Welcome back to another edition of the Roos Lets Loose monthly mailbag, where I answer your fantasy hockey questions by 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(s) answered in the next mailbag, check out the end of the column, where I explain the ways to get it/them to me as well as the details you should provide when sending. The earlier you send a question the more likely it is to be included in the mailbag, and the deeper dive I can provide with my reply.

IMPORTANT NOTE – This is the last mailbag that will appear before the start of the regular season, so please do not send any more keeper questions. Of course, any and all other questions are welcome for the next mailbag.  The end of the column will let you know how to get your questions to me.

Question #1 (Aaron)

I’m in a 12 team, keep up to 6, H2H league with categories of G, A, PPG, PPA, PIM, SOG, HIT, BLK, FOW, W, SV%, SO and rosters of Roster is 2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 2G, 6Bench. My locked in keepers are Nikita Kucherov, Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Bouchard, and Jake Oettinger.

For my other two I’m deciding between Josh Morrissey, Joel Eriksson-Ek, Andrei Svechnikov, Nico Hischier, and John Tavares. Morrissey is tempting as I feel he has now proven himself, but JEE is an amazing in multi-cat and his scoring is rising. I’ve had Svech for years waiting for a breakout year so it would be hard to let him go. Do you agree with my four locks, and if so who should be the other two?

First and foremost, I have no issues with the four you identified as locks. Yes, if you read my special edition of "Goaliepucks" last week you know I think Oettinger is showing signs of not being the elite goalie many thought he'd be; but on paper he has to be a keep given that two of the three goalie categories are volume-based. Just hope I'm wrong…..

I also think JEE is an easy keep. He's a multi-cat monster in general; but with your league counting FOW, he becomes all the better. If you don't think of him as Vincent Trocheck's equal you should, because he's at that level now. Plus, as I've made mention of several times this offseason, JEE is riding a streak of six straight seasons of increased scoring rate. On top of that, when the Wild put him on the top line with Kirill Kaprizov in the second half, Kaprizov went from 35 points in his first 36 games, to 61 in his last 39 contests. Methinks the two will be reunited when the puck drops for 2024-25. With JEE also seeing benefit in the form of point-per-game scoring in the second half, he's a certain keeper.

The last one is a toughie. Tavares and Hischier are perfectly good players and you'd be better off if you could keep them, as Tavares is playing for a new contract and Hischier had 45 points in his last 41 games plus is a FOW monster too. But they aren't quite keeper material when only 72 players are being kept. It does come down to Morrissey or Svechnikov.

Morrissey's production predictably dropped; however, he still showed he is the real deal, plus he too had better numbers in the second half (37 points in 39 games) than the first (32 points in 42 games). I feel though that he is not quite seen my most as being in that echelon of "tog dog" d-men, such that although he might merit keeping, he likely will be more easily redraftable than he ought to be. I'm inclined to say tthe plan should be to draft him again, as by this time next year he might be a much easier guy to decide to keep and, in turn, tougher to redraft.

That leaves Svech. I have not been a proponent of him, as I felt he was overhyped and didn't have that added gear which would put him nearer to, let alone above, point per game scoring. Also, even as his scoring has stayed in neutral, his multi-cat studliness has waned a bit. Last season his TOI dropped by a full minute, half of which was lost PP time. With Jake Guentzel and Teuvo Teravainen gone, I think the Canes will finally give Svech the "star" treatment. Granted, in Carolina that is a lot different than, say, in Minnesota, as even someone as talented as Sebastian Aho doesn't take the ice for 20:00 per game, and Aho's career best PP TOI per game average was 3:12. Still, Svech has a floor of 70, plus he is still quite good in terms of multi-cat, and he might indeed be able to rise to better heights. After all, if we go back to 1990-91, the only other winger who, like Svech, averaged 2.6+ SOG per game and 0.75 points per game in each season from ages 19-22 was a guy named Jaromir Jagr, with those who did so three times being Pavel Bure, Brock Boeser, Taylor Hall, David Pastrnak, Patrick Kane, Alex Ovechkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk. Granted, most of those scored well above what Svech has, but when you're part of a "club" where the worst member is Brock Beoeer, and the other seven were stars, that's encouraging.

In the end, I'm keeping JEE and Svech. I like the idea of redrafting Morrissey, as you can keep him next year if Svech doesn't make enough strides, or if Oettinger falters, or if Minnesota brings in a big name center once they can spend freely in 2025. Good luck!

