Let me start by giving you some background on our pool:

It is a nine team keeper league that runs in a managerial style. All players on our teams have contracts and salaries and we have a budget to work within. Minimum salary is $500,000.

When a players contract expires they become a free agent. If they are 30 yrs old or less they are restiricted, 31 and older UFAs.

In the fall, before the season starts, we hold our draft. First we do two rounds of entry draft to pick up players that are not already owned by any of the managers. These players receive the minumum salary of $500,000. First round picks can be signed for up to 3 years, second round up to 2 years. Then we work through the list of Free Agents, in order of points per game, starting with the highest. It basically works like an auction, players going to the highest bidder. If they are an RFA, the manager who owns the players rights is eligible for 70% of the salary in compensation should they be signed by another manager. UFAs are comp free. Contract lengths are set by each manager for their players. Players 27 and under can be signed for up to 3 years, 28 and older up to 5 years.

Points are 1 for goals and assists, goalies get two for a win 1 for OT and 5 for a shutout.

We split the season into 7 segments, roughly 4 weeks each. Prizes for winning each segment plus first and second overall. Each degment we have to dress a lineup of 12 forwards, 5 defense and 1 goalie.

I have some tough decisions on defense this year, especially with all of the latest movement. Here is what I have:

Pronger (no brainer)
Weber (should do even better than last year)
JM Liles (seemed to be in the dog house at the end of the year)
Redden (looking for him to rebound)
Jack Johnson (can he get 40 points this year?)
Zidlicky (will he regain his #1 PP time? and get back to 40-50 points?)
Paul Martin (Will he get a shot with the #1 PP?)
Noah Welch (FLA may give him a solid chance)

I was planning starting the top five in my list especially since Zidlicky has a $3 million contract. I only pay half if he doesn\'t get activated. There are also a couple of teams weak on defense who may be willing to trade for Zidlicky, but his value isn\'t that great right now.

Available as UFAs are Rafalski, Zubov, Zhitnik and Boucher but I suspect Rafalski and Zubov will be anywhere between $3 million and $4 million and could go as high as $5 million.

If anyone survived reading all of that, I look forward to your thoughts on these D-men.

Thanks!