Gagne (injured) for Straka

[Highlander]

Hi guys,

Mulling over the following straight up deal:

I (sitting first in a 12 team league - essentially points only with some keeper elements) send my adversary (sitting 5th some 30pts back) LW M.Straka NYR for LW S.Gagne PHI (inj).

While my pool has lots of wrinkles, neither of these players have any long-term status and the only thing of value that they will contribute will be pts (goals and assists both equal value).

Our pool has positions and my current left wing consists of P.Kariya STL, A.Voros MIN (who is one of two tgs getting .25pts for every PIM in addition to his pts), the now injured and infuriating L.Nagy LA (who does have \"matching\" rights at next year\'s draft if I haven\'t gone out and shot him by then), along with the afore mentioned M.Straka NYR. I also, if needed, have an unpromoted LW prospect in R.Olesz FLA.

We dress three LW every week (currently Kariya, Voros, Straka benching Nagy).

At the start of the year I would have pulled the trigger on this deal in a heartbeat but I\'m curious to know everyone\'s thoughts on Gagne\'s prospects on getting into the line-up soon (I understand that he is skating now symptom free) and what sort of production we should expect when he does?

Nagy\'s injury has complicated my thinking somewhat as I\'m always reluctant to play known injured players if I can at all avoid it.

Anyhow, any advice would be welcome.

Since I am proud of my boys (and we are currently holding a 14pt lead in the pool) but can always use the validation of otherwise total strangers, here are the rest of the Highlanders:

LW - P.Kariya STL
LW - M.Straka NYR
LW - A.Voros MIN (tg)
----
LW - L.Nagy LA rfa

C - S.Crosby PIT rfa
C - J.Thornton SJ fp
C - T.Connolly BUF
----
C - T.Zajac NJ rfa

RW - J.Williams CAR
RW - B.Gionta NJ
RW - B.Boyes STL rfa
----
RW - J.Langenbrunner NJ

D - C.Pronger ANA fp (tg)
D - L.Visnovsky LA
D - E.Jovanovski PHX
D - D.Wideman BOS rfa
D - T.Poti WAS
D - S.Souray EDM
----
D - D.Girardi NYR
D - M.Carle SJ

G - M.Kipprusoff CGY
----
G - I.Bryzgalov PHX

TGs - LW A.Voros MIN, D C.Pronger ANA

+/- - none

Prospects

P4 R.Dipietro G NYI
P3 R.Olesz LW FLA
P2 P.Mueller C PHX
P2 I.Griegorenko RW DET
P1 D.Setoguchi RW SJ
P1 J.Hiller G ANA
P1 B.Little C ATL
P1 C.Franson D NSH

2008 PrD picks

- 2nd, 3rd, 4th
+ Blaserunners\' 4th

[shallowfrozenwater]

with Gagne looking like he\'s ready to be back then i\'d make this move. it looks like high reward ... it\'s also high risk though.

[PatInTheHat]

If you could keep Gagne I think this would be a no brainer. I still think it\'s an even trade at worst for you.

[Highlander]

Thanks guys. Kinda where I am at with this. If my opponent is still game, I think I\'ll pull the trigger.