Question #2 (from Jesse)

I’m in an 8 team, keep-6 league with sakter cats of: G/A/PIM/PPP/FOW/SOG/HIT/BLK and goalie cats of: W/GAA/SV/SV%. Positions we fill are 4C, 4LW, 4RW, 6D, 1Util, 2G, 7BN, 2IR+. I came in second last season and am fully in win now mode for 2024-25. My 5 locked in keepers are: David Pastrnak, Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, Evan Bouchard and Igor Shesterkin. For the last spot, the options are Tage Thompson, Robert Thomas, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Mika Zibanejad.

My inclination is Tage, but he also seems to have more interest from rebuilding teams than my other potential keepers, so maybe I deal him instead for that reason? Thomas is great in FOW and seems to be now a legit point per game downside guy. Zibs is consistent but seems to be settling into less than point per game territory and is a good bit older. Bob was superb in 2023-24, but at his age and with all the games he played and lack of offseason rest, is he a keep? Who are you keeping?

Let's look first at Thompson. How many centers, like Thompson, had at least one season of 45+ goals, and 45+ assists while averaging 3.8+ SOG, by age 25? Dating back to 1990-91, just four others met all the criteria: Sergei Fedorov, Eric Lindros, Auston Matthews, Steve Yzerman, and Evgeni Malkin. Not quite a mic drop moment, but pretty darn impressive. Yes, unlike Tage all of them had done more previously and did not falter as much as Thompson subsequently; however, we do know Thompson was hurt for at least part of 2023-24, and by Q4 he was back to 21 points in 19 games on over four SOG per game. He's also a larger frame player who will hit is his breakout threshold in 2024-25. You can see why other GMs are kicking the tires on him.

Thomas' 2023-24 output legitimized him as a true top talent with 85 point downside. He could have room to score even more too, as his IPPs are fantastic, and even as a pass first player only 41% of his assists were secondary. He too is a larger framed and hits his 400 game breakout threshold in 2024-25. It is indeed possible Thomas will outperform Thompson; but Thompson could eclipse Thomas' rate by quite a bit, and have more value across categories. Or to put it another way, Thomas might have the higher floor, but I see Thompson's ceiling as perhaps quite higher, with not much of a lower floor.

As for Zibs, he's locked into a great gig, but is older and had two stellar seasons which more and more look like outliers. He could connect all the dots again, but that seems less likely with each passing season. So even with him being solid in multi-cat, he's not a keep now over Thomas or Thompson.

Bob would be enticing if you didn't have Shesterkin. But with Bob having played as much as he had in the past two seasons and getting up there in age, he is at risk for disappointing, or perhaps going down with an injury due to the rigors of all those games and not as much offseason time to rest and train. I'm fairly certain he could be traded to some other team in your league and fetch a hefty return.

You keep Thompson or Thomas, and package the other with Bob to get one or more picks. It's also possible that if you could land a true stud d-man for this league, like Cale Makar, Rasmus Dahlin (who is a monster with these categories), or Quinn Hughes, and then you'd just not keep whomever is not traded, or trade them separately for a pick upgrade. If you do not make any trades though, I'm keeping Tage due to him looking like his old self by Q4 and because regardless of the winger logjam in Buffalo he will be the top line center and reap the benefits. Good luck!

Question #3 (from David)

I'm in a 12 team keeper with scoring of 5 points for goals, 3 for assists, 0.2 for PIM for skaters, and 0.2 per save, 5 points for win, 5 points for SO and -1 point for a GA for goalies. We roster 20 players and keep 10. My roster as of the end of last season was: Nathan Mackinnon, Jack Hughes, Tage Thompson, Seth Jarvis, Jordan Kyrou, Andrei Svechnikov, Vincent Trocheck, Timo Meier, Cutter Gauthier, Claude Giroux, Zach Werenski, Morgan Reilly, Shea Theodore, Simon Nemec, Kevin Korchinski, Jeremy Swayman, and Ilya Sorokin. I'm pretty set on eight of my keepers, those being Mac, Thompson, Hughes, Jarvis, Werenski, Reilly, Theodore and Swayman, but I'm struggling with the last two. Do you agree with my eight? If so, who are the last two, and if not how would you reshape things?

