Angus - ask your keeper league question - June 19!

I wanted your evaluation on my newly drafted keeper team, 12 teams, 24 players, 12 keepers, standard stats except +/-. 4 LW, 4 C, 4 RW, 6 D, 1 G, 5 bench. I was the last one drafting. I traded up to get Jokinen and ended up with Gonchar and Brodeur with the 2 picks I traded down.

Maxim Afinogenov - Olli Jokinen - Ilya Kovalchuk
Chris Neil - Jason Arnott - Rick Nash
Brian Gionta - Jordan Staal - Jussi Jokinen
Phil Kessel - Shawn Matthias - James vanRiemsdyk

Erik Johnson - Sergei Gonchar
Jay Bouwmeester - Shea Weber
Joni Pitkanen - Kris Russell

Martin Brodeur

Reserve

Kari Lehtonen
Josh Harding
R.J. Umberger
Bobby Sanguinetti
Mikael Backlund

Do you think I'm in good shape to win it this year? Who should I look to move? I know I'm not that great at RW and vanRiemsdyk will most likely stay in college this year.

Quick question for you Angus... this one produced a good debate a few days ago:

Briere or Frolov? Team is the 2nd one in my sig.

Karhgath wrote:
I wanted your evaluation on my newly drafted keeper team, 12 teams, 24 players, 12 keepers, standard stats except +/-. 4 LW, 4 C, 4 RW, 6 D, 1 G, 5 bench. I was the last one drafting. I traded up to get Jokinen and ended up with Gonchar and Brodeur with the 2 picks I traded down.

Maxim Afinogenov - Olli Jokinen - Ilya Kovalchuk
Chris Neil - Jason Arnott - Rick Nash
Brian Gionta - Jordan Staal - Jussi Jokinen
Phil Kessel - Shawn Matthias - James vanRiemsdyk

Erik Johnson - Sergei Gonchar
Jay Bouwmeester - Shea Weber
Joni Pitkanen - Kris Russell

Martin Brodeur

Reserve

Kari Lehtonen
Josh Harding
R.J. Umberger
Bobby Sanguinetti
Mikael Backlund

Do you think I'm in good shape to win it this year? Who should I look to move? I know I'm not that great at RW and vanRiemsdyk will most likely stay in college this year.

JVR is going to college. Your team is decent, pretty thin at wing though after Kovalchuk and Nash. Afinogenov could bounce back (he will be dealt), and Gionta needs to.

Niel is a bum, but if you need PIM (although there are better alternatives, like Burrows). Jokinen will probably be Stamkos' LW, so he is decent. Not a fan of Kessel, maybe try and move him.

Nunezilla wrote:
Quick question for you Angus... this one produced a good debate a few days ago:

Briere or Frolov? Team is the 2nd one in my sig.

points only? DEFINITELY Briere. Frolov is more well rounded but is not nearly as offensively gifted as Briere. Briere should move to the RW with Richards, so he won't have as much defensive responsibilities either.

What's up HFF, er, Angus.

I am in a 16 team 4x2 CBS Roto league where we keep 15 players each for the coming season and then 20 each for 2009/2010.

The stats are: G, A, PIM, PPP ... W, GAA

Starting rosters consist of:

C (3)
LW (2)
RW (2)
D (4)
F (2)
G (2 or 3)
BN (18 or 19 ... depending on how many goalies you start in a given week)

We can change our starting roster each week before the first game on Monday.

My Current Keepers(sorted by player value as I see it):

C - Kopitar, Bergeron, Carter, Franzen, Kessel
LW - Vanek, Semin
RW - Hemsky
D - E. Johnson, Visnovsky, Pitkanen
G - Lundqvist, Garon, Rask, Howard

Other Options/Assets: Claude Giroux (rw), Wojtek Wolski (lw), T.J. Hensick (c), Brett Sterling (lw)

.........................................................

Clearly I have a very young team but I don't feel I really that far away as I have young studs at every position except maybe D where Johnson has a ways to go yet and my other 2 D need to have rebound seasons.

What do you feel I should do to improve my team? I know that some say Bergeron is too risky but he has had a full year to recover and I think he is worth taking a chance on. I know you don't like Kessel but I still feel he is better than Giroux and co. and I am trying to ship him off anyways. A lot of people are also down on Pitkanen but I have always been a believer in him, though I am starting to get nervous about his attitude. Should I try and trade Rask and a forward to add more offensive production? (I am a wings fan so Howard stays put )

Basically my main objective right now is to find a goal scoring RW who can put up a PIM/G. These players are rare in my league but I think a guy like Clowe would really help me.

So my questions to you are:

What do you think of my team? Am I in good shape, or do I need to make some major adjustments. How would go about making adjustments to better set this team up in the future.

