This is my first time playing keeper league fantasy hockey and I\'m one of two expansion teams in a H2H league of 12 teams, 16 categories (5 for goalies). Goals count the same as assists.

In the expansion draft I made a couple of blunders by picking some 30+ players. Considering that I\'m nowhere near contending for at least two seasons, they\'re kind of meaningless to me, unless I trade them. So I traded one of them.

Other team gets Markus Näslund. I get Michael Ryder.

Näslund is an aging veteran who might not even play beyond the coming season (the usual rumblings, don\'t really put much stock in them). His point totals have been on a steady decline although he took care of an abysmal +/- last season.

Ryder is seven years younger and is a yearly 30 goal man, although his +/- was horrible last season.

It\'s certainly not a blockbuster trade but I think it takes my team in the right direction. How did I do?

Also, any advice on what I should do with my team would be greatly appreciated, meaning... what should I try and trade for?

My wingers now consist of the following:
Scott Hartnell
Joffrey Lupul
Scottie Upshall
Colby Armstrong
Darcy Tucker
Raffi Torres
Marco Sturm
Pavol Demitra
Michael Ryder
Jack Skille
Eric Fehr

My centers are:
Stephen Weiss
Mike Fisher
Mike Comrie
Tomas Plekanec
Jarret Stoll

Defense:
Sami Salo
Ed Jovanovski
Christian Ehrhoff
Niklas Kronwall
Kristofer Letang
Ladislav Smid
Luc Bourdon
Cam Barker

Goalies:
Alex Auld
Mathieu Garon
Mikael Tellqvist
Justin Pogge

I know my goalies are absolutely horrible at the moment, but I\'m not concerned about this season. It\'s two years down the road I\'m looking at. I\'m going to use a pick in the ongoing draft to get a pretty good goalie prospect.

__________________
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

Wait till about half way through the season before you start moving your vets and people over preforming. At that time you can go back and fourth between the top 3 guys in the pool because they are most likely willing to sack a bit of the future for a good run at this year.

__________________
Mike Green WILL bounce back over 60 points.

On twitter @ToddWhittington

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.

__________________
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

smooth move , could have got a little more , maybe.try moving jovonoski he seems to draw fair attention and you\'ve got nice future talent on defense.keep garon he might be a sleper.try to wrap telquist or/and auld up for a better goalie but wait till the season begins and see if one of them starts putting up some decent #\'s then use him/them for trade bait.

__________________
Roto type keeper league.We keep any 6 ;15 teams , 3 div. of 5.We play 3 lines , 3 def. and start 2 goalies.6 BN.Stats are 1pt. for goals and assists , 2pts. for W , tie(O.T. or S.O. loss) 1pt. S.O. 1pt.Weekly line-up from Mon. to Sun.

LW - Malkin
LW - J. Skinner
LW - T. Ennis
LW - Conacher
LW - Raymond
C - Matthias
C - M. Richards
C - V. Filppula
C - Vermette
RW - B. Schenn
RW - M. Read
RW - J. Huberdeau
RW - M. Gaborik
Def. - Pietrangelo
Def. - B. Smith
Def. - Diaz
Def. - OEL
Def. - Stoner
G - Louongo
G - Markstrom
G - Neuvirth

Getting goalies in my league seems impossible. The others wouldn\'t even bite when I was shopping next years first pick (which will realistically be 1st or 2nd, possibly 3rd overall) plus more for a proven star goalie. I figure the only way for me to secure my situation in goal is to pinpoint the sleeper goalies, such as for instance Pekka Rinne, who seems to be in good position in Nashville this season and going forward.

Everyone holds on really tight to their quality goalies because of the goalie start requirement. We need 3 goalie starts each week in order to not automatically forfeit all 5 goalie categories. This season I\'m hoping Roloson and Aebischer go down early

Thanks a lot for the advice.

