Hey guys,

I am in a 10 team head to head league where we get to keep 7 keepers each year (see below for keeper positional requirements).

I made some great trades last year and have acquired picks 1, 4, 7 & 12.

The best available talent for the goalies are halak, price, smith.

The best forwards are spezza, h.sedin, e.staal, sharp, zetterberg, b.richards, eberle, skinner, landeskog.

As you can see from the categories, goalies play a huge role in our league and I am sure that the 3 I have listed will go in the first 5 picks. My current goalies are strong but I want one more strong goalie as we need 5 starts per week. I am also concerned with my keeper status going forward as Miller is starting to age and has been inconcistent the last couple of years. So whoever I take with my first pick could very well replace Miller as my secong goalie keeper moving forward.

So who would you guys take with picks 1, 4 & 7? I was thinking Price for his potential but Montreal are not great and will struggle for quite a while yet. Halak is entering his prime on a great team but he will split a lot of games with Elliot. My keepers are strong and hopefully contending for the next couple of years so I do not want to necessarily jeopardize this by speculating on Price. I am also not sure if Smith can repeat what he did last year in Phoenix.

Looking forward to your help guys.......

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10 team Head to Head Keeper League
(keep 7 players 1C, 1RW, 1LW, 2D, 1G + another anywhere)
start 2 C.-2LW-2RW-4D-2Util-2G.

C= tavares
LW= kovalchuk
RW= malkin
D= green,doughty
G= miller, rask



--G,A,+/-.,SOG,PPP,GWG,Wins,GAA,SV%,SHO.

Price
Sedin

I'd go with Sedin or Eberle for your first pick, whichever one you like better. Then, I'd take the goalie that is left at your fourth pick. That way, you still get one of the top three goalies (and takes away you having to make the choice), and you still get your top forward.

You already have two really good goalies in Miller and Rask, and you only start two goalies, so whichever one you take will probably be your third option anyways.

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12-team Keeper pool, straight points for forwards & dmen. Goalies get: 2 points per win, 3 per shutout, 1 point per assist & 1 point per shootout loss.

Top 8 forwards, 5 dmen and 2 goalies count.

We keep 8 forwards, 5 dmen, 2 goalies & 1 rookie.

Forwards: Malkin, Stamkos, Getzlaf, Hall, Kunitz, St. Louis, Pavelski, Kadri, Purcell, Hartnell, Brunner, Weiss, Bouchard, McDonald
Defence: Letang, Enstrom, Schultz, Markov, Keith
Goalies: Price, Niemi, Brodeur

My personal blog: http://theryancokeexperience.wordpress.com

if your league is quite active on trades you could grab a couple of goalies early. id grab smith with the first and then a forward.

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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

1st note: GWG, no PIM.
GWG is essentially a 2nd weighting on GOALS. Approx. 18% of all goals are GWG... and it's a crapshoot but it averages out this way. So you do have to realize that there are TWO categories for goal-scorers & ONE for assist-heavy guys. You need to give a big bump to the goal-scorers.

2nd note: You have TWO goalies from the Northeast Division.
Miller (BUF) & Rask (BOS). Most divisions play on similar nights and you'll find that taking another goalie from the NE (Price - MON) will end up in a lot of wasted sits from one of these guys. So, I would not pick Price. Halak (STL = west coast) or Smith (PHX) are likely to have less conflicts. (But you should check the "same night tool" found here on DobberHockey for that). Currently when you compare against BOS & BUF:
Montreal has 37 conflicts
Phoenix has 35 conflicts
St.Louis has 33 conflicts
*Of course, all this will change with a revised NHL schedule... but for the most part... you will find that same divisional teams play on the most similar nights.
*Also, if the NHL goes to a shortened schedule (say, 48 games) could there be a chance that teams travel less and play most inter-division & inter-conference???

Anyways, by current NHL schedule (which won't happen)
...you might gain an extra 2 games from Smith and maybe 4 games from Halak.


My forward ranks:

Eberle (for goal-scoring, +RW status, rare)
Sharp (for goal-scoring +wing status)
E.Staal (for goal-scoring)

Spezza (assist-man w/some decent goal scoring)
H.Sedin (assist-man)
B.Richards (assist-man)

Landeskog
Skinner

I'm definitely going forward at #1... probably Eberle... a guy who is at his most valuable in a no-PIM, goal-heavy league.
This may also be a smart-keeper move. Malkin is really only a C... sure he's C/RW in most leagues this year... but he really is just a C for future consideration (which gives you 2).

If only one goalie is left at your pick #4, you may feel itchy enough to take them at #4.

I'd probably try to wait on a goalie until your #7 pick... and take either Halak or M.Smith.... but only you know your leaguemates.

I also don't think drafting a Varlamov or a Pavelec is a bad option.
With 3rd goalies - you can also pick & choose your match-ups... and you may be able to wait a longer time (2nd round even) in a 10-team league.