A Recap - Keeper League #1 Results

[Dobber]

I’m going to post my results, moves and thought process of the past year in my three keeper leagues. I had my worst finish in 15 years this past season, although in my one-year league with the writers of the Hockey News, I finished second thanks to late-season surges by Kovalchuk, Staal and Laich. That was the only money I won. In the DobberHockey Experts League I finished 10th, narrowly avoiding relegation. I didn’t put the time into that one as I did in my keeper leagues…but my keepers fared no better.

Nonetheless, here is Keeper League No.1. The rules can be found in my “Starting a Pool” section, Keeper League No.1.

History: This is the DobberCup Hockey Pool, established in 2001. I won the title the season prior to the lockout, but paid a heavy price. My team was filled with old guys and one-hit wonders. I needed to do what had to be done to win. I was left with two players who retired, plus Brett Hull who retired shortly after, as well as older players like Recchi, Kovalev, Alfredsson. I had no shot at first and very little shot at the top three, so it was time to rebuild. I gave up my six remaining decent assets – all to acquire Sidney Crosby. I thought I could rebuild in three years around this guy, but in this league it turned out to be easier said than done. Five years will be about right.

Goal: We have a new rule in place this year where the Top 8 make the playoffs. My goal was to get into the playoffs, since I had so many Penguins.

Move #1, Sept.1: Traded my first round pick in 2009 for Justin Williams and two second rounders. That was how confident I was that I could get into the playoffs. I traded it to the guy who not only was clearly going for last – but he was clearly going to get last. Tavares was his, but he wanted my pick to make sure I didn’t drop below him.

Move #2, Sept.21: Oops. Williams is out for what could be the season. I traded him BACK to his original owner and this time got Samsonov, Clowe and a 4th in 2011 for him. So in all, I moved a 1st in 2009 for Samsonov, Clowe, two 2nds in ’09 and a 4th in ’11.

Move #3, Sept.28 – DRAFT DAY: I traded Francois Bouchard and that 4th pick I acquired above, for Scott Hartnell. This is strictly a points pool – I just figured Hartnell would get me 55 points or so. What a move, it turned out.

DRAFT
Selected Nikita Filatov 2nd overall, dropped Alexei Yashin (got him as a throw-in earlier in the summer).
Selected Max Pacioretty 15th overall, dropped Ryan O’Marra (also a throw-in earlier in the summer).
Selected Nate Gerbe 22nd overall, dropped Michael Handzus.
Selected Jesse Winchester 37th overall, dropped Ryan Shannon. Oops.
Selected Petri Kontiola 41st and dropped Jonathan Filewich. I was torn between Kontiola and Versteeg here. I even called a timeout and thought hard about it. In the end, my track record with smaller players is a poor one, so I went with Kontiola. Oops.
Selected Alex Goligoski 43rd and dropped Steve Sullivan. As you can see, I don’t hang onto “maybes”. I’d rather roll the dice with prospects.
Selected Joe Colborne 46th and dropped Chris Mason. It turned out that Mason would have been better to own this year than Price and Bryzgalov, the goalies I was going with.
Selected Andreas Nodl 47th and dropped Ilya Zubov. Even swap, so far.
Selected Patric Hornqvist 52nd, final pick of the draft. Dropped Marek Svatos.

As you can see, I love acquiring and using draft picks. The picks I make, the better my odds of finding gems.

Move #4, October 29: We have free trading until October 31, and then just six trades maximum until the trade deadline. This has been a great new rule (before, free trading ended at the draft) – it created a lot of minor swaps, sort of a “mini deadline”. Anyway, I moved Gilbert Brule and picked up Mikhail Grabovski, who had one point in nine games at the time. Beauty!

Move #5, November 8: I took advantage of the hot play of Ryane Clowe. I traded him and a 2nd rounder for Jordan Staal and a 4th. I like this move even now.

Move #6, November 12: We are allowed to sign one free agent per season, prior to the deadline. The free agent must be at least 24 years old. On this day, I signed Matt Stajan. I like it. It turns out he was one of the better signings, although Tim Thomas was the best one by far. Examples of other free agent signings, for comparison: Ryan Kesler, Andrew Ebbett, Rich Peverley, Antti Miettinen, David Booth, Todd White and Mikael Samuelsson.