__________________
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

sentium wrote:
What are your scoring categories for Forwards? If Goalies are that valuable then you have to sacrifice to get a good one... Pkg Jovo maybe Auld, and a next years pick to land a good goalie...or instead of the pick, find someone who is weak at forward

Skaters: G, A, P, +/-, PIM, PPG, PPA, PPP, SHG, GWG, FOW,

Goalies: GA, GAA, Sv, Sv%, SO

Like I said, this season isn\'t what I\'m worried about, goalie-wise. It\'s two or three years down the road that interest me. I have Pogge. If I can get someone like Jonathan Bernier, Ondrej Pavelec or Semen Varlamov as a goalie prospect in this draft and then pick up a guy like Rinne as a FA signing, I\'m not completely screwed. I\'m in talks about getting my hands on Detroit\'s Jimmy Howard, but the ultimate would be getting someone like Henrik Lundqvist, a proven quality starter with a future.

Should I overpay for a proven quality starter instead of going for someone like Howard, Harding or Montoya?

__________________
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

Try targeting a current backup goalie (ex/ Bryzgalov) who may become a starter in the very near future. For young goalies, Price and Bernier should be at the top of your list.

__________________
My pool
Goals = 1 point, Assists = 1/2 point, Goals Against = -1/2 point

Fowards: S. Stamkos, M. Hossa, A. Hemsky, J. Neal, M. Grabovski, M. Read, J. Jokinen, P. Berglund, M. Hanzal, N. Foligno, B. Wheeler, S. Matthias, G. Latendresse, L. Stempniak

D-men: S. Weber, PK Subban, D. Phaneuf, D. Hamhuis, T. Gilbert, M. Staal, A. Sekera, M. Niskanen, TJ Brodie, N. Prosser, C. Tanev, K. Cumiskey, M. Flood

Goalies: Nashville, Chicago, Boston

Farm: D. Rundblad, D. Orlov, B. Smith (DET), J. Muzzin, MA Bourdon, R. Smith, C. Emmerton, A. Lander, M. Reinhart, M. Mayorov, I. Makarov, P. Maroon

Also, you may want to acquire someone like Josh Harding in Minnesota. If you check here you\'ll see that Backstrom is slated to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2008-09 season. The Wild may let Backstrom walk (or trade him) and give Harding the starting role as he will be much cheaper and probably just as good or better.

__________________
My pool
Goals = 1 point, Assists = 1/2 point, Goals Against = -1/2 point

Fowards: S. Stamkos, M. Hossa, A. Hemsky, J. Neal, M. Grabovski, M. Read, J. Jokinen, P. Berglund, M. Hanzal, N. Foligno, B. Wheeler, S. Matthias, G. Latendresse, L. Stempniak

D-men: S. Weber, PK Subban, D. Phaneuf, D. Hamhuis, T. Gilbert, M. Staal, A. Sekera, M. Niskanen, TJ Brodie, N. Prosser, C. Tanev, K. Cumiskey, M. Flood

Goalies: Nashville, Chicago, Boston

Farm: D. Rundblad, D. Orlov, B. Smith (DET), J. Muzzin, MA Bourdon, R. Smith, C. Emmerton, A. Lander, M. Reinhart, M. Mayorov, I. Makarov, P. Maroon

I think you got the best advice from Leaftodd - wait! I would have even waited on the Nassie deal. I think you did okay on the deal but the possiblility of getting more for him later certainly exists.

The itch to build quickly is always there and I believe can foster premature moves. There is an inherent risk of course that your vets will fall on their face and become of little value, however I think the waiting game will always prove more profitable on balance. Keep your picks for now - be like a hawk with the FA pool - scrutinize other teams needs like you own that team. I would go so far as to say that your timeline to competitiveness might serve you better if it was 3 to 4 years rather than 2.

What you have pasted together as an expansion team is not so bad - I think you certainly have a ken for this business and you need to trust in that. Someone, somewhere in your league will eventually make a mistake and you should be ready for that moment.

Have fun with this!

__________________
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