Attempt to make a "playoff team"

[razarr]

So my team hasn't panned out the way I hoped. It seems like almost everyone on my team is either underperforming this year or in a serious cold streak. It's a 12 person league, first is 11-5, I'm tied at 9-7 and in 6th, 8th place is 8-8. Top 8 make playoffs. Two guys at 7-9. So I'm definitely not secured a playoff spot yet. We have 4 more weeks, including this week, before playoffs start. My team has been horrible the last 3 out of 4 weeks so I'm leaning towards selling off any players that have a bad playoff schedule for good ones, even if it means taking a loss. I'm more concerned with the first two weeks of playoffs to make the finals then hope for the best.
The first week of playoffs is Mar 4-10 (ANA BOS CALG DET FLA LA PITT play 4 times, CHI NSH PHI SJ play twice), second week of playoffs is Mar 11-17 (ANA ARI BUFF CLB DAL EDM MIN NJ NYI NYR PHI PITT SJ play 4 times, LA VGS play 2 times).
Points league G-4, A-3, PPP-1, Hit/Block/Shot - 0.3 each, +/- 0.15, Win - 5, GA (-1.1), Save 0.27, 5 waiver pick ups a week

My team
C - E Staal, E Malkin, J Eichel, R Getzlaf
LW - C Keller, A Mantha, Jamie Benn, A Lee
RW - R Rakell, K Palmieri, J Pavelski,
D - T Krug, A Pietreangelo, Ghost, D Hamilton
IR - N Ehlers
G- J Gibson, S Bobrovsky, J Korpisalo (Streamer)

I'm leaning towards trading - player (current rank)
Eichel (27) for Kessel (32), a little worried about Kessels lack of 5 on 5 points compared to PPP
Pavelski (43) for Guentzel (42), Guentzel's s% is sort of high and Pavelski had a really good second half but SJ only playing 2 games in our first week kills his value for me
Benn (81) for Letang (31), I'm really hesistant on offering this since Benn was my first round pick but he's been soooo bad
Ghost (234) for a bag of pucks, likely be a toss in for a 2 for 1.

Whats your guys analysis on these trades? Would you propose any others? Is my logic behind blowing up my team irrational?

[Eskimo Brother]

In a one-year league you do what it takes to win. I like the Benn for Letang deal (but beware he may get rested before playoffs). The other two I like as well, but I think you're giving up the name value, so if you can make it a 2 for 2 where you get the better player in the second half of the deal too, that's how you really make out like a bandit in getting ready for playoffs.

Pietranelo only plays 3 times each of the first two weeks and hasn't done much all year. I would try shopping him around for a guy like Doughty, Weber, or even a guy like Petry.

[metaldude26]

I don't think your approach here is irrational but I would caution against going too deep into loading up on one team. Say you grab five Penguins, but only three can score on any single goal. If you're looking to optimize, you almost want to take the DFS approach and go with no more than three off a team, all with heavy exposure to one another. With Pittsburgh, lines are constantly shuffling, but you know the top PP is gonna be Malkin/Crosby/Hornqvist/Kessel/Letang, unless there are injuries. It could work to grab more Penguins, but you may limit your maximum potential going that route.

[jbrid867]

Say, you wouldn't happen to be a Penguins fan, would you?

I agree with the other poster, of the options the only one I'd really consider is Benn for Letang

[stevegamer]

That's likely loading up too much on Penguins, and some of the deals aren't great.

I love the Letang one. Improves your D, and allows you to shop a D for other help.

Gostisbehere likely has so little value, he's more useful to you than whomever you'd get for him.

[razarr]

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make any the deals listed yet even after tossing out what feels like 100s of offers. I did trade Drouin for Getzlaf right before the original post. I liked Anaheims play off schedule (4 games in each of the first 2 weeks of playoffs) but Drouin basically went on a tear and Getzlaf hasn't done much. Here's to hoping.
I'm still actively shopping Pavelski since he only plays 2 times in the first week of our playoffs. I'm not having much luck. I'm debating whether it's worth selling him for a lesser player. I think that Pavelski ranked currently at 33 in our league, has more value playing twice than someone around 50-75 that plays 3 times.
Anyone have any suggestions on who to try to sell him off for? The Kessel owner doesn't want to trade. Crosby owner said he's been waiting years to finally draft Crosby so he's untouchable. I'm entertaining the thought of trying for MacKinnon. He's currently ranked 4th but his owner is getting super frustrated. I'm going to definitely have to overpay. He said he would do Malkin straight up - not sure how I feel about that since Pitts has a deadly playoff schedule. I would prefer a 2 for 1 along the lines of Pavelski and maybe Benn (ranked 85) or Palmieri (ranked 44). Thoughts??

Thanks in advance!