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.

In the interest of full disclosure, a few of these questions were curated from outside my reader base. I do hope that as the season unfolds more of you will send me questions. For now though, via the questions which were not submitted I'll try to touch on things I feel are of most interest. If you want to send me questions, there are instructions on how to do so at the end of the column.

Question #1 (from Rick)

For background, I have won my league seven out of the last eight seasons, finishing second the other time, thanks in large part to what I learn from this amazing site. For this season, I have a deep team with strong forwards due to purposely waiting until the 3rd tier of goalies before picking any. But all is not entirely well with my defensemen.

This is a 10-team, single-season, Roto league, with 25-player rosters (15 starters, 8 bench, 3 IR) and categories are G, A, Pts, SSTP – Special Teams Pts (PPP + SHP), SOG, Hits, Blocks, GAA, Save %, Wins. Of the starters, five are defensemen. I drafted Cale Makar and Zack Werenski, who obviously are doing just fine. But my other picks were Charlie McAvoy, K'Andre Miller, Kris Letang, and Sam Rinzel.

With 10 teams, plus deep benches (8 spots), defenseman talent thins out fast, and many teams have weak options for their 4th and/or especially 5th D. The good news is that means mine aren't bad by comparison, but also there aren't a lot of option to replace them. My hope was Rinzel and Letang would fill my last two spots well; however, things are not shaping up for that to occur. What do you think about Rinzel’s chances to win QB1 back? And are those chances worth waiting for?

Ultimately, I need 2 D to be my 4/5 starters and would prefer to only have 1 D on bench. My goal is to upgrade from Miller and Faulk who are currently in those spots. I’m ok with having 2-4 guys on my roster to rotate in and out to fill 2 starting spots. As I write this (Note: this was several weeks ago) the following defensemen were free agents: Artyom Levshunov, Brandt Clarke, John Klingberg, Bowen Byram, Darren Raddyish, and Sean Walker, and this is the rest of my roster:

C – Robert Thomas, Tim Stutzle, Roope Hintz

LW – Jake Guentzel, Cutter Gauthier, Chris Kreider, Quinton Byfield, Dylan Holloway

RW – JT Miller, Seth Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, Kyle Palmieri, Mark Stone, Rickard Rakell

Skater – Dylan Cozens

G – Logan Thompson, Sscott Wedgewood, Pyotr Kochetkov, Karel Vejmelka, Jet Greaves

First off, my guess is Levshunov has long since been grabbed, as have Byram and Raddyish. If I was in your shoes, I'd have grabbed Levshunov the moment he entered the picture, to cover your bases. Yes, that would mean you'd not be able to as easily rotate three d-men for two spots; however, in cases like these, it usually becomes apparent who "the guy" will be, making it easier to drop the other. Or to put it another way, perhaps Levshunov shines brightly, but only briefly. In that case, you could've dropped him and still had Rinzel. But as things look now, and with Levshunov having second overall draft pick pedigree, Rinzel might have a tough time being impactful this season.

Letang is playing poorly again, and his "banger" stats also are not up to par for him. He is showing his age. But as you said, he's a tough drop, since he's ostensibly an Erik Karlsson injury away from PP1. Or is he? Remember that the Pens used a 5F PP1 at times last season; so I'm not sure that if Karlsson got hurt Letang would be gifted the role of PP1 QB again. But he still might be worth holding.

Faulk is faring a bit better than Letang; however, as I write this Faulk has 13 points, six of which came in three games where he had two points each. What that means is he had seven points in his other 26 games. But he is more so in the PP picture than Letang, and nearly half his points have come with the man advantage, although technically the same is true for Letang (actually exactly half), except fewer overall points. Faulk likely is a hold as well, unless someone is glaringly better.

Here are some names of defensemen who might be available and worth considering. For one, there's Hampus Lindholm, who, surprisingly, has been put on PP1 during McAvoy's absence, rather than Mason Lohrei. The issue is he never hits, and his blocks don't compensate. Joel Edmundson is scoring well and taking the ice mostly in the offensive zone; but he has no PP deployment, and he hits and blocks around the same rate as Faulk or Letang. John Marino is scoring decently, but lacking in PP deployment and not doing superbly in banger stats. There's also Dylan Demelo, who's scoring okay and hitting and blocking quite well, but not sniffing any PP time. Lastly, there's Denton Mateychuk, who seems to be getting not only more ice time but better deployment, plus he is huge for blocks and not bad for points or scoring.

