Each week I’ll be fielding fantasy hockey questions sent by you through Twitter. Every Wednesday or Thursday, @Sportsnet will solicit questions from you. And every Friday I’ll answer them right here. Follow me on Twitter @DobberHockey.
I like this question. Go big or go home, enough of the Bozak-for-Palmieri type of questions.
Let’s get right to one of the biggest fantasy assets in hockey! If I’m trying to land Sidney Crosby in a keeper league, there isn’t much I wouldn’t pay. I wouldn’t pay Connor McDavid or Carey Price, and if it was a roto-keeper I wouldn’t pay Alex Ovechkin. The end.
So let’s focus on one-year leagues, because odds are there will be over a dozen players within seven or eight points of 80 and Crosby will be one of them. So you want to give up a guy who is probably going to end up with close to 70, but is on a much higher pace.
Actually, “want” is the wrong term (you’d “want” to give up Mark Arcobello for him, that’s what you’d “want”). I’m talking about a reasonable offer that might land you Crosby on the cheap. So target overachieving 70-point guys.
Blake Wheeler fits this bill perfectly. Evgeny Kuznetsov is another suggestion, as is Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and Kyle Turris. And if you have depth in a position, you can add a good player from that position to the package to entice.
If I own Crosby, I’m holding. It would take a top player to pry him from me, or if I was weak on defense or in net I could give him up for a top defenseman or goalie.
Without hits or penalty minutes involved I quickly lose interest in Milan Lucic. But the other two guys are in the same range as Lucic if you look exclusively at the points.
As much as I like Pouliot’s outlook playing with Connor McDavid, I like the outlook for Lucic and Boedker no matter who they play with. Generally speaking, in a close choice between two players I prefer to have the player who is not relying on another player for his points.
So for that reason I would consider only Boedker or Lucic. Because Lucic has scored 30 goals before and he’s on a new team with a fresh start, I’d take him.
Now is not the time to trade Ryan Getzlaf and/or Corey Perry. In this, you’re stuck with the hand you’re dealt. Nobody is going to give you the value that they are worth right now, all you can do is hope they
get rolling soon.
And they will. The only question is if it will take one game or six or seven more games? A bad season for either of these players is 60-65 points, which implies about 60 points are still to come in approximately 70 games.
You’re not getting a player in return that can top that. Sorry. And hey, I’m stuck with Crosby for the same reason so I feel your pain.
As for plus/minus, normally that’s a stat I just punt if I don’t get any luck with it in the first month. But if you really want to take a stab at having a good showing in the category, look for teams who are performing far below expectations and you feel comfortable they will turn things around. Columbus is a great example – those players will be plus/minus studs at least for the next little while.
Yes John, you should trade Stamkos. There are still large factions of fantasy owners who consider him an elite fantasy forward. He’s a top-12 player, but he’s not a top-three player and yet there is a legion of poolies who feel otherwise.
They’ll pay a premium for him, so find out who it is in your league and get calling.
Mark, Crosby has more value than Stamkos. He’ll beat Stamkos in terms of total points in each of the next three seasons. An injury would change things, but Sid has been pretty healthy lately.
And your follow-up question ties in with John’s question. You should trade Stamkos because many are willing to overpay. Whereas Crosby and McDavid are in a different stratosphere.
Colton Parayko, 22, was largely ignored by fantasy owners because he was drafted late in the third round (2012) and the Blues have a stable of rearguards in the system and obviously an impressive top three.
But his name started popping up a lot late last season thanks to his production and a reputation for a great work ethic. He transitioned his game to the AHL (and now NHL) quickly.
The Kevin Shattenkirk injury has him putting up points faster than expected but even with Shattenkirk coming back soon, Parayko should still be a safe bet to top 35 points.
Parayko was still getting decent ice time even before Shattenkirk went down. His 10-shot game Thursday night made it quite clear that it would be a mistake to keep him off the power play. Eventually, he could be a 50-point player, but for that to happen sooner he would need to force his way into Alex Pietrangelo’s spot on the top unit.
And again, he’s certainly making a case to do that. More on Parayko here at my DobberProspects website.
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