The toughest keeper decision I have ever had to make (since last year...and the year before that...and the year before THAT..annnnd the year before that). Keep 10. Cut 4.

[manvsamerica]

Looking ahead to the upcoming season I am going to have some difficult decisions to make narrowing this group down to 10 keepers and am looking for some help. I have provided the details of the league as well the players to choose from below. Some farm team players (that are kept for free) are also included to provide additional context. Any discussion or input you guys have would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

12 team H2H Yahoo Keeper League
Positions: C, C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, F, D, D, D, D, G, G
Stat Categories: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, GWG, SHP, SOG, W, GAA, SV%, SHO

Mika Zibanejad
Sebastian Aho
Alexander Ovechkin
Artemi Panarin
Jared McCann
Roope Hintz
Tom Wilson
Jordan Kyrou
Tyler Toffoli
Kevin Fiala
Roman Josi
Quinn Hughes
Adam Fox
Juuse Saros


Notable farm team players who could have an impact next season include:

Adin Hill
Ville Husso
Hendrix Lapierre
Jake Oettinger
Juuso Valimaki

[rataylor22]

Your very easy drops are McCann, Wilson, and Toffoli. The fourth is harder, but probably Ovechkin or Josi. Very likely you could trade either for draft picks though.

[Feenom]

McCann, Wilson, Toffoli and Kyrou. If you decide to drop Josi then Valimaki may make enough of a jump to not hurt you. Ott is a huge impact every season.

[random-d]

My drops would be Wilson, McCann, Kyrou, Saros. 3 of them are on teams that are going in the wrong direction and the other did his best impression of William Karlsson.

I think with Oettinger and the other 2 part timers you should be fine in net, Nashville is lacking in the incoming talent department and they're also bad at utilizing that talent. Kyrou could easily be Toffoli but St Louis might be the next Chicago whereas LA is on the right trajectory. I think they'll continue to deploy Toffoli in a quality role.

[Locke]

McCann, Wilson, Toffoli and Kyrou. If you decide to drop Josi then Valimaki may make enough of a jump to not hurt you. Ott is a huge impact every season.

I agree with this list. Kyrou is a good player, but his upside is limited in a multi-cat league. Ovi and Josi are aging out, but age is to some extent irrelevant for a team's last or last 2 keeper spots. Look back on your past drafts for evidence. Almost certainly you always drafted at least a couple of keeper worthy guys to potentially replace your bottom tier keepers.

[rataylor22]

My drops would be Wilson, McCann, Kyrou, Saros. 3 of them are on teams that are going in the wrong direction and the other did his best impression of William Karlsson.

I think with Oettinger and the other 2 part timers you should be fine in net, Nashville is lacking in the incoming talent department and they're also bad at utilizing that talent. Kyrou could easily be Toffoli but St Louis might be the next Chicago whereas LA is on the right trajectory. I think they'll continue to deploy Toffoli in a quality role.

Toffoli doesn't play in LA and hasn't in years.

[random-d]

Toffoli doesn't play in LA and hasn't in years.

Lol, that's an important thing to consider. Pretty sure I made the exact same mistake the last time someone asked about him. I don't know why my brain always puts him there... But I still like him a little more than Kyrou in this scenario.

[PoolPartyPuljeejarvi]

I like McCann in some ways- certainly as an emergent talent but 19 shooting %is high in general and its high for him. The way they spread their offense around is apparent in his 210 sogs which is "passable" but not great by any means for a sniper type. Variance alone could mean hes back to being a 20 goal scorers next year so even if he improves everywhere else hes not stellar. With ten point gains in assists he'd be a 20-40-60 guy. That has value but nothing thats going to shattering your teams chances.

Without hits Wilson is easier to drop. I know he contributes pims but a good year is 50 points for him and with AO declining I dont see a lot of silver linings. His value is really very relative to the format and he only gets "partial credit" in yours. Easy drop here.

I hate dropping Josi but having two skill guys in that format in fox and Hughes makes it easier to do so. I'm a believer in valimaki as well which sets you up for three offensive guys (two of them being exceptional) and in a start 4 league you can generally affid to have one specialist who chips in with pims, shp, and +/-. In a league with blocks and hits you'd have two spots for that probably but in your format I think you can put in one ringer behind those three. In the meantime id be shopping Josi for picks or player upgrades.

The last one ill say this: do NOT drop Kyrou !! Thats nuts. He could be a regular 30 (if not 40) goal scorer and most metrics have his trajectory pointing straight up. They're building around him and with good reason! His sogs and goals were unreal and hes playing a lot of minutes with a guy whose bread and butter is setting up guys to shoot. Kyrou being a sniper is a match made in heaven. To see someone that confident in their shooting ability so early is really encouraging and I think you'll regret dropping him. +/- is a teamnissue and stl should improve. I hard it difficult to gameplan around that stat specifically if im honest but im not dropping the rest for one "junk stat" at the end of the day.

So who to drop?

The easy call is ovechkin. Hes gotta be getting close to retirement and even if he sticks around for 2-3 more seasons to challenge Gretzky you can see the cracks in his production so your looking at something closer to 3 seasons of 55-70 goal heavy contributions. Not bad but not great either.

Tbh even if you were hell bent on keeping AO id even drop toffoli before kyrou. His 70 this year was admirable but the 3 years prior he skews a lot closer to 60. Maybe kyrou ends up a lot like tt but my read is that this season we just saw out of toffoli is la creme de la creme for him and it looks a lot more like kyrous floor or "off seasons" by my estimations. At 32 next year hes no spring chicken and I feel like we're looking at a (late blooming) high water mark anyways.

Kyrou in a keeper league is like soal in prison... don't drop the kyrou!!!

[DangerCat]

I have to agree with pool party on this one. I’d drop toffoli or ovechkin before I’d drop Kyrou. Toffoli and keep Ovi if possible.

[Pengwin7]

Mika Zibanejad
Sebastian Aho
Alexander Ovechkin
Artemi Panarin
Jared McCann
Roope Hintz
Tom Wilson
Jordan Kyrou
Tyler Toffoli
Kevin Fiala
Roman Josi
Quinn Hughes
Adam Fox
Juuse Saros

There's 8 locks, IMO - including Ovechkin who, as we all know, WILL score goals and (barring injury) WILL break Gretzky's record.
So there's massive trade value there, even with his aging. You can move him.

Kyrou and Fiala are my picks for 9/10.
I like McCann... but I think that was a very magical, William Karlsson-esque, non-repeating year.
I do like Roope Hintz too... one could swap him out with Kyrou - depends on your league values.

[4T2]

There's 8 locks, IMO - including Ovechkin who, as we all know, WILL score goals and (barring injury) WILL break Gretzky's record.
So there's massive trade value there, even with his aging. You can move him.

Kyrou and Fiala are my picks for 9/10.
I like McCann... but I think that was a very magical, William Karlsson-esque, non-repeating year.
I do like Roope Hintz too... one could swap him out with Kyrou - depends on your league values.

I think P7 nailed it here. I’m probably going Hintz over Kyrou but it’s very close!

[bbfl1987]

McCann, Toffoli, Wilson, and I hate to say it..Ovi

[Nylander2.0]

McCann, Toffoli, Wilson and Kyrou BUT try to make a trade with Ovy for draft picks