Move #7, December 15: My playoff hopes are fading, but I still try to buy low and get in there. I traded Alexander Radulov and Max Pacioretty and acquired Brooks Laich, Tomas Fleischmann, Kristian Huselius and two 3rd rounders in 2009. Close deal, but I’m happy with it.

Move #8, January 29: I don’t give up on the playoffs yet – still sitting in 10th place out of 13 teams though. I try a new strategy and try and upgrade my assets for a quick flip later, while at the same time I wanted to further improve my Penguins core. I traded the hot Scott Hartnell and JP Dumont and acquired O’Sullivan and Luca Caputi. I could have gotten a draft pick out of him, but told him I would consider it a “favor” that I’ll cash in later. I’m a nice guy.

Move #9, February 26: The deadline is getting close and I’m up to 9th, but the gap to 8th is big. A good 100 points out of 8th (I had about 500 points or so). Still, I felt I needed to drop in points and acquire a more tradable asset. Not only would I get a better asset, but I may catch 8th place sleeping at the trade deadline. I have TWO trades left after this one. I traded Huselius and Eriksson for Danny Briere.

Move #10, March 4: A big one here – I traded Briere, Filatov, O’Sullivan, Nodl and two second rounders. I acquired Jeff Carter, Rick Nash, Milan Lucic, David Legwand and two third rounders. I knew with Nash and Lucic, I could use them to deal with the owner that EVERYONE was talking to.

DEADLINE THOUGHTS: This guy is a former winner who had slipped to 9th. But he was in full fire-sale mode. He had little in the way of playoff guys and was selling his point players to drop in the standings. He was charging a LOT for his guys and going back and forth with everyone, dragging his feet in agreeing to a deal in an effort to rape some owners. He and I were close to a huge deal that would have moved me up to fifth place. This would have turned the pool on its HEAD. The owner in eighth was the two-time defending playoff champion and with just minutes remaining until the deadline, he would find himself out of the playoffs!!

Meanwhile, I had a deal in my back pocket. An offer I couldn’t refuse. But I WOULD refuse it I could get into fifth. You’ll see this deal in a moment.

The deal to get fifth fell through. What happened was, he dealt Jason Blake as a side deal. I needed Jason Blake’s points in this deal to get it done. The owner thought he would pull a fast one and then turn and still deal with me. No way. Now the deal would only get me in 8th – that’s not secure enough for me to sacrifice so much. So I walked, and took the deal in my back pocket.

Move #11, March 4 DEADLINE DAY: I traded Rick Nash. That’s it. I acquired James van Riemsdyk, Teddy Purcell, a 1st in 2009, two 1sts in 2011 and a 2nd in 2011. HUGE. I dropped to 11th and didn’t make the playoffs, but secured my future. This was with the guy that owed me that earlier “favor”, thus I got the extra 2nd.

Next year I WILL make the playoffs. The year after that – I challenge for the title.

End of Season Roster:
Best 12: Lucic, Samsonov, Vermette, Purcell, Legwand, Carter, JVR, Mueller, Crosby, Jor. Staal, Stajan, Fleischmann.
Top G: Price

Bench: Ry. Whitney, Kontiola, Sterling, Colborne, Gerbe, Hornqvist, Winchester, Letang, Goligoski, Caputi, Grabovski, Laich, Bryzgalov.

Plus lots of picks. Nine this year (two firsts). Five next year (one first). Six the year after (three firsts).

With this roster, I actually moved up to 10th and was very close to 9th. I improved 250 points over last year. Another 100 and I’m in the postseason. That will happen even if I don’t draft. All in all, happy with my year in this pool.

I’ll try and recap my other two keepers in each of the next two days.

[Zorro]

Another great read. Wow do you like to trade for picks, but in Keeper Leagues it is crucial to stock picks. You can either use them on GEM\'s that you think think will be sure-fire studs or you can always trade them. Everyone wants picks at one time or another..

