I know on the surface this trade might seem obvious, but keep in mind that this is a salary cap league and we use real salaries. I've been offered the following trade:

I get: Quick and Stepan

He gets: Crawford and MacDonald (nyi)

If I accept this deal, it will have major salary complications for next season when Quick jumps to $7mil and Stepan will also get a new contract increase as well. I get the superior players but he's dumping his salary on me to get a cheap option. I thought about the whole thing, I would need to release Thornton, Brodeur, Kullikov, and one more playerr to make the salary cap work, or trade them for picks if I can. I have an idea of what I want to do but let me know what all of you people think. Rep as always.

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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

I think this is a deal you have to make. Having Quick and Rask along with Pavelec is a great trio to have. ( assuming this is all about the league in sig).

Losing Broduer will not hurt you at all. That's 4.5m right there in salary.

How much time do you have to swing other deals to fix your cap if you do this deal?


I agree you move Thornton around for picks / players, that's 7m.

You'll need to get a little creative, but the deal in terms of fantasy production would clearly be on your side.

Make the deal.

For 2012-13 Quick's cap hit is 1.8 while Stepan's is .875k...don't you have plenty of time to make other moves necessary in order to be compliant with the 2013-14 season? Get the deal done, then worry about the rest accordingly. This is actually a very bad move from the other GM, salary cap league or not, its disgustingly one-sided.

I'd start shopping Brodeur and Pavelec hard, as your goaltending duo is set with Quick/Rask. Target a cheaper 3rd goalie option in any trade for Brodeur and or Pavelec. Worst case scenario you drop Brodeur outright. Who are some available 3rd goalie options on the free agent list in your league?

Cervenka and Stafford are the other two players I'd start shopping heavily...significant cap savings there. In reference to Derek Stepan's up coming new deal, I wouldn't think Stepan gets a higher cap hit than Cervenka's current cap hit, and Stepan should easily be considered the better player for now and in the future. Essentially you're replacing Brodeur with Quick, and Cervenka with Stepan, and losing Crawford and MacDonald which are no biggies. Some possible other minor tinkering here and there. I see no reason you'd have to get rid of Joe Thornton or Dmitry Kulikov, nor would I, before trying to make moves happen with the other players I mentioned.

Monumental upgrades for your fantasy squad, any way you slice it.

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You get the best players, no one will question that. You'll have till next season to balance your cap hit also, right?

I think this is a deal that should be made while the other GM is willing to offer it. Brodeur will not be a loss at this point, especially with Quick coming in. Then as far as Thornton and Kulikov go, unless you need a drop to be cap compliant right now you'll be able to hang onto these two and make deals to become compliant rather than a straight drop. Really, we don't even know what Kulikov will count against the cap at this point, he may still be in your teams future... We don't know what Stepan's hit will be in a year for that matter either...

I'll be perfectly honest though, I've never played a cap league and haven't looked into the nuances of it all. Still, I'm sure you can work this to your advantage. The time remaining until Quick's contract kicks in should be enough to balance everything out though when it's needed.

I believe at least in always investing in goalies, especially when they are of the elite variety! Even if Rask started taking in a salary of $5 mill next year that would only take 15% of your salary for 29% of your stats. And as other forum members have pointed out from time to time, Hits/PIMs/Blks can often be found at a discount among stay at home type defensemen allowing you to possibly move a higher paid puck moving defence for a scoring forward.

Really, what it come down to for me is that goalies can really make a team and a goalie like Quick rarely gets offered up for so little, never mind Stepan as a sweetener. I'd take it, juggle it around, and find a way to make it work.

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10 team full keeper: 4C/LW/RW,6D,2G,5BN

G,A,P,+/-,PIM,SOG,GWG,PPP,SHP,Hit,Blk,FOW
W,GAA,SV,SV%,SHO

C- Giroux,Hanzal,M.Richards,J.Staal
LW- Lupul,JVR,Tlusty,Zetterberg
RW- Backes,Clarkson,Havlat,Kessel
D- Bogosian,Carlson,Enstrom,Kulikov,Markov,Yandle
G- Miller,Hiller,Crawford
BN- Kuba,Ruutu,Robidas,McDonald

Prospects- Armia, Connolly, Couturier, Etem, Forsberg, Girgensons, Huberdeau, Kucherov, Nyquist, Okposo, K.Palmieri, Stransky, Toffoli, Barberio, Gardiner, Gormley, Josi, Marincin, Moore, Morrow, Savard, Vatanen, Allen, Bernier, Campbell, Fasth, Hackett, Mrazek

this is a trade you have to take now and deal with the cap compliance later.

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10 team Keeper Roto League
4C-4LW-4RW-6D-2G-5bench-unlimited farm.

C= crosby,m.koivu,malkin,zajak,grabovski,j.jokinen,
LW= ovechkin,nash,s.gagner,dubinsky
RW= downie,hemsky,callahan,voracek,perry,mueller
D= green,doughty,phaneuf,wisniewski,girardi,karlsson
G= rask,lundqvist,ward,price

FARM=kreider,grachev,petrov,enroth,kuznetsov,ennis ,rundblad,bjugstad,radulov,montoya, adam,t.erixon,cowan,s.elliot,j.faulk,cormier,petro v,orlov,stone,eakin,grigorenko,silfverberg,brodin, atkinson

--G,A,P,PPP,SHP,GWG,PIMS,+/-,SOG,hits,FOW,blocks-Wins,GAA,SV%,saves,SO

Great deal, take it!

The biggest danger will be if there's no season this year -- you'll get stuck with the salary, and will reap none of the benefits.

Still, I just don't think you're giving up that much. Crawford hasn't exactly dominated, and MacDonald is pretty replaceable methinks. Losing Brodeur won't be too bad, and Thornton and Kulikov should still command something down the line.