If none who were out there when you sent in your question are left to pick up, and you decide to drop Rinzel, my gut would be to go with Demelo or Mateychuk. That having been said, based on the choices available when you sent in your question, my sense is there could be better options than them. Or to put it another way, it might be there are always a handful of defensemen who you could make a case for being better than the worst you have on your roster now. If not through, Rinzel might be worth holding as Levshunov insurance, but if you want to move on from him, then grin and bear it/them with regard to Faulk and Letang and opt for Demelo or Mateychuk in place of Rinzel. Good luck!

Question #2 (from Marc)

I'm in a 15 team dynasty cap league, with points only scoring for skaters (best 13 skaters count). Each team gets 10 keepers, plus automatically can keep – without having them count as one of the 10 – any player who has played fewer than 100 NHL games.

I have over $6M in cap space and trying to flip Oliver Bjorkstrand. Owners of Bryan Rust, Chris Kreider, and Dylan Holloway sent me cheap offers and owners of Bo Horvat and Kevin Fiala sent me pricey offers where i would have to give up very high pick plus a prospect (Berkly Catton, Ty Iginla, Beckett Sennecke, Jimmy Snuggerrud, James Hagens). I’m leaning toward Rust or Kreider since I already have my 10 keepers and the difference is not worth it in my mind. Can Holloway turn things around though? Is Kreider's production sustainable? Rust is often injured and the team around him is so old, that I'm concerned. Maybe you have an underachieving player in mind that might turn things around and surpass these choices points-wise?

Since Marc sent this in, Bjorkstand has gone ice cold. But he has remained on PP1 for the most part, which is a big deal. For the second quarter, he's playing most often with Jake Guentzel, so there is hope. Trying to trade him at this point in time though would be difficult, or amount to selling low; and I don't see him being able to be turned into any of the players you mentioned. As you also noted, he could be dealt for another underperformer who figures to do better going forward.

Someone I'd look at is Barrett Hayton, especiallywith Logan Cooley sidelined. Hayton is still in the top six, albeit on PP2. Vasily Podkolzin seems to be entrenched in the top six but his IPP is 44.4%. He's getting basically zero PP time, although the Edmonton top six is a pretty nice spot. Others whose IPPs are unsustainably lower are Jake DeBrusk, Jonathan Marchessault, and Sean Monahan.

Looking at players whose team SH% at 5×5 is very low, Winnipeg is shooting – this is not a typo – 2.7% at 5×5 when Cole Perfetti is on the ice. Not nearly as low, but still too low, are Joel Farabee (5.7%), Fiala (5.4%), Matt Coronato (6.8%), and Pavel Dorofeyev (6.0%). Then there's Jack Quinn, who only has 15 points but all but one are goals or primary assists, meaning one secondary assist. Dorofeyev only has one as well. Connor McMichael also has a mere one secondary assist among his 11 total. Dorofeyev also has already been unlucky enough to have hit three crossbars and two posts, and Fiala has hit four crossbars and two posts. I'd say Dorofeyev, Fiala, or McMichael are buy lows.

As for Holloway, interestingly only 16.5% of his SOG have missed the net; yet he only has seven goals and is shooting 11.1%. More goals should be coming. Otherwise, it's a case of what to believe, as last season his IPPs were quite good, but this season they're very low. Even if last year they were not what we should come to expect, chances are they should be higher than now. I think Holloway is a good one to seek in trade as well. Also, in case somehow Rust or Krieder are still in the mix, I'd look at Rust, as he's a proven 75-point player, which is quite solid. Kreider is in a great spot; however, that was the case in New York and he thrived once but then came back to earth in subsequent seasons, so I'd not pursue him. Good luck!

Question #3 (also from Marc)

I'm in a 10 team dynasty, no cap, points only, 6 forwards, 4 defensemen, 5 keepers league. My keepers were Martin Necas, Matthew Tkachuk, Robert Thomas, Jason Robertson, and Zach Werenski, plus I also have Dougie Hamilton, Charlie McAvoy, Darren Raddysh, Marci Rossi, and Jimmy Snuggerud (an autokeep due to having under 100 NHL games played at the end of this season).

I’m having trouble determining Necas' value. Are his numbers inflated because of Mack? If so, by how much?  If you had him in this league, who would you try to target in trade? Also, what's your take on Snuggerud? 

