Mega Trade - Need Advice

[Toews Took My Girl]

I've been offered a doozy!

McDavid, Matthews, Eichel, Point, Fox

for

Drysdale
Bourgault
Clarke
Dumais
Gunler
Isac Howard
Kent Johnson
Noel Gunler
L'Hereux
Fabian Lysell
Othmann
Ritchie
Rosen
Snuggerud
Grans
Korchinski
Pickering

2024 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd
2025 1st

This is a 12 team dynasty league with salaries determined by an auction at the beginning of the year. As you can tell, I've spent the last year acquiring a massive prospect pool and picks. Obviously with McDavid involved I dont know if there is an overpay but the thought of trading my entire minor pool and draft picks has me thinking. My roster going into the auction before next season would be as follows:

Sorokin

Fox
Sandin
Zellweger

McDavid
Matthews
Eichel
Point
Boldy
Dach
Byfield
Lafreniere
Perfetti
Raymond
Greig

I'd have $45.3mil left to spend at auction to fill 9 roster spots: 1 Goalie, 3 Defense, 1 Forward, 4 Bench positions. Leaves me $5mil per player which is decent based on previous salaries from auction. Draisaitl was the max last year at $14.1 while goalies avg between $1mil-$5mil.

Do I pull the trigger? Or am I be impatient with my rebuild?

[Axeman33]

What the what??

Need more salary information on how this trade would even work. Auction leagues are so funked up and I dont participate in them but could explain (if you can) how the incoming players salary look versus your cap situation. Are they all still under contract and for how long? What does your full roster look like? Do positions matter?

What a weird trade. It almost hurts to look at all those players.

[PenguinHunter]

Wow!!!!!!!!

That is a lot to unpack.

My initial response was No!!

This was when I seen the names on the one side - McDavid, Matthews, Eichel, Point and Fox.
I initially thought someone was trying to get those 5 players from you.

Now when I see you are trying to get those 5 players - then it made me think a lot more.

You have a lot of nice minor names there - but not many are NHL talents yet.
Minors don't always pan out the way you hope or the way that many think they will.

So lets say 50% of those minors have a ceiling of 3rd line players.

I can see Korchinski or Drysdale MAYBE reaching the level of Fox...

And maybe one or two of those forwards reaches Eichel level.

I cannot see any of them reaching Matthews or McDavid level production.

And similarly the picks... some of them may amount to something.

So after talking this through... I would make that trade.

[senryu]

When Moses (not the one on these boards) came down from Mt. Sinai, he held two tablets. On the second tablet, at the bottom, the following was etched in stone:

"11. Always take the McDavid side"

[finnys_fanatsy]

ya you got some beauty names in that huge list.

trouble is with yearly escalation (i assume you have anyway, i know i did when i played auction league), the incoming salaries add up quickly so the time to hold the guys is limited, which i why i suspect the OGM is offering them out.

that being said that would be hella fun for a couple yrs at most until cap trouble hits. pull the trigger and sit back and enjoy witching some talented dudes nxt yr pile up points for you.

[evans334]

Easy accept.

Figure out the rest afterwards.

You're not going to be losing sleep about any of those prospects or picks when you've got McDavid, let alone Matthews, Eichel, Point and Fox. All of whom are in their prime window.

These are the offers you dream of when you have so many assets.

[Belexus75]

I would easily give up all those maybes for Mcdavid alone purely based on hockey skills and not looking at auction and salaries

[Toews Took My Girl]

salary escalation is 20%

mcdavid , eichel, matthews will each be $5.1mil next year, Point $3.6mil and Fox $5mil

[Toews Took My Girl]

Minors can be kept in your prospect pool up to 4 years after their entry draft year and dont count towards salary. Once called up they start at $1mil for first rounders, $500k for 2nd and 3rd rounders

[Rockies & Hockeys]

1) A lot of times when people say they've got a mega trade it's not really that wild.
2) This one is WILD.
3) I'd DEFINITELY do this trade. What an absolute win. This is a dream offer!

