Wow..just watching the highlights from last night's game against the Hawks and that second goal that they scored was a beautiful play. Paajarvi-Gagner-Yakupov looked pretty good on that one together, and a good job by Potter to keep it in the zone.

...Do I smell playoffs?

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16 Team Keeper League, Year Three Head to Head. Keep 8. Potential Future Keepers in Bold

F (Start 6): Neal, Parise, Benn, P Kane, Simmonds, Lecavalier, Doan, Wheeler, Boyes
D (Start 4): Pietrangelo, Campbell, J. Johnson, Leddy, Fowler, Faulk, Whitney
G (Start 1): Lundqvist

Point System
G=2, A=1, DefenseG=+1, DefenseA=+1, GWG=1, OTG=1, PIM=0.5, PPG=1, PPA=1, PenaltyShotG=1, SHG=2, ShootOutG=1, Shot=0.1, +/-=1, Hat Trick=3

Goalie Points
W=4, S= 0.14, GA=-1, OW=1, ShootOutW =1, SO=2

If you do, you can thank it all to Mike Brown




In all seriousness, this is one reason why I think people need to stop beating the dead horse that is Horcoff. Yes, his contract was a horrible one, but I think it's more than just coincidence that when he's in the lineup this year they're 7-2-2, and they're 3-0-1 since his return (not to mention if Petry hadn't potted that game tying goal into his own net they'd be 4-0).

Horcoff's going nowhere. That contract is borderline un-tradeable and even though he's past his prime in terms of being a capable third line center you still can't just be giving assets like him away for free. He is still their best (only?) faceoff guy and is also their captain. He sucks relative to the way the Oilers want to use him because injuries have really taken their toll on him but he still has something to offer.

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RNH and Gagner are terrible faceoff guys, they are killing me in my keeper league right now.

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10 Keepers (Finished 2nd, lose 1 keeper)
C: Malkin | Nugent-Hopkins
LW:Nash | Ryan
RW:Gaborik | Kessel | Voracek
D: Green
G: Miller
IR:
10 Team, 10 Keeper
Head to Head: G,A,P,PPP,SHP,BS,FW,GAA,SV%,SO
Daily changes: 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G

Don't mistake opinion for fact.

Gagner is a great RW faceoff option in leagues with wingers

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10 Team Yahoo Roto
Keep 6F, 3D, 1G (to max 4 years)
4C,4LW,4RW,6D,2G,5BN,2IR Roto-play 90games/position
Player: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, SOG, FW
Goalie: W, GAA, SV, SV%, SHO

C: 3-Backstrom, 1-Getzlaf, Kesler, Ribiero, Stepan
LW: 2-Zetterberg(c), 1-Hall, 2-Benn(c), Pacioretty,
RW: 1-P.Kane(c), Wheeler, Burrows, Brunner, Silfverberg
D: 2-Edler, 1-Yandle, 1-Subban, Carlson, Zidlicky, J.Faulk, Souray
G: 2-Quick, Brodeur, Dubnyk, Emery
IR: Malone

#- denotes number of years I have kept a player.

I've been thinking of the Oilers' needs and, as mentioned many times already, in addition to some defensive help, they could use a solid 2nd line centre who is strong on faceoffs.

A player who came to mind, who so happens to be a pending UFA, is Tyler Bozak. Does anyone think he'd be someone the Oilers might try to sign in the off-season? Decent size, strong on faceoffs, still young (so he could mature and grow with the other young Oilers), and I don't think it would require too much to sign him as a UFA.

Thoughts?

(I apologize if this has been discussed in this thread already...I did a search and nothing came up in the results)

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10 team league, multi-cat, full keeper.

