The Devil's Rejects 123
3 Evgeni Dreadful 121
4 Train to Subban 118
5 Natural Born Quiller 115.5
6 Drag Me to Hall 108
7 Closer to Gaudreau 95.5
8 Han's Labyrinth 95
9 The Hellbound Hart 94
10 Kreidle Hands 77
11 Curse of Tyler Myers 69.5
12 Maaaaaa-chete 68
13 Lil Propp of Horrors 49.5

[Pengwin7]

^KiY (LOTR) is on FIRE!
I gotta re-strat my team (Evgeni Dreadful) again to go full bore on cat-chasing him... mostly point-heavy.

[If I don't catch him... I can live with it... 'cause I'm laying the smackdown on him in his Iron League!]

[horrorfan]

My team just doesn't have the firepower to compete with those at the top, given injuries, underperformers and a lack of major breakouts. Will try to gain ground little by little to hopefully have a better final 2+ months.