Draft Strategy for a rebuild

[Toews Took My Girl]

Hey All,

Prepping for my second season after joining as an expansion team in a long time Dynasty league. Our league is 12teams, points only and salary cap ($79.5).. our player salaries are quite different though as we have an auction draft every year. (Prospects draft before the NHL prospects draft, 3 Rounds, R1 picks 1-12 R2 13-24, R3 14-36) The minimum salary is $500k and the max is $15.9mil. All depends on the bidding wars at the auction. Keepers with a salary $500k+ increase by $500k every year until $2mil, every salary after $2mil is increased by 20%. Enough background info, now for the question..

After going through our keeper list there are A LOT of studs available at the auction this year... There are also A LOT of top prospects up for grabs...for example...

Studs available at auction: Crosby, Stamkos, Wheeler, Ovechkin, Giroux, Malkin, Kessel, Backstrom, Seguin, Hertl, Laine, Karlsson, Klingberg, Hart, Rask, Binnington

Prospects available at auction: Terry, Donato, Batherson, Hintz, Gusev, Tolvanen, Frost, Kaprizov, Heponiemi, Bransstrom, Fox, Hronek, Merzlikins

With ~$39.5mil left in Cap Space, trying to figure out if I target the studs to use as trade pieces (or keepers if the salary is prime) or load up on the prospects and stockpile Blue Chip recruits. Based on the salaries and rosters of the rest of my league I'm at least 2 years away if everything goes perfect to being in the money. Interested to hear what peoples strategies would be?

Edit: I'll need to draft 11 Players (2 Goalies, 4 D, 1 F, and 4 addtional players) for a legal roster.

THX

[mounD]

If you're a couple years out best case, I would be bidding on guys like Laine, Klingberg, and Hart from the above list. Maybe Binnington if it's a cheap gamble, but I doubt it would be.

As far as the prospects go I really like: Kaprizov, Hintz, Terry, Frost, Heponiemi, Brannstrom, Hronek, Fox and I'd take a cheap gamble on Elvis if possible.

[stevegamer]

In an auction setup like yours, I'd try and choose players to auction that are stars that I don't really want, but start them cheaply. Assuming that's allowed, that will leave you with a higher percentage of the money left at the table. I'd lean towards trying to get stars only if they are on decent value contracts. I'd expect that there will be star skaters in there every year.

Now for the core issue: you NEED a goalie. As in you don't have one. Hart, Binnington, Merzikilins would be the 3 I want from your list. Do whatever you can to not start those auctions early. You want 1-2 of those guys, but you don't want to go crazy for them. I'd also look heavily at timeshare goalies with paths to relevance. They should come cheaper, and you can do well with one of them as a cheap keeper.