Re: Who to Keep? Who to Trade?
If you're middle of the pack you need to decide whether you're pushing all-in or building for the future. You don't want your current stars to have aged out before your next generation are ready.
If you're going for it, obviously package your rookies (sell the hype of Caufield, but keep Kaprizov) to get veteran help, especially on defence. Your rookie D will be good, but it'll take Brannstrom, Seider, and Addison years to get the opportunity or be bonafide keepers.
If you're rebuilding, I'd sell Barzal and Wilson.
I think Barzal is a better player IRL than in fantasy, I'd look to dangle him to get a big upgrade on D. I just don't see how Barzal can do well in a Trotz system and who can they bring in that would help? Basically I'm not high on Islanders. As for Wilson, he's a multi-cat beast but the Caps are on their way down. Aging core and power forwards hit the wall around age 30. He'll be productive but I think if you sold now you'd get a ransom for him. Better to sell one year early than one year late.
I also think you can sneak Addison in as a redraft as he's not a big name. I'm big on Raymond and Newhook, so barring trades I'd swap out Addison and put in Raymond even though you're forward heavy. Depending on what goalies are available in the redraft I'd swap out Hart for Newhook too. Goalies are too inconsistent and Hart is young but hasn't differentiated himself from the pack of other goalies around the same age/ability e.g. Oettinger/Kahkonen, etc. (personal bias, I'm not a big fan of Hart). I'd rather load up on stars and then trade for need, rather than hold average players.
And yes, I like Valimaki but think he's a year or two away from being a keeper.
You could go either way (winning or rebuild), but we don't know your competition so you'll have to decide whether you think you can break through or not.
Good luck
Team 1:
J Hughes, Cooley (r), Bratt, Laine, M Tkachuk, Necas, A Svechnikov, S Jarvis, M Michkov (r), W Johnston, Zegras, Giroux, Norris, Couturier, B Jenner, T Krug, Burns, M Weegar, Werenski, Sergachev, B Clarke (r), Theodore, Sorokin , Oettinger, Askarov (r), Ersson
12 teams, No salary cap
Keep 14 plus 4 rookies (under 150 GP) max 18 players
Scoring: G (1), A (1), +/- (0.25), H (0.1), B(0.1), PIM (0.1), SOG (0.1), GWG (1), PPP (1), SHP (1),
Goalies: W (2), SO (3), GA (-0.5), OTL (1), SV (0.1)