Welcome back to An Expert's Audit.  Every month we'll take a look at a reader's keeper league team in the hopes of helping him toward a championship.  If you're interested in getting an audit for your own keeper team you can begin the process by emailing Dobber about it.

Hugo Twigg and I got along fairly well despite the fact that he's a Habs fan and I'm a Leafs fan.  Just so long as we avoided slagging the other guy's team we were ok.  Hugo plays in a 16 team H2H fantasy point league that REALLY ups the value of defensemen.  He's the reigning champ thanks to a significant D corps to anchor a decent squad.  As is the case in any league though, repeating is a huge task.  The fantasy point scoring in this league includes: (Defense : G:7pts A:5pts PPG:3pts PPA:3pts), (Forwards: G:5 A:3 pts PPG:3pts PPA:2pts), (Goalies : 10 pts W / 5 pts SO, Saves: 0.2 GA: -1), ( All: 0.5 pts PIM, 0.1 FOW, 0.2 Hits, 0.3 pts SOG). 

Without further ado let's look at Quebec Nordiques.

F Zach Parise MIN – apparently you pronounce it Pa-ree-see.  Hmm, I've been saying it wrong all these years.  He's a top 3 shooter although the goals just aren't there yet.  I think the defensive system in Minny will hurt his value but with all the SOG's he puts up I also expect that the goal totals will be solid for the next few seasons.

F Vincent Lecavalier TB – he used to be a goals monster and he's now making up for it by all around slick play.  His offensive contributions in the first third of the season have surprised me but I chalk it up to the fact that he has so much other talent around him.

F Jonathan Huberdeau FLA – the next Eric Staal.  I heart Hubey.

F David Perron STL – a solid contributor to a balanced attack in St. Louis.  Best case scenario he's a 20ish goal, 50ish point guy for the next several seasons.

F Dustin Brown LA – one of the top hitters in the game and good for 25 goals in a typical season.  This league gives you bonus points for hits and goals so he carries more value than he would in a standard roto league.

F Stephen Weiss FLA – he's a steady 20 goal option who would be fine as a C2 on any NHL team.  Unfortunately he's billed as a C1 and I don't think he has the skills.

D Zdeno Chara BOS – he's just what you need in a league like this, a goal scoring defenseman.  He's a perfect anchor for this team and he's still got several seasons of elite production ahead of him.

D Drew Doughty LA – he just hasn't looked like the monster performer that he has been in seasons past.  I still believe that a bounceback is coming for him and I'm banking on it on a couple of my own fantasy teams.  He'll be elite again, hopefully soon.

D Alexander Edler VAN – he puts up stats with just about any D in the league but he comes at a much cheaper price.  The fact that he lines up with so many elite performers is a significant reason for his success but it also has plenty to do with a decent cannon from the point.

D Alex Pietrangelo STL – he broke out last season and has started into elite production for the next decade.  Yes, he's that good.

G Corey Crawford CHI – any starting goalie has significant value when your team goes 14-0-3 to start the season.  When that goalie also keeps his GAA at 1.65 and his SV% at .935 then you have yourself a fantastic option.

BN Jonas Hiller ANA – not so Fasth, the goalie around here amounts to more than a Hiller of beans.  Ok, that was weak.  I'm sorry.  I realize that Fasth is 8-0-0 presently but he's still just a 30 year old rookie and I fully expect that Hiller will return to the lion's share eventually.

BN Erik Cole MON – dude's struggling.  Like I said in the intro though, I'm a Leafs fan so I say, let him struggle.  I honestly don't know if he'll come back from the brink but I also have a standing policy that once you score 30 goals in a season it's not like you just forget how to score or something.  Handle this situation with care and don't make a decision either way based on the logo he wears on his chest.

