Kukla's Korner Hockey
Your Turn—Pick My Next Player
by Hippy Dave on 12/14/09 at 11:00 AM ET
Comments (0)
So I found myself short a fantasy hockey player after I finally dropped Ales Kotalik’s lazy ass to the wire. He did so well in the early going there, it was tough to do. Then I took to finding who’s next on the free agent list that I wanted to pick up, and I found myself in a troubling position. In a league that allows 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 6D, and 1G to start any given day, I have 7C, 5RW, 5LW, 3D, and 3G on the team, one man short. (I counted a couple of C,RW players twice there.) So what’s an armchair manager to do? My experience is having 6 of any wing position is just too crowded for the average NHL schedule. More than 6 C’s and you’re definitely not rolling one or two guys on big game nights. The 3G’s is plenty. I run a short bench on the D position simply because most D men can’t put up forward numbers and a forward who gets 60 points and plays 2/3 of the time is more valuable than a D man who chips in 30 points.
So my question to you is, what to do? How do you balance your roster? Help me pick a guy off the free agent list. I’m just crazy enough, after a couple of days of your suggestions, I’ll pick up your top vote.
D) Marc-Andre Bergeron is on the wire, he’s got 11 points in the last month, 5 on the power play. (D) Tim Gleason’s rocking nearly 30PIMs to go with his 4 goals and 4 assists. Those are pretty good numbers; maybe the D bench could get a little longer. Let’s assume you don’t have them as an option, the field drops dramatically (Kurtis Foster, Francois Beauchemin? I don’t think so), proving my point, Then suddenly I see guys like Martin Erat (RW-9G,5A) and Steve Sullivan (LW-4G,9A) finally clicking on Nashville; those guys are blowing up and suddenly I think maybe a forward breaking out like these guys would be a better option. Daniel Carcillo could put me over the top in PIMs, Then I see the wunderkind center Matt Duchene dropping 7 goals and 5 assists along with some PPP and face offs in the mix. You know, I might just pick this guy up and keep in benched so nobody else can have him. I’m that kind of guy.
So how do you keep your team leveled? Do you fill every position or roll the short D-bench? Do you think having more forwards allow you the opportunity to play the hot numbers and are worth loading up on? Is there too much of a good thing? Or should you go for a penalty-minute monster in this situation if you league allows for it? Here’s a dump of the top 25 forwards over the last month in my league. What would you do?
Rank/%Owned/G/A/+-/PIM/PPP/SHP/GWG/FW
Martin Erat
(Nsh - RW) 22 19% 9 5 4 12 5 1 2 5
Matt Stajan
(Tor - C) 50 14% 6 8 7 6 2 0 1 141
Eric Fehr
(Was - RW) 59 9% 6 6 7 8 2 0 0 0
Marc-Andre Bergeron
(Mon - D) 68 19% 5 6 2 4 6 0 2 0
David Legwand
(Nsh - C) 69 9% 5 7 3 4 3 1 2 104
Steve Sullivan
(Nsh - LW) 73 10% 4 9 2 2 5 0 1 0
Antti Miettinen
(Min - RW) 79 6% 7 2 6 14 1 0 2 4
Matt Duchene
(Col - C) 89 19% 7 5 -1 0 4 0 1 72
Marco Sturm
(Bos - LW) 100 16% 6 3 5 8 1 1 0 1
Daniel Carcillo
(Phi - LW) 107 12% 0 2 -1 62 0 0 0 0
Gilbert Brule
(Edm - C) 108 7% 4 7 2 10 2 0 0 16
Zenon Konopka
(TB - C) 110 6% 0 2 -1 71 0 0 0 58
Keith Ballard
(Fla - D) 117 18% 1 6 2 18 4 0 0 0
Mark Recchi
(Bos - RW) 119 12% 4 7 1 10 4 0 0 3
Curtis Glencross
(Cgy - LW) 120 9% 3 6 4 15 1 2 0 0
Kurtis Foster
(TB - D) 125 2% 3 3 4 10 4 0 1 0
Ray Whitney
(Car - LW) 128 68% 4 7 -2 4 5 0 1 0
Tim Gleason
(Car - D) 129 4% 4 4 -3 28 2 1 0 0
Zack Stortini
(Edm - RW) 135 3% 1 3 5 43 0 0 1 9
Francois Beauchemin
(Tor - D) 136 8% 2 6 1 7 3 0 0 0
Nigel Dawes
(Cgy - LW) 143 7% 5 2 7 4 2 0 1 0
Trent Hunter
(NYI - RW) 149 5% 3 7 3 2 2 0 0 0
Mike Modano
(Dal - C) 152 6% 4 5 0 4 3 0 0 109
Steve Bernier
(Van - RW) 154 5% 4 4 8 2 1 0 0 2
David Moss
(Cgy - RW) 155 8% 3 4 5 6 1 0 1 1
Shoot away!
-Dave
Filed in: Fantasy Hockey and Gaming | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
Be the first to comment.
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Video- The Relationship Between Brodeur And Kovalchuk
Video- “Lof Of Good Guys In Hockey”
It Will Be The New Jersey Devils Against The Los Angeles Kings In The 2012 Stanley Cup Final
About KK Hockey
Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.
Email Paul anytime at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Make extra cash while playing online poker. Rakeback is free and comes with rake races.
Kukla’s Korner is always a free service for readers, but it costs some money to maintain. If you’re ever in a position to donate a few dollars to help out, we’d be very appreciative.