Generic Strategy Q: At What Point Does Rolling 1 D short "hurt" you?

[Maverick060283]

This isn't a "banger league" and I've been using the extra d man spot to stream goalies and forwards.... based on this week really there are only three nights where I'd have a full roster (an open d slot). To put that in perspective last week I had none. By doing this it's allowed me to "catch up" in a lot of roto goalie cats. I was curious if anyone's done some analysis on this in the short term say over 4-5-6 weeks versus longer? In my league skater wise I'd be down to dropping Dadonov, or Forsberg who have been cold of late (an surely my wire would grab them) then after that it would be the likes of palmieri, or fiala/pavelski (both very successful recent wire adds). Tonight for instance I'm sitting Dadonov and Fors and was tempted at diving on d-man but said wait hold up! Just wondering other peoples thoughts/ experiences?

Cats:
G, A, +-, PIMs, PPP

[hockeyrobot]

I haven't been able to do extended research on it but I am not afraid to put myself a Dman down in order to get some extra forward games. But I tend to only do it for a few days or a week at most.

[Maverick060283]

I was thinking over 3-4-5 weeks the games likely start to catch up with you! I mean from maximizing roster perspective having top notch guys on the bench or sitting some cold ones isn't always bad. How about my roster analysis? Are they my first to go candidates? I'm also thinking I might have jumped too soon moving Halak on that bad outing, mind you I didn't see the Shesterkin injury coming and had Korpisalo come of IR at the same time so had to activate him. I was drawn to the allure of Blackwood's streak and his matchups this week are ripe (+ riding a hot hand). What two/ three bodies would you cut ties on first, assuming I move back for Halak and then add in a d-man... scouring my wire as we speak!

[hockeyrobot]

I would cut Korpisalo. Doubt you need 5 goalies in a 10 team league.

[Eskimo Brother]

I think this depends so much on the league depth and setup, the rest of your team, scheduling, and how the categories look in that moment, that it's too tough to quantify without a wild number of assumptions.

There are cases where I have done it, though I think I do it less than most.

[lucafen4]

in a 10tm league... you're giving up 30-40 ish games a year I would imagine. Depending on the D available on the wire. That's likely 20-25pts & 10+PPP that you've scrapped

To answer the question specifically. The fist game you run an empty D slot and bench a forward or goalie - you've hurt your team.

[stevegamer]

Depends on league format HEAVILY.

Weekly starts can be very bad, and very suddenly.

Daily starts are easier. If you have man game limits, you want to not end up short at the end of the year, but other than that, it's just timing. If you are getting forwards to play instead of the defenders, and you league is points or mostly points, generally it will be fine, as you're getting "skater" games. Benching for a goalie is harder to evaluate, since they generally contribute little to categories that skaters do, unless it's not a category league.