BRyan Voracek

[ItsAlwaysSunnyInDetroit]

Hi Dub,
I love readin your opinions on people's questions and was wonderin if I could get yours on a possible trade I was offered.

14 GM full salary keeper. We start 3Cs,LWs,RWs,Fs 4D 2G and 4 on the Bench a day. Yahoo H2H with 9 skater catagories and 5 G cats.

I was offered Voracek, MPS, and Backlund for my B.Ryan.

Now I know Ryan is far and away the most valuable piece. But I think this may be a fair offer. I'll post my team below and maybe you could opine as to what you'd do here. I've already countered Voracek, Benn + goalie prospect. Anyways, below is my roster(it's a deep league...disperal draft went 40 rounds). As you'll quickly see, I need help in multiple locations....

C: Backstrom, Kopitar, Bergeron
LW: B.Ryan, Penner, PMB
RW: Franzen, Crombeen
F: Seguin, Turris, AKostitsyn, Schremp, Mueller
D: EJohnson, Chara, Visnovsky, Martin
G: Price, Neuvirth, Ellis, Lindback
Top Prospects: Colborne, Filatov, Grachev, Radulov, Hamonic, Holtby, Rynnas

[duballstar014]

Hey man,

Thanks for reading. Yeah, you've got a few holes to fill, but man is it hard to string together a solid team in a league that deep.

I think you've got a couple questions to ask yourself that should help with the trade.

• Are you planning on winning now? If not, how long until you think you can compete, realistically?
• Whoever is in first place, what does his roster look like? Does he have quite a bit of proven talent or a lot of youth on ELC's? Or does he have both? (this should give you a good idea of how to structure your roster to win or compete)
• What are the best players available to add through free agency/waivers right now?
• What type of prospect do you have the ability to add in your upcoming draft?

Now in terms of Voracek and Paajarvi, I love both, but I also love Bobby Ryan. I'm not a huge fan of Backlund, so if I were you, I'd definitely be looking to switch that piece of it up. Swapping Benn + a goalie prospect for Paajarvi and Backlund isn't a bad idea either, but don't dismiss MPS just because he's on EDM and they're terrible this year. I think they've got a bright future with all the youngsters they have, especially if they move Hemsky and/or Penner to free up room for the young guns. Cogliano was a prime target to be traded in my most recent article and I think there's good things in store for EDM next year. Just saying.

The last thing I want to touch on is that you are heavy at C. You've got Backstrom and Kopitar who are two of the best, then you have Turris and Seguin, #3 and #2 overall picks in their drafts. The ideal situation for you would be to move a center for a wing and keep Bobby Ryan. Then again, if faceoffs are counted, I can see wanting to stock up on C. It's a solid strategy for sure.

I think as you go through the questions above, you should be able to decide if you want to pull the trigger on the trade or not.

[ItsAlwaysSunnyInDetroit]

Thanks a ton for such a detailed answer Dub!

I don't think I'll compete until the 2012-13 season.

The GM valued Kopitar more so I countered with Kopitar for Voracek, Benn, and a goalie prospect. He accepted. I cleared some salary and added two great keeper wingers. My team now looks like this going forward.

C: Backstrom, Bergeron, Seguin
LW: Ryan, Benn, Penner
RW: Voracek, Franzen, Crombeen
F: PMB, Turris, AKostitsyn
D: EJohnson, Chara, Visnovsky, Martin
G: Price, Neuvirth, Ellis, Lindback

AHL Squad

Mueller, Gomez, Radulov, Colborne, Svatos, Filatov, Grachev, Tambellini, Schremp, McLeod, Joensuu, Wick, Larsson, Kuehnhackl, Hamonic, Ericsson, Vlasic, McIlrath, Holtby, McElhinney, Krahn, Rynnas, McKenna, Pielmeier, Carrozzi, Climie, Berube, Aitokkallio, Corbeil-Theriault

I think your advice to move a C worked out well to fill out a young budding squad. Thanks dude.