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.

The offseason is when I tend the get the most mailbag questions. In order to answer them all, and to do so more quickly, I'll be running a mailbag as soon as I get enough questions. If you have questions about keepers, draft strategy or anything of interest, definitely send them my way, via the instructions at the end of the column.

Question #1 (from Mikko)

I'm in a 12 team bangers/points league, with weekly lineup lock (so light calendar days don't matter, only total games played that week). Each team keeps 17 and has 30 total roster spots and 4C, 4LW, 4RW, 6D, 1 Util, 2G in active lineups. Among those I plan to keep are Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, Zach Werenski, and Connor Hellebuyck.

I've lost in the finals two seasons in a row and really want to win this season. With that in mind, I've narrowed down my final two keepers to four guys: Yaroslav Askarov (8.17 fp/g last season), Valeri Nichuskin (6.56 fp/g), Logan Stankoven (5.68 fp/g) and Alex Ovechkin (8.39 fp/g), although I can’t really see Ovi as a keeper option at this point. For what it's worth, most teams keep two goalies.

Should I keep two forwards and find another goalie in the draft? My forward core is very stacked and I’m keeping only three defensemen, so my most important priority in the draft will be defensemen.

Not seeing all your keepers, I will trust these are the bottom four. Let this be a reminder to all who submit questions – the more information the better. I can always omit unneeded details when including the question; however, the more I know the more I'm able to help and give informed recommendations.

At the outset, I wonder why you seemed resigned to not keeping Ovi. I think the Caps will be improved; and even if Ovi's minutes drop, every second he's on the ice will be in favorable circumstances, including nearly all of the PP, so I see him being a keep, especially if you're in win now mode.

Keeping Nichushkin would give you quite a few Columbus guys, although Marchenko and/or Werenski might not be in Columbus by season's end. In truth though, I'm not keeping Nichushkin no matter what. He managed only that many fantasy points last season when on the high octane Avs. Before he went to Colorado, he was terrible, raising concerns that his years of solid production there were due to him being a "passenger," in which case he'd struggle in Columbus given their lack of surrounding talent to elevate him. Those are big enough question marks for me to not keep him.

It boils down to Stankoven or Askarov for the last spot. Stankoven did do well in the playoffs, but not as great as it seems in hindsight. He is both benefitted and hurt by playing for Carolina, in that he will get meaningful minutes at ES and on the PP, but likely not so many minutes as to help him thrive. I see him producing only 45-55 points. Given that, plus Askarov doing okay last season and you saying teams generally keep two goalies, he's my other keep. Ovi and Askarov, allowing you to focus on defensemen at the draft. Good luck!

Question #2 (from Reg)

I'm in a league with 2 points for a goalie win, 3 bonus points for a shutout, and 1 point for an OT or shootout loss. Given this structure, who do you prefer: Joel Hofer or Jakob Dobes?

I actually did a deep dive on Hofer in my annual summer "Goaliepucks and the Three Netminders" column, where I concluded that Hofer's 2025-26 was "too cold," meaning he should fare even better for 2026-27. Why so? For one, his SV% was best on one or two days of rest, which should occur more often given he has become at least the 1A in St. Louis. Also, his Really Bad Start percentage was elevated due to mostly early season struggles, and 14 of his last 16 starts were Quality Starts, with only one being a Really Bad Start. And he should win a higher percentage of games due to more offensive support, as the Blues scored 18 more goals in the second half than they did in the first, and averaged a whopping 3.66 goals per game in their last 12 games, versus 2.82 for the season as a whole.

Of course, Dobes was playing as great as Hofer was down the stretch, plus was able to succeed in the playoffs when starting at a frequency consistent with being a #1 goalie. But whereas Hofer is more tried and tested, Dobes has a smaller sample size. Also, Jordan Binnington is signed for just this season, giving the Blues incentive to usher Hofer into the starting role, while Dobes has a top prospect in Jacob Fowler behind him, who looked pretty solid when pressed into action during the season as well. Still, the way Dobes performed in the playoffs likely earned him a decent leash, such that I'd expect him to get as high of a percentage of starts a Hofer at least through Q1. Binnington's lame duck status should incentivize St. Louis to try to stick with Hofer through thick and thin, yet if Dobes falters for enough games, Fowler (or even Sam Montembeault could eat into his starts.

