Last year, during bubble week I focused on the format I know and that is a 26-team salary cap ($81.5 million) keeper pool with 27 players on each roster (20 active and seven in reserve, but all salaries count). As it is the off-season, we allow each team to carry 28 players if one of the players is an Entry draft pick from 2020. Teams must get back down to 27 players on the roster the week before the start of the season. Currently, there are 662 players on rosters over the 26 teams.

The point system is based on goals, assists and plus/minus which are weighted differently for forwards (four FP for goals and assists and two FP for plus/minus) and defensemen (five FP for goals and eight for assists and four for plus/minus) Goalies are rewarded for wins, overtime or shootout losses, shutouts and games played. We do add some additional points for power play and shorthanded points along with one point for a shootout goal. There are no hits or PIM. Our league is capped at nine defencemen and three goalies with a minimum of five defence and two goalies.

The pool has an average salary of $2.8 million with an average of 145 fantasy points per season and 2.31 fantasy points per game for players. When we developed the rules for the pool, our goal was to have each position represented somewhat equally in the top 20 for points, so the top goalie, forward or defenceman would all be in the top ten. Some years are better than others, but we've done a pretty good job of reaching that goal.

Last year the top player at each position was John Carlson (1st overall) with 500 FP at defence, Artemi Panarin 3rd overall) with 481 FP at forward and Andrei Vasilevskiy (16th overall) with 372 FP. In looking at the numbers, I can tell that the goalies are losing ground with the other top players and I believe that can mostly be attributed to fewer starts for number one goalies throughout the season as compared to prior years. 65-70 starts are going to be a thing of the past for most teams moving forward.

I’ve reviewed a few rosters in my pool (including my own) and focused on some bubble players that teams might need to make decisions on:

Sean Kuraly vs Nick Cousins

Sean Kuraly – Boston

Kuraly is 27 years old and entering his fourth NHL season. His career highs are 75 GP, eight goals and 23 points. His plus/minus has peaked at plus six and been as low as minus five, so he is a fairly steady player on a very good team. His highest FP for our pool has been 99, which is well below the average of about 140 FP for forwards. His appeal is the team he plays on and his floor and ceiling are very safe. The downside of keeping him on your roster is that he is easily replaced with a player that has a much higher ceiling. He is not going to get much more than 10 goals and 15 assists as a career year.

Nick Cousins – Nashville

Cousins is similar to Kuraly in that he is 27 years old and will put up very similar numbers in goals and points, but the hope is that he might be better in Nashville than Vegas, which is a bit of a fool’s errand, but I'm willing to give him a chance. His ceiling might be slightly higher than Kuraly as he has scored 12 goals and posted 27 points before. He has a similar plus/minus to Kuraly, and depending on where he plays in Nashville this could improve for him.

Between the two I would put Cousins slightly ahead of Kuraly at this moment.

P.K. Subban vs Joe Pavelski

P.K. Subban – New Jersey

Subban has been dropped twice in our pool this past season, after he posted 36 FP after nine consecutive seasons of 200 or more, peaking at 455 in 2014-15. His salary is $8 million next year and he is 31-years old coming off of his worst season in his career. Unless he gets around 30 points and gets closer to even in plus/minus, he isn't worth his salary in our pool, so the big question for his owner is, can Subban get back to where he was two years ago? 

Joe Pavelski – Dallas

Pavelski 'only' makes $5 million in salary this season, so compared to Subban it is a little less of a hit to the salary cap for this roster. At 36 years old does he have enough fuel in the tank to rebound from his least productive campaign of 14 seasons of only 14 goals and 31 points? The playoffs were encouraging to see him almost match the regular-season total with 13 goals in 27 games.

In the end, I believe that Pavelski has a better situation in Dallas than Subban in New Jersey and while both have the opportunity to rebound from last year in the regular season, Pavelski is on the better team and will be given more chances to shine than Subban.

Yanni Gourde vs Marcus Johansson

Yanni Gourde – Tampa Bay

Gourde will make $4.1 million next season and $6.3 million the year after. Yes, he has a Stanley Cup in Tampa Bay now and had a decent playoff with seven goals and 14 points in 25 games, but he had a pedestrian regular season with only 10 goals and 30 points while being minus five on a very good team. It is difficult to justify keeping a player on your roster earning this type of money that doesn't produce enough. Since his fantastic rookie season of 64 points in 2017-18, Gourde is trending in the wrong direction and now that he is 28-years old it can't all be attributed to a young player having a bit of a sophomore slump.