First off, as much as I think a healthy Sorokin can return to form and thrive, in a 12 team league, and with Swayman an option, he's not a keep. But if he falls too far in drafts, he might be worth grabbing.

I think you're right to not keep the promising but still too green Nemec, Korchinski and Gauthier. Maybe if there were double the keepers, but not with only ten for each squad, and 120 overall. I'd even go so far as to recommend being more selective about drafting prospects in this format, as with a mere 240 players owned, I feel it is more appropriate to take a wait and pounce strategy with prospects, where perhaps you dedicate one or at most two spots in your line-up in which to cycle rookies in and out while they get hot and cool off, hoping at some point to hit pay dirt.

Eliminating the youngsters and Sorokin leaves you with 14 players for ten spots. Giroux is a cut from where I sit, as I'm a bit leery of Ottawa having brought in David Perron, who I feel could give the Sens a lot of what Grioux gave them since arriving there. Giroux also is not getting any younger, and you have to find cuts somewhere.

Personally I'm not keeping either Svech or Jarvis either. I'm wary of Jarvis' low IPPs, while Svech, despite what I said above, has yet to step up and show he's got what it takes to be more than the 70-point scorer he's been. Granted, both should get more opportunities than ever before to shine; however, I still think Carolina puts a ceiling on forward production. Need proof? 

Dating back to when Rod Brind'Amour became coach in 2018-19, only Sebastian Aho has averaged better than a point per game, and even him only once better than 1.03 points per game. Instead, we see many players who produced in the 65-75 point range at best. The reason is because Carolina does not bestow heaps of ice time on even its best players, including on the PP. Regardless of how much talent Jarvis or Svech bring to the table, it is too uncertain in your case to keep either of them.

That means only one more cut has to be made, and I see it as either Rielly or Theodore. It's tough, since Rielly should be better, but has never put together a run of great seasons. Instead, he's great, then okay, then great, etc. Theodore is a scorer, but gets hurt a lot. Still, Theodore will be a UFA this summer, and I have a feeling he'll find a way to appear in more games to ensure a big pay day. I'd keep Theodore.

Rielly, Jarvis, and Svechnikov are pretty big names though, so you could find a team willing to trade for one or more of them. If there are no takers then I think the right choice is to let them go in favor of what I feel are better options. Good luck! Note that I realize here I said not to keep Svech but above I said he should be kept. It just shows that players can be keepers under some circumstances but not others.

Question #4 (from Lincoln)

I'm in an 8 team dynasty points only league, except d-men get two points for a goal. I have the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th overall picks in our upcoming draft. Am I crazy for considering Ivan Demidov instead of Macklin Celebrini? I think very highly of Demidov, but not only might he still be there at #3 for me but I am concerned about the lack of success of early drafted Russian players of late. What do you do in my shoes?

Here's my take on Celebrini, keeping in mind that assessing prospects before they reach the NHL is not one of my strong suits. I see him as projecting to be perhaps more of a Nico Hischier type, who might not be a top line star. It could be when the dust settles that Will Smith is looked upon as the scoring center for San Jose, with Celebrini more of a two-way presence. But if Smith maybe does not pan out as well, and Celebrini does better than just Hischier type numbers, then he could be more of a Patrice Bergeron type, who not only is a two way player but also a scoring threat. But I'd say the chances of Celebrini being an everyday 90+ guy are less than 50%. So he'll be more like a point per game guy, or in the range of 75-85.

As for Demidov, I realize he is tantalizing. And envisioning him alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield is very intriguing. Also, given where his hype is right now, you are probably right to think he might be taken as early as second overall.

Here's the thing. If you take Demidov first overall, then Celebrini absolutely goes second. But if you opt for Celebrini first, there is still a chance you can get Demidov third overall. Also, I worry a bit about having Demidov and Caufield on the same line, as it's not clear who'd be the sniper among them. Yes, that is splitting hairs, and things could change quite a bit between now and when Demidov does come to the US, which also brings up another point, namely that nothing is set in stone in terms of when Demidov will decide to come to North America. With Celebrini, he will be landing in the line-up this season, no question about that.

Although Celebrini does not bring with him expectations like those of other recent first overall picks, I still think he's the guy you grab first overall. Then by all means snag Demidov third if he's still there. Good question!