[PenguinHunter]

salary escalation is 20%

mcdavid , eichel, matthews will each be $5.1mil next year, Point $3.6mil and Fox $5mil

So you could have

McDavid, Matthews and Point for the same amount that Draisaitl was last year....then its a

ER

[Dr.Brad]

I’d do this instantly. But then, I admit that I’ll only look two years ahead. Too many things happen when you look 4-5 years out. And those 5 players make you a championship contender.

[Pengwin7]

Auction leagues are IMPOSSIBLE for any of us to figure out by numbers.

This is because every player up for auction next year doesn't have a "pegged" value.
It depends on how much available cap space every bidding team has available.

Auction leagues are typically - you keep your best "value" players... so if you've got a guy worth (by stats) $10 and you have him at $2... that's $8 saved.

The nice thing about this trade (and I did "auction" / roto baseball for 5 years) is that I firmly believe that HIGH-LOW is best strategy to win auctions.
Spend a ton on 5-8 megastars... and tactfully wait and snatch guys at $1 (whatever your "min" is) at auction.

To do this you have to be super crafty.
Like... on your turn to nominate, you have to throw out a debatable-value player at $1... where IF you get him for $1... that's fine.
If somebody pays $2... that's maybe too much.

In a dream scenario... you throw a guy out at $1...
Everybody thinks of you as "keen"... so they overbid you knowing you don't have cap space to get the guy.
You "HUFF" and let the bidding go...
Knowing your player wasn't going to put up stats.

For example, I was just commenting on CHI's Lukas Reichel.
Many people see him as the eventual top line wing with Bedard.
So you throw that player out on your nomination for $1... and somebody is going to go $2 right away.
You HUFF... and hopefully it goes to $4 or something.
Fine - you've just caused the "league" to spend their cap space.
You MUST do this often and have tactful guys you are FINE with at league minumum.

Deplete the pool of $1-ish players... and then try to scoop a value guy at the very end.
HOLD your sleeper/faves close to your chest for end of draft...
IF your leaguemates start competing and spending all their funds, then maybe.... hopefully... nobody has $2 (just above min) to spend on an end-of-auction nominee. This is key.
IF your leaguemates DO have lots of cash/cap at end of auction, absolutely do NOT throw out a solid $1 player... because he'll be gone and you'll have no chance to bid up and get him.

[When I was in my league... I was known as the "smart one". In my y2 - every player I nominated I missed... and they were good players... and I struggled. In my y3 auction - I nominated players I didn't necessarily want. The same thing happened... and I smiled internally - because the players were not good... and that year I did better, pretty sure I won. If that makes sense.]


This is a lot.
But the point is this...
Accepting a trade on all these superstars is great for "FIRST YEAR".
That 20% escalation is going to limit your cap space going forward in y2, y3... that sucks BIG.
And... in auction leagues... if you allocate TOO much to your top players... and if your leaguemates are keen... then you have NO SHOT at supplemental stats.


This trade is a BIG WIN... if... you are SUPER-KEEN... SUPER-SMART... and understand how to work the auction to make teams spend their cap space on players that are NOT WORTH IT.
That... this strategy... making sure your leaguemates (ESPECIALLY YOUR TRADE PARTNER) wastes/overspends as much money as possible... is the absolute KEY to getting your discount value guys to fill out your roster.

If you understand all this - very clearly - yes, take the superstars and plan to craftily find your minimum-$ players of good value next year.
THIS SITE... is THE SITE... to help you speculate and find those guys.

If this doesn't make sense to you... this strategy... you aren't ready for it.
You won't win with big names if you don't know how to work limited cap space.


Hopefully this makes sense.
I've used all this in auction leagues and won, big.... but you have to have pretty high-end numbers-skills.

Good luck.

[jman]

Do it.

[senryu]

So you could have

McDavid, Matthews and Point for the same amount that Draisaitl was last year....then its a

ER

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