Just curious to hear/read what are some of your favorite or most effective trade tactics or techniques. If you want to go further, you can post a tactic and what kind of successful return it yielded.

I'm not saying it's my favorite, but trade by way of attrition is suprisingly effective. The numerous inquiries and long talks can be a bit much, but sometimes it's the only way.

To date, my best return was on a buy-low, sell-high. I moved Grabner a couple years back coming off of his seemingly breakout season in exchange for Seguin.

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League: Yahoo 20 Team Dynasty, H2H (4C, 8W, 6D, 1G)
Cats: +/-, FOW, A, G, GWG, PPP, SHP, SOG, S, SPct, W, GAA

C: Benn,Kopitar,J.Staal,Strome
W: Atkinson,Bennett,BrunnerConacher
Huberdeau,Kessel,Seguin,Selanne
D: Beaulieu,DeKeyser,Despres,D.Hamilton,Leopold,Salo
G: J.Howard
Bench: Braun,B.Flynn,B.Gordon - J.Bernier,O.Pavelec,V.Stalberg
Prospects: Andrighetto,V.Arvidsson,Filatov,G.Carey,K.Flanagan,Kabanov,Lehtera,Omark,Ritchie,
R.Schwartz,Shalunov,Stransky,
Clendening,Deslauriers,Gauthier-Leduc,J.Morrow,R.Murphy,Petrovic,Reilly, -- M.Hackett

I make very few trades in my leagues... just like an NHL GM, I make one maybe two trades per year. Very, very shrewd.

My #1 advice is use the following line:
I am interested in ______. What would you want for him?

The response will tell you whether you have any chance to pull off a trade with the manager of whether he is unreasonable.
It's a very quick, easy way to assess a prospective trading-GM.
Also, and this is critical... if you want to make a trade with another team to get his player... you have to let him pick a player from your team.

The biggest mistake I see is people straight-up making a proposal:
I'll give you Filppula & Simmonds for Scott Hartnell.
No, no, no. That's already being bossy and telling the guy what you think is fair.
Nobody is going to take your first offer.
AND even if it IS fair, they will think it's a low-ball offer.
So, this tact damages your own goods or sours the other guy.

I do realize some people use the Yahoo! trade function where you have to click players - but if that's the case, I just do this:
Seguin
for
Lebda

And I include a note: "This isn't a real trade offer... but I am interested in Seguin. Do I have anybody that interests you? If yes, send me back an offer".

The guy will either reply with a trade offer or just say NO.

Easy peasy.

I grossly over pay, it works most of the time.

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12 Team NHL Salary Cap Dynasty -daily starts
H2H, Salary Cap 82mil, Player actual salaries (all)
+/-,G,A,GWG,PTS,STP,PIM,SOG,HT,BS,GAA,SO,SV,W
Starters: 12 Forwards, 6 Defense, 2 Goalies

Forwards: Fleischmann, Duchene, Ennis, Kessel, M.Koivu, Neal, Conacher, D.Sedin, H.Sedin, Bailey, J.Thornton, Bozak
Defense: Carlson, Gardiner, Kulikov, Franson, Dillon, MacDonald
Goalie: Rask, Crawford
Reserves: B.Schenn, Cowen, Fraser, Gryba, Brodeur, Emery, Pavelec
Prospects: Gallagher, Chiasson, Killorn, A.Larsson, Murphy, Rielly
Fantrax TAHL 2013 Champion

yeah small leagues limited keepers i love to brute force a trade

i like to put offers out there that they dont have time to think about they just click accept

bigger leagues more keepers i give the other guy the win right now making sure i will win the deal starting next year and every year after that

These are good tactics to my mind.

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

But I also do stupid stuff. Sometimes I get creative without thinking about the longer term or the consequences in enough detail - big name players it really pays to slow down and factor things out.

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

Me too - but there is usually a method to the madness. It is commonly possible to overpay and give the guy a good deal and come out of it with an upgrade and a satisfactory FA pickup or draft pick that covers your overpay.