I think Necas is a player who won't get you as much as you think in trade. Yes, he'll be in Colorado for years to come. Presumably that means he'll continue to be tethered to Nathan Mackinnon like he is now. But go back in time and remember when Mikko Rantanen was an Av. It seemed he was never valued as highly as he should've been. Part of that is because playing with MacKinnon is not entirely great. The issue is Mac tends to have a point – be it the goal itself or an assist – on most every goal that is scored when he is on the ice. Plus, there's also Cale Makar. As a result, you have one or maybe two other points for all the other players on the ice. In the case of Rantanen, that resulted in him being a 100- to 105-point player almost every year. And guess what – Necas' pace nearly the same! But the difference is Necas' SH% is close to double his career rate, and he started scorching last season before coming back to earth. Even with five points in his last two games as I write this, that puts him barely over a point per game in his last nine contests. Also, Colorado is shooting a nearly unfathomable 14.5% at 5×5 while Necas is on the ice, and his PDO is almost 1100, which is stratospheric and in no universe sustainable.

It seems like Necas could fall below the century mark in scoring rate. I don't expect for the bottom to fall out from under him completely; however, the pace he's on now is likely too high, or if not too high then not something he would be very likely to surpass.

Who would I target if seeking to trade him? If you can somehow turn him into Jason Robertson or Wyatt Johnson, I'd do that in a heartbeat, and it could be possible since folks might be concerned they'll revert to their not as outstanding 2024-25 numbers when in truth they might get even better, as they're finally being given the ice times they deserve and are thriving. If you want a "Steady Eddie" then you can't really go wrong with Kyle Connor. He's got 90-point downside and 100+ point upside and is not much older than Necas. In the same vein, all Nick Suzuki has done is get better every single season he's been in the NHL, and he's on target to do so again. If you have a tolerance for risk, there's always Jack Hughes, who has had major injury issues and seems snake bit, but when he plays he has 100-point downside and could be the next Mac if he manages to stay healthy. Those are the players who I'd target If dealing Necas.

As far as Snuggerud, there has not been as much to get excited about thus far. Granted, he's still only 21 years old; however, I'm concerned that he has a combination I don't like to see, which is a low team SH% at 5×5 (7.6%) and IPPs which are not high, at 61.1% overall and 50% on the PP. When considered together, this suggests that not a lot of offense is happening when he's on the ice, and he hasn't been factoring into what offense there's been. Also not ideal is this occurring despite him playing alongside some of the best of the best on St. Louis. Still, he is only 21, and I think it's way too early to consider parting ways with him. I'd preach patience. Good luck!

Question #4 (from Anne)

I’m in a 12 team Yahoo public points pool. Points for skaters are: G – 6, A -4, plus/minus – 2, ppp – 2, shots – 0.9, and blocks – 1. Points for goalies are: Wins – 5, Goals against – negative 3, saves – 0.6, shutouts – 5. Roster positions are two C, two L, two R, four D, two G, four bench and two IR.

My team is – Leo Carlsson C, Adam Fantilli C, Jesper Bratt L/R, Trevor Zegras C/L/R, Artturi Lehkonen L/R, Kirill Marchenko R, Nikita Kucherov R, Elias Pettersson C/L, Pavel Dorofeyev L/R, Seth Jones, Artyom Levshunov, Zach Werenski, Mikhail Sergachev, Jet Greaves, Joey Daccord, Jesper Wallstedt.

Two weeks ago I proposed a trade – my Carlsson for Rasmus Dahlin. I was thinking Carlsson was due for a slowdown and Dahlin was a buy-low. Plus I thought my defense was pretty weak and with four D-men starting, good d-men are very valuable. The trade was accepted but then vetoed on Nov 19th. The other side appealed the veto to the Yahoo league office but the appeal was rejected. Was I crazy to offer this deal? Should the trade have been vetoed?

My team started out with three straight losses but is now 4 and 3. Does this appear to be a middle-of-the road team going forward? Also, should I offer up Kucherov for Cale Makar?

Carlsson slowed in November, then proceeded to rattle off ten points in his next eight games, but now has zero in his last two. So he might not be a 100 point player…yet. Would I trade Carlsson to get Dahlin? Maybe if there was more emphasis on banger categories; however, even with blocks counting for a full point, I don't think that raises Dahlin's value nearly enough, especially with +/- being a two-point category and Buffalo being weak in that area now. Also, Dahlin's SOG rate is far lower this season, which further undercuts his value. In short, Dahlin is no longer enough to get in return for Carlsson.

But should the trade have been vetoed? That depends. Placing aside Yahoo factors, different leagues have different criteria for what makes a trade vetoable, and the criteria of course will vary depending on whether it's a one year league or a keeper. The issue is always that no two trades can be compared. By that I mean it's often difficult to land on the magic line where, on the one hand, a trade is vetoable, but on the other, it is not. My personal view is if a trade represents two GMs coming together and deciding they want to make a deal, they should be allowed to do so in a keeper. In a one year league, then there could be possible bases for trades not being reasonable, since it's all about this season and there can be no basis to value the players for their future impact or keeper potential.

