Ideal Mix Of Keeper Positions - Opinions Wanted - REP Given!

[Rockies & Hockeys]

For the top team in my sig, I've been debating with myself this season about the ideal mix of keepers. The first few years of the league I was quite focused on having several D keepers (Karlsson & Klingberg/Krug/Rielly/Barrie/Letang, etc.), while most of the other teams in my league have usually zero or maybe just a single D keeper. Most teams also kept a goalie, while I never have.

Due to the frustrating level of unpredictability from high-ish end D from year to year (Gostisbehere, Barrie, Gustafsson, Rielly, Klingberg, etc.), I've started to focus on JUST keeping awesome forwards. I'm going to take Lafreniere in next year's draft, which is why I'm intentionally leaving myself with a weak keeper (probably Markstrom) that will be replaced next season. This will leave me with Eichel & Jack Hughes as centers, Gaudreau & Lafreniere as LW, and Kucherov & Marner as RW.

Overall looking at my league scoring system, positions, etc., do you think that keeping only forwards makes sense, or would I be smarter to push after a top D and maybe even a top G? Should overall position balance matter more, or am I smart to load up on elite forwards and take my chances with D and G? Thanks!

Not looking for voting to be based on my current team, as I can swap keepers if need be quite easily. Just looking for a more general answer about the best mix of keepers.

[LawMan]

I voted All Forwards, which most closely represents my complete answer of:

Keep the 5 best players who are consistently going to score the most points above a replacement Player. Because elite forwards are the most consistent year-to-year and goalies are voodoo and rely on team success only keep ELITE D-men or Goalies

In points only there are plenty of forwards you can expect to put up excellent production year in and year out, there are very few D-men I trust to do so and goalies are much, much harder to predict. Thus, I'm most inclined to keep forwards. There are a few D-men I would keep, maybe 5-10 depending on when you feel you'll compete and a very few goaltenders.

[stevegamer]

I agree with keeping elite skaters. If you had a keep elite skaters, I would've picked that, so I went depends on your roster.

I think the issue with keeping D in your format is you need high-end D, not high-ish end D, plus the league itself doesn't value them. That second part is key, because if you created a new league with different people, you might get different valuation takes. If your league heavily valued D, they'd be scarcer at the draft.

For example, I used to be in a NFL dynasty league, with individual defensive players (IDP). I was the only guy really valuing IDP at the draft table, so rounds 2-4 I'd load up on picks to take guys I wanted on that side of the ball. The commissioner had about 5 leagues with the same setup, and he once told me he decided to try that in another league, because I was the only guy doing it anywhere, and it was working to the point that I was a perennial playoff team in a league with just 4 in the playoffs, and won a couple titles.


If you made a move for a Carlson, Burns, Karlsson, Letang level D, that's be fine. Yandle as a weirdly reliable high-ish or better guy as a last keeper if you want. But it's all about how far you are ahead.