Hofer also had a high rate of shutouts last season, although the comparables for what he did at his age in terms of shutouts in as few starts had only two comparables, namely Chris Osgood, which is very encouraging, and Jake Allen, which is not. Still, as scorching as Dobes was in Q4, he failed to record a single shutout, such that I think that tilts the scales even more to Hofer. It's a pretty close call, but I'm taking Hofer for this league. Good luck!

Question #3 (from Alexey)

I'm in a 14 team, H2H, keep 8 league with categories of G, A, SOG, PIM, BLK, HIT, PPP, GWG; W, SV%, GAA). I've narrowed down my keeper choices to these 11 players: Macklin Celebrini, Jack Hughes, Kirill Kaprizov, Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke, Ivan Demidov, Drake Batherson, Pavel Dorofeyev, Moritz Seider, Porter Martone, and Will Smith. I think I can trade one of Batherson or Dorofeyev for a 1st round pick. I'm drafting 6th overall, so most likely whoever I don't keep I could redraft. Who do you think will have the biggest chance to still be there pick #6? My guess is Martone, as the least proven of the bunch, and other GMs likely will focus on drafting more proven talent or top 2026 draft picks. But am I making a mistake risking losing a potential multicat beast in Martone when I have so many pure scorers? Or am I overhyping Martone? What would you do?

To be blunt, I think you're approaching this with somewhat of the wrong mindset. Yes, how easy it would be to redraft a player can be a consideration as to whether or not to keep them; however, never go into a draft with a specific player designated as your pick. You want to take the best player available; and more often than not, that will be someone other than who you didn't keep or planned to select. I realize you have a very strong group of 11 keeper choices, so there is a temptation to think you need to draft back one of your non-keeps. But you have to keep an open mind, as chances are far more likely that one of the players you drop won't be the best player for you to actually draft in your spot.

In your case, for example, your forwards are amazing; however, you have just one keeper defenseman. While I don't advocate reaching for a d-man with your 6th overall pick, I do think you should give strong consideration for grabbing one there if possible and reasonable, as defenseman is a position of scarcity compared to forwards, where, as noted, you've got great keepers already.

As far as who to keep, I'd do that trade, since if you didn't you'd lose a player for no return. You might be helping to improve another team; but I still think you do the deal. As for who to trade away, if it was me I'd move Dorofeyev. I realize New York gave key draft picks to get him and are paying him a salary that all but assures he'll be on the top line and top PP; but I don't like that as he's broken out, his 5×5 team SH% has been 8.4% and 9.4%, which are not elite. And his IPPs last season were 63.4% overall and a nearly identical 63.8% on the PP. That paints the picture of Dorofeyev having succeeded to an extent based on his team, as he didn't create lots of offense while on the ice at ES, nor did he find a way to factor into scoring at an elite level of frequency. In the case of Batherson, his 5×5 team SH% is not any better, but he's had a 72% or higher overall IPP in two of the past three seasons. I also like that his floor exceeds Dorofeyev's ceiling to date, plus that Batherson has found success with a wide variety of OZ%s, whereas Dorofeyev's have been higher than what he might see in New York. I'm trading Dorofeyev for the 1st rounder, making it so you have to drop only two other players.

Indeed, Martone is a drop. He made a major splash, plus is a Rick Tocchet type of player. However, he slowed in the playoffs, and Philly's ice times are not ideal for its forwards to thrive. Also, all of the other keeper options have far higher floors, with most arguably having as high or perhaps higher ceilings. So Martone is not a keep at present. Don't worry about losing his banger stats – those can be obtained in the aggregate, whereas scoring is a more precious commodity.

