One of the most difficult decisions a fantasy general manager faces is deciding which players to keep each season.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a keep-three, keep-10, or keep-25, you’re racking your brains over whether to keep a productive veteran on the downside of his career versus the up-and-coming player that hasn’t broken out yet. You’re debating whether it’s worth using a keeper spot on Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci as they haven’t re-signed yet. And how do you decide between two prospects that haven’t made the NHL yet?

The right decision will help lead your team to glory, while the incorrect one can set your fantasy franchise back a couple of years. I'm in a points-only league where you can keep 15 players (any position) plus two rookies. Your top eight forwards, five defensemen and two goalies count in the final standings.
What makes this league interesting is an unusual rule: All dropped players are auctioned off. Before our draft, you bid on dropped players using draft picks (maximum one pick per player). The bid with the highest draft pick wins the player, but the draft pick goes to the GM who dropped that player. This adds an extra wrinkle, as you are hoping to drop players that have the reputation that will net you a high pick, but won’t be too much of a loss to your team.

So that line earlier about how dropping the wrong player can set your team back? Last year, for my bubble players, I decided to keep Nazem Kadri and Bryan Rust over Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Kadri was coming off a 100-point pace season and was thought to be playing alongside elite Jonathan Huberdeau in Calgary. Rust had 58 points in 60 games and seemed guaranteed a top-six role and top power-play usage. RNH was coming off an injury season that saw him post 50 points in 63 games and had cooled off after a hot start. The only positive was that not only did no one bid a draft pick on RNH, no one drafted him either. So while I didn’t keep a 100-point player, no one else got one either.
Below are 10 players that are bubble keepers in points-only leagues.

10. Neal Pionk
One of the greatest pieces of advice I have learned from this site involved defensemen in points-only pools. Basically, the advice was that you want to keep defensemen can reach 40 points. Pionk and Josh Morrissey used to take turns being the Jets’ top offensive defenseman, and it led to two straight years of Pionk finishing with a 52- and 49-point pace. Now, with Morrissey fully entrenched in the top power-play spot, the points will be harder to come by for Pionk. Do the Jets’ have enough offense for two 40-point defensemen? For most teams, it wouldn’t be a problem (numerous teams had two, the Oilers had three last year). For the Jets, it could be more of an issue.

9. Marc-Andre Fleury
In a head-to-head league or a roto league, you can still count on Fleury for enough starts to help you out. In a points-only league, he just won’t play enough games. He’s pretty much lost his starter’s role to Filip Gustavsson, so the best-case scenario is he a 1B option, or he gets traded to a team that needs a number one goalie. Most likely, he’ll get in 30 games and pick up 20 wins. However, his reputation and history will make some fantasy general managers waver on dropping him.

8. Tony DeAngelo
Whether DeAngelo is a keeper will depend on where, and if, he signs a new contract with a new team. Earlier this summer, he was bought out for the second time in his career. If you have a keeper deadline in the next few weeks, you might want to take the chance to keep him and hope he will wind up somewhere else. If your deadline is closer to training camp, and he’s still unsigned, then it will be easier to drop him. He can still be an effective offensive defenseman in the right situation, but it’s a matter of whether a team is willing to take a chance.

7. Torey Krug
Signing with St. Louis was the start of Krug’s fantasy downfall. He went from a mind-60s-point-pace with the Bruins to a mid-50s-point-pace in his first two years with the Blues. Last year, he finished with a 42-point pace while losing his grasp on the top power-play unit and losing two minutes per night at even strength. Throw in his habit of missing 20 games a year due to injury, and even if you are optimistic about a bounce-back season, you have to worry he won’t play enough games to make them count.

6. Cam Talbot
Depending on the size of your league will determine the number of goaltenders kept. My points-only keeper league is comprised of 12 general managers, and two goalies count for each team. So already, the top 24 netminders are gone. Plus with backups and prospects, there aren’t a lot of options. However, with wins counting for two points and shutouts and an extra three, you need your goaltenders to have at least 90 points to have a chance at contending. Even if Talbot plays great, 40 starts won’t be enough to make him a guaranteed keeper. You need to hope he can wrest the starter’s job and get at least 55-plus starts.

5. Ivan Provorov
Is this it for Provorov’s fantasy relevance in points-only leagues? He went from a team that kept bringing in power-play quarterbacks even though Provorov was right there, to going to a team where they already have two potential top defensemen with the man advantage, and another couple on their way. I can see the appeal for wanting to keep Provorov; he’s only 26 years old and will be a UFA in two seasons, so he can sign wherever he chooses. The question is, are you willing to hold on to him for two unproductive years in the hope he gets that opportunity with a new team?

4. Chris Kreider
A year ago, it would have been insane to think of Kreider as a borderline keeper. After all, he had just put up 52 goals in 81 games, making him the least likely 50-goal scorer since Jonathan Cheechoo. In every other year of his career, his 82-game points pace has ranged from 45-59 points. So he scored in that one year what he normally averages in points. Last year, he dropped back to 54 points. He’s 32 years old, and you have to wonder how many more 50-point seasons it will take before he gets replaced on his line by a younger player.

3. Nazem Kadri
Like Kreider, Kadri was expected to produce more than what he is usually capable of. Sure, he had an 87-point season two years ago, but it was only the second time in his career he passed the 60-point threshold. Calgary struggled under Darryl Sutter last year, so maybe a new coach will be able to get more out of Kadri. However, a 55-point pace may be all he can muster, except for those once-in-a-blue-moon seasons.

2. Bryan Rust
After a couple of great, if unexpected seasons, Rust came crashing back down to normalcy last year, finishing with 46 points in 81 games. While he remained in a top-six role, he lost his spot on the top power-play unit, which cost him at least 10 points. Rust will continue to get top-six minutes, but he’s just one trade away from being knocked down to the third line and no longer fantasy relevant. Even if he remains in the top six for a whole season, there’s no guarantee he’ll get back to the 60-point plateau.

1. Taylor Hall
In my points-only league, the worst player on a contending fantasy team has to notch at least 60 points. Hall has reached that mark exactly once in the past five years. The main reason for that is his injury history, as he’s played 70 games just once in those five years, and that was the year he reached 61 points. Now he’s gone to a rebuilding Chicago team where he won’t have as much help as he did in Boston. Even playing alongside Connor Bedard, can you be comfortable that Hall will play enough games to be a fantasy asset?