If a league finds that one or two specific GMs are the centre of the vetoable trades, often the best way to address it is by seeking to replace them. I've seen as many, if not more, leagues have issues when trades are meddled with and vetoed than with iffy trades being allowed to stand. If there is a desire though among all GMs to have trades scrutinized, then the best way for that to occur is a detached person makes the decision, namely someone with fantasy hockey knowledge but not a member of the league. Otherwise, to veto a trade it should take all other GMs who are not directly involved voting against the trade. I do not at all recommend an in-league commissioner, since what if they are involved in the deal? And who's to say they speak for everyone? Long story short, trade vetoes seem like a good idea, but quite often then can be a net negative so think long and hard as to whether your league wants to allow vetoes, and, if so, on what basis/bases.

As for Kucherov for Makar, I see no universe where the Makar owner accepts that trade. Make no mistake – Kucherov is a superstar; but after a 144-point season, his scoring pace dropped to 127 last season and is at 112 for 2025-26 thus far, which would mark a low since 2019-20. He'll be 33 years old next season, meaning this could indeed be a slow down. He's also not helped by the team around him not being as potent as when the Lightning were perennial Cup contenders. Meanwhile, Makar has three-straight 90+ point scoring rate seasons, and for 2025-26 is pacing for over 100 points. For context, the list of defensemen dating back to 1980-81 who had a scoring rate of 1.1+ per game at least four times by age 26 and within their first seven career seasons, as Makar has, consists of just one other rearguard, namely Paul Coffey. Like Makar, Coffey played for high octane offenses, but he also was superb, that is until getting hurt. Ray Bourque, who also was amazing for over a decade, only did so three times, and just Quinn Hughes and Brian Leetch did so twice. So yes, Makar is a unicorn. More importantly, his owners know this. The list of players who might – emphasis on might – get a Makar owner to listen to trade offers consists likely of only Connor McDavid and, ironically, Nathan MacKinnon. Maybe by the end of this season Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini could be added. But as of now it's just those two, not Kucherov. So do make the offer, but be prepared for a hard no as a response.

As for my assessment of this team, I feel it is better than middle of the pack. Looking at the number of players you own, and projecting that to 11 other teams, I have to think a few are a more stacked than yours. You'll likely win more than you lose, but not be able to compete with the best of the best. Sorry – I hope I'm wrong, and good luck!

Question #5 (from Daniel)

As a Mackenzie Blackwood owner, I'm left scratching my head as to why he hasn't become the #1 or at least 1A by now for Colorado. I realize Scott Wedgewood is playing very well; but why would the Avs have signed Blackwood for what they did if not to have him be the starter and given that he has played well overall? Do you think there's a chance him and Wedgewood continue to alternate starts over the entire season?

Colorado is rolling now, and they likely figure why fix what isn't broken. This being said, I also believe the Avs will be smart enough to remember what happened to Boston in 2022-23, as they finished with the best regular season record in NHL history, only to be beaten in round one of the playoffs. And many, myself included, attributed it to the fact that Boston never departed from Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman alternating starts for basically the entire season. When the playoffs started, and Ullmark was asked to play several games in a row for what was essentially the first time all season, he faltered.

Also, with goalies, you really do follow the money. And looking at the netminders who've played 50+ games in any of the past three seasons, none were earmarked as true back-ups to start the season. In Wedgewood's case, he might hit 50 games played due to the games missed by Blackwood at the outset of the season; however, I feel that as the campaign goes on you will see more and more of Blackwood. Also, Wedgewood has never played even 40 games in a season, so its not clear he'd be up for the rigors of more than, especially since he's 33 years old and shouldered a large workload early on. Beyond those factors, he has only once finished a season with a Quality Start Percentage over 50%. Or to put it another way, there's a reason he's a back-up inked to a one-year deal paying him $1.5M per season, while Blackwood is earning $5.3M.

To you and other Blackwood owners, I think the time will come in the not too distant future where he will be back to starting at least two out of every three games, and perhaps at a higher rate than that as the playoffs approach. In fact, him being able to start two games in a row due to Wedgewood getting hurt might be what turns the times. In other words, don't panic. As for how well Blackwood may ultimately play, that's another story, as he very well could end up as Alexandar Georgiev 2.0, with heaps of wins but lousy peripherals. 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.