I've got a young team. I'm a basement dweller in my pool now. I shook my team up and stocked up on young guys with an eye to be competitive in 2 years and thereafter. With that in mind, which 2 of the following 3 D-Men should I keep? My keeper league is fantasy points only with categories in Sig. Given my league all 3 of these guys should be multi-cat gold.

1. J. Carlson
2. B. Smith
3. D. Hamilton

Thanks.

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Stat Categories: G(1), A(1), +/- (.5), PIM (.25), SHG (2), SHA (1), GWG (2), Hits and blocks (.1), W(2), GA (-.2), SV (.05), SO (5)
C(x3), L(x3), R(x3), D(x6), Utility(1), G(x3), Bench(x6)

(Keep 10 skaters, 2 goalies)
C: Backes, Kuznetsov, Pavelski, Thornton, Grandlund
L: Benn, E. Kane, Dupuis, Kunitz, N. Filigno
R: Kassian, Tarasenko, Yakupov, Coyle
D: B. Smith, Carlson, D. Hamilton, Giordano, Hamonic, Seidenberg, Goligoski
G: Rask, Schneider, Lindback, Anderson

I'd go with Carlson and Hamilton. I thought long and hard about Smith and it is very close between him and Hamilton but I think that Hamilton has just more upside that is hard to pass. Even with PIM, I still think Hamilton will do better. And Carlson is so much ahead of either of them that I didn't really think twice about including him.

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I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out.
- Rodney Dangerfield

Carlson & Hamilton, for me.

Brendan Smith is a nice player... but I think the Red Wings run as a consistent contender is going to fade. Lidstrom was such a key piece for that team. And the past couple years the Wings are not spending to the cap limit. IMO, the Wings owner (Illitch) has switched his focus to winning his other sports team (the Detroit Tigers) a championship. You look at the money Illitch has put into getting guys like Prince Fielder and Torii Hunter and re-signing. His focus is there. In fact, the Detroit area seems to be switching it's attraction more towards the young Lions and the contending Tigers. Also, JLA isn't the most attractive rink in the league... and Detroit in general isn't a healthy economy.

Without a serious cash-flow into the Wings, Brendan Smith's production is going to be affected by playing with a lack of talent. When Smith finally hits full gear (2015?), the elder Wings (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen) are going to be well on their downwards-sides of their careers.

Given the PIM category, Hamilton gets dropped. Have to keep Smith. For the first few years, he'll be a 25-point+, 100 PIM+ dman.

Hamilton will only get you points and avg PIM

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DobberHockey Rules
14 Team Keeper, points only, best 12 skaters 2 dman 2 G count. Playoffs count.
F - Crosby, C.Smith, Wheeler, Parenteau, Hudler, Clowe, Grabovski, Atkinson, Frolik, S. Kostitsyn, Marchand, Peverley, Tavares, Read, Brouwer, Bickell, Gionta, Setoguchi
G - Anderson, Hiller, Markstrom, Brodeur
D - Letang, Del Zotto, I. White, Kronwall, Brodin, Nikitin

I like Carlson & Hamilton.

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Studs N Duds - Sunday's

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

F - Stamkos, Perry, E.Staal, Voracek, J.Staal, Simmonds, Ott, Downie, J.Jokinen, Eller, Nielson, Prust
D - Martin, Faulk, Brodie, Ellerby, M.Weber, Stone
G - Bobrovsky, Halak
Bench - Brunner, Brodie, Strachan, Khudobin, Lindback, Neuvirth, Ramo

Prospects - Calvert, Forsberg, Etem, Namestinikov, Kreider, Cundari

I like this line of thinking. The points gap between the dmen is too small so the peripherals are way more important.

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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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Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

id drop hamilton too.

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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

Agree with all this, but would add the caveat that Hamilton will likely have a pretty good +/- on that Boston team.

Smith may as well, but I'm in the group that thinks Detroit is in for a rather rude shock adjusting to life without Lidstrom over the next few years..at which time Datsyuk will be done and Zetterberg will be an old man.

That may not be enough to change the fairly consensus choice of Carlson and Smith, of course.

2nd caveat is that I'm a sucker for young high-end prospects, and kinda think Hamilton is about as solid as they get..and on a really good team that should be good for a long time.

Carlson and Smith for me. Smith should be a 35-40 point dman in two short years. Plays with an edge and will drop the mitts. Reminds me of a younger Chelios. Points only, Hamilton would have taken the nod here.

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Points only keeper League, weekly head to head, 2RW, 2LW, 2C, 4D, 1 G , (goalies 2pts for W +3 for SO)



LW: Gaborik, Landeskog, Burrows

C: Seguin, Skinner, Berglund, Nyquist, Lombardi

RW: Eberle, Oshie, Doan, Silfverberg

D: Doughty, Carlson, Ekman-Larsson, Carle

G: Price , Schneider, Nabokov

Well... if Smith DOES get 100+ PIM in the NHL, I'd agree he's the choice.
But big PIM in the NHL has trended down among defensemen in recent years.

NHL teams seem to be filling their 5th/6th defensemen these days with serviceable penalty-killers & shot-blockers, rather than goons.

Look at the number of 100+ PIM defensemen since 2005:

2011-2012: (3)
2010-2011: (6)
2009-2010: (5)
2008-2009: (14)
2007-2008: (15)
2006-2007: (23)
2005-2006: (22)

It's a pretty strange trend... but it certainly seems that most NHL teams prefer to have their 4th line forwards doing the fighting, perhaps.
Or maybe penalties have gone down as a whole... I don't know.

I do know that 100+ PIM sounds like a LOT for a kid coming up from the AHL. PK Subban pulled it off... but he takes a lot of stupid hooking/tripping penalties. From what I've seen, read - Brendan Smith isn't going to take those stupid penalties and I really doubt he's going to drop the mitts with the big-boys a lot in his first couple years.

I could be wrong... but there's definitely a PIM-trend there among NHL defensemen.