Now that the dust has settled for the most part on free agent signings, poolies are left to wonder what the ramifications might be for their players or their teams as a whole. Have no fear, as the mailbag is a resource for me to answer your fantasy hockey questions while also giving advice that should be useful to all poolies even if they don't own the specific players being discussed. As a reminder, if you want your fantasy hockey question answered in the next mailbag, check out the end of the column, where I explain the ways to get it to me. The earlier you send me a question the more likely it is to be included, and the deeper dive I can provide with my reply.

Question #1 (from Andrew)

I’m in a 12 team salary keeper league, where our rosters have to include 10F, 5D, 2G. We are allowed to keep any 12 players and factor in their yearly salary, not their AAV. Our point system is G, A, PTS, W(x2), SO, OTL.

Unfortunately I am forced to have to cut some players I'd prefer to keep. My hope would be to trade some players for picks; but other GMs are not overly active, so that might be unrealistic. Basically which 12 of the following (salary for our league listed) would you keep if no trades can be made?

F – Sean Couturier ($4.75M), Alex Debrincat ($5.1M), Brendan Gallagher ($2.75M), Johnny Gaudreau ($6.75M), Evgeni Kuznetsov ($5.0M), Patrik Laine ($7.5M), David Perron ($3.09M), Mark Scheifele ($5.5M), Andrei Svechnikov ($0.925M)

D – Tony DeAngelo ($4.8M); Kris Letang ($7.25M), Mattias Ekholm ($3.0M), Keith Yandle ($5.75M)

G – Petr Mrazek ($3.25M), David Rittich ($2.75M), Darcy Kuemper ($3.5M)

I see a total of 16 players, so only four need to be cut. Let's start with the easiest one, which is Rittich. With Calgary signing prized UFA Jacob Markstrom, Rittich is a 100% back-up, so he's a definite drop.

My next drop is Yandle. Not only is he expensive but also you don't count PPPts, which accounted for 60 of his 93 points over the past two seasons. Beyond that, by the end of 2019-20, he was on the outs, seeing under 19:00 per game and scoring 13 points in his final 27 contests. It's a shame that no one is amenable to trades as I feel his name recognition and past achievements could get you something. But as it stands, he does not make the keeper list.

Next is Gallagher, as without SOG and on a Montreal team still helmed by Claude Julien, I feel his points ceiling is roughly about the same as the floor of your next worst forward. Yes, I realize his salary is also the lowest; however, I think he has to be among the four drops.

The last cut is tough. Ekholm is an option, although 35-40 rearguard points for $3M isn't bad. Perhaps it's Mrazek, except he's rumored to be on the trade block; and if a team trades for him they'll intend to play him. Worst case scenario he stays in Carolina and starts 45+ games. So I'm keeping him, especially in a 12 team league with half its categories relating to netminders. You could drop your second most expensive forward in Gaudreau, who seems disinterested; but if he does turn things around, he could explode. Letang is also a consideration as although he's a great scorer that's when he's healthy, plus his multicat stats don't count. Probably I let Letang go, as at 33 he's more likely to slow down and/or get hurt, and that's not what you want from a guy on the books for $7.25M. Good luck!

Question #2 (from John)

I’m in a 14 team league with scoring categories of, for forwards, G, A, +/-, PIM, PPG, PPA, HIT, for defensemen, G, A, PIM, HIT, and, for goalies, just GAA. A contract system is used, with salaries determined by an auction draft to fill a 30 player roster consisting of 18F (12 active), 9D (six active), and 3G (two active). We get up to 20 keepers and there’s also a three round rookie draft. The salary cap is $30, rising to $37 after the draft, with rookie salaries counting $0.10 each. The minimum bid for any player at the draft is also $0.10.

I traded for cheap contracts and draft picks last season after making a run for the title in 2018-19, leaving my team with $16.50 to fill 13 roster spots (7F, 3D, 3G) at the draft. My question is about draft strategy. Nikita Kucherov will be the best forward available and I estimate he'll cost perhaps as much as $6, with John Carlson being the best draftable defenseman, and his price likely to land around $5. Assuming that I'll be making a run at the title in two more years, is it wise to "overpay" for a Kucherov or Carlson and then look for bargains to round out my roster?

In answering, I'll assume GMs can keep players for any number of years. Also, I'll presume players can be kept at their draft price, i.e., there is an added cost tax in order to keep someone.