You still need another drop though, and it's either Sennecke or Smith. Either one would be a painful loss for sure; however, the other eight are simply better on paper. It's also tough since both of them would give you stacking potential. But of the two, Smith is quite lousy in banger categories, such that he'd be the one I begrudgingly would drop. Although it would be tempting to draft back either Martone or Smith if available, and I'm not saying not to do it, be sure to pause to consider whether it would be best for your team to instead take another player, particularly a defensemen. The other option is to try to make a deal involving one or more of Martone, Sennecke, or Smith for a defensemen, in turn making your keeper decisions easier plus balancing your keepers more. Good luck!

Question #4 (from DobberHockey Forums)

I'm in a 14 team, keep 12 league with categories of G, A, HIT, BLK, PPPts, SOG, FOW, SHP, PIM, TK, FA, SV, SHO, W, OL+SHL, A. The league is going from 14 teams to 12 and will have a dispersal draft. My current keepers are Macklin Celebrini, Sebastian Aho, Elias Pettersson, Mathew Barzal, Frank Nazar, Make Stone, Noah Dobson, Luke Hughes, Mikhail Sergachev, Jacob Markstrom, Karel Vejmelka and probably MacKenzie Blackwood due to lack of any better options. One of the 12 will be replaced by whomever I draft in the dispersal draft, where I select 8th overall.

Here are players I figure will be available at 8th when I pick in the dispersal draft, listed with their fantasy points per game last year: Kirill Marchenko (6.1), Lucas Raymond (5.5), Joel Eriksson Ek (6.5), Matthew Knies (5.5), Pavel Dorofeyev (5.5), Travis Konecny (5.9), Quinton Byfield (5.4), Sidney Crosby (7.7), Connor Hellebuyck (7.8), Lukas Dostal (8.1). Do you think Marchenko, Byfield, Raymond, Knies, or Dorofeyev can elevate their games enough to make them the right choices over one of the more established players? And either way, which keeper should the selected player replace?

You saw above that I'm not seeing a big breakout for Dorofeyev, so I'd not draft him. I'm also not high on Byfield, who's not shown a knack for PP scoring, plus his IPPs have been trending down, finishing at 58.3% overall for 2025-26. Also, although his 36.0% secondary assist percentage would seem to be a sign of encouragement, since that is roughly the rate of the best of the best centers, the issue is those are proven stars, whereas Byfield has not connected the dots as yet. As a larger player, he will be hitting his 400-game breakout threshold this season, leading many to feel he will take a leap. But as I've noted time and time again when discussing Byfield, centers who have been at tall and as heavy as him have never been great successes, with the best of the best being Nik Antropov and Martin Hanzal, who did okay at times, but never great, plus had shortened careers due to injuries. So Byfield's size could work against him. In short – pun intended – I think Byfield is overhyped, and I'd not aim for him.

Raymond is interesting in that he's done well despite his quite low 46.8% OZ% actually being his highest in four seasons. He's had strong 5×5 team SH% rates, but bad luck, without a PDO over 1000 in any season. He also has solid IPPs. In short, he is a very good player with a high floor, especially given what he's been able to do with such low OZ%s each season, but also one who may have limited upside until/unless the players around him – and/or his OZ% – improve.

Knies stormed out of the gate in 2025-26, but slowed significantly. He also has yet to average two SOG per game in any season, which would put a likely ceiling on his scoring if continued. He is very solid in banger categories though, and a lock for PP1. He could have another gear given what we saw at the outset of 2025-26, plus him having a likely 400-game breakout threshold as a larger player. A higher SOG rate in the normal course is plausible, as he was above 2.0 per game in the first half when scorching.

Marchenko upped his SOG rate to nearly three per game, saw his PP Time per game rise, and, with that, his PP scoring rate. His IPPs are strong, as is his 5×5 team SH%. His OZ% was high though, as was his secondary assist rate. Still, these are encouraging metrics.

To me, Knies and Marchenko seem like the best bets to improve. Of them, I prefer Knies, since I feel his "spot" is very safe and due to his very solid banger stats. Marchenko could find another gear on a new team though, so I can see a case to be made for him instead. Whoever of the two you pick, if one of the two, I'd swap him in for Markstrom as a keeper, as although I know you say goalies are coveted in your league, I worry about if Markstrom will do well in general, plus he's closing in on the end of his career so he will have an "expiration date" that is soon enough to also devalue him. Good luck!

