Keepers: Confirmation or insight/opinions?! Will REP when possible.

[Chewbert]

Hello once again sports fans...

With contracts being finalized and the season soon upon us I need to lock my keepers in by Oct 1st for my salary cap league, $81,500,000 cap. I am wondering opinions on my current thoughts on who to keep, appreciate any and all opinions and advice.

My league keeps a max of 7 forwards, 3 defense, 1 goalie, and one flex (or any positional player). It is a salary cap points and +/- only league. We use capfriendly total salary.

Forwards (7+1 for 8):
Eichel $10,000,000 (I doubt he plays this year but also my team is young and probably a few years away from contending)
Marner $10,358,000
Kaprizov $5,000,000
Huberdeau $5,300,000
Garland $3,750,000
Farabee $925,000
Caufield $925,000
Byfield $925,000

Defense (3):
Chychrun $5,300,000
Dahlin $5,000,000
Morgan Rielly $5,000,000

Goalie (1):
Vanecek $750,000 (only goalie on my roster)

This would give me a total salary hit of $53,233,000 in keepers and leave me $28,267,000 for the draft. In the draft I would have to add 4 forwards, 3 defense, and have 4 bench spots to fill (bench spots are optional).

Other optional keepers are in my signature.

Thanks in advance for any confirmation or additional thoughts/insight!

[tweetdrivr]

This will help...

https://dobberhockey.com/2021/09/25/...eptember-2021/

[Chewbert]

This will help...

https://dobberhockey.com/2021/09/25/...eptember-2021/

Oh yeah been waiting for that and went through it multiple times. Love the capped articles and rankings!

[Bubba55]

I think your choices are fine. This is a team as you say that is a few years out from making a big splash. The only thing I can suggest is that you really need to do something about the goaltending, not sure why you only have one, but this is not the one you want, you have some work to do there (:

[mdratch]

I think your choices are fine. This is a team as you say that is a few years out from making a big splash. The only thing I can suggest is that you really need to do something about the goaltending, not sure why you only have one, but this is not the one you want, you have some work to do there (:

I agree with Bubba here, Vanacek is not worthy of a starting goaltender spot on a fantasy team.

[random-d]

I think I would drop Garland and keep Cozens or Wahlstrom.

I'm guessing you're aiming to draft goaltending? Because as others have said, the only thing Vanecek is likely to get you right now is a better draft pick.

[tobias]

I wouldn't keep Vanecek.

I want to keep Cozens, so instead of Garland.

I'm also not sure that I want to keep Dahlin in this setup. Buffalo is such a tire fire that you're going to be paying 5 > 5.8 > 7.2 million for a guy who might not even net you any points, or very few, once plus/minus is factored in (he lost you 13 points last year). I get that there is "nowhere to go but up", but I still don't see much value to him. 40 points with a -20 is only a net of 20, and not worth paying 5+ million for.

[Chewbert]

Bubba and Mrdratch: With it being a year long league and the only goalie stats counting are wins, OTL, and shutouts I ran 3 goalies last year including Desmith and Sorokin, I dropped them in order to grab Byfield and Caufield before the trade deadline. Always lots of goalies available and its a max of 82 starts for the goalie position and only start one. I have my eye on one in particular for this season and moving forward.

tobias: I really like Garland and want to give him a shot in Vancouver. Wahlstrom and Cozens are both players I really like. Dahlin I do really like as well but have been struggling with that... been torn on keeping Boqvist over him as he might be running top line this year and PP2. Dahlin was a midseason acquisition for me last season after my team had sunk down the leaderboard

[Chewbert]

I agree with Bubba here, Vanacek is not worthy of a starting goaltender spot on a fantasy team.

I just double checked and due to Samsonov's covid issues etc. Vanecek ended the season as T-8th ranked goalie in our points system and cost me next to nothing haha.

[mdratch]

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, he got a ton of starts last year with a super cheap contract. But over a full season I want a safer full time starter!

[Chewbert]

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, he got a ton of starts last year with a super cheap contract. But over a full season I want a safer full time starter!

I definitely agree with you, everything just worked out well for him last year. I can drop him during the draft if I want without taking cap penalty if I draft the other goalie I want or any combination of goalies. My plan is to probably keep him but as my 2nd goalie and run him for the odd start during good match ups.

I would love to say screw it and grab Vas but $11m with our points setup is definitely not worth it when you can get equal production from 2 cheap goalies lol.

[Pengwin7]

How does draft position work in this league?
There are two drafts with dynamic top end players coming up.
You want those guys (Shane Wright in 2022 draft, Connor Bedard in 2023 draft).
Keeping a no-stat guy like Eichel this year works great for that plan.
And keeping high-cost players like Marner & Kaprizov works great, as you will compliment them with your ELC kids like Caufield, Cozens.

I do wish you could keep Cozens... as he should get 40pts... and 40pts on a $0.925m is a great deal. (Obv, 4x $1m)


Can you do any trading before the keeper date?
Are draft picks in play?

[Chewbert]

How does draft position work in this league?
There are two drafts with dynamic top end players coming up.
You want those guys (Shane Wright in 2022 draft, Connor Bedard in 2023 draft).
Keeping a no-stat guy like Eichel this year works great for that plan.
And keeping high-cost players like Marner & Kaprizov works great, as you will compliment them with your ELC kids like Caufield, Cozens.

I do wish you could keep Cozens... as he should get 40pts... and 40pts on a $0.925m is a great deal. (Obv, 4x $1m)

Can you do any trading before the keeper date?
Are draft picks in play?

Pengwin7 love the insight! The bottom 3 teams have a lottery for draft order, then the rest fall in line. I will be drafting in the 5th spot, its a non-snake draft. Some teams do not even keep 12 players.
I have only been in the league 2 years and have yet to see a pick traded. Our draft was just moved up so now I need to lock my keepers in by tomorrow afternoon.
Drafting rookies is important to balance out the cap space but with only 12 keepers each year I am worried about getting stuck in a rebuild if that is continuously my focus over more proven players at discounted salaries.

I do really like Cozens but struggle with Buffalo as a team since +/- is weighted the same as points. It is also the reason I have been questioning keeping Dahlin, especially since his contract gets more expensive as the contract goes on. I believe Dahlin is special, as is Eichel. Eichel I am holding in hopes of a full recovery and a trade (as are all owners).

For a comparison last season Cozens 41 games, 13 points, minus 15. Wahlstrom 44 games, 21 points, plus 2.

With it only being a 10 team league, even though my team looks so young, I could draft to compete this year as there will be a lot of great players available (the top team's keepers are hard to beat but does have a few that are getting older: Bergeron, Marchand, P. Kane but could easily contend for top 3). This would require me to really go for salary value over name value. If I wanted to go this way it would take me letting Eichel and Dahlin go and keeping Adam Boqvist, who I feel in our points system will be similar to Dahlin but save $4m in cap space and then keeping Cozens or Wahlstrom. This alone would give me the cap opportunity to draft available players like J. Carlson, J. Gaudreau, even Tavares, or fill my goalie needs with someone like Binnington etc. Also, if looking at this strategy with all that is happening in Arizona it also brings Chychrun's value into question knowing they also will be hard to not have major +/- issues.

It's just hard to imagine letting go of two or three extremely talented players but all do have question marks surrounding them/their situation.


If you were in a similar position which way would you lean and why?