January 26 2015
Dobber
2015-01-26
Deadline activity in my own keeper league, thoughts on Wingels, Faulk, Giroux and more…
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Breaking news: Kyle Okposo is out 6-8 weeks with a UBI, per several sources on Twitter. Right now it looks like Grabovski is in his spot on the big line. Look for Nielsen to get back on the PP1 unit.
Also – the Kings have placed Mike Richards on waivers. Look for him to go unclaimed, but the act of waivers should get some teams calling the Kings for a trade that will see salary move back and forth. With this big contract now on waivers, how long before others follow suit? With the trade deadline approaching, teams need the cap space.
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I’m not a huge All-Star game fan, mostly because there’s nothing on the line. And if anything, I resent the break in my fantasy hockey league. An ASG pool started in the forum by Praba piqued my interest a little more. What is it about fantasy sports that draw eyeballs to the games? And what took the pro leagues so long to notice this?
That was a nice touch with the fantasy draft trading Kessel for Seguin. Before the draft took place, I was just thinking that it would be funny to swap a third and sixth for a fourth and fifth
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Last ramblings I was asked in the comments about my trade involving the Sedin twins so I’ll discuss it here, seeing as there are no games to discuss. I was in a bit of panic mode. Not panic yet, but approaching. As noted in those ramblings, the twins had a sharp decline in the second half and while I don’t believe it will happen to that extent this year – it will still happen. My preseason projection had them at around 70 points. And Midseason I still had them around there. But I’m starting to think it will be closer to 62 or 63. A small decline, nothing to panic over (like last year’s 10 points in the second half). My approaching panic was a mix of that slight decline, the potential for it being worse, and the potential for David Perron to take off better than Patric Hornqvist has.
I had an offer given to me the week before that gave me Perron, Chris Kunitz, Andre Burakovsky and Brandon Gormley just for the twins. This is a points-only keeper league that does count roster positions and does count the postseason. I should have taken the deal right then, but in gauging his response and replies to me, I felt that he would give more. So I pretended to hmm and haw over it for a couple of days before going back to him with an offer of a bit more. We went back and forth for a couple of days and then I decided I needed to go back to the deal that I had put in my back pocket.
By the way – Drouin will be a stud. In case you had any doubts. And he’s in such an amazing situation in which he can play nicely buried in a deep, talented lineup. And when he is ready in two years or so to really jump to the top – he’ll turn Stamkos back into that 100-point player.
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And I’m sure you heard that Shea Weber just missed breaking the hardest shot record. Here it is if you missed it:
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I want to readdress Alex Stalock. I am still high on him, but not as confident as I once was. And it all goes back to that injury in November. Just bad timing. But if the Sharks don’t go deep this year, I think they let Niemi walk and Stalock becomes the guy. If they do, then they re-sign Niemi and Stalock becomes a footnote. A career backup. I own Stalock in one keeper league, and I don’t own Niemi at all. So you know where my hope lies.
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In my keeper league I had a soft trade deadline at 11pm Sunday. To encourage trading, we have open and free trading up until the last Sunday of January. And then after that, we each have three trades we are allowed to make before the NHL trade deadline. This encourages a good run of trading in the final two weeks of January and then a second run in the days leading up to the real deadline. A fun little double dose of action. Thought I’d mention it in case you wanted to try it in your league. I lost track of all the deals that went down Sunday, but I would guess around six, plus another three or four in the week leading up to it. Before that, all season, I would say maybe four deals were done in total.
The only deal I did was my Torey Krug, Reilly Smith, Steve Mason, Mikhail Grigorenko for Cody Franson, Brock Nelson, Chris Kreider, and Emerson Etem. Etem was a throw in. But here I was matching more of my Islanders and Rangers for the playoffs. Silly to do it in the same conference like that, along with Pittsburgh, but I play with the hand I’m dealt. I’m trying hard to add either Ducks or Blues, but having some trouble. A big deal fell through last night in which I would have landed Frederik Andersen. And again – it’s not that I like the Blues and Ducks in the West, it’s just that I already have a couple and they have as good a shot as any.
For what it’s worth, my playoff team in this league will feature:
PIT – Crosby, Perron, Kunitz, Letang, Comeau, Pouliot
NYR – Brassard, Zuccarello, Kreider, Hayes
NYI – Tavares, Nelson, Grabovski, Lee, Conacher, Halak
BOS – Marchand
WPG – Wheeler, Frolik
ANA – Kesler, Etem
STL – Elliott
And then some other bit parts. But really hoping a couple of: Tlusty, Sekera, Fleischmann, Franson, Stafford get traded to one of the above teams.
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Funny idea, Ovy…but not quite…