Is it time to get rid of Steve Mason? If I can get Bryzgalov for him straight up, should I do it? Team is in sig. It's going to be a tough choice picking my 8 keepers.

__________________

12-team yahoo head-to-head with daily starts. 24-man rosters. Keep 8.
4 C, 3 LW, 3 RW, 2 F, 6 D, 1 G, 5 BN, 2 IR
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, FW, HIT, BLK, W, GAA, SV%, SHO.

C- Giroux(RW), Backstrom, Kadri, Berglund, Galchenyuk, Couturier, Sutter
LW- Benn(C), Semin(RW), Hudler, Anisimov(C), Gagne
RW- St. Louis, Voracek, Oshie(C), Briere(C), Tarasenko(IR)
D- Jus Schultz, Hamilton, Faulk, Doughty, B. Smith, Visnovsky
G- Rask, Price

I just acquired Steve Mason as he's a great buy-low candidate this year. For his current owners, I suggest you don't give up on him. He's 21yrs old and has a very good up and coming team in front of him.

Personally, I would never trade Mason straight up for Bryzgalov in a keeper league. In a one-year league, you can definitely argue making the change, but never in a keeper league.

As for your 8 keepers, I agree that it will be tough, but here's my 8 keepers from that list:

C - N. Backstrom
LW - Vanek, R. Ryan
RW - Semin, Perry, Gaborik
D - E. Johnson
G - S. Mason

You definitely have a couple bubble players that could work themselves onto your keeper list such as JVR (in for Ryan possibly) and Gonchar, Streit or Enstrom (in for EJ). But those are my preferred 8 for now. Another option is to not keep a Dman and just add JVR to your keepers. Personally that's a route I like to take as finding Dman who can get you 40ish pts is pretty easy (although some of your Dman have 60pts potential).

In my opinion, you should keep your solid depth at W. You have some quality C's, but you can always find them in the upcoming draft. Quality Wingers are clearly more valuable as they are scarce. I like EJ's upside more than any of your other Dman, but you may want to keep Gonchar or Streit if you feel your team is going to be really competitive next year (which it looks like it would). Steve Mason in my mind is a top 5 goalie keeper because of his age and his youthful team in front of him that will undoubtedly improve in coming years.

__________________
10-team Auction League, $160 team salary, weekly H2H, start: 6F, 4D, 1G and 5 Bench

Scoring structure: (F : 1pt G / 1pt A / 0.15pts SOG / 0.15pts Hits / 0.15pts BlkS), (G : 5 pts W / 3 pts SO / 0.01 pts Saves)

Forwards : Ovechkin ($41), Kovalchuk ($24), Kessel ($18), E. Kane ($13), Benn ($5), Sharp ($11), Pominville ($1), Dupuis ($2), Whitney ($2)

Defenses : Letang ($24), Byfuglien ($6), Markov ($1), Bogosian ($1), McDonagh ($2)

Goalies : Schneider ($7), Bobrovsky ($1)

Thanks a lot Kenzle. I agree with a lot of what you said, except I'm thinking Price is a keeper. I like Johnson a lot, but I don't think I'll keep any D-men. JVR is a wild card because he has been up and down this year.

__________________

12-team yahoo head-to-head with daily starts. 24-man rosters. Keep 8.
4 C, 3 LW, 3 RW, 2 F, 6 D, 1 G, 5 BN, 2 IR
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, FW, HIT, BLK, W, GAA, SV%, SHO.

C- Giroux(RW), Backstrom, Kadri, Berglund, Galchenyuk, Couturier, Sutter
LW- Benn(C), Semin(RW), Hudler, Anisimov(C), Gagne
RW- St. Louis, Voracek, Oshie(C), Briere(C), Tarasenko(IR)
D- Jus Schultz, Hamilton, Faulk, Doughty, B. Smith, Visnovsky
G- Rask, Price

Who did you trade away for Mason?

__________________

12-team yahoo head-to-head with daily starts. 24-man rosters. Keep 8.
4 C, 3 LW, 3 RW, 2 F, 6 D, 1 G, 5 BN, 2 IR
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, FW, HIT, BLK, W, GAA, SV%, SHO.

