The "Crow or Gripe" About Your All Star Team Thread: 2018-19

[ruxpin]

Trade to announce:

 

To the InsideEdge:

Hellebuyk & Schwartz

 

To the Hellbears:

Howard & Skinner

 

Hellebuyk to Howard is obviously a downgrade, but I don't think too bad.  It gives me Howard, Dubnyk, and Price.   I'm not a world-beater in net, but that's still not a bad triumvirate.   TFG has shown me in both leagues this week that even good goaltending can be neutralized.

 

Skinner has no peripherals to speak of, but he certainly helps me in scoring categories and is a huge upgrade on offense unless something really unexpected happens in St. Louis.

 

It's not a trade I would have made in a keeper league.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Jeff Skinner is a nice score in that deal.

But yea, in a keeper league, HellBoy value > Skinner value.

Jimmy Howard isn't playing bad at all actually...his numbers are more than respectable for fantasy, and Schwartz thus far, has been a non factor.

 

You best hope this doesn't bite you in the teddy, Rux, come later in the season when teams like Detroit likely deflate while teams like Winnipeg take it to another level......and then the All Star playoffs come around.....   

[ruxpin]

22 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

and then the All Star playoffs come around.

 

Yeah.  At the moment I'm sitting okay in 6th, but it's a long season.  I need to make sure I make it, and I *think* with the other goalies that this helps my offense more than it hurts my goaltending.

 

And honestly, Hellboy hasn't been great.  He will be better, I'm sure of it, but at this point it's not a huge drop off.  I drafted Hellboy last year in Allstars and had him all year long.  I traded for him right out of the gate this year and would prefer to keep him, but it is what it is, I guess.

[pilldoc]

Oh my ...I am finally out of the cellar! Yeah! 

 

I was able to pull the upset win over @J0e Th0rnton and his Sharknado's.  It has been a very trying and frustrating year so far so it was nice to get a win over the top dog in the league.

 

Now I get to face another that has always given be problems in the past... @ruxpin and his Hell Bears.  Good Luck Rux!

 

Baby steps here ... I'm only 20 pts out of the last playoff spot!

[J0e Th0rnton]

7 hours ago, pilldoc said:

Oh my ...I am finally out of the cellar! Yeah! 

 

I was able to pull the upset win over @J0e Th0rnton and his Sharknado's.  It has been a very trying and frustrating year so far so it was nice to get a win over the top dog in the league.

 

Now I get to face another that has always given be problems in the past... @ruxpin and his Hell Bears.  Good Luck Rux!

 

Baby steps here ... I'm only 20 pts out of the last playoff spot!

Good match Doc

 

Happy new year!!

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Last trade of the old year....or 1st trade of the New Year (seeing as how it technically won't go through till Jan 2nd)..
The GMs?
@yave1964 's Puttin On The Foil and my Green Star Blades.

The Foil gets:
Zach Parise (Min-LW)

Erik Johnson (Col -D)

 

The Blades get:
Alex Edler (Van - D)

Dustin Byfuglien (Wpg -D, currently on IR till about the All Star Break)

 

Yave gets a player he likes and who normally hits a few categories in Erik Johnson... The Avs are a team on the rise, and they will need guys like Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson pushing things along from the blueline...I think he gets that here...also a working defenseman is better than one on IR too.

Zach Parise (and truly the entire Wild team), has struggled offensively all season, but Parise has been picking it up slowly and he almost ALWAYS seem to put up a crap ton of SOG and at his best, is potent on the PP.

 

Yave potentially picks up some nice offense between Parise and Johnson, while still hitting other categories such as SOG (both those guys) and some hitting (Johnson, to a lesser degree Parise), and Johnson can play a rough game and has even been known to go off on someone here and there, racking up some nice PIM numbers.

 

I have been on the short end on many occasions in the areas of peripherals such as hits, blocks, and even SOG sometimes.
I am hoping defensemen like Edler and Byfuglien (when he gets back can help me do better in those areas).
Big Buff, in addition to those peripherals, can be deadly on offense as well. Just gotta play the waiting game while he heals.

Edler was a guy I actually had been overlooking all season, but he has done well in the non scoring categories, and every once in a while DOES chip in on offense too.

I lose Parise who might be on the up, however, I feel I have enough forwards with enough offense to offset that (I also made some FA pickups to help augment that prior to this deal), so losing Parise doesn't necessarily create a hole in my lineup.

I think we both got what we were after here, will see how things shake out moving forward.

[yave1964]

18 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Last trade of the old year....or 1st trade of the New Year (seeing as how it technically won't go through till Jan 2nd)..
The GMs?
@yave1964 's Puttin On The Foil and my Green Star Blades.

The Foil gets:
Zach Parise (Min-LW)

Erik Johnson (Col -D)

 

The Blades get:
Alex Edler (Van - D)

Dustin Byfuglien (Wpg -D, currently on IR till about the All Star Break)

 

Yave gets a player he likes and who normally hits a few categories in Erik Johnson... The Avs are a team on the rise, and they will need guys like Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson pushing things along from the blueline...I think he gets that here...also a working defenseman is better than one on IR too.

Zach Parise (and truly the entire Wild team), has struggled offensively all season, but Parise has been picking it up slowly and he almost ALWAYS seem to put up a crap ton of SOG and at his best, is potent on the PP.

 

Yave potentially picks up some nice offense between Parise and Johnson, while still hitting other categories such as SOG (both those guys) and some hitting (Johnson, to a lesser degree Parise), and Johnson can play a rough game and has even been known to go off on someone here and there, racking up some nice PIM numbers.

