Trades can be difficult in fantasy hockey as people can either have no interest in making moves because they are too afraid you will get the best of the deal or simply they feel their team is perfect. Well I’ll be the first to tell you no team is perfect and there is always room for improvement. Trading is enjoyable, don’t be shy to pull the trigger but also don’t be trigger happy…there is a big different between the two.
I’ve mentioned methods like selling high, buying low and searching through the other teams in your fantasy league to see if anyone seems weak in an area. These are great strategies and should be used throughout the season; it never hurts to toss an offer or go ‘fishing’ with a couple players and hoping to land a ‘big fish’. You can usually tell by someone’s reaction if that player would be moved for anything or if maybe you sweeten the deal they will be likely to make the transaction.
What happens when some of your best players get hurt and you have to put them on the IR? Well that’s a pretty simple answer…you pick up the best free agent(s) possible depending on how many moves you get per week. If you are good at keeping an eye on who’s hot on the free agency list in your fantasy you should be able to scoop up a player to help contribute while your stud is hurt on the IR. Worst case scenario you end up picking a few different players and rotate them in and out of your lineup until your player returns from injury. Best case scenario you end up picking up a player who bursts out with a bunch of points and seems to be moving up in the fantasy ranks.
If you manage to get an awesome player through the free agency, and your star player returns from the IR you have 3 options:
1. Remove the worst player on your team fantasy wise and put in the player you scooped who is red hot.
2. Drop the free agent who is hot and plug in your player who is no longer hurt.
3. Work some magic; trade this red hot player with another player or players on your team to someone for a player who is going to 100% be better than the players you are trading…you overpay is how you do it. Bottom line; you have 1 player you have to drop no matter what…so what better to do than overpay one of the weaker people in your pool and get back a great player or players.
Here is an example of a trade I made just yesterday and how it all happened:
Over the past couple months I have had injuries to players such as Perry, Hornqvist, Keith, E. Kane and Krecji. Not good right? Think again…In my pool we have two IR slots. One that is a normal IR and the other which is an IR+; basically the IR+ is for players who are DTD…sometimes it would be a week or so that a player would go on DTD and not play or be on the IR, which is lame.
With that being said I had to pick up free agents. I picked up Derick Brassard, Roman Josi, Tomas Tatar, Aaron Ekblad and Ryan McDonagh. I’ve rotated a few others in here and there but those are the main pieces I picked up from the free agency list when I had to put someone new on the IR. I still have Ekblad and McDonagh on my roster; partially because I traded Yandle and Ehrhoff wasn’t playing up to par for my expectations.
Yesterday I had a hunch that Krecji would be returning from the IR and I would have to drop a player; keep in mind I also have Keith who is DTD (sick) and Perry (IR). So I figured Keith can go in my IR+ spot and Perry will stay in the IR while I slot Krecji in. Hope you are still with me here!
In the end I traded Tatar, Josi and Brassard for Okposo and Pietrangelo.
As of now this is my roster:
Ribeiro O’Reilly Pavelski D. Sedin Landeskog Hornqvist McDonagh Ekblad Pietrangelo Keith (IR+) Koivu (will be dropped when Perry is back) Krecji Niederreiter (will be dropped with Keith is back) Jamie Benn P. Kane E. Kane Okposo
Andersen Rinne Mason
Once I get back Perry and Keith I feel this team is going to be dominating…especially if Landeskog and O’Reilly can start producing like they should be.
Currently in 1st place with a record of 66-26-16.
Starting Goalies:
(FLA) Luongo VS (PHI) Mason (COL) Pickard VS (PIT) Fleury (TOR) Bernier VS (CAR) Ward (WSH) Holtby VS (CBJ) Bobrovsky (ANA) Andersen VS (MTL) Price (STL) Brodeur VS (LA) Quick (EDM) Scrivens VS (SJ) Niemi
Thanks for reading, best of luck in tonight's games!