Example:

In July 2010 in a 12 team keep 17, I recognized that PK Subban was going to be available in our pro draft because he was called up for a couple of games the season before and he wasn't on anyone's farm, so I sent D Roy and a 3rd round waiver pick to the owner of the 1st overall waiver pick. Ouch, but the result was I picked Subban and was able to protect Lupul as a consequence of having one less keeper in Roy.

Total deal: My D Roy and a 3rd round waiver pick for PK Subban and Lupul. I figure I overpaid and came out just fine.

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

I work in bulk - that is I make a TON of trades throughout the year...I try to address a particular need, even if it's a marginal gain (IMO) I take it or pursue it.

Of all the trades I make (lets say I average over 15 trades per league), I send out a ton of offers. I call them feelers...checking the temperature. I try to to make it as fair as possible but I always leave "wiggle room" on my offers in case they hit me back with a counter.

I usually like pursuing players on "the trade block" as I find guys who are posted their typically come cheaper as their GM is outright saying he is willing to move him.

I also try to compete every year. Never rebuild...I don't let "age of players" get in the way of competing (just look at my team in sig!).

I ALWAYS like to keep lines of communications open with other GMs. I'm in several leagues where I have never met the GMs in person yet I communicate with them all the time via emails or texts...I find that this is invaluable to making deals.

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10-team Auction League, $160 team salary, weekly H2H, start: 6F, 4D, 1G and 5 Bench

Scoring structure: (F : 1pt G / 1pt A / 0.15pts SOG / 0.15pts Hits / 0.15pts BlkS), (G : 5 pts W / 3 pts SO / 0.01 pts Saves)

Forwards : Ovechkin ($41), Kovalchuk ($24), Kessel ($18), E. Kane ($13), Benn ($5), Sharp ($11), Pominville ($1), Dupuis ($2), Whitney ($2)

Defenses : Letang ($24), Byfuglien ($6), Markov ($1), Bogosian ($1), McDonagh ($2)

Goalies : Schneider ($7), Bobrovsky ($1)

Nice. You're what I call a scavanger.

Always consider the potential value of additional throw In's. Always try to make any deal a multi-player deal and having more than 1 potential offer on the table can create a perfect timing scenario out of thin air.

In an effort to get Halak, I researched my opposing GM's team and realized who he didn't value on his roster, just before stating keepers. In this case, it was Denis Wideman following his trade to Calgary. He was eager to strip his team down so that he wasn't dumping quality or marginally quality players. Just when the deal was nearly done, I thought...who could I flip to maybe get "Marginally Better".

I told the other GM...Hey...I'll send you the hyped young D, McBain (who really had done nothing of fantasy significance) for Wideman who I know you're bitter about since he was traded from Washington. He agreed not thinking much of it.

At the same time, I was in talks with another GM who I know was thin on Defence. As soon as the deal was posted, he asked if I'd be interested in moving Wideman.

(Now what I got for him was rediculous but...) I tested how badly he wanted Wideman (him being a Calgary fan helped) and ended up getting a 1st round pick.

2 months later I was able to parlay that 1st round pick into Nail Yakupov.

Essentially...Nail Yakupov was a throw in on a deal that netted me Halak, a much needed tender for my squad.

It can get crazy, but having mutiple trade talks at once, along with always asking for those little add ins could pay huge dividends down the road.

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Team:
C - Tavares, Getzlaf, Ribeiro, (C/R)
L - Hall, Semin, Macdonald(C/L), Healtey(L/R),
R - Perry, Yakupov, Voracek, Voracek, Williams, Boyes
D - Streit, OEL, Edler, Karlsson, B. Smith, Beauchemin, Seidenberg
G - Rinne, Bryzgalov, Anderson, Bernier, Vokoun
10 Team Keeper league with Yahoo

Roster (14 Kept Players): C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, D, D, D, D, Util, Util, G, G,

(Weighted Category Points: see below).

Skaters -
(Points: G a/o A) 6
(+/-) 3
(PIM) 1
(PPP) 5
(GWG) 5

Goaltenders
(W) 15
(GA) -10
(SV) 1
(SHO) 15