Question #5 (from Gary)

I’m in 10 team, H2H dynasty non-cap league with rosters of 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 2Util, 2G, 4 Bench, 1NA, 5IR+, and categories of G, A, PPP, SOG, HIT, BLK, FOW, W, GAA, SV%, SO. We all have to trim our rosters to 22 players to start the season, plus we are unable to make any offseason trades until our 22 players have been decided. For me, that means cutting five players from my end of season roster: 

C: Sidney Crosby, Roope Hintz, Mark Scheifele, Nico Hischier, Elias Pettersson, Mason McTavish, Anton Lundell

LW: Leon Draisaitl (C/LW), Filip Forsberg, Pierre-Luc Dubois (C/LW), Kevin Fiala

RW: Nikita Kucherov, Cutter Gauthier (LW/RW), Seth Jarvis (LW/C/RW), Alex Tuch (LW/RW), Owen Tippett (LW/RW)

D: Moritz Seider, Victor Hedman, Thomas Harley, Seth Jones, Dougie Hamilton, Miro Heiskanen, Filip Hronek

G: Juuse Saros, MacKenzie Blackwood, Darcy Kuemper, Sergei Murashov

Murashov was picked up as a free agent so I can’t drop him to my farm. If I don’t keep him, I could potentially still draft him in the prospect draft. If I kept him on my roster, I could guarantee a chance to draft him with a late pick then drop him to my farm opening up a roster spot at the start of the season. There are good quality players dropped throughout the year as managers can be impatient. With all this information, who are your five suggested cuts?

I'm not exactly sure how you managed to end the season with 27 players, but I will assess the situation as presented.

What jumps out to me immediately is you having seven center only eligible players, and only two who are eligible at center plus one wing position. Even if they might not be among the five "worst" players, I think you have to cut one or perhaps two of the seven, as it is not helping your team to have so many guys who are eligible only at the easiest to fill forward position. Yes, I realize FOW is a category and if you have daily starts this is a very good way to do well there. But lack of roster flexibility will hurt you far more than you stand to benefit in that category alone.

Also, with only two goalies starting, and half your goalie categories not being volume-based, you should trim at least one of your four, probably two or even three. I don't love some of your wingers; however, realistically you don't have enough depth there to make any cuts. In terms of defensemen, I like who you have, although if need be you might cut Harley, who seems to have taken a step back, although I think you should try to find a way to keep him, since he should still be a solid contributor plus is good insurance if Heiskanen somehow gets hurt.

With all that having been said, I would cut Kuemper, Murashov and Saros. Kuemper might be getting pushed aside by Anton Forsberg, or, even if not, is now 36 years old and three of his last four seasons have been subpar. Saros used to be a wins machine, with decent peripherals, but with his SV% falling and GAA rising in three straight seasons, he seems like a rare example of a goalie who peaked early. As for Murashov, he's had strong numbers for his career thus far, but I'd cut him and take my chances.

That would mean only two more cuts. In a perfect world, one would be Dubois, who's had declining SOG totals and might be hard pressed to fit within the top six of a revamped Caps team. But he does bring with him positional flexibility, which may make him a better keep than two of your pure centers. As far as they go, Hintz has a high floor, but a ceiling which is pretty close to that floor. Also, him being very plus doesn't help you. McTavish is getting a fresh start in St. Louis and is young enough to still have a chance to be a great player. He might not get a PP1 spot however, and likely will not skate with the best of the best on the Blues. As for Lundell, he failed to thrive even when he was able to be in the top six all last season. He does win a lot of faceoffs; however, he's all but assured to be relegated back to the third line and at best will be on PP2. In the end, I'm dropping Lundell and probably McTavish, as he might turn out to be better than Hintz, but I like Hintz's high floor. If you really wanted to keep one of Lundell or McTavish though, and are against dropping Hintz, then the cut would be Dubois. Good luck!

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To get mailbag questions to me either (1) email them to [email protected] with the words "Roos Mailbag" as the subject line, or (2) send 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.