Thanks for sharing Dobber, this is great stuff.
Z..

[angus]

you... traded... Filatov? hmy:

[Dobber]

Ha! I should add - I would not have traded Filatov had I not owned him in all three of my keeper leagues. I could sacrifice him in one

[JagrBomb]

it sounds like your team was going downhill until that gm severely overpaid for nash.

[Zorro]

These are your two deals mashed together:

YOU TRADED:
Nash, Briere, Filatov, O’Sullivan, Nodl and two second rounders.

YOU ACQUIRED:
Jeff Carter, Milan Lucic, David Legwand, James van Riemsdyk, Teddy Purcell, a 1st in 2009, two 1sts in 2011 and a 2nd in 2011, and two third rounders.

What group would most rather have??

[Dobber]

praba wrote:

it sounds like your team was going downhill until that gm severely overpaid for nash.

Interesting. I feel that all my deals were good ones that improved my team - I\'m working with minimal assets here, so a very good year for trading I\'d say.

But my draft was subpar. In all, I improved by 250 points, and next year will be even more, since we can all agree many of the players I own will improve their point totals.

[WestCoastSteez]

yea good Nash trade. That was a good old fashioned \'rape-show\' of a trade if I ever saw one. I am not a fan of the Hartnell/Dumont for Caputi/? (I have forgotten). However we need to wait a few years before we pass judgement on that one. Good read, congrats on getting Crosby to build around, its nice.

-Cheers

[JagrBomb]

sorry i wouldnt say your team was going in the wrong direction, but like you said earlier, it would have taken you 5 years to compete. that nash trade just shed a couple years off that. i am very curious to see what you traded for crosby. if nash required all those picks and prospects...

[Dobber]

I\'ll explain that one, Praba - good question.

Two summers ago, the guy I traded Nash to received an offer - he was offered FIVE first round picks for Anze Kopitar. The guy who made the offer had 13 awesome players and getting Kopitar without touching his roster was a smart move at the time. Yes, he overpaid, but he won that year. And he repeated this past year. So sometimes overpaying is what needs to be done.

So when this owner asked about Nash and offered Purcell and two firsts, I went back at him and said \"hey, you got five firsts for Kopitar, why would give up Nash for anything less?\"
That\'s how that deal got done.

What I gave up for Sidney Crosby was Kovalev, McDonald, Roy, Doan, Nagy, Comrie and a second. This was 2.5 years ago, so at the time Roy was the weakest asset I gave up (although in my mind, he was the guy I was fighting to keep but it was the only way I could get it done). When that deal was over...I pretty much had just Crosby and 15 bums. Although I had Krejci at the time, but who saw this coming from him? It was Crosby and about 18 bums. That\'s what I rebuilt from.

But I know that owning the Kid will be gold when I finish building a team around him. He\'s still good for 12-15 more years.

[hoopej2]

Hey Praba!

Pay up for our bet. You owe me 10 karma for me taking Ovie and you Crosby on who would reach 100 points first. :laugh:

[Zorro]

This thread makes me want to build an offer for OVECHKIN to a guy in our league. I think I can get him and NOW\'S the time..

[JagrBomb]

haha alright i just boosted you

[Crazynuck]

WestCoastSteez wrote:

yea good Nash trade. That was a good old fashioned \'rape-show\' of a trade if I ever saw one. I am not a fan of the Hartnell/Dumont for Caputi/? (I have forgotten). However we need to wait a few years before we pass judgement on that one. Good read, congrats on getting Crosby to build around, its nice.

-Cheers

Great point.... only trade that didn\'t make sense to me. Sure Caputi is on Pitt but he is not even playing and hartnell is putting up pts.

[Dobber]

In our league, to win you need every player on your pro team to have at least 55 points. So any player in that 55-60 range is a dime a dozen.
I got O\'Sullivan because he was a better tradeable asset than Hartnell and Dumont, due to the perceived upside (nobody wanted Dumont or Hartnell really).
Caputi was a nice bonus. But I admit I lost that deal slightly - but made up for it by calling in the favor with the Nash deal (same owner)