Originally Posted by Dobber

Keeper League #3 – Forecaster - Recap

This one is with 13 other fellas, most of who write for the Fantasy Hockey Forecaster magazine. The rules in this one are a lot different than my other two keeper leagues. Rosters are 4C, 8W, 6D, 2G, 4 bench, 4 prospects and 2 IR. Goals and assists are one point each, and +/- is 0.5 points. You can only keep 12 (including prospects). Drafting is done via weighted lottery.

I inherited this team that had finished in last place a year ago, so my goal was to just build 12 elite guys and stock up on draft picks. What further sucked was the fact that even though this team finished in last place, by brutal luck of the lottery my draft position was 13th first round and then it snaked. What a horrible way to determine draft picks. I also think keeping 12 is too few – may as well not be called a keeper league. Anyway, I don’t make the rules.

I did have some solid assets to build around – Lecavalier, Kovalchuk and Price.

If you read my other keeper league reports in this forum, then I’m sure you will guess that I would move Lecavalier.

Move #1, August 25 – Traded Satan and an 8th rounder for Eriksson and Giroux. Needed wingers, felt like I got two good ones.

Move #2, August 27 (prior to when my protected list needed to be in): I still did not have 12 guys I wanted to protect, so it was time to turn Lecavalier into several assets. I wanted to upgrade DiPietro, too, because I didn’t trust him. Unfortunately, the guy I upgraded him to was no better as it turned out. I traded Lecavalier, Zidlicky, DiPietro and acquired Hemsky, Carle, Leclaire, a 1st in 2008 and a 2nd in 2009. I lost every aspect of that deal, but it turns out draft picks are very valuable – especially top two rounds.

Protected list – end of August:
C- Kopitar, Jokinen, Ribeiro, Brassard (now you see why I wanted to move Lecavalier)
W- Hemsky, Kovalchuk, Giroux, Eriksson
D- Meszaros, Carle
G- Price, Leclaire

With this rather weak protected list, I could go into the draft and focus on wingers and defensemen. But I wanted one more goalie because I didn’t trust Leclaire (and I was shopping him like crazy). A goalie would be my first pick, and I wanted to get the best wingers available so my preference was Dumont, Voracek, Huselius in that order. I also wanted to secure Filatov.

The best goalie available in my opinion at the time was Theodore. The other ones I would consider were Vokoun, Thomas and Ellis, in that order. Yes – oops. Thomas. But who saw that coming, really? Not a fan of Theodore, but I knew Washington would win a ton of games this year and he would start most of them. I was right about that. I would have considered Vokoun, but he went ahead of me anyway.

Drafted Theodore 10th (that’s the pick I got in the Lecavalier deal). Now I can focus strictly on wingers and defensemen.
Voracek 13th
Huselius 16th
Filatov 41st (can’t believe he slipped to me, I was thrilled)
Vermette 44th (oops)
Bieksa 69th
Goligoski 72nd
Pietrangelo 97th
Dawes 100th
Salmela 125th
Purcell 128th
Hodgson 153rd
Pyatt 156th
Harrold 181st

Grabbed Versteeg off of waivers on October 15th (I’ll only note the notable waiver pickups)
Grabbed Grebeshkov on Oct. 22, and Quincey on Oct. 29

Move #3, November 26: Traded Derick Brassard and Owen Nolan for Gomez, Satan and a 4th in ’09. I didn’t trust Brassard’s health. Amazingly, I was proven correct about a week later.

Move #4, November 28: Traded Ribeiro, Voracek for Eric Staal, Hudler and an 8th in ’09. This was after the Morrow injury, if I’m not mistaken. I wanted the pick and I wanted more immediate points – I figured I had a shot at 3rd with enough trades, and there is no use jockeying for draft position given the ridiculous drafting format. Usually, if I can’t be first, I may as well be last, get the good draft pick, and work on first next year. But with this draft format, I can’t pull that stunt (“tanking”).

Grabbed Samsonov December 8, Varlamov December 31 (dropped Leclaire), and Wisneiwski December 31.
Grabbed Makarov January 17.

In February, I couldn’t get higher than 7th, so I took a look at my team and started trying to deal anyone who I either would not protect or who is on the bubble, and try to pick up some draft picks.

Move #5, Feb 9: Traded Versteeg for a 2nd round pick.

Move #6, March 2: Traded Loui Eriksson for a 5th round pick.

That was all I could swing.

Final roster:
C – Gomez, Jokinen, Kopitar, E. Staal, Hodgson
W – Comeau, Giroux, Hemsky, Hudler, Huselius, Kovalchuk, Samsonov, Tambellini, Bergenheim, Fehr, Filatov, Makarov
D – Bieksa, Campoli, Grebeshkov, Quincey, Seidenberg, Wisniewski, Murphy, Goligoski, Meszaros
G – Price, Varlamov, Theodore

Which 12 would you keep?
My for sure keeps: Kopitar, E. Staal, Hodgson, Giroux, Hemsky, Kovalchuk, Filatov, Hudler, Price, Varlamov (10)
On the bubble: Jokinen, Gomez, Bieksa, Goligoski, Grebeshkov, Campoli, Quincey (7)