Question #5 (from Eddie)

I'm in an 11 team league which is nearly a full keeper since each tam gets to keep 24 of 30 players. Scoring is G=2.5, A=2, GWG=1, SHP=1, Hat Tricks = 5, Takeaways = 3 for skaters, W=4, SO=4, OTL=1, Goalie Assist = 5. Forward positions don't matter. Rosters are 11F, 5D, 2G, H2H and no cap.

Through what I perceive as savvy trades and pick ups through the years(pick ups are limited to 10 a year) I believe my team has gotten substantially better but I'm still typically stuck in the mushy middle of the league. My Roster consists of Tyler Toffoli, Alex Iafalo, Patrik Laine, Kevin Fiala, Jack Eichel, Matvei Michkov, Jonathan Marchessault, Shane Wright, Charlie Coyle, Vladimir Tarasenko, Tomas Hertl, Connor McDavid, Tage Thompson, Marco Rossi, William Eklund, Kiril Marchenko, Joel Farabee, Eeli Tolvanen, Jonathan Huberdeau, Rasmus Dahlin, Jakob Chychrun, Sean Durzi, Mikhail Sergachev, Luke Hughes, Brandt Clarke, Ukka Pekka-Luukkonen, Jake Oettinger, Adin Hill, Yaroslav Askarov, and Thatcher Demko.

Should I overhaul anything on my roster? Should I stand pat and see what the next couple of years bring? Which 24 are you keeping?

Instead of which 24 to keep, let's land on the six to drop, as that should be an easier way to proceed. Right off the bat Iafalo is an odd man out. It was thought maybe being in LA was holding him back; however, it's clear that was not the case after his extremely poor showing in Winnipeg despite being on the top line Q1 and Q3. Hill is also not a keep, as you have three entrenched starting goalies and a top prospect in Askarov. But I'm keeping all four other goalies….for now (more on that below). Patience might well be needed with Askarov, although call me crazy but San Jose could be a lot better a lot sooner than many think.

I'm also ditching Coyle. I get that he showed he has talent, but he doesn't shoot enough, and one of him or Pavel Zacha will be earmarked for the bottom six and perhaps PP2, and I think it is likelier to be Coyle, who is more defensively-minded. Even if Coyle does play on the second line, PP1 is unclear and the Bs are a far cry from what they were when Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci both thrived. Again that was due to Krejci being on PP1, which is iffy at best for Coyle.

The next cut is Durzi. I realize he's insurance for you if Sergachev gets hurt or somehow fails to thrive, plus he did fare decently despite being very much in the shadow of Drew Doughty on LA. But you need to lose a d-man, and he's the one who it should be.

With your categories, the next one to go is Tolvanen. Yes, there is a new coach in Seattle, so Tolvanen could get better deployment; however, after a splash upon arrival he just has not looked like a player who has it in him to be more than what he's been.

Next is Rossi. I've made it well known in my columns that I believe he is overhyped. At first my concern was that being a center as short as he is, the odds are stacked against him doing well, since in recent years the best centers as short or shorter than him were Tyler Johnson and David Desharnais, and you have to go all the way back to Derek Roy and Daniel Briere – now a GM! – to find two who did have success. Plus, when Rossi got a golden opportunity centering Kirill Kaprizov for the first half, Kaprizov was below a point per game, but he thrived once Rossi was pushed aside in favor of JEE, as noted above. Sure, Rossi might indeed live up to his hype, but I think he's a drop, or better yet a trade candidate.

After that it gets tougher. I think you either drop Clarke or trade Hughes. I worry about Hughes since he was so dependent on the PP as a rookie, yet barely shot the puck. Other rookies who shot as little as he did and also had more than half their points on the PP were Cam Fowler, Will Butcher, and Matt Carle, and they all either went downhill from there or didn't improve. With the Devils likely wanting to make a push for the playoffs and Dougie Hamilton healthy, I fear Hughes will get deemphasized. Rather than dropping Clarke, who should have a bright future, trade Hughes for a pick. Yes, I realize he's hurt now, so his value drops, but I still think he'd hold a lot of lure to the other GMs in your league.

As for how your team looks in the grand scheme of things, I'd feel better if this was a 12 or more team league, as other than McDavid and Dahlin you don't have top tier talent. I think you will need to trade one of your goalies in the not too distant future if you want to improve your team. If Marchessault or Toffoli have solid years, I'd strongly consider moving them, as they're old enough to not get any better and could be in danger of doing worse in the not too distant future. Same for Tarasenko, although I think there might not be much of a market for him even if he thrives, and my guess is he might be one of your drops come next offseason. 

