With twelve games underway tonight, teams are approaching the 10 games played milestone…Boston, San Jose and Calgary are the only teams with ten games under their belt as of now. This is the time of year where coaches and general managers start to see what holes need to be filled. A bit early? Maybe a bit, but not much…I find it takes anywhere from 12-20 games before the first set of trades takes place. Injuries can sometimes be part of the reason, and of course someone not living up to expectations. Just imagine having the summer off and millions of dollars in your pocket. Personally, I get it if someone comes into the season unprepared…between the beers, fishing and summer partying; id be lucky to have my groove by Christmas. But that’s why they get paid the big bucks and I’m just a fan with some insight.
A few quick hits here:
Bobrovsky placed on IR Eric Staal returns to Carolina’s lineup tonight Cammalleri out for the Devils – DTD Maatta undergoing surgery for tumor removal (best of luck to him)
HBSL:
Hopefully you have stayed on the ball here and keep rolling in the right direction adding up your fantasy points in the HockeyBuzz SuperLeague. After getting slightly edged in my first two weeks of competition, I dominated last week…scoring the highest in my division (a sigh of relief!). Still lots of ground to make up, but there is lots of hockey ahead. With a total of 19 weeks in the HBSL, you have plenty of time to get back into the hunt.
Trades:
There is actually some technique involved in how to propose a trade. If you feel you have a player on your team that is playing above their expectations and you feel it’s only a matter of time before they come back down to earth and play how they ‘should’ be. Well; consider moving them for someone who is off to a slow start…Maybe someone like Skinner who was hurt for the first few games is a good target. He was missing Eric Staal and Jordan Staal for the games he did play; obviously that will hinder his production.
That’s just one example, here is another: How about thinking of trading Pearson or Toffoli from LA? They are worth about as much as they will ever be…but, of course it’s risky as they seem to be carrying the load for an excellent team. With Kopitar out; will this mean that all the first pairing shutdown lines will be going against Toffoli-Carter-Pearson? Maybe so…who knows if that will affect their output or not…
Perhaps you have a number of players who you scooped up in the middle/late rounds of your draft and they are producing for you…consider packaging up two players and attempt to trade them for an upgrade of one player; someone who consistently puts up good points every season. Don’t just pick any random team to trade within your fantasy pool, look at teams; see who needs what. I find most of the time if I can unload two decent players for one who is surely better, it will pan out in the end. Why? Because if I am going to go out on a limb and offer two decent players for one…I am going to have my eye on a free agent that I am going to add to my team. Maybe you have a player on the IR and they are ready to come back? Staal? E Kane? Whoever it may be, try to move two players for one. You will have to drop someone regardless; so perhaps you can afford to ‘overpay’ a bit to get the best player in the deal.
Example:
Someone in one of the pools I am in traded Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Gustav Nyquist for Patrick Marleau.
Now if you were to ask me who wins this trade – I would say whoever gets Marleau…he is the guarantee. Not taking anything away from RNH or Nyquist as they are great players and have had a decent start to the season..I just know what im getting in Marleau.
Feel free to ask about any trades in the comments section; I will give my opinion and why.
Starting goalies:
*bold means they are in* *Italics means they should start*
(MIN) Backstrom VS (BOS) Rask (WPG) Pavelec VS (NYI) Halak (LA) Quick VS (PHI) Emery (NJ) Schneider VS (PIT) Fleury (OTT) Lehner VS (CBJ) McElhinney (ARI) Smith VS (TBL) Bishop (BUF) Neuvirth VS (TOR) Bernier (ANA) Gibson VS (CHI) Darling (STL) Elliott VS (DAL) Lehtonen (SJ) Niemi VS (COL) Varlamov (MTL) Price VS (CLG) Hiller (CAR) Ward VS (VAN) Miller
Enjoy tonight’s action and best of luck in your fantasy tonight!
Thanks for reading