Looking at Carlson first, in two years not only will he be in his age 33 campaign, but Alex Ovechkin will be 37 and Nicklas Backstrom 35. It stands to follow that the production rates for all three will be lower, perhaps by a lot. Moreover, one of the best things about Carlson is his PP scoring, as his 91 PPPts over the most recent three seasons is nine more than the second-most by a defenseman and 36 more than the defenseman at number ten. Also, he hits a lot less than he blocks. In view of your available budget, two-year contending plan, and the categories that happen to count in your league, I would not target Carlson. Of course, you could draft him to try and trade him during the season to a contending team to get solid and inexpensive players in return. But under the circumstances, I don't advocate drafting him knowing 100% that you're going to trade him, as it ties up too much of your limited draft funds.

Kucherov will be 29 years old in two years and perhaps starting to slow at least a tad. But aside from that, landing him would entail spending more than a third of your total draft funds on a mere one of 13 players you'll need to land. To put this into context, it would leave you $10.50 to spend on 12 other players or $0.87 per player. As with Carlson, that is too much of your limited draft budget to spend on one player given that you don't project to contend this season or next. If you forego Kucherov and Carlson, you'll have ten, 20, 30 or even more cents to spend per each player you draft. That might not seem like a lot, but it could make a difference in allowing you to outbid other teams with more stretched budgets in order to land key young players.

The other thing to consider as well is why Carlson and Kucherov are available. Unless your league has a limit on the number of years a player can be kept or a tax on keeping players, this means the GM(s) in your league who owned these players opted not to keep them. That cuts against you drafting either one.

My strategy would be to try and get cheap players age 18-22, spend a bit more on players 23-27, and only target players 28 and older who project to be productive into their 30s. Those things having been said if you see a player who is older but you think could be solid and is going for a bargain price, grab him to trade this season or next, as doing so is different than using a big chunk of your funds to pay "retail price" for Carlson or Kucherov with the intent to trade them. Good luck!

Question #3 (from Jacob)

My league (10 team H2H; G, A, +/-, PIM, GWG, SOG, W, SV%, SHO) is heading into its 12th season and is pretty competitive. If I'm being realistic, my next chance to go for a championship probably won't come until 2021-2022 as, due to a sell off making a run for the 2019-20 title, my team is too thin on draft picks this upcoming year to compete with the top squads.

The league is a limited keeper where you can keep one player at each position (including two defensemen) plus one "rookie," which is defined as someone having less than 110 games played as of the start of the season. Positional eligibility is determined by Yahoo, so I have a ton of flexibility in moving guys around to make the best possible keepers. My roster is as follows (additional Yahoo positions in brackets):

C: Alexsander Barkov, Mika Zibanejad, Tyler Seguin (RW), Logan Couture, Anze Kopitar
LW: Leon Draisaitl (C), Matthew Tkachuk (RW), Evander Kane, Teuvo Teravainen (RW)
RW: Patrick Kane, Blake Wheeler (C), Tom Wilson, Elias Lindholm (C)
D: Tyson Barrie, Keith Yandle, Aaron Ekblad, Mark Giordano
G: Connor Hellebuyck, MacKenzie Blackwood, Semyon Varlamov, Petr Mrazek
Bench: Ryan Getzlaf, Vladimir Namestnikov, Pavel Buchnevich

The thing I'm struggling with is projecting the best player at each position for the 2021-22 season. Obviously, Draisaitl and Hellebuyck are locks, and Barrie makes it as my best available defenseman. Patrick Kane is a question mark, especially since Matthew Tkachuk likely will only be getting better. My thought is that Kane's trade value by the deadline this season may be enough to net me a stud RW of the future; and if no trade materializes, I'm fine with having him for my next championship run in hopes he's still dominant. Blackwood is my rookie keeper.

I'm debating between Barkov and Zibanejad at center and Ekblad as my second defenseman; but I’m wondering if maybe there is a better strategy. For example, maybe I shake things up with forwards, keeping Draisaitl as a C and someone like Tkachuk as a LW?

The league is also contemplating allowing one offseason trade per team, which would be fantastic because I could potentially upgrade my second defenseman slot by trading whichever forward doesn’t make the cut. But I'm not counting on that happening, as there has been quite a bit of pushback at the offseason trade idea due to past problems that occurred. What would you do if there is a trade allowed, and what if there isn't?

Let's first assume that a trade will be allowed. The first guy I try to unload is actually Barrie. With his signing in Edmonton, poolies are drooling at what he'll be able to do as the top option for blueline offense. Plus he's on a one-year deal, so he'll have motivation to succeed. Dangle him first to see if you can get a defenseman who is someone you can better build around, like an Adam Fox.

