Just picked up Niemi in my keeper pool (2 points for a win and 3 for a shutout)...what do you see for him in the next few years? My assumtion is business as usual (30-35 W, with a handful of shutouts).

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12 team points only keeper (G = 1, A = 1, W = 2, SO = 2)
Dress 6 forwards, 4 defensemen, 2 goalies
Roster limit - 20 plus 4 prospects


Forwards: Crosby, Malkin, Backstrom, Seguin, Kunitz, Wheeler, Silvferberg, Berglund, Johansson

Defense: Yandle, Letang, Shattenkirk, Byfuglien, Larsson, Josi

Goalies: Niemi, Halak, Vokoun

Prospects: Yakupov, Barkov, Drouin

Sounds about right... the Sharks aren't a bad team, and still have plenty of offensive depth and a solid D corps, so Niemi shouldn't be too bad of an own.

Although if you look at the Pac. division, LA, Phx, Dal, Ana could all be potential playoff teams, so that division could be the most competitive heading into next season, which might hurt the win totals, if it's going to be a dog fight.

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Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12

Picked up?? Like off of FA? Criminal that a goalie of his calibre should be sitting there.

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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

san jose is still a top team in the division to me. good pick up.imo.

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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

As long as he's the starter for SJS he should be a solid own.

The only question with Niemi is when will Greiss or Stalock eventually take over.

Solid pickup for at least next season and probably the season after though.

Niemi is worth keeping probebly for 2 more years, then as a Niemi owner I'll be shipping him out myself, hopefully while he still a Starter...

One thing to watch on Niemi, he starts seasons slow, and gets stronger as the season rolls into January, then he is $$$... depending on how much ice is in your veins, you will be pissed at him early as he'll only win 40-50% early with little to no shutouts... then 2nd half will jump to 70% wins and shutout every 7 games...

The question will be when do you pull the trigger? Do you make the move at your league's deadline and hopefully make the move that puts you over the top or may hurt your goaltending to end the season? or do you dump him in September, October before he plays any games and he's won you a championship and likely went on a San Jose playoff run? (he won me a championship last year!!!)

Last season I did number crunching on Brodeur's Shutout record and if it can be broken or approched by any current goalies... My findings were only Niemi or Rask could approch him based on past stat rates... Niemi tho would run out of years and would have to be a starter until he was like 38 years old and back up a few more... Rask has the best oppertunity and would have to be a starter and getting the same shutout to game rate until he is approximatly 34 + years as backup... (I don't expect that rate to continue), It was interesting as Loungo, Lundqvist, Rinne don't produce enough rate to do it in thier remaining years, while Price, Fluery are not shuting out teams anywhere close enough...

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Current Roster:

F: H Sedin, Plekanec, Kovalchuck, Perry, Cammalleri, Oshie, Stepan, Anisimov, Kunitz, Justin Williams, Little, Baertchi, Huberdeau, Olli Jokinen, Eberle, Rattie, Alfredsson

D: Boumeester, Green, Carlson, Vlasic, Del Zotto, Myers, Scandella

G: Niemi, Varlamov, Neuvirth, Harding, Ramo, Vasilevski

Niemi is a really solid pick for this season.
He's playing his 3rd or 4th year in San Jose and has a consistent group of D-men in front of him: Boyle, Burns, Vlasic, D.Murray. Now they've also added Brad Stuart, so their D-men are very solid.

In a full season, I'd peg him for 35 wins.
I think he was the best "value" goalie to draft in Yahoo! leagues this year (based on where they pegged him). Of course, in a league with smart owners, it really didn't matter because Niemi was going in the top 20 goalies, regardless of Yahoo!s misguided rank of him.

Been doing a bit of work for the app...

This is what I found interesting with Niemi's numbers...

It's actually not really yearly splits (or they're partially to blame), but it's more road/home splits.

Look at the numbers from 2011-12:
Home: 21-9-3 (63.6 win%), 2.17 GAA and .922 so pretty crazy home numbers.
Away: 13-13-6 (50 win%), 2.69 GAA and .907, so that's where his downfall is...

2010-11:
Home: 18-7-3 (64.3 win%), 2.29 GAA and . 922 SP, once again pretty crazy home numbers.
Away: 17-11-3 (54.8 win%), 2.47 GAA and .918 SP, better than last year, but still a discrepancy.

So there's a clear discrepancy between home numbers vs away numbers...

One more thing that's interesting about the Sharks is that they usually have a brutal schedule because of an ATP tennis tournament (SAP Open) that always rolls into town in February. Most teams might have a 4-5 game road trip as their max during the season, but the Sharks always have a brutal one. 2011-12: 9 game road trip, 2010-11: 7 games (10 of 12), 2009-10: 6 games (Olympics) 2008-09: 5 games (9 of 12)... So that could be one of the main reasons why there's such an discrepancy in his home/away stats...

Going on the road to say Anaheim or LA then heading back home for a couple of game is much easier than doing a East coast trip for 2 weeks...

So if roster spots aren't a big deal and you can stock pile goalies, just grab Niemi and start him during his home starts and if the Sharks are on a long road trip against tough opponents then micro-manage and bench him. If you're able to pick and choose your matchups, you could easily manipulate the goalie stats in your favour.

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Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12

Awsome advice Gotlaid, thanks!

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12 team points only keeper (G = 1, A = 1, W = 2, SO = 2)
Dress 6 forwards, 4 defensemen, 2 goalies
Roster limit - 20 plus 4 prospects


Forwards: Crosby, Malkin, Backstrom, Seguin, Kunitz, Wheeler, Silvferberg, Berglund, Johansson

Defense: Yandle, Letang, Shattenkirk, Byfuglien, Larsson, Josi

Goalies: Niemi, Halak, Vokoun

Prospects: Yakupov, Barkov, Drouin