Today I analyzed a team sent to me by Robert, who is lucky enough to have Russ “The Comish” Miller in his league (unsurprisingly, Russ is the league commisioner). Robert’s team won the league last year, but he is now faced with a few difficult keeper decisions.

The League

The 50 T

The Team

Bubba’s Boys

The Rules

13 Team Yahoo! Rotisserie League

Scoring Cats:

Skaters: G, A, Pts, SOG, PIM, +/- and PPP

Goalies: Wins, GAA, Saves

No Cap

No positional requirements

Active roster 12 Forwards, 6 Defence and 1 Goalie

Maximum 25 player roster (19 Active 6 on the bench)

All teams must reduce their roster of 25 to 10 players plus 2 rookies (a rookie is defined as any player not having played more than 25 NHL games) prior to this year's draft (snake format)

The Roster

(The tier system isn't a fancy league roster format, it was just an additional way to rank the keepers)

His keeper selections:

My keeper selections:

Recent Trades

Outgoing: Fleischmann, Frolik, and Kaberle

Incoming: Briere, Roy, and Goligoski

An interesting deal here – this is a significant upgrade at forward, especially in a league with zero positional requirements. Goligoski for Kaberle is a downgrade in the short-term, but could be a long-term improvement. I am not as high on Goligoski as others, but I do recognize that he is in a great situation in Pittsburgh.

Outgoing: Clarkson and Tuomo Ruutu

Incoming: Rob Blake and Chris Mason

In hindsight (Blake retiring), this deal doesn't look as good as it did a few months ago. Mason is a solid goalie and Atlanta is shaping up to be a decent team next season. Clarkson is one of my favourite combo players (points and penalty minutes) in the league – it wouldn't surprise me to see him score 25 goals and add in 150 or more PIM. Ruutu is a solid winger but not keeper material.

The Breakdown

I like the mix of keeper players on this roster. Proven veterans and promising young players is a winning combination in most pools. Luongo is set for a monster bounce back season with a rebuild defensive group in front of him. The Canucks are going to win a lot of games in the weakest division in hockey.

Packaging up borderline keepers (Roy, Hudler, Ribeiro, Timonen, Wideman) for a keeper upgrade would be a great idea, if you can find a trading partner.

The Recommendations

1) Keep Gilbert over Wideman. The Panthers will struggle to score goals this year. I don't  see Edmonton having the same problem (at least not on the power play). Gilbert will be paired with Kurtis Foster, who has an absolute bomb of a shot. He'll also distribute the puck to the likes of Ales Hemsky, Taylor Hall, and Jordan Eberle. 50 points for Gilbert in 2010-11 wouldn't surprise me (unless Sheldon Souray miraculously sticks around in Edmonton).

2) Keep Wolski over Roy. Wolski won't fill your PIM category up (his career high in one season is 50), but I think he's in a great situation in Phoenix. Derek Roy is more proven, but he is way too hot and cold for me. Wolski is pretty inconsistent as well, but with him there is still room to develop. I don't see Roy progressing much past the 65 to 75-point mark. Phoenix has a lot of young talent coming up this season and next, and Wolski will directly benefit from that (better linemates at even strength and on the power play, more lineup insulation).

3) Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. With quite a few borderline keepers, the focus should be on trying to get as much value out of them as possible.