In summary, the drops are Iafalo, Hill, Coyle, Durzi and Tolvanen. Then you try to trade Rossi and Hughes, and I'm pretty confident you'll find a taker for both, or at least one. If you can only unload Hughes, then I'd drop Rossi. If you can unload Rossi but not Hughes, then drop Clarke and hope for the best with Hughes. Good luck!

Question #6 (from Alex)

I’m in an 18 team, keep 7, weekly H2H league with 25 player rosters. Categories are G, A, PIM, PPP, SHP, SOG, FOW, HIT, BLK; W, GA, GAA, SV, SV%, and SHO.

For each team's keepers, only up to 5 of the 7 can be ranked within the top 200 according to the Yahoo pre-season ranking, one can be between 200-400, and one must be outside the top 400. Goalies are clearly very valuable, but alas mine are terrible, being Vitek Vanecek, Anton Forsberg, Daniil Tarasov, and Dustin Wolf. There is no offseason trading.

Almost certainly, Wolf will be my 400+ ranked keeper. Currently, I have 8 potential names for the five I'd keep from the top 200, those being Kyle Connor, Adrian Kempe, Josh Morrissey, Mikhail Sergachev, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Miro Heiskanen, Logan Stankoven, and Jordan Kyrou. 

I'm inclined to keep Connor, Kempe, Morrissey, and Sergachev. For the final spot I figured it was likely between Heiskanen and RNH, leaning towards RNH. What are your thoughts?

Starting with the 400+ spot, I do think it's Wolf, as Calgary appears to be grooming Wolf to be their guy. Tarasov might be that for Columbus too, and the team could be a lot better in a few years; however, Wolf has done so well in the AHL despite being so young, that he has to be the pick among the two. I'm with you there.

Beyond that though, I'll be frank in that your keeper options are not too inspiring. Part of me wants to say that you can't win this league through just your keepers; however, 90 of the top 200 players, or nearly half, will be kept. As such, statistically each team should have one player in the top 20, one ranked 21-40, one ranked 41-60, one ranked 61-80 and one ranked 81-100.

Where do your players rank? Connor is 25th, Kempe is 40th, Morrissey is 58th, Sergachev is 67th, RNH is 71st, Heiskanen is 97th, Stankoven is 116th, and Kyrou is 135th. Although technically you do actually have six players among the top 100, which is more than the five average for an 18 team league, the sixth is ranked 97th, so essentially it's five. Not only do you not have no one in the top 20, but Kempe is barely in the top 40 and Morrissey barely in the top 60. As you can see, your keepers likely will not stack up well.

As for who to keep among them, I would not go straight by the rankings, as I'd opt for Heiskanen over RNH. I get that RNH was amazing two seasons ago; but after coming back to earth last season it's clear that was an outlier. Heiskanen is hurt by Thomas Harley, who syphoned away points at ES; however, he also helped create offense, plus even as this was occurring Heiskanen was still getting PP1 time for a Dallas squad which, like the Canes, throttles ice time for top forwards, but does not do the same when it comes to the PP1 QB, as Heiskanen saw over 70% of Dallas' PP minutes.

In short, I agree with your top four, as they not only make the most sense but also are the top four when it comes to Yahoo rankings. Then opt for Heiskanen over RNH, as not only do I think RNH's rating is still a bit inflated, but when in doubt pick the d-man, as it's a position of comparative scarcity, especially when it comes to a guy who is a lock for huge PP minutes.

You did not list your candidates for the player who you'll keep from 200-400, so I can't give you any specific advice in that area. In general, for that spot I'd be inclined to look to the future, as I am leery of this team being able to compete in the near term given its keeper options, so you'll want to build for down the road. Good luck!

