I have a bit of a dilemma

[Jorge]

Scenario: League has a requirement for a minimum of 2 goalie appearances per week and 1 goalie spot available per night. Cats are not a concern as I have had trouble meeting the 2 game minimum recently. My current goalies (DeSmith, Talbot, Elliot and Brossoit) do not have any B2B's this week so there is no requirement by the NHL team to rest the starter unless they want to. I should be ok by the end of the week but I'm pretty proactive and would rather reduce the possibility of not meeting the minimum, if I can. To do that my only hope is that a starter gets bombed and the back-up is forced into the game. The league is on Fantrax and utilizes IRR.

Note that this is only for tonights games as Elliot will be activated from my IR tomorrow morning if not for tonight.

- I currently have Elliot on IR and I have 48 hours to move him to my active roster. Earlier today, I returned Elliots IRR replacement to the farm in order to pick up a skater to fill in my roster. I have since found out that because Talbots Visa paperwork hasn't been completed, Elliot is now confirmed as the back-up to Hart for tonight.

- I also have DeSmith available as he will be backing up Murray.

Question is, which starter will most likely be replaced by the back-up?

My thoughts are:
a) Murray got bombed last game and DeSmith cleaned up for him in that one. Pit plays NJ tonight and NJ is 3-0 this season against Pit to date. NJ doesn't really score a lot in bunches (although they've scored 15 goals in 3 games against Pit) and even though NJ can win this game, I think it'll take 3 early 1st period goals or 5 before the 2nd intermission to get Murray out of there.

b) Hart's in tough against TB tonight even though Philly has been playing better of late. The problem here is I believe that Elliot is on the trade bolck and will get moved this week. Does Philly even want to take the chance of Elliot getting hurt before they can flog him, even though it may mean leaving Hart in the net to be abused by Kucherov, Stamkos and company? What is more important to Philly, the long term good for Hart (getting pulled) or the short importance of keeping Elliot healthy for the week. Philly didn't really have much choice but to insert Elliot s the back-up today.

And while writing this, it raised another question with regards to these players once the TDL has come and gone. What if Elliot can't be moved? Does Philly send Hart back to the AHL because he's the only one exempt and they ride Elliot/Talbot for the rest of the season? Or does Philly just put Elliot on waivers in order to keep the "dressing room"?

So who do you like tonight? DeSmith or Elliot?

[Eskimo Brother]

I think you're more likely to see Elliott because of Hart getting lit up, but I have a feeling that we see NJ beat PIT tonight. Additionally, Murray is a lot more prone to injury than anything we have seen from Hart to date. Bit of a coin flip.
I think I would put in Elliott. The other thing with shopping I'm is that PHI may want to get him into a game to show he's heathy.

[stevegamer]

I feel your pain regarding your goalie situation, I was there early on when Murray was out. I will primarily address the Philly situation, and I think I'd prefer to try Elliott for tonight to steal an appearance.

1. Cam Talbot's visa paperwork issue has reached the "What facts don't we have?" stage for me. There's an admittedly small chance there's something going on that means he's not going to get a visa or this will be a longer term issue. This is a guy who makes millions of dollars, and is Canadian. Visa issues don't normally occur for Canadians unless there's something else going on, and that's often true for millionaires as well. Unless it's a "The Flyers? They have tons of goalies!" visa issue. Talbot may actually be on some sort of reserve list right now, so that may help you activate Elliott now.

2. The Flyers wanted to send Elliott to the Oilers, apparently, but the Oilers were smart to get an actual possible asset to clear the cap space. He's available, but he's also likely to get a start in soon to show he's healthy. He makes far less than Talbot, so he would be easier to move. However, there's no guarantee they can move him quickly. the Flyers could've used mcKenna as the backup, but since Elliott is off IR there's no reason to do so.

3. There is a small chance Hart goes back to the AHL if they have all 3 and need the roster space due to crunch before the trade deadline, but I don't see it staying that way for a long time. Additionally, Neuvirth is very likely waiver fodder if he returns this season.

[Jorge]

Thanks for the input guys. I've decided that I'm going to bet on Murray getting hurt or having a poor enough performance that DeSmith comes in mid-game. I gain the skater man-game that I picked up today as well.

[Jorge]

Yeah sh*t, that figures. Hart didn't last 15 minutes. Go Devils, haha.

[Jorge]

And Elliot gets a quality start to boot. Sheesh.

Silver lining? Maybe someone noticed and they will trade for him this week. That, or Hart gets sent down to the AHL and I run with the Elliot/Talbot handcuff for the rest of the season. Either works for me.

[stevegamer]

And Elliot gets a quality start to boot. Sheesh.

Silver lining? Maybe someone noticed and they will trade for him this week. That, or Hart gets sent down to the AHL and I run with the Elliot/Talbot handcuff for the rest of the season. Either works for me.

Oh, Elliott will be a NHL goalie - don't worry about that. I'm officially worried about Talbot as a Flyers fan - this visa thing is not good.

[DusterDave]

Regardless if you are meeting minimum required goalie appearances, you aren’t going to win anything if those are the goalies you plan on going into the playoffs with.

[Jorge]

Regardless if you are meeting minimum required goalie appearances, you aren’t going to win anything if those are the goalies you plan on going into the playoffs with.

Fortunately for me, I'm a little more positive than that, lol. Granted it doesn't look good but I went into the season with Raanta and Talbot and felt pretty good about that until Raanta went on the shelf and Talbot pooped the bed. DeSmith and Brossoit are on my farm but circumstances allow me to move them in and out of my line-up. I've had to run with Talbot, DeSmith and Brossoit since Raanta went down and meeting the 2 game min was tough since the New Year due to the signing of Koskinen and Murray regaining his health. Enter Elliot.

Outside of a couple of injuries, my teams actually in pretty good shape. I lead 3 of 8 skater cats and am top 3 in another so I only need my goalies to win 2.5 of 4 cats to win the week. Something that is very doable. You should know that this is a 24 team league too so nobody is strong everywhere and I'm not sure (without looking) that any team has access to 5 goalies to draw from. I really just need the Jets (Hellebucyk) and Penguins (Murray) to rest their starters a bit down the stretch if possible (tough in PIT right now) and the Hart/Talbot/Elliot thing to sort itself out this week and I should be good to go.