1. Some stats are really hard to get. Mainly goals, assists, points, power play points (PPP), and any/all goalie stats since people won't trade them.
2. Other counting stats are easy to acquire. Want hits? Add Matt Martin. Want faceoff wins? Add Martin Hanzal (when he's healthy).
3. Defenders are the kickers or closers of fantasy hockey. There are a few standouts, but most are middling and won't score much above a defender ranked 30-40 spots below them.
As such, I decided to make a few trades to help my team. My overall thoughts were get goalies (if possible), get those hard to get stats, trade those easy to acquire stats, and trade defenders (when possible). Let's see how I did over a week and a half's time.
TRADE 1
My Drew Doughty and Nick Bjugstad
for
His Patrick Kane and Matt Greene (Filler)
I started things out with a bang. One guy who auto-drafted was seeking defenders and goalies, and mentioned that Kane was available. I don't love Kane the guy, but Kane the player is a huge goal scorer with PPP potential as well. So I was happy to give up Doughty and my 4th or 5th best center (especially with Kane having center eligibility).
TRADE 2
My Jonathan Drouin
for
His Olli Maata
This is the one trade of these five that I really regret. I was rolling 3/4 starting defense each day because I didn't want to cut anyone. So finally I made a move for a defender just to give myself a full starting lineup. Maata has some PPP potential...but he's still a defender, so this was more for hoping someone would see trade value in Maata. No one did, and he has since been cut from my team. So...bad move.
TRADE 3
My Milan Lucic, Martin Hanzal, Thomas Greiss, and Michael Neuwirth
for
His Evander Kane, Derek Stepan, and Eddie Lack (Filler)
I love Kane's do everything ability, and will happily see what he's capable of once he gets healthy. As for Stepan, he gets some good assists and PPP which ain't too bad. In return I gave up two temporarily hot goalies, faceoffs wins and injury risk in Hanzal, and then Lucic who isn't bad but even then is mostly hits and shots. Very happy with this trade.
TRADE 4
My Jimmy Hayes and Jonas Hiller
for
His Travis Zajac and Jerome Iginla
So at this point in the deals I've now traded three goalies. The first two were scrub backups though, and Hiller is a high ranked (88th in the offseason) guy who is battling injury and inconsistency. So I'm not too sad to lose any of these three. Especially when Hiller plus Hayes was enough to land me Iginla, who is a goal scoring beast and Travis Zajac, who has been interesting to watch so far and also gets a TON of faceoff wins (which yes, are available off the wire, but he has like 50 more than the next best guy on our wire right now).
TRADE 5
My Ryan Getzlaf and Leon Draisaiti
for
His Wayne Simmonds and T.J. Brodie
With all the above trades, I ended up loaded with centers, and needed to lose one. I also ended up with only three defenders again. So I dangled Getzlaf, who is awesome but starting slow this year, and picked up Simmonds, who plays both wings. He also gets loads of counting stats like PIM, Hits, and other cool stuff. I may regret losing Getzlaf since he scores some goals and PPP, but I think I gained enough elsewhere to make the gain of Simmonds (and Brodie who scores some PPP himself) worth it.
So as an end result, the only real big value guy I lost over five trades was Getzlaf, with Lucic, Doughty, Bjugstad, and maybe Draisaiti and Drouin as others I would've like to keep. But I'd say my haul of Patrick Kane, Derek Stepan, Evander Kane, Wayne Simmonds, Jerome Iginla, Travis Zajac, and T.J. Brodie was well worth everything I lost. We'll see if it helps me in the standings!
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