C- Giroux(RW), Backstrom, Kadri, Berglund, Galchenyuk, Couturier, Sutter
LW- Benn(C), Semin(RW), Hudler, Anisimov(C), Gagne
RW- St. Louis, Voracek, Oshie(C), Briere(C), Tarasenko(IR)
D- Jus Schultz, Hamilton, Faulk, Doughty, B. Smith, Visnovsky
G- Rask, Price

Price as a longterm keeper is definitely reasonable, but I would take S. Mason over him any day of the week. I have to tell you that I'm biased in this though as I really loath MTL, but here's my analysis on that situation:

S. Mason is 21yrs old and proved in his rookie year that he can be an elite goalie. He's playing for one of the best up-and-coming teams (next to LA) and so his stats will only improve in the coming years.

C. Price is definitely a quality keeper goalie, but I think his confidence is shaky and plays for a team which is trending downward. Bob Gainey is single-handedly crushing this team with the additions of players like Gomez/Gill/Spacek/etc. The other problem is that Halak is stealing starts. I know they are trying to move Halak, but I'm not convinced that Price can be a 60-70 game starter for year-to-year.

Mason can be that guy and as he proved himself last year with 61 games started and had 10 shutouts. The guy is a monster.

I like EJ and your other Dman for that matter. But I like the strategy of drafting Dman if you have an opportunity to keep better forwards or goalies. As you can see in my signature I have the same delemna as you (6 keepers) and I don't plan on keeping guys like Weber or Markov (although I could change my mind and swap out Carter, I don't see that happening).

__________________
10-team Auction League, $160 team salary, weekly H2H, start: 6F, 4D, 1G and 5 Bench

Scoring structure: (F : 1pt G / 1pt A / 0.15pts SOG / 0.15pts Hits / 0.15pts BlkS), (G : 5 pts W / 3 pts SO / 0.01 pts Saves)

Forwards : Ovechkin ($41), Kovalchuk ($24), Kessel ($18), E. Kane ($13), Benn ($5), Sharp ($11), Pominville ($1), Dupuis ($2), Whitney ($2)

Defenses : Letang ($24), Byfuglien ($6), Markov ($1), Bogosian ($1), McDonagh ($2)

Goalies : Schneider ($7), Bobrovsky ($1)

I gave up: C - Spezza (IR), W - Hartnell, and G - Miller

I got: C - Carter, W - Boyes, and G - Mason

My league is a pts only league, so I have up a lot as Miller was tied for 1st in our league with Brodeur and Bryzgalov.

I am currently sitting 3rd in a 10 team league where the top 2 get paid out, so I needed to make a move to improve my C2 situation with Spezza's recent injury.

I prefer Spezza over Carter, but the situation I was currently in made then more balanced as I needed the production.

I prefer Boyes over Hartnell as I anticipate Boyes finishing with close to 70pts and I see Hartnell falling into the 55pts range this year. Neither is a keeper though.

Miller is better than Mason, definitely no argument there, but Miller started on the same night as NJ and therefore I wasn't getting his pts (seeing as we only start 1 G). So I improved in two areas (C and W) while giving up a player who I seldomly used (Miller). I tried shopping Miller around to see if I could get a premier player and the other GMs aren't very high on him, so this was the best offer out there...

__________________
10-team Auction League, $160 team salary, weekly H2H, start: 6F, 4D, 1G and 5 Bench

Scoring structure: (F : 1pt G / 1pt A / 0.15pts SOG / 0.15pts Hits / 0.15pts BlkS), (G : 5 pts W / 3 pts SO / 0.01 pts Saves)

Forwards : Ovechkin ($41), Kovalchuk ($24), Kessel ($18), E. Kane ($13), Benn ($5), Sharp ($11), Pominville ($1), Dupuis ($2), Whitney ($2)

Defenses : Letang ($24), Byfuglien ($6), Markov ($1), Bogosian ($1), McDonagh ($2)

Goalies : Schneider ($7), Bobrovsky ($1)

I smell Andrew Raycroft.