Question #7 (from Mike)

I'm in a 12 team keeper. Each team have 25 players on its roster: 20 majors, and 5 minors. Categories for skaters are Goals, Assists, +/-, PPP, PIM, SHP, SOG. Players are minors eligible until 164 NHL games played. We have 2 injured reserve spots to allow us to have up to 27 players at a time. At the end of the season, my team was: 

C Connor McDavid

C Austin Matthews

C/LW Steven Stamkos

C Nathan MacKinnon

C/LW Sebastion Aho

C/LW/RW JT Miller

RW Zach Hyman

C/LW Jared McCann

LW/RW Blake Coleman 

LW Matias Maccelli

LW/RW David Perron

RW Martin Necas 

LW/RW Gustav Nyquist

D Mackenzie Weegar

D Gustav Forsling

D Quinn Hughes 

D Evan Bouchard

G Fredrik Andersen

G Jeremy Swayman

G Calvin Pickard

G Scott Wedgewood

Minor Eligible

D Kaiden Guhle

G Nicolas Daws

G Justus Annunen

LW Tyson Foerster

The number of keepers is dropping significantly to only 8 majors and 5 minors. If see myself as having seven locks, those being McDavid, Matthews, Mackinnon, Miller, Hughes, Bouchard, and Swayman. The other two I'm pondering are Hyman, Stamkos and Aho. Hyman McDavid and Bouchard made for a sweet stack on the PP for me, and Hyman put up better numbers than Aho last season. Although I can see Aho being better overall in the long run. Stammer is a toss up for me and I have a soft spot for him, as he was my first draft pick when I joined the league as an expansion team but I can see regression not only because of his age but also being with Nashville. I don’t put much value in my goaltenders as they are so hit and miss but I do think I should keep Swayman. Assuming you agree with my seven locks, who'd be your eighth keeper?

Given what I said about Jarvis and Svechnikov in an earlier question, I think I tipped my hand. The pick is not Aho. Is he a more talented player than Hyman? I'm not sure anyone would even try to debate that; but in fantasy, it's about how you produce, plain and simple, and Hyman should produce better for you than Aho, especially given the stacking potential.

You have to feel bad for Aho, as virtually his entire career has been played under Rod Brind'Ampur, who, although great at putting together winning teams, does not deploy his forwards, even Aho, in a way as to help boost their production. Need proof? Aho has scored at a 0.95 points per game or better rate in five of the last six seasons while appearing in 55+ games. Only 11 other forwards have done so as many or more than five, with five of the 11 averaging over 21 minutes per game during that time, and only two players (Steven Stamkos, David Pastrnak) averaging less ice time than Aho; however, they both were in the top ten among forwards in average PPTOI, with 40 seconds more per game than Aho, who, at 2:59 per game, ranked 50th during that time span, yet managed the 25th most PPPts, showing that if he was unleashed he'd be capable of so much more. But with Carolina continuing to find success with their blueprint, Aho's production likely will remain stifled.

I realize you mentioned Stamkos; however, the major concern with him is he barely was a point per game player in the past two seasons, and hit the mark due to the power play, with 74 of his collective 165 points in these two seasons coming on the man advantage. And although Nashville figures to have as pretty decent PP given who they had and added, it likely will pale in comparison to what Stamkos was used to in Tampa, such that he cannot be in the conversation to be the eighth keeper.

That leaves Hyman, who's clicked superbly with McDavid, gives you a stack with him and Bouchard, and whose second season of solid scoring legitimized him. He might well get fewer points than one or both of Aho and Stamkos; but he give you the chance to get all three points on an Edmonton PPG, of which there are many. Plus, Hyman is a goal scorer, and goals are the toughest commodity to find in fantasy.

Although the pick should be Aho, it cannot be given the reality of the circumstances under which he and Hyman play. Keep Hyman, and reap the dividends. Good luck, although with those eight keepers you might not need it!

I'm always looking for mailbag questions, so don't hesitate to sent them to me. You can get do so 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".

When sending me your questions, remember to provide as much detail about your league/situation as possible. Examples 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; auction – if so, what the budget is – or non-auction), how many teams are in the league, does the salary cap matter, how many players are rostered (and of those, how many start at each position as well as how many bench and/or IR spots there are), what categories are scored and how are they weighted, plus other details if pertinent. If your question involves whether to pick up or drop a player, give me a list of top free agents available and let me know if the number of pick-ups is limited or if there is a priority system for pick-ups. If you're thinking of making a trade, it would be good to know not only the roster of the other team you might trade with but also where you stand in your categories. If your question involves keepers, in addition to giving me the options for who to keep, let me know if offseason trading is allowed and to what extent it is a viable option given your league. In sum, 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, it's best to err on the side of inclusion since I can always omit or disregard things that don't matter.