Just for reference, here are the players the league champion is likely to be keeping:

C - B. Richards, Arnott, P.M. Bouchard, Brassard
LW - Kovalchuk, Plekanec
RW - Gaborik, A. Kostitsyn
D - Gonchar, A. Markov, Burns, Cobrun
G - Fluery, Smith, Gerber

Other options/assets: Zidlicky (D), Halak (G), S. Kostitsyn (LW), Hanzal (C), Dubinsky (C)

His team is sick, I know. But he got really lucky landing MAF for Hasek and Steve Mason. What a joke that was ...

Anyways, I really look forward to your response. I have read a lot of your stuff on HF and it's all been of the highest quality.

One last thing:

What do you think of the league settings? Any changes you would make to improve it, etc.?

Thanks in advance,

Mikey

P.S. Sorry for the long post but I had to take advantage of the opportunity. Peace.

MikeyDangles wrote:
What's up HFF, er, Angus.

I am in a 16 team 4x2 CBS Roto league where we keep 15 players each for the coming season and then 20 each for 2009/2010.

The stats are: G, A, PIM, PPP ... W, GAA

Starting rosters consist of:

C (3)
LW (2)
RW (2)
D (4)
F (2)
G (2 or 3)
BN (18 or 19 ... depending on how many goalies you start in a given week)

We can change our starting roster each week before the first game on Monday.

My Current Keepers(sorted by player value as I see it):

C - Kopitar, Bergeron, Carter, Franzen, Kessel
LW - Vanek, Semin
RW - Hemsky
D - E. Johnson, Visnovsky, Pitkanen
G - Lundqvist, Garon, Rask, Howard

Other Options/Assets: Claude Giroux (rw), Wojtek Wolski (lw), T.J. Hensick (c), Brett Sterling (lw)

.........................................................

Clearly I have a very young team but I don't feel I really that far away as I have young studs at every position except maybe D where Johnson has a ways to go yet and my other 2 D need to have rebound seasons.

What do you feel I should do to improve my team? I know that some say Bergeron is too risky but he has had a full year to recover and I think he is worth taking a chance on. I know you don't like Kessel but I still feel he is better than Giroux and co. and I am trying to ship him off anyways. A lot of people are also down on Pitkanen but I have always been a believer in him, though I am starting to get nervous about his attitude. Should I try and trade Rask and a forward to add more offensive production? (I am a wings fan so Howard stays put )

Basically my main objective right now is to find a goal scoring RW who can put up a PIM/G. These players are rare in my league but I think a guy like Clowe would really help me.

So my questions to you are:

What do you think of my team? Am I in good shape, or do I need to make some major adjustments. How would go about making adjustments to better set this team up in the future.

Just for reference, here are the players the league champion is likely to be keeping:

C - B. Richards, Arnott, P.M. Bouchard, Brassard
LW - Kovalchuk, Plekanec
RW - Gaborik, A. Kostitsyn
D - Gonchar, A. Markov, Burns, Cobrun
G - Fluery, Smith, Gerber

Other options/assets: Zidlicky (D), Halak (G), S. Kostitsyn (LW), Hanzal (C), Dubinsky (C)

His team is sick, I know. But he got really lucky landing MAF for Hasek and Steve Mason. What a joke that was ...

Anyways, I really look forward to your response. I have read a lot of your stuff on HF and it's all been of the highest quality.

One last thing:

What do you think of the league settings? Any changes you would make to improve it, etc.?

Thanks in advance,

Mikey

P.S. Sorry for the long post but I had to take advantage of the opportunity. Peace.

Whats up Mikey, good to see you around here.

First off, the league settings look pretty standard, good stuff. CBS is the cream of the crop with pools as well. Good stuff.

As for your team, expect big things from EJ next year. The Blues brought him along slowly, but by the end of the year he was forcing the issue. Expect 45 points next year. He isn't as flashy as Burns, but similar production. His shot is unbelievable.

I REALLY like Giroux. I'd keep him big time over Kessel. If you can, try and package up Phil for something. Pitkanen is a tough case. There are clearly some off-ice issues there, but he is super talented. If he ends up in Carolina, he could break 60 points. I'd probably keep him, unless you can get a solid deal.

Goaltending is solid, I wouldn't make any moves there. Garon is a capable #2 in fantasy hockey.

Another quick one, which side do you like most in a keeper pool, 10 teams, 15 keepers, 10 farm, standard stats:

Lehtonen + Ry.Whitney (he needs G/D badly)
Hemsky + Okposo (I need RW badly)

See team in my sig.

Thanks a lot for the previous answer and your time! That's very appreciated.

