Patrick Kane or Kucherov

[TheMule_91]

The owner of Kucherov is in a top 3 position right now and I'm in 5th. With 1 IR slot and my current injuries I wouldn't make this offer until early December but I am thinking this could be an upgrade for me in the long run.

League is below, which is a H2H with playoffs beginning March 28th. Chicago plays 4-2-3 games over the 3 playoff weeks, Tampa Bay plays 3-4-3 games. Kind of want to ship Kane because of those 2 games in round 2, but is it a risk worth taking seeing Kucherov on LTIR a second season in a row? Or do I just keep Kane and play it safe?

[snipshow101]

You've pretty much summed up the arguments for each.

Kucherov - superior player, better playoff schedule, better team, currently injured, and injury-prone
Kane - lesser player, worse playoff schedule, worse team, currently healthy, less LTIR risk.

Typically in these scenarios, I would encourage the manager higher in the standings to be the one to target the superior injured player. If you've built up a lead in the standings, you can afford to weaken your team in the present to be stronger in the future. It's also a much better strategy in a league where there is more than one IR spot, as you'll be using yours on Eichel for the majority of the season, and then who knows who else will get injured this year (already benching Nurse/Barkov?). By the time your team is relatively healthy, Kucherov might be too, and you likely won't be getting a discount for trading for a healthy Kucherov

I'm a big fan of the whole "trade a good player for an injured better player" strategy, but you really are not in a good position to do that right now.

[TheMule_91]

Thanks for affirming my thoughts. You're right that I am benching/starting nurse and barkov and previously olofsson. Realistically I'm probably flirting with disaster by moving Kane for Kucherov right now. And like you said, if I wait a few weeks for my guys to return kucherovs value goes up. If it weren't for all these injuries I'd feel comfortable doing this.