Ramblings: Christmas edition. Don’t wait on trading for a goalie

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'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the slate

No NHL games were played, no performances we could rate;

The fantasy teams were set by the owners with care,

In hopes that a championship soon would be there;

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The above little ditty was courtesy of the usual Sunday Rambler – Ian Gooding (with a couple of changes by yours truly – I hope that’s okay, Ian!)

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Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a wonderful and safe day today, as well as the week ahead as I’m sure you’ll be navigating from one function or another.

And what does that also mean? Well, it means you’ll be waiting at the door or in the car while the rest of your family gets ready (if you’re anything like me). So you need to kill some time – and that’s why you’ve come here. Because you know the biggest fantasy hockey addict on this planet will be there for you. And so I am!

I have the Ramblings today and tomorrow. They won’t be much, but there will be a few thoughts. On top of that I have posted the Top 25 Fantasy Hockey Items/Events/People of 2016. By the time you get through my content, hopefully you’ll have killed off most of the ‘waiting around’ time.

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Delaying solving the goaltending problem is costly. Not just in reality, but in fantasy too. I spent a lot of time in one league hoping for a turnaround from Ben Bishop, because Jonathan Quick is sidelined and I need two goalies rolling (Cam Talbot is my other goalie). I finally acquired Peter Budaj in a bigger deal (I discussed last week), but I have a big hill to climb now. Lesson learned. But in my other league I still have an issue. I’m winning it with Talbot and Craig Anderson as my goalies. You can see the problem. My theory is that Anderson will be back on January 7 because that is after Ottawa’s week off. But what if he’s not? Goalies are expensive in fantasy hockey and it’s precisely the reason why I try to have three starters, even in my Keep 12. A word to the wise.

In the Keep 12 league I have three goalies as I noted above. And on top of that, after the draft I claimed Ondrej Pavelec and Laurent Brossoit off of waivers. Talk about being set! But no – Bishop has been terrible and Quick got hurt, Pavelec is sitting in the minors doing jack and squat. Later, after the situation with my team started to get concerning, I swapped out Brossoit for Anthony Stolarz and I added Reto Berra. But Steve Mason has been on fire. And Berra and Pavelec still have not been traded!

This lack of a trade is mainly because Budaj has really come through for the Kings. They had their finger hovering over the panic button but didn’t need to press it because their No.3 goalie who had been written off by everyone, was sufficient to hold down the fort. They were the best bet to swing a deal, and through sheer luck they didn’t need to.

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Dallas, however, is another story. They have two overpaid goalies and neither of them are doing anything even remotely good. Not even a brief glimmer of quality. It’s killing the Stars and if they don’t address the issue they’ll miss the playoffs. And that’s not good when you consider Jason Spezza’s shelf life. And I think if Patrick Sharp returned this year, he can still help them in April and May… but can they get the same out of him next year? So his window is closing or has closed. By the time the Stars get out of this goaltending mess, they will be rebuilding their forwards! Jim Nill needs to be bold here. He needs to send Kari Lehtonen to the minors and trade for Berra. He would be a cheap acquisition. Can he save the team? Well, no. Berra isn’t a great goalie either. But I believe he’s better than Lehtonen. And he could benefit from “new team adrenalin”, which would breathe new life into Dallas. This is a team that could win games with a subpar goaltender. But they’re not even getting subpar goaltending! Berra could at least provide that, similar to what Budaj is doing. Anyway, Nill will have to swallow his pride to make a move like this.

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Midseason Guide – This is out on January 13^th. I moved it up two days to catch the Friday. I had looked at the calendar wrong when I set the initial date. Pre-order it here.

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Coming up on Monday – I discuss my two trades that I made this week in two different leagues – both trades acquiring my buddy Cam Atkinson…

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Congratulations Jaromir Jagr! Here are some greats giving him their congrats…