If no one bites on Barrie, no big loss, as chances are you can trade him during the season for great value. And in that case, you could try dangling Barkov out there (I'd keep Zibs over him), but my guess is you won't get much interest as he had a down – for him – year and center is the deepest position in fantasy. Instead, Kane is whom I'd toss out next. As good as he still is, I'd try to get a truly top-flight young d-man like Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, or Miro Heiskanen, or, if not them, then Dougie Hamilton.

If trading is not possible, then I keep Zibanejad as your center, as he showed he's truly elite in 2019-20, whereas Barkov has only had one season over a point per game and it featured him posting what now looks to be unrepeatable PP scoring an overall shooting percentage. Plus, Evgeni Dadonov is gone and so might be Mike Hoffman.

Draisaitl at LW is a no-brainer as you said. At RW you keep Kane if he's not dealt, or Tkachuk otherwise. I know it is tempting to keep Tkachuk over Kane given your future focus, but you keep Kane in order to ransom him off during the season to get stronger on defense or at RW. Also, losing Tkachuk is not a huge blow in a league where only ten RWs are kept, as there will be very good ones available at the draft. Your idea of keeping Draisaitl as a C and Tkachuk as an LW is good outside the box thinking; but I believe Zibs will be a 95+ point player for at least the next few seasons so you cannot let him go, even if it means losing Tkachuk, who let's not forget you can always redraft, as your fellow GMs likely will be making painful non-keeps and will be eyeing their own players to redraft as well. That's the best and worst part about a league like yours with just a narrow keeper pool – tough decisions when if coming to selecting keepers, but a stockpile of talent available to draft.

On defense you keep Barrie and Ekblad if no trading is allowed, or Ekblad and whomever you've traded for if trades are permitted. Yandle is not a keep, as he's being deemphasized and slowing. In goal, you keep Hellebuyck, plus Blackwood as your rookie, but then plan to draft another young netminder, as Blackwood's stock has dropped a bit with the Devils having signed Corey Crawford. Good luck!

Question #4 (from Bryan)

I'm in a 10 team Capped Keeper league counting Goals and Assists only. Our format is 30 total players rostered, with each team getting eight keepers plus 12 drafted players that count against the cap, and ten drafted bench players that do not count against the cap.

My question is should I keep Mark Stone at $9.5M or Sean Monahan at $6.375M? If I keep Stone I'll have $42.08M (~$3.5M/player) to spend. If I keep Monahan, I'll have $45.15M (~3.76M/player) to spend. My other keepers are as follows: Mark Scheifele, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Elias Pettersson, John Klingberg, Morgan Rielly, Ivan Provorov, and Ilya Samsonov. I could also swap out Provorov (6.75M) and keep either John Marino ($0.925M) or Adam Boqvist ($0.895M) to save further money. What would you do?

I've made my stance on Stone well known in my columns, and it's that in Vegas, where during the regular season the team does not put its top players out there for 20+ minutes overall or a ton on the PP, he's a 75-80 point player. And that's not enough output for $9.5M. Yes, Monahan took a step back last season; however, he's the undisputed #1 center in Calgary and for what it's worth he ended 2019-20 with ten points in his last ten regular-season games, portending a rebound. Yes, Stone has no downside; however, I believe him being a steady Eddie works against keeping him at that price tag.

As for your defense, with the Flyers having signed Erik Gustafsson to a one-year deal, and him being so one-dimensional, I think Provorov's days running PP1 appear to be over, barring Gustafsson being DOA. Can Provorov run PP1? Absolutely; but the team also knows he gives them more value playing tougher minutes; so like the Jacob Trouba, Jaccob Slavin and Josh Morrissey's of this world, Provorov will cede PP1 duties and instead focus on….playing defense. So yes, I'd opt not to keep Provorov.

As for which of the two youngsters to keep in his place, Boqvist is the risk/reward pick as he could be running PP1 and in a position to rack up points, or he could just as easily continue to be brought along slowly and not end up paying dividends for you this season. Marino showed he has talent; but now that both Mike Matheson and Cody Ceci have been added, it's not clear what his role will be. Still, if he can somehow again play upwards of 20:00 per night he could get 35-40 points. If it was me, I'd take a risk on Boqvist, as although Duncan Keith seemed to take to running PP1, I can't see how he does well enough to stop Chicago from giving Boqvist a long look during their now official rebuild, which hopefully is all he will need in order to make the leap. Plus, in the end, this is just one of 30 rostered players, so probably best to go with the risk/reward pick. Good luck!

