Can anyone point me to good articles on advice for strategies to rebuild teams in keeper leagues? I busted up my team a couple years back. I had a good competitive team but not a championship team. Now I have great young prospects and a nice stock pile of picks over the next 2 years. At some point I have to turn my attention away from young guys and onto "now" players and make my run at the Cup. I'm looking for advice on issues such as:

1. To what extent should I be relying on potential upside in young players? For example, an unproven young player with 80+ upside versus an older player with proven 60 pt. production. I'm worried that I'm too focused on potential upside and may stack my team with players that may never come to fruition.

2. Is the "4 year break out rule" something I should hang my hat on in terms of timing when I think I should be making my run for the championship?

3. Should I be keeping high risk / high return players like Kuznetsov?

Any general advice for planning a bust up/rebuild of fantasy teams would be appreciated.

Cheers.

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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

A few thoughts on your questions:

1. I'd try to determine if there are other teams in your league willing to deal established players for one or more of your young, high-upside guys. Try to determine which players you are willing to deal and which you are willing to wait on. Try to trade your all-potential/no results guys for other players who are still young but entering their prime years. Examples: Logan Couture, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Cam Fowler and Jordan Eberle.

2. It's good to have a plan, but I don't live and die by a four-year plan in my leagues. To me, roster flexibility is everything. Always put yourself in a position to be able to make a move when you are in contention and build for the future when you are not in contention.

3. I don't mind keeping one or two high-risk/high-reward guys, but it all depends on who you are keeping those players over.

My first thought is this: Why rebuild again when your current rebuild isn't even finished? You'll just get stuck in perpetual rebuild mode. You need to have patience. That doesn't mean you can't make deals, but at some point you need to stick with what you've got and make a run.

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GO WINGS!

12 team H2H dynasty, most categories under the sun, incl. hits/blocks. Main team, farm

C: Kopitar Backstrom Stepan Cammalleri Little Bolland Laich Johnson
LW: Parise Lupul Erat McDonald Martin Silfverberg Nyquist Schwartz Morin Nieto Conacher
RW: PKane Doan Pominville Nash Clowe Lupul Rinaldo Stafford Rattie Stone Chiasson Ritchie
D: Green Suter Seabrook Dillon Beauchemin Schenn Letang Schultz Hamilton McNabb Rielly Harrison
G: Bryzgalov Pavelec Holtby Neuvirth Nihlstorp Lack CalPickard Andersen Stalock Sateri Eriksson
IR: Halak

I think it's hard to say what-to-do with your team.

Rebuilding often depends on your leaguemates.
At this point, if you are looking to mix in some "proven" with your kids, you would need to find a team that wants to "rebuild" like you did. A team that is looking to gut their team's age for prospects.

In some pools, you can identify that team and the owner is ready to talk trades.
In other pools, that team may not exist... and there may not be a darn-thing you can to change your team other than waiting for your team to mature.

For now, I think your team is too young to compete... unless you are in a 16-team+ league.

In simple terms, you need to really identify an upcoming year when you expect to compete, maybe 2014-2015, but not this year... probably still not next year either (unless this is a 16+ team league).

1. when you rebuild upside is the key, but first you need to choose a window for said upside to occur in.

your teams has some great young talent. The key things you are going to build around will have a window opening up in about 1-2 years.
key players:
Rask: window is now for another long while
schneider: window opens now or next year and will be open for at least 5 years
yakupov: window opens in about 2 years, there is no way he is an impact player day 1
benn: window now and for another 5 years plus
backes: now and for another 3 years (power forwards burn out)
kane: now and for another 5 years


The rest are support guys imho.
If i were rebuilding:
1. trade old guys that still have value, that is thorton, the rest look like they are already gone
2. consolidate talent. you have 6 guys in your core, and about 10 guys that would not be bad keepers. I would move as many of those boarderline guys for more core guys. See if you can swing granlund and tarasenko for a lower risk young player like eriksson.

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10 team Dyn
tavares rnh statsny
AO benn
kessel malkin
ryan purcell
green letang enstrom kulkov OEL ellis
lundy ward varly bernier lehrner
burmistrov hodgson michalek, ryan oreilly, turris okposo

16 team h2h
Spezza, Tavares
Vanek,doan
malkin, eberle
Doughty Letang, karlsson, weber
hall
green enstrom downie palmeiri kassain bogo
lundy price pavelec

weiters fielder kipnis wright hanley braun upton upton maybin victorino goldschmidt
kershaw, startsburg, greinke, bumgarner, price, neise, bret anderson
valverde, hanrahan, aceves, reed, guerra, storen

My advice: do not rebuild.

Shameless plug: an article I wrote on this topic - http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index...eau&Itemid=117

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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)

Capped article archive

Montreal Canadiens coverage

Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

Bishop - how many teams in your league?

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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

I would do what the blue jays did this off season... package as many prospects as you can and get solid players that can contribute now... take the 4-6 guys that will help you win now and then use ur prospects/fringe keepers and try and package them for more guys like benn

That was a good read. Pretty much what I try to do with my team year in/year out.

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Keeper's Pool. Point only. Salary Cap 75M$ (yearly salary, not cap hit)
Only the best 9F, 3D, 1G of every teams counts in the standing.

Players list here (I am the St. Louis Blues):
http://keeper.forumactif.org/t13-joueurs-equipes

I started a major rebuild when I took over a team last January. It was a middle of the road team at best with little hope for future growth. I immediately dismantled the team and traded my assets (H.Sedin, M.Smith, to name two) for younger assets. Fast forward a few months, and while I had no intention of flipping back to proven players so early, numerous opportunities presented themselves to me. So I flipped all of my young guys and built a strong and young team (most guys are under 30). So I should be good to go for a while.

But this totally depended on my league. Many teams went into "rebuild" mode, and I had a good market for my young guys. If there isn't a market, it's best to stand pat and and just let things happen. Don't force it, as you'll lose value.

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Ultimate Dynasty League
16 Team Dynasty League H2H: G, A, P, PPP, SHP, +/-, PIM, SOG, W, L, GAA, SvPct, SHO

C: Stamkos, Getzlaf, Carter
LW: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Brown
RW: Iginla, Pavelski, Horton
D: Byfuglien, J.Johnson, Goligoski, Hedman, Hamonic
U: Mueller
G: Schneider, Hiller,
B: E. Johnson, S.Kostitsyn, Neil, Biron, Giguere
IR:
Prospect: Nail Yakupov, Tangradi

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UHL Dynasty St. Louis Blues
...a bad team trying to rebuild...