My thoughs exactly. Expecting a Pronger-esque development and upside from him.

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16 tm pts only sal cap full keeper
F:Malkin, Parise, Kessel, Mueller, Turris, Silfverberg, Boyes, Perreault, Cammalleri, Shore, Backlund, Elias, Callahan, Burmistrov
D:MDZ, Carlson, Schultz, Josi
G:Fleury, Dubnyk
Farm: Jarnkrok, Dumba, Sproul
IR: Spezza

16 tm H2H keeper w/ contracts
G A +/- PIM STP GWG W SO GAA SV%
C: Benn[3], Ribeiro[1], Brassard[1], Shaw, Forsberg
LW: Ryan(LW)[4], Marleau[1], Schwartz,
RW: Sharp(C)[1], Bennett, Coyle(C)
D: Goligosk[4], Letang[3], Edler[2], Hamilton, Rielly
G:Rask[2], Bobrovsky[1], Fasth
IR: Spezza[2]

The problem with EJ (fantasy-wise) has nothing to do with his skill.
The problem is that STL has Halak, who is great, and now STL only NEEDS a couple of goals to win a game. If you are a solid two-way defenseman, the coach is probably pushing you to focus, focus, focus on the defensive game. Let the forwards score.

Of course, this is just an imaginary conversation I've had between EJ & Payne... but I think Halak's success will translate into a less-offensive year for EJ. Maybe 32pts,

Cause & Effect.

Lack of opportunity in conjunction with the type of game the Blues are playing, as Pengwin mentions, are the real culprits here. The skill is absolutely there and EJ is playing just fine from what I've seen. He's not getting enough PP time and the team in general isn't scoring a whole lot because they don't have to. He's also a victim of being a good two-way guy on a team with a couple more one dimensional players. EJ's icetime is high as it is. I try to always believe that talent wins out in the end and I'm trying to cling to that here, but, Payne has stubbornly avoided top PP time for EJ for over a year now (by and large). Its frustrating, but there's almost too great a body of less-than-stellar work from EJ over the past 13 months to trade the guy now. He's just going to take a bit longer to get to where his high skill level will allow him to go.

__________________
12 H2H Pts - Keep 17 + 8 Farm
Points for: G,A,PPP,SHP,D Points,+/-,S,PIM,HIT,BLKS; Wins,SO,OTL,S,GA

C(3): Getzlaf,Lecavalier,Berglund,Granlund*
RW(3): Perry,Wheeler,Franzen(LW),Hemsky,Little
LW(3): Zetterberg(C),Marleau,Duchene(C),Clowe(RW)
D (6): Seabrook,Kronwall,Zidlicky,Giordano,Faulk*,Diaz*,W ilson*
G (2): Luongo,Smith,Neuvirth


Farm (<200 GP/<100 GP goalie):
C: Kuznetsov,Hartikainen
W: Paajarvi,Greening
D: Kostka,Martinez,
G: Bishop,Gibson,Johnson

Not sure if this is breaking news or not, but EJ just isnt that great on the PP. It sucked last yr for a few reasons, him being one of them. He's just avg at this pt as a PP QB. I think he needs a partner on the PP that can mask his shortcomings. That being said, Steen isnt much better as a point man either.

I just traded EJ for Markov...i know im giving up years, but I think Pietro is going to be the go to guy on the PP and teams do not like to put 2 right shots on the point on the PP for obvious reasons and they love Steen back there, so I think EJ will be a rock that gets 40 pts a year, however I hoping that Markov gets 50+ for the next 3 years, and last year in 45 games he had 5 fewer pts than EJ. Im going for the wint his year and next.

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20 GMs with 14 Keepers, Pts only, Top 9F,4D,1G count(5 bench)

Hossa-Plekanec-Vanek
Brown-Riberio-Nash
Boyes-Getzlaf-Perry
Jagr-Jensen-Soderberg

Suter-Goligoski
Letang-Burns
Trouba

Smith
Luongo
__________________________________________________ __________________________
12 GMs with 18 Keepers. 22 man roster, Multi Cat.

C-Santana
1B-Votto
2B-Cano
SS-Tulowitzki
3B-MCabrera
OF-Kemp
OF-Stanton
OF-Zobrist
UT-Beltre
UT-AGON
B-Iannatta
B-Myers

SP-Hamels
SP-Greinke
SP-CC Sabbathia
SP-Lee
SP-Bumgarner
RP-Motte
RP-Papelbon
RP-Romo
RP-Holland
RP-Robertson

Pietrangelo has looked nice out there on the PP. In fact, a few times he has looked TOO nice - as in jumping in way deep and thinking all offense. Alex is still raw but as he adds some polish he could be a great PP guy.

__________________
6-GM, Wk-H2H, Keep 40
START = 13F, 6D, 2G
F Pts = G (2), A (1), PP/SH (+1), GW (+2)
D Pts = G (3), A (2), PP/SH (+1), GW (+2)
G Pts = W (3), OTL (1), SO (+2), SV (.10)

F: Backstrom, Kopitar, Perry, P.Kane, Spezza, E.Staal, Nash, Vanek, Couture, B.Ryan, Eberle, J.Staal, D.Brown, Lucic, N.Horton, Backes, Tarasenko, van Riemsdyk, T.Ennis, B.Gallagher, Armia, Teravainen
D: Karlsson, P.Subban, Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk, Doughty, Yandle, Chara, Kronwall, J.Johnson, Myers, J.Faulk, E.Johnson, A.Larsson, J.Morrow, S.Elliott, M.Rielly, Ceci
G: Price, Rask, M.Smith, Hiller

Even in my keeper league I am not sure I can hang onto EJ much longer. We only keep 6 and there is no way he is one of those 6. And even if we kept more, I am still not convinced he is as good as everyone thinks. He is old enough and has enough experience to be showing more than he is showing now. Can we tell what will happen 2-4 years from now? No, but I for one am not that patient. I am giving him a couple more games and then I am moving on.

I've been offered Neuvirth and Gilbert for EJ and Couture.

I wouldn't have considered it in the summer.

I think it's good value at this point, though.

Thoughts?

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12 Teams, Keep 12 (Keepers in Bold)
Undecided on final 2 keepers
Top 6 F, 4D, G, and 2 skaters count
Skaters: G/A 1pt, PIM 0.25pt
Goalies: W 2pt, SO 3pt

F: Giroux, Parise, E. Staal, E. Kane, St. Louis, Johansson, Tanguay, Grabovksi
D: Letang, Burns, Visnovsky, OEL, Wideman, Bogosian, White
G: Fleury, Hiller, Halak

Yeah go for it - you replace EJ as a keeper with Neuvirth which looks good to me.

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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

Do it. EJ is overrated.