Question #5 (from Sean)

I'm in a 10 team H2H league rostering 23 players (maximum two goalies) and starting 2C, 2RW, 2LW, 3F, 4D, 2G, leaving eight bench and two IR spots. Categories are G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, HIT, BLK, W, SV, SV%, SHO. Historically we are allowed to keep 15 players, but we're expanding to 12 teams for this upcoming season, and thus have been reduced to 13 keepers. Because of this, my last few cuts are more challenging than usual.

So far, my projected keepers are: Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Samsonov, Rasmus Dahlin, Dougie Hamilton, Thomas Chabot, Auston Matthews, Elias Pettersson, Mathew Barzal, Andrei Svechnikov, David Pastrnak, and Mikko Rantanen, leaving me with two spots. The issue is choosing which two to keep from these three: Kevin Fiala, Dylan Larkin, and Timo Meier. Who would you keep? Or might you swap out someone from my list of 11 and keep all three of these guys? Or do you think I have a trade I could make?

Each player has a question mark. For Fiala, it's whether he can shine for a team which, for the second season in a row, didn't play any forward 19:00 per game. Heck, no forward averaged 3:00 or more of PP time per contest. For both Larkin and Meier it's whether they're more like what we saw in 2018-19 or what we saw in 2019-20, plus if being on subpar – on paper – teams will serve to stifle their stats in the normal course. Adding to this is the fact that although Fiala has shown the most in terms of recent scoring, he's arguably the weakest of the three in multicats.

In terms of Larkin, I think he's roughly the average of the player we saw in 2018-19 and 2019-20, as his IPP in 2018-19 was unsustainably high as was his shooting percentage. But he still shoots a ton and will get all the minutes he can handle, including on the top PP. I see his 2020-21 downside as 65 points and figure he has a better chance than not at hitting 70. As for Meier, although he's the same age as the other two, he's yet to play four full seasons in the NHL, making it plausible that he still has yet another gear. And like Fiala, he has room for organic scoring growth as well, since his TOI both overall and on the PP are not close to being maxed out.

Moreover, although Meier's scoring dropped, his IPP rose, suggesting he was making the most of his situation and likely was not producing more due to the team around him and his ice time. I see him landing around 65 points too. Fiala was superb after a slow start, and his IPP of 75% is not too high since even in 2018-19 it was 73.3%, forecasting that he had a breakout in him. But let's say his ice time rises to 17:20, which it was in the last quarter of the season when he'd already made it clear he was a phenom. Of the 214 instances of forwards scoring 70+ points in a season since 2010-11, a mere two averaged less ice time per game than 17:20. Even if we raise the ice time threshold to 18:00 per game we get only 21 instances, or barely 10% of the 214. As talented as Fiala is, ice time limitations may curb his output to 65-70 points, or right at what the other two stand to score.

If Meier didn't hit as much as he did and had already played his "magical fourth season" I'd say he'd be the clear drop. But as it stands this is a tough call. It still might be Meier though, as of the three he'd be the easiest to redraft coming off a disappointing season and being least proven.

Another option would be to trade one of the three, plus one of your young goalies, for an upgrade in net, turning two players into one and thus, in turn, solving your keeper dilemma. Of the two netminders, I'd be more willing to part with Samsonov, who has more NHL experience but was getting worse as last season wore on. Still, he'll likely tantalize one of your fellow GMs, who can then also take Fiala, Larkin, or Meier and trade you back an upgrade in net, like a Carter Hart. Good luck!

Question #6 (from Mike)

I'm in a 14 team keeper league where I can protect ten players from any positions. I find myself with a choice between keeping Frederick Andersen or Igor Shesterkin. In our league, goalies receive five points for a win, three for a shutout, 0.1 for each save and -0.5 for each goal against.

This is my third year in the league after I was added as an expansion team. I made the playoffs last year and believe I have a young and up and coming roster. Given this, do I stick with the veteran Andersen or go with the younger, supposed phenom in the making Shesterkin?

Call me crazy; but with no positional keeper restrictions, why not keep both? In a 14 team league, you would be in pretty great shape entering the season with these two, as goalie is the shallowest position and here you have two who most would rank in the top ten league-wide in your format.