BN Andy McDonald STL – I actually see many of the same sorts of things that I see in the game of fellow Blue Alex Steen.  Then again, there are many Blues that seem to be steady performers so maybe they all look alike.  Of interest to me the Frozen Pool Line Combo tool lists McD and Steen with Stewart on the same line most recently and I wonder what would happen to that line if they had a sniper like Tarasenko alongside instead of Stewie.  I'd like to see that get a decent chance at success.

BN Ryan Malone TB – I don't know how much value he has to a fantasy team anymore.  The Lightning's offense is on fire anyway so it could be argued that there wouldn't be much ice available for him even if he were healthy again.  We actually put him on IR soon into our study together and the jury's still out as to whether he'll see the lineup again.

BN Justin Williams LA – he gets to line up with Anze and the captain but he's only got a single monstrous goal on the season.  Is there much doubt as to why the Kings' offense has struggled so far this season?  He's only 31 but he might just be nearing the end of the NHL string.

BN Jeff Petry EDM – waiver wire fodder.  There's not much short or long term value here at all.

MINORS – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins EDM, Roman Cervenka CAL, Cody Eakin DAL, Johan Larsson MIN, Pontus Aberg NAS, Damien Brunner DET, Mattias Ekholm NAS, Ryan Murphy CAR, Kevin Poulin NYI.

If I can make a quick review of your minors I'd say that RNH, Brunner and Murphy will likely be a significant part of your fantasy team down the road and Cervenka might get there one day but everyone else is a bit of a crapshoot for future value.

In a league like this it's very important to have a strong D corps and take extra advantage of bonus points available for D scoring.  Your team was already there but you also needed to beef up your forwards a bit, hopefully without hurting your strong D presence.

Waiver Wire Options

Rene Bourque MON – he can be a streaky goal and PIM guy.  It does seem like he can't get much of a streak going though, even though he gets good time alongside Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta.

Braydon Coburn PHI – when Jeff Petry is your bench D option then you look for a replacement fairly quickly.  We figured that Coburn wasn't a terrible option.

Niklas Hjalmarsson CHI – well, we were just trying to catch lightning in a bottle and get some extra points somewhere.  It didn't work.

Andre Loktionov NJ – when he was traded to Jersey we figured he might get a shot like he never got in LA.  It took a while but eventually he made it to town and I was listening to the game on the radio here in Winnipeg today and he even got to be on the same ice as Ilya Kovalchuk for a shift.  If I were him I'd sure be thinking that I should take advantage of every opportunity whenever something like that happens.

Trading Options

You traded Alex Pietrangelo for Corey Perry and a 1^st round draft pick – you needed a proven goal guy and you wanted him to be young enough to contribute for a lot of years to come.  The 1^st round pick was a huge bonus.  This offer was actually accepted on the same evening that his Erik Karlsson went down for the season.  Coincidence?  Not a chance.

You traded David Perron and Ryan Murphy for Cam Fowler and Dmitri Kulikov – Once you moved Pete out you needed to build up your D again with another little deal.  At least we were only looking for a little deal but when this was accepted then Hugo did the happy dance.  Kool has been on the verge of excellent production for several seasons now and I see no reason why Fowler can't get up to goals in the teens and points up toward 50 in a normal season.  I loved this deal.

Conclusions

Well, we actually tried a couple band-aid solutions off the wire to try and bolster your squad a little but there was next to no success there.  The real advances this month happened on the trading block.

Karlsson's injury this season helped us acquire Perry because the other guy needed a D option that justified moving a former league MVP.  It wasn't luck that landed that deal though, we were already targeting Perry and the offer was on the table when Karlsson went down.

We were also plying the other guy to try and land Fowler/Kulikov.  In truth we offered more but in a stunning turn of events the other guy suggested that Perron/Murphy was enough because it was all that he had room for on his roster.  We thankfully said, yes please. 

At the end of the day we significantly improved your forwards and then back-filled with more than adequate D options.  It was a very successful few weeks from my perspective.  Well done Hugo.  As always, I'm only an email away.