Forwards: J. Toews, J. Tavares, J. Eberle, J. Neal, A. Kopitar, T. Seguin, E. Kane, M. Duchene, J. Benn, M. Ryder, D. Brown, B. Marchand

Defense: A. Pietrangelo, K. Shattenkirk, A. Goligoski, PK Subban, J. Carlson, J. Spurgeon

Goalies: M. Smith, A. Niemi

Bench: R. Clowe, B. Dubinsky, M. Calvert, P. Mueller, D. Clarkson, M. Carle, M. Niskanen, P. Wiercioch, J. Halak, A. Lindback

It's not a terrible idea in theory but the reality is that they just need their players to improve internally. Gagner actually isn't a terrible faceoff guy and he has worked to improve in that area. More work would be nice to move it into the strength category. The problem is that when Horcoff went down the options were basically Gagner and Belanger and that forced Gagner into taking many more tougher draws than he'd normally be looking at. With Horcoff back that moves things back into line. It's still not good but the reality is that unless you are moving Gagner or the Nuge the 1-2 center spots are taken so those guys need to improve.

Where I don't mind signing a guy like Bozak is as a possible replacement for Horcoff down the line and could even allow Horcoff to slide back to fourth line duties. That may not be what you want Horcoff to be doing but he's starting to reach the point in his career where playing third line shutdown minutes are getting too tough on his body and the wear and tear is slowing him down. He can still do it but eventually he's going to have to move on to easier minutes and that probably means becoming more of a depth guy once his contract expires.

So Bozak could fill that role but in a perfect world I'd like someone with a little more size and sandpaper to his game to go up against the big centers as the team moves to the Pacific Division but there is no question that a guy like Bozak would have value. It's just about finding the right spot in the lineup for him. Could he take faceoffs and then play wing as a way of fitting him onto a top two line. Could Gagner still be as effective moving over to the wing?

Faceoffs are definitely an issue, as is size up front but the blue line will remain the biggest weakness until they address the holes.

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all good points, metaldude

I'm just trying to come up with ideas to add to the roster without subtracting the quality players we already have.

My thinking is that Bozak might be a solid addition without having to move roster players/high draft picks/prospects. I'd certainly like someone bigger with more grit, but I can't think of any players like that that won't be expensive.

Horton and Clarkson are two pending UFAs that sort of work (not Centres mind you), but they will both be quite costly (especially Clarkson), and Horton's injury issues are a concern for me.

The issue with any UFA is that the Oilers don't have a lot of money to spend on a long-term contract with Hall and Eberle already signed and Gagner, Schultz, RNH, and Yakupov up in the not too distant future. That was another reason I liked Bozak. I don't think he'd cost all that much, even as a UFA.

I definitely agree that the defense is the biggest issue, but I don't see any pending UFA dmen that will help too much.

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10 team league, multi-cat, full keeper.

Forwards: J. Toews, J. Tavares, J. Eberle, J. Neal, A. Kopitar, T. Seguin, E. Kane, M. Duchene, J. Benn, M. Ryder, D. Brown, B. Marchand

Defense: A. Pietrangelo, K. Shattenkirk, A. Goligoski, PK Subban, J. Carlson, J. Spurgeon

Goalies: M. Smith, A. Niemi

Bench: R. Clowe, B. Dubinsky, M. Calvert, P. Mueller, D. Clarkson, M. Carle, M. Niskanen, P. Wiercioch, J. Halak, A. Lindback

Here is your probably pointless stat of the day. The oilers are 6-1-1 when Ryan Whitney gets a point.

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14 team Salary Cap league
NHL cap + 20 million
Scoring Cats - G, A, P, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, SOG
Goalie Cats - W, SV%, SO, GAA, SVS Made
Start - 3 C, RW, LW, F, 4 D, 2 UTIL, 2 G

C - Getzlaf, E Staal, Marleau, Elias, Eller
LW - Pacioretty, Vanek, Dubinsky, Raymond, Glencross
RW - Perry, Kane, Pominville, Simmonds, Clarkson, Stewart, Dupuis
D - Chara, Muzzin, Gardiner, Irwin
G - Lundqvist, Schneider, Biron