Could Andersen be starting to fade at age 31 and Shesterkin potentially not perform as well as expected once he's "the guy" and playing more games than he's ever done in his career? The answer to both is maybe; however, I think it is not very likely that both negatives occur. After all, Andersen is set to be a UFA after this season and on a Leafs team likely to try and go all-in for 2020-21, so it's difficult to foresee him playing any worse than he has over the past few seasons, which would make him a very valuable goalie in your format. And while indeed Shesterkin has not yet faced the mental and physical demands of being an NHL goalie, he also has played at the highest level at every stop on his career thus far and looked primed for success based on his NHL action in 2019-20.

So although keeping both would leave you only eight spots for skaters, I think your team would be best off going this route. Plus, this would set you up to possibly trade Andersen after the upcoming season, capitalizing on his UFA excitement and assuming Shesterkin lives up to the hype. And if somehow Shesterkin falters, you'll have Andersen who hopefully can continue to anchor your team in net for several more years. Good luck!

Question #7 (from Jamie)

I'm in a 12 team H2H league where each team keeps 6F, 4D, 1G and one other "floater." I have the 11th pick in our draft and we are allowed to trade players and picks before we set our keepers for the draft. My question is, with the list of players I have, who would you recommend keeping and do you think it makes sense to trade away or trade for any players?

F – Alex Ovechkin, Leon Draisaitl, Mika Zibanejad, Mikko Rantanen, Josh Anderson, Evgeni Kuznetsov, Jack Hughes, Anthony Mantha, Victor Arvidsson, Tyler Toffoli, Bo Horvat, Nikita Gusev, Ondrej Kase, Gabriel Vilardi, J.G. Pageau, Ryan Getlzaf

D – Dougie Hamilton, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Shea Theodore, John Klingberg, Josh Morrissey, Nate Schmidt, Mike Matheson.

G – Sergei Bobrovsky, Juuse Saros

One key missing piece of data is the categories counted by your league. As such, I'll base my decisions primarily on scoring.

My first pass reveals only six "no brainer" keepers in Ovechkin, Draisaitl, Zibanejad, Rantanen, Hamilton and Theodore. Do I worry that the presence of Alex Pietrangelo will stifle Theodore's break out that started during the 2020 playoffs? Not really, as I think Vegas knows what they have in Theodore, and Pietrangelo will be tasked with taking on tougher minutes and either settling for a spot on PP2 or being a second d-man on PP1.

Your goalie situation is tougher than it seems. Signs point to this being the season where the pendulum swings toward Saros and away from Pekka Rinne, who'll be a UFA after 2020-21, thus incentivizing the Preds to position Saros to be as ready as possible to be "the guy" in 2021-22. What does that mean in terms of actual stats? Probably 50+ starts for Saros provided he plays well. As for Bobrovsky, poolies would be wise to remember the last time he had a down season he rebounded to win the Vezina trophy. Granted, he was four years younger when that happened; however, at age 32 he still is very much within the age range to put up solid numbers. Or is he?

Looking at goalies going back to the 2010-11 season, 21 of the 100 instances of a goalie who had 30+ wins in a season were age 32 or older when doing so, and a mere nine of 60 posted 35 wins in a season during that same time frame were age 32+. Still, Bobrovsky has two Vezina trophies; and if we look at the last three goalies who had two Vezinas to their credit, we see Tim Thomas, Martin Brodeur, and Dominik Hasek. What do all three have in common? At least two seasons of 35+ wins occurring on or after they turned 33. So ruling out a Bobrovsky rebound might be a mistake. Still, Saros is poised to be the #1 guy on a historically goalie-friendly team; so when push comes to shove you have to keep him. But maybe you hold onto Bob as your "floater," assuming, of course, you don't have better options.

For your other two d-men, as much as the break out of Miro Heiskanen stands to hurt Klingberg, you still have to keep him. Yes, there've only been six total instances of teams having two 50+ point defensemen in the same season since 2010-11 and Dallas does not seem like the type of team which would enable that to occur. Still though, when looking at Klingberg versus the rest of your options I think he makes the cut. I'm also holding onto OEL, as even if he's not traded before or during 2020-21 he'll have motivation to do well enough to make a trade happen, after which he could step up his game. Plus, the other three look to be guys who won't get deployment conducive to scoring, or at least not more so than OEL.

So that means you need to keep either two or three more forwards, depending on whether you choose Bob to be your floater. Injury risk notwithstanding, Mantha is worth holding, as he has shined when he plays and stands to get even better on his own, plus will improve alongside Detroit as a whole in the coming years. With positions not mattering, I'm also keeping Kuznetsov. Yes, with Nicklas Backstrom being re-signed Kuz's path to top-line deployment is roadblocked. But the Caps have enough talent and depth, and Kuz is talented enough in his own right, to make the cut.

