Keeper Pools:
One of the most difficult parts of being in a keeper pool is deciding who to keep, who to trade and what to do with your draft picks. Hopefully after this write up you will come up with some ideas in your head that will help your team moving forward. There are lots of ways to prepare yourself for the future and they all depend where your team is now, at this current state and where you stand in the rankings. You have to look at your roster and think realistically whether or not it stands a chance at competing this year for the title.
Be realistic, honestly it’s the only way to do well in keeper pools. You must look over your roster, and others rosters in your fantasy pool…if you don’t have a chance to win this year you should no doubt already be in sell mode. Depending on how your keeper league is set, there are a number of players you must keep going into next season…make sure you have excellent players in your pocket going into next season. Sell off for picks or players (prospects) anyone you feel is playing above their head or has value; just not enough value to be a keeper for you. Perhaps this player will help someone else compete for the championship this year, and you can better yourself for next year. Maybe they will trade you a first or second round pick in next year’s draft. Young prospects with a lot of potential can also be worth scooping up, do your best to convince your trading partner that the player you are trading to them is going to put them over the top. Maybe try to upgrade one of your picks from say a second to a first if they make the finals…anything to improve your roster down the road.
On the flip side of things if you think your fantasy team is a contender and want to beef up your roster in order to make a big push through the final weeks and into the playoffs. Get the job done; winning the pool is not only worth the prize(s), but the gloating rights that go hand in hand! Pay the price, even overpay if you must to get the player you want. Remember, someone else in the pool may also be trying to scoop up this player and you just may have to outbid their offer. It’s in the sellers best interest to try to push his or hers players for maximum return. Which of course makes it even more worthwhile getting the player you think is going to help you win the pool. Almost everyone has a player or two on their roster that could be upgraded; sacrifice a bit of next season and take a stab at the title this season if you think you have a chance. Usually if you are at the top of the rankings this year, you really won’t take too big of a hit next year because your core is so solid.
If you are on either end of the spectrum and are on the fence about making a trade; feel free to ask me in the comments section or private message and I will give you my two cents…another opinion can’t hurt!
Trades: (head to head fantasy)
There are two possible spots you can be in right now where a trade is worthy.
1. If you are near the top of the standings and you want to add a bit more firepower or improve your goaltending for the end of season push and or playoffs.
2. If you are on the bubble of making the playoffs or just making it…you may want to look at where you need help the most, and trade from your strong point.
Truth is, at this time of the year, if you are in the gutter and have no chance of making the playoffs…just stick with what you have, don’t trade away your best players to improve someones roster. It’s unfair to the others at this point as you have no chance to make playoffs and you are just feeding someone else improving their chance to win. You either dropped the ball and didn’t make your trades early enough or maybe you had a bunch of injuries all season and some guys who didn’t perform as they should have. Of course this applies for rotisserie or head to head pools; keepers are a totally different story as I mentioned above.
Speaking of trades; be sure to keep an eye on any trades going down in the NHL. You never know when a players worth can increase massively like Perron. You want to be on the ball when something like this happens as you can vastly improve your roster with a quick free agent add-on, or of course through a trade. Jagr is an example of a player who could be on the move at some point, so keep an eye.
Starting Goalies:
(CLB) McElhinney VS (PHI) Emery (WSH) Holtby VS (PIT) Fleury (NYI) Johnson VS (CAR) Khudobin (BUF) Neuvirth VS (NJ) Schneider (FLA) Luongo VS (TOR) Bernier (DAL) Lehtonen VS (STL) Elliott (SJ) Stalock VS (NSH) Rinne
Enjoy tonight’s games and best of luck in your fantasy!
Thanks for reading.