I'd take it.

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Points-only, Full Keeper Dynasty League
Active roster (no starts, just total points): 12 FW, 6 D, 1 Goalie

Forwards: Ovechkin, D. Sedin, Stastny, Nash, Kesler, Ribeiro, B. Richards, Selanne, Hossa, Fleischmann, Whitney, Lecavalier, Alfredsson, Okposo, Plekanec, Doan, S. Kostitsyn

Defense: Goligoski, Campbell, Gonchar, Bergeron, Liles, McBain, Vatanen, Timonen, Visnovsky, Giordano, Wideman

Goal: Luongo, Holtby

A couple things to consider.

#1 A lot of it depends on whether the season gets played. If it does, then you get Quick for 1.7 m for this year. I'd say done deal. With Rask and Quick you'd have to be going in the season with the best goalies.

#2 If the season doesn't get played then it's a murkier situation. How much of your cap do you want tied into the goalie position? Out of 14 cats, you have 4 for goalies. Granted, Quick should be a top 3 goalie but he better be at 7 mil per.

#3 Getting rid of Thornton would hurt. How are you going to replace his production? How is your defense without Kulikov and Cowen?

Overall, I say make the trade, pray for a season, and worry about next season next season. Losing Crawford and trading Pavelec does free up money.

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Salary Cap/Dynasty
C- Tavares, Backstrom, Ribiero, Turris, Eakin
RW- Gaborik, Perry, Downie, JWilliams
LW- Eriksson, Moulson, Duchene, Clowe, Johansson
D- Karlsson, Phaneuf, Enstrom, Burns, Gardiner, Voynov, Ellis
G- Fluery, Kipper, Dubnyk, Lindback

Farm- Huberdeau, Nyquist, Silfverberg, Grigorenko, Bjugstad, Teräväinen, Lack

I'm with everyone else on this, you've got to take it. I looked at a bunch of numbers and, as far as I can tell, there is more than one way to get out of the salary issues you'll face next season.

Without knowing whether prospects count against the cap or not (I went with 'not') I figure your cap is running at around 80 million right now, assuming Kulikov signs for around 4 million. That is what Carlson got and I think they are fairly comparable in a lot of ways, in fact I'd say Carlson is worth more at this point. That's a wildcard, but I can't see him getting too much more. If you make the trade your cap would actually go down a bit this year, so that's no problem. Is your league going to adjust the cap if there's a salary roll-back?

Next year is harder to predict, but I guessed and gave everyone with an expiring contract a raise. Stepan and Bailey go to 3, O'Byrne, Cervenka, and Smid to 4, Rask to 6. I don't think those will end up being too far off the mark, but who knows. If anything I think they will be lower, because so much depends on the new CBA. With these numbers you land at 94.5 without the trade and 101.5 with the trade. Over by quite a bit in both cases, so you'll be cutting players and salary either way, almost 20 million if you make the trade.

I'm not sure that you'd need to move Thornton and Kulikov to get under the cap. If you're looking at moving a C I'd look hard at Koivu. That's the weirdest salary structure I've ever seen and it must be a huge headache to work with. On top of that you can really hype the Parise thing. I'd guess he will be worth more than Thornton on the open market, and you can also sell that his salary will drop almost 2 mil the year after next. I'd also try hard to keep Kulikov. He's going to be golden in a few years and much more helpful (and rare) than guys like Smid and O'Byrne. I know that shot-blocking, PIM and hits are important stats, but they are much easier to fill than the offense from the defense that Kulikov will provide.

Chances are you can even get under by just moving or dropping a bunch of other guys while keeping Koivu, Thornton and Kulikov. If you lose Brodeur, Cervenka, Stafford, Smid and Pavelec you'll get under the cap (including all of the other salary increases) if you make the trade for Quick and Stepan. You'd hopefully get assets back for some of these guys, but you can pick and choose a bit to help your cap. You could even move Bailey or Ennis instead of Pavelec. 50 point scorers should be fairly easy to come by in a 12 team league.

Another small point that I think bears mentioning is that Stepan and Kreider could soon form the 2nd line in New York. With Gaborik, Richards and Nash on the top line you can guarantee that Stepan and Kreider (with Callahan?) will be facing 2nd and 3rd D pairing consistently. With the pressure off I think they will be much more productive than we might initially expect. And if the top line doesn't work out as planned then they will have one of Gaborik or Nash playing with them. That's a fantastic situation to be in.

All told I definitely think you should do it. Quick's 7 mil is a big ticket, but the bang for your buck is unparalleled in a situation like this.

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16 team, full keeper
19 roster players, 15 prospects
Stats: G, A, PPG, SHG, special teams assists, SOG, FOW, PIM, hits, blocked shots, +/-, W, SO, saves, s%, GAA, shootout saves

C: Crosby, Backstrom, H. Sedin, Boyle, Brassard
W: Voracek, Burrows, McDonald, Filppula, Dorsett, Hudler, Abdelkader, Bouchard, Ott, Zuccarello, Stalberg
D: Karlsson, Letang, Enstrom, Boyle, Giordano, Gorges, M. Stuart
G: Quick, Kiprusoff, Ellis

Prospects: Granlund, Pirri, Caron, Killorn, T. Johnson, Galiev, Corrado, Vatanen, Moore, Rundblad, Bachman, C. Johnson, Desjardins

Take the deal. You have time to make follow-up trades to get back under cap. What you get from your other downgrades will probably exceed Crawford+MacDonald.

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UHL Calgary Flames
24-team H2H (roto G, A, GWG, SHP, PPP, PIM, +/, SOG, Hits, Blks, FOW, W, SV, SV%, GAA, SO)

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