Horvat and Toffoli are tempting; however, Horvat likely will be limited by having to center the second line for the Canucks and Toffoli by playing in a Claude Julien system. Arvidsson is a redraft coming off his poor year. Hughes looked like a boy among men as a rookie and I'm not sure how good he'll be or how soon. Gusev on the other hand was playing great as the season ended, with 11 points in his last ten games, including seven with the man advantage; I think he will post 60 points and could really explode. Of all those five though, none intrigues me as much as Bobrovsky, especially in a 12 team league where goalies are harder to come by. Give me Bob as your floater, with any or all of those five forwards being redraft targets if you're so inclined. Good luck!

Question #8 (from Michael)

I’m in a 15 team dynasty points only keeper league. I have the 6th overall pick in our draft for this season. Where would you rank "older" prospects Dylan Cozens, Connor McMichael and Nick Robertson compared to 2021 draft picks Nick Stutzle, Lucas Raymond, Alexander Holtz, Marco Rossi and Cole Perfetti? Who is closest? Who has most certainty? Who has highest upside?

First off, I'd strongly encourage you to buy the DobberHockey Fantasy Guide, as coverage of the 2021 draft class and other younger players will be unmatched. For now, however, we do have the benefit of referring to one high profile dynasty keeper draft that occurred and was documented in the Weekly Top Ten column by Tom Collins. There, these 2021 picks were selected nearly one after the other, starting with Rossi (third overall), then Stutzle (fourth), Raymond (fifth), Perfetti (sixth) and finally Holtz (eighth). 

As for how I'd rank them, I like Rossi first due to readiness and rank Stutzle and Raymond all but equal, with the better one likely being he whose team – Ottawa for Stutzle, Detroit for Raymond – turns things around first. Perfetti being a center for Winnipeg, however, could make him the steal of the five, if he plays well enough to become the second-line center for Winnipeg, who has searched for someone to hold down that gig for seasons. But being entrusted with that role is easier said than done; we need to look no further than Jack Roslovic, who's been brought along slowly despite that void.

For those drafted prior to 2021, I think it's Cozens, as I worry that by the time we see McMichael skating meaningful minutes it'll mean that Washington's core will be well past their peak, while there also is no clear path for Robertson to insert himself into the scoring picture for the Leafs. It is possible that either or both of those two get moved in a deadline deal if their team makes a Cup run, in which case then they could become more prized. But that's a big if – big enough to put them well below Cozens, who by all accounts will be playing all of 2020-21 for Buffalo, where he can apprentice under Eric Staal, who will be a UFA after the upcoming season, paving the way for Cozens to center the second line in 2021-22.

So in terms of who's closest, that would be Cozens, who also has the most certainty, and then Rossi. Who has the highest upside? That's tougher. It's not likely Cozens, but instead one of the 2021 class. I think it's either Stutzie or Raymond. Which one? When in doubt don't go with the Ottawa guy, as the team is so anti-spending that I worry it won't be able to bring in enough talent to support Stutzie and the other young up and comers, whereas Detroit is a bigger market, meaning in a couple of years when the young players are hitting their prime, ownership won't be afraid to spend to surround them with top talent on the blueline and/or in net. So Raymond is my close pick for highest upside. Good luck!

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One quick scheduling note – there will be no Roos Lets Loose column next week. That's because the following week will be Bubble Keeper Week and I want to have the Goldipucks column, which is next to run on my schedule, align with that week. So see you back here in two weeks!

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For those reading this now, it's never too early to start providing me with mailbag questions, which you can do in one of two ways: (1) by emailing them to [email protected] with the words "Roos Mailbag" as the subject line, or (2) by sending them to me via a private message on the DobberHockey Forums, where my username is "rizzeedizzee". Or if you prefer to wait, the time to get me question is right after each Roos Lets Loose Poll, since the mailbag normally runs the following week.

When sending me your questions, remember to provide as much detail about your league/situation as possible, since as you saw above in a couple of the questions there were some omitted details which made it difficult for me to give a truly proper answer. Examples of the types of things I need to know include what type of league you're in (i.e., limited keeper, dynasty, or one-year; roto vs H2H), does the salary cap matter, how many players are rostered (and of those, how many start at each position), what categories are scored and how are they weighted, plus other details if necessary (such as free agents available if you're thinking of dropping a player or rosters of both teams if you're thinking of making a trade). The key is to tell me enough for me to give you a truly proper answer, and for readers of this column to benefit from the answer/advice I provide. When in doubt, err on the side of inclusion.