Marcus Johansson – Minnesota

Johansson will earn $4 million in the last year of his contract and his first year in Minnesota after the team moved Eric Staal to Buffalo for him this off-season. Johansson hasn't been valuable in fantasy circles since his 2016-17 season where he had 24 goals, 58 points and was plus 25 in Washington. After three straight seasons of battling injuries and not exceeding 30 points in the regular season, there is a genuine opportunity in Minnesota for him to play with the likes of Kevin Fiala and Kirill Kaprizov. It is always wise to never count on production from the benefit of playing with certain players, so temper your expectations with him next year.

This is a bit of a tough decision between these two, but for next season alone I might wager on being unwise and taking a chance on Johansson as currently, the Wild have very little option for an offensive center.

Andrew Copp vs Matt Nieto

Andrew Copp – Winnipeg

Copp is a little expensive at $2.3 million for what he brings to a fantasy team. He will get you 10 goals and 25-30 points but on a Jets team that is thin on defence, his plus/minus has gone from seasons of plus 17 and plus 20 to minus three last year. One encouraging sign from last year is that his shots on goal increased significantly from about 1.2/GP to about 1.9/GP along with his playing time from about 12 min/gp to over 17 min/gp. He is facing stiffer competition as he becomes more relied on at center and has the opportunity for a 15 goal, 35-point season, but his plus/minus will probably stay closer to last season.

Matt Nieto – San Jose

Nieto is back in San Jose on a one-year $700k deal, which when compared to Copp has the potential to be better valued. Nieto has career highs of 15 goals and 27 points while usually being about even in plus/minus, but moving to San Jose from Colorado might not help that particular stat line. Nieto doesn't shoot enough to ever be much of a threat for anything more than 10 goals and his role in San Jose will be in the bottom six. He is a safe 100 FP pickup in our pool that makes the league minimum.

If not for Copp's emerging minutes and role, I would be leaning towards Nieto just for the value he brings, but the ceiling is the key to choosing Copp.

Pierre- Edouard Bellemare vs David Kampf

Pierre- Edouard Bellemare – Colorado

Bellemare is a safe player that will get six to nine goals a year and 15-22 points. The downside is that he is 34-years old and makes $1.45 million. He is easily replaceable on the roster with a player that makes the league minimum and the team would save cap space and perhaps get a player with a little more ceiling.

David Kampf – Chicago

Kampf is only 25 years of age and will be entering his magical fourth season in the NHL. The problem with him is that he is purely a defensive centerman in the NHL and will be drawing difficult matchups which won't help his plus/minus and his offensive production will be stuck at around 10 goals and 20 points for years to come if he is still in the NHL. While defence wins championships on the ice, it doesn't win you fantasy pools.

The keeper owner won't like my advice perhaps, but he is better off without both Bellemare and Kampf on his roster. There are better, cheaper options out there.

Troy Stecher vs Carson Soucy

Troy Stecher – Detroit

Stecher signed a two-year deal in Detroit that will pay him $1.2 million next season and $2.2 million the season after that. He won't provide much more than three to five goals and perhaps 20 to 25 points each season, but he has added solid value with his plus/minus in Vancouver, with seasons of plus nine and plus 10 these past two years. Stecher won't find the same success in Detroit next season and could be a negative player in our pool, as the Red Wings probably won't be that much improved and Stecher could have an ugly plus/minus.

Carson Soucy – Minnesota

Soucy surprised a few people last season with seven goals and 14 points in 55 games, while being a plus 16. He was a pretty solid fantasy player for pools like mine. He re-signed a three-year deal with Minnesota that will pay him $2.75 million AAV, with $1.75 million next season. The bad news is that he had a shooting percentage of 11.5 and only played an average of 15:38 per night, which are not conducive numbers for a 26-year old rookie to duplicate.

I wish the best for both of these players, but I have a feeling they will be on waivers in our pool at some point or in the reserves of the team that owns them. Soucy is probably the safest of the two in terms of the teams they play with.

One thing I've noticed in doing this type of article that forces me to look at my team and keeper pool is that the teams at the top of the standings don't have bubble players. Unfortunately, the majority of us do. It gives me rise to not have the 26-year-old player making $2-3 million that still only produces 10 goals and 20 points on my roster. One day!!

Pools can be won or lost on the waiver wire and adding free players is always a low-risk manoeuvre that can pay off handsomely if the added player has some success. We should always be looking to improve upon these 'bubble' players.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.