What should I do with this team. Any of these players you feel won't pan out. I'm in a 18 team h2h league, we have a 75 mill cap and a 30 mill cap floor.. Our cap is based off of the nhl cap hit. 12 forwards count, points only and no position requirement. 5 Dmen count and points only with them also.. except you get 1 point for every 60 minutes played by dmen. 1 goalie counts, 2pts for win, 2 points for shutout.

I can keep 14 players, any other player above that number i need to exempt them with one of my draft picks. (I have 20 picks. so thats allot)

FORWARDS

1-Vincent Lecavalier (T 6.875
2-Kyle Turris
3-Sam Gagner
4-Patrick O'Sullivan* (LA) (0.94)
5-Derrick Brassard* (CBJ) (1.25)
6-Brian Little (0.9)*
7-Claude Giroux
8-Patrick Berglund
9-T.J. Hensick
10-Michael Frolik* (Flo) (0.2)
11-Kyle Okposo* (NYI) (0.2)
12-Lars Eller
13-Michael Grabner* (Van) (0.87)
14-Francois Bouchard

DEFENCE
1- Erik Johnson* (Stl) (3.7)
2- Kris Letang
3- Brian Lee* (Ott) (1.28)*
4- Dennis Grebeshkov** (NYI) (0.95)
5- Cody Franson
GOALIES
1- Jonathan Bernier* (LA) (0.87)
2- Riku Helenius* (T (0.85)
Draft picks
1 1st top 3 pick
2 1st top 5 pick
3 1st 12th overall
4 2nd
5 2nd
5 2nd
7 3rd
8 3rd
9 3rd
10 4th
11 4th
12 5th
13 5th
14 6th
15 6th
16 7th
17 7th
18 8th
19 8th
20 9th

I also have 2 firsts in the 09 draft.

Only one player I know for sure that i'm dropping if I can't trade. that player would be Riku.
My league has been around for along time.. but i just joined in the summer of 06. Johnson was my player.. taken 4th overall..

If you had this team what would you be looking at doing?

Keeper trade - My Backstrom(wsh) for his Spezza
I am in contention to win this Year...

Thanx,

DAW wrote:
What should I do with this team. Any of these players you feel won't pan out. I'm in a 18 team h2h league, we have a 75 mill cap and a 30 mill cap floor.. Our cap is based off of the nhl cap hit. 12 forwards count, points only and no position requirement. 5 Dmen count and points only with them also.. except you get 1 point for every 60 minutes played by dmen. 1 goalie counts, 2pts for win, 2 points for shutout.

I can keep 14 players, any other player above that number i need to exempt them with one of my draft picks. (I have 20 picks. so thats allot)

FORWARDS

1-Vincent Lecavalier (T 6.875
2-Kyle Turris
3-Sam Gagner
4-Patrick O'Sullivan* (LA) (0.94)
5-Derrick Brassard* (CBJ) (1.25)
6-Brian Little (0.9)*
7-Claude Giroux
8-Patrick Berglund
9-T.J. Hensick
10-Michael Frolik* (Flo) (0.2)
11-Kyle Okposo* (NYI) (0.2)
12-Lars Eller
13-Michael Grabner* (Van) (0.87)
14-Francois Bouchard

DEFENCE
1- Erik Johnson* (Stl) (3.7)
2- Kris Letang
3- Brian Lee* (Ott) (1.28)*
4- Dennis Grebeshkov** (NYI) (0.95)
5- Cody Franson
GOALIES
1- Jonathan Bernier* (LA) (0.87)
2- Riku Helenius* (T (0.85)
Draft picks
1 1st top 3 pick
2 1st top 5 pick
3 1st 12th overall
4 2nd
5 2nd
5 2nd
7 3rd
8 3rd
9 3rd
10 4th
11 4th
12 5th
13 5th
14 6th
15 6th
16 7th
17 7th
18 8th
19 8th
20 9th

I also have 2 firsts in the 09 draft.

Only one player I know for sure that i'm dropping if I can't trade. that player would be Riku.
My league has been around for along time.. but i just joined in the summer of 06. Johnson was my player.. taken 4th overall..

If you had this team what would you be looking at doing?

Keep the rebuild going. I have been rebuilding for three years in one of my keepers and have stacked up big time on the back end (Green, EJ, Kronwall, Letang, Enstrom, Stralman, Phaneuf), and it looks like you will be on that path with your forwards.

I don't really like Frolik all that much, but the rest of your young guys are awesome. Grabner is a bit under the radar but he has 40 goal upside with his speed and skill.

Your young d-men (especially Lee and Letang) will get big opportunities starting next year to produce. Grebeshkov is someone I wouldn't worry about keeping to be honest. Solid player, but nothing special.