Keep 1: Konecny or Boldy or Hagel

[gcefaloni]

Given that you're competing every year, and can walk to a division title, it's all bout the future. However, I care most about the near future when I know what the cap hit looks like, and roughly what the production should be.

I'd consider Crosby vs Eichel vs. Barkov vs Gaudreau as a keep 3 maximum, and I don't think I'd be keeping Gaudreau. I might only keep 2, as if you have more cap room than other people to use, you can get more expensive players in those rounds, essentially giving you more draft capital in a way. Therefore, I'd try to find room for Boldy, Hagel, and Konecny here.

I'd keep:
0.88M Matthew Boldy
1.50M Brandon Hagel
5.50M Travis Konecny
4.85M Elias Lindholm
6.00M Rasmus Dahlin
6.17M Connor Hellebuyck
and one of your expensive guys, knowing that replacing the expensive guy with Hagel means that you can just draft an expensive guy at the draft.

That would run roughly $35M for your top 7, which gives you roughly $29M for the next 6.

Thanks for that comment. For Gaudreau vs Eichel, I was going with the fact that Dobber's own "Cap league rankings" had Gaudreau at #35 with his 9.75Mx7 contract vs Eichel that doesn't even make the top 200, albeit being younger. Eichel is also EXTREMELY injury prone it feels like. But I do like Eichel a lot too, it will be rough for me to let go of him if that's where I end up going.

Rank Name Age Pos Cap Hit Yrs Rating Prev Rank
35 Johnny Gaudreau 29 F $9,750,000 7 225.65 30

All looks good. I would rather two of Konecny/Boldy/Hagel next year over Gaudreau at his increased number. That is unless Bedard lands in CLB. Assuming you can wait until after the draft to finalize your keepers?

Yea, I've been trying to find the sweet spot between trying to maximize the amount of sheers points I get from the players in my top7 year in year out because it's nearly impossible to acquire these superstars once they do well in other teams' rosters.

I always try to think of the magic number of attaining 10pts/million of cap hit on average when I draft but I usually am willing to go a bit lower for superstar players because it's very important to have a few players that can get you 85-90+ points to win a league. That being said, I need to make sure not to choke myself for the rest of the draft.

I often managed in the past to find cheaper (or younger with improved spots on a team's roster during preseason) players that would cost 2-5M$ and make 45-50+ points. Hagel and Konecny were 2 examples of that this year. I'm always afraid that if I take too many "value" players over superstars in my top7, a couple years down the line when these value players resign at higher values but aren't "80-90+" type players, that I won't be as competitive then.

That's why I was thinking of keeping the Crosby, Gaudreau, Barkov, Lindholm, Dahlin, Hellebuyck, Boldy lineup.. but there are still some tough questions in there.

Amongst the superstars, I agree with SteveGamer's statement, max 3
Crosby: 1.5ppg player that's getting older but he's a stud and doesn't look like he's slowing down yet
Eichel: I always felt like he had the talent to be 100+ player but never materialized yet cuz of injuries, 10M+ is rough to swallow for 60games played
Gaudreau: Showed he could do 100+ points with CGY, signed long term and the Team caps are going up significantly in 2024.
Barkov: He's a lock in my top7 in my mind, young stud for years to come.

Pick 3. Eichel vs Gaudreau is tough for me.

Amongst the value youngsters
Hagel:: cheap for 2 years, not sure of points upside
Konecny:: higher upside, signed for 3 years at 5.5M
Boldy:: very cheap next year at 881k, signed for 7Mx7 which will be cheap if he can become that 70-80pt player, but I have no idea if he can without being on Kaprizov line.

Pick 1 or 2.

Dahlin and Hellebuyck seem like absolute no brainers to me to complete that top7.

Tough tough choices!!