Have you ever looked at your team’s fantasy roster and wonder why the hell they’re not much further up in the standings?

6^TH PLACE? ?ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

Lonely End of the Rink

"Doc, everyday I look at my roster and then look at the standings and can't believe I'm in 6th place. 10 team roto keeper league (keep4).

Categories are: G, A, PIM, SOG, PPP, SHP, + -, HIT, W, SV%, GAA. I'm last in G, GAA, SV% and

second to last in W. Start 2 each of C, LW, RW, G, and 4 D each week. Need to have one of each position on the bench.

My team: C – Malkin, Getzlaf, Dubinsky LW – Benn (C), Semin, Burrows (RW), RW – St. Louis, Jagr, Lupul (LW), D – Letang, Green, Seabrook, Giordano, Wideman,  G – Bryzgalov, Broduer, Halak

I picked up Lupul a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately was on the bench when he scored a hat trick. Put Dubinsky in for Benn trying to pickup a couple of lost games. Been scores 2 goals and 3 assists in 2 games, Dubby gets an assist. I've been trying to shop Semin and St. Louis for either more G, a goalie, or another D because I can't rely on Green. How would you set this line up going forward and would

you make any moves via FA or trade?

FA – Gagne, Stewart, Shattenkirk, White, Enstrom ( IR), Theodore, Scrivens, Anderson

Thanks"

Chris: I can definitely understand where the frustrations come in because that is not a sixth place roster. Unfortunately, with only two starters at each position and some "fringe" guys doing so well (Lupul in particular), you're left in a tough spot.

With these sorts of leagues the most important philosophy to remember is that no matter how smart you are, you're going to leave points on the bench every week. It's just the nature of the beast. To be successful, you have to play the averages and go where the points should be. It won't always work out, but on average it should.

First things first. IMO, you do NOT need to deal for a goalie. It might not look like it now, but you have a killer line-up in net. And I don't mean in a "death to your team" kind of way either. Bryz and Brodeur as a tandem are going to net you really good stats by year's end and you know I like Halak's chances to improve with Hitchcock behind the bench. That was the first thing I tweeted when I learned of the move.

Green's injury status has sucked. But Wideman has been a great addition and Seabrook has picked it up a bit.

Semin's trade value isn't high now, so I don't think you'd net enough via trade. I'd keep him and wait for him to finally break out.

If you could cash in on Lupul's stats now, I would do it. I can understand wanting to trade a proven guy like St. Louis, who would net you more via trade, and rolling with Jagr and Lupul. But I think that's too dangerous of a strategy. I'm not convinced Lupul will keep this pace up all season long and Jagr, although I absolutely love what he's done in Philly, is still an old man. Love him. Don't get me wrong. I'm just cautious. I think you roll with St. Louis/ Jagr each week and keep trying to deal Lupul for help on D.

Malkin and Getzlaf will always be your centres. Benn and Burrows at RW, for the foreseeable future. St. Louis and Jagr at RW and sell Lupul now while he's hot. Green is the default odd man out on D until he's healthy. I'd be more inclined to go Bryz/ Brodeur in net for the season, with the possibility of some schedule-targeting.

PARISE AND KESSEL

Russell

"Thank you for taking the time to look at this.

Parise is obviously the cold one here and Kessel is well, “kessel” (for the time being..) So, what should I be doing with these two guys? I am waiting on Parise to break out and have a couple multi pointers, which all of the analysts are saying “should” happen, but I don’t know if this is going to be the case.

And Kessel will return to his 65+ point pace at some point this season so I’m thinking it would be a good move to unload him while he’s at the top of the scoring list. Unless you think that he’s a really good asset for next two years (which he really could be).

I am in a keeper league $50.50 cap. (auction style draft with 25cent incriments)

Daily starts/G/A/plusminus/SOG/Hit/BLK/GWGgoals worth 3/Assist 2.5/Sog .1/hit .2/blk/.2/gwg 1

You will need to check out the attachment with all of the rosters and their salaries to figure out the real value of Parise and Kessel in this pool..Parise is $7 for 2 more seasons Kessel is $3. In order to make a real offer to another team the dollars and cents in the trade must be within .50cents, as we are all tight on the cap. Ideally the trade will balance out numbers wise (but that’s really difficult to accomplish). I’m currently in 1st place and want to keep it that way."

Chris: Thanks for writing in Russell. I don't open attachments because I'm mildly paranoid. I also just need the basics for info, so what you gave me here already is great.

At the moment, Parise is not living up to his dollar value in your league or anyone else's. I do tend to think he'll be fine though and on the whole, I'm fine with his price for two more seasons on your roster.

Do I think that Kessel will produce at this level all season? No. But while many fantasy owners might want to be exploring a sell high mentality, in your salary cap league he's actually a pretty decent value regardless. The guy can score goals. Period. And he finally has a little more support offensively, which helps his cause.

In your case, at that dollar value, I don't think you need to worry about dealing him. Normally in these situations someone could try to sell a Kessel for a guy who'd be considered a step above him in star quality. But, chances are good that star would carry a much larger cap hit. So you wouldn't be doing your team much of a favour there.

KEEPER LEAGUE ROSTER REVIEW

Cheers from the Sunny Okanagan

"Hey Chris:

12 team, 30 man roster, 8 keeper. Points only. Goalies: 2pts win 3pts shut out.

Set roster monthly. No waivers. Unlimited trades.

Start: 4C, 4RW, 4LW, 8D, 2G

8 Bench includes 2 rookies who cannot start

First year of the league. My first keeper experience. Drafted last & made some mistakes.

Need as much help as you can provide.

Roster:

C: Filppula, Johansson, Grabovski, H.Sedin

LW: Marleau, Burrows, Sullivan, D.Sedin

RW: Hossa, Cleary, Downie, Kopecky

Goal: Luongo, S.Mason

D: Edler, Gilbert, Schenn, Ericsson, Bieksa, Goligoski, Gonchar, Quincey

Bench: Anisimov, Paajarvi, Bertuzzi, Stuart, Pavelec, Nabokov

Rookies: Landeskog, Ellis

Chris: At some point you may be able to cash in on having the extra goalies, although your extras don't really have high trade value at the moment. If Nabokov is moved that might help, but then you may just want to keep him anyway. Hopefully the Jackets will get turned around and Mason will build off last night's performance, but who knows? And Pavelec's trade can only go up from here. You may be stuck waiting on them because there's little point dealing anyone with really low value when they likely have a good chance of rebounding upward at some point.

On the positive side, you have both Sedins and Burrows. Luongo and Edler too. That's great. Hossa and Marleau are solid. I love Johansson's upside. Filppula is actually doing something this year, which is nice.  Gonchar has rebounded well. Goligoski's injury is unfortunate.

The bottom line here is that while there are some serious holes deeper in the lineup, your base of eight keepers is really strong. So no matter how this season turns out, you'll have a strong foundation going into next year.

For what it's worth, I'm not too big of a fan of the format of setting your roster once a month. A lot of the fun comes from, at the very least, setting it once a week. I prefer daily transactions, since it gets you the most involved. But people have different aspects of each league they like, so if it works for you then cool. I'd be interested in knowing what you'd have done differently in retrospective, this having been your first keeper experience.