 

I have been on the short end on many occasions in the areas of peripherals such as hits, blocks, and even SOG sometimes.
I am hoping defensemen like Edler and Byfuglien (when he gets back can help me do better in those areas).
Big Buff, in addition to those peripherals, can be deadly on offense as well. Just gotta play the waiting game while he heals.

Edler was a guy I actually had been overlooking all season, but he has done well in the non scoring categories, and every once in a while DOES chip in on offense too.

I lose Parise who might be on the up, however, I feel I have enough forwards with enough offense to offset that (I also made some FA pickups to help augment that prior to this deal), so losing Parise doesn't necessarily create a hole in my lineup.

I think we both got what we were after here, will see how things shake out moving forward.

I traded you Meier even up for Big Bad Buff a couple of months ago and have been kicking myself that that since then. Buff has been solid but Meier has turned into a very good player. Then Buff went down and I face palmed myself.

 

  Johnson has long been a favorite of mine, as you mentioned he gets good solid points in all categories usually PIMs as well. Parise? IDK, truthfully he has never been on any of my teams I dont know what to think. I will watch him for a few weeks and if he performs I will stick with him if not you can get him back off waivers, lol.

 

  Dont forget you added Edler who like Johnson puts up hits/blocks not a big scorer but does a lot right.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

5 hours ago, yave1964 said:

I traded you Meier even up for Big Bad Buff a couple of months ago and have been kicking myself that that since then. Buff has been solid but Meier has turned into a very good player. Then Buff went down and I face palmed myself.

 

  Johnson has long been a favorite of mine, as you mentioned he gets good solid points in all categories usually PIMs as well. Parise? IDK, truthfully he has never been on any of my teams I dont know what to think. I will watch him for a few weeks and if he performs I will stick with him if not you can get him back off waivers, lol.

 

  Dont forget you added Edler who like Johnson puts up hits/blocks not a big scorer but does a lot right.

 

I bought into Timo Meier after trading for him in NAHANA and seeing how well he performed for me there.

Figured, if he was good in a production league like that, he should do even better in our All Stars League where the SOG were counted as well.

 

He has performed above and beyond what I expected. Truly a break out star for the Sharks.
The ONLY guy on this site who probably knew how good this guy really was way ahead of all of us, is probably @J0e Th0rnton 

 

As for Parise, I honestly had to think long n hard about trading him. I know the team hasn't performed up to expectations and he along with it, but he is still one of the better Minnesota producers, and I keep thinking he now will catch fire now that I traded him.
If you look at his production the last few games, despite his team still being woeful, he at least has started to pick things up.

He is the type of guy who can just go on a tear and rack himself up a nice point streak....he shoots the puck so much, things GOTTA go his way eventually... a couple games ago, he had 10 SOG all by himself...in ONE game!! He got one goal out of all that, but just the fact he keeps at it is impressive.

[J0e Th0rnton]

41 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

I bought into Timo Meier after trading for him in NAHANA and seeing how well he performed for me there.

Figured, if he was good in a production league like that, he should do even better in our All Stars League where the SOG were counted as well.

 

He has performed above and beyond what I expected. Truly a break out star for the Sharks.
The ONLY guy on this site who probably knew how good this guy really was way ahead of all of us, is probably @J0e Th0rnton 

 

As for Parise, I honestly had to think long n hard about trading him. I know the team hasn't performed up to expectations and he along with it, but he is still one of the better Minnesota producers, and I keep thinking he now will catch fire now that I traded him.
If you look at his production the last few games, despite his team still being woeful, he at least has started to pick things up.

He is the type of guy who can just go on a tear and rack himself up a nice point streak....he shoots the puck so much, things GOTTA go his way eventually... a couple games ago, he had 10 SOG all by himself...in ONE game!! He got one goal out of all that, but just the fact he keeps at it is impressive.

I knew how good he was when he was drafted

 

He was a Halifax moosehead

 

Trying to decide what I liked seeing better this year so far. James neal lining Meier up for a big hit and bouncing right off him and getting up angry, or meier scoring the game winner vs the ducks while simultaneously punching montour in the face

 

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Hmm...
@ruxpin

 

Dropping that brick Nylander and taking a chance on a thatched Demko, eh?  

[ruxpin]

30 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Hmm...
@ruxpin

 

Dropping that brick Nylander and taking a chance on a thatched Demko, eh?  

 

Yeah.   Nylander really is a brick.

 

In other news...

 

To the Foiled Puts:

Marchessault & Price

 

To the Bears from Hell:

Monahan & Markstrom

 

I'm honestly not sure about this one.  I sent this as a counter thinking "no way."   I walked away to do something and got cold feet and came back but already accepted.  Similar happened with my Hellebuyck trade a week or so ago.   So, we'll see.   Two weeks ago, I had pretty darn good goaltending for this league.   Now, like I said, we'll see.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

3 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

 

Yeah.   Nylander really is a brick.

 

In other news...

 

To the Foiled Puts:

Marchessault & Price

 

To the Bears from Hell:

Monahan & Markstrom

 

I'm honestly not sure about this one.  I sent this as a counter thinking "no way."   I walked away to do something and got cold feet and came back but already accepted.  Similar happened with my Hellebuyck trade a week or so ago.   So, we'll see.   Two weeks ago, I had pretty darn good goaltending for this league.   Now, like I said, we'll see.

 

Hmm...well, you know, this trade could turn out well for both, or completely blow up in the face for one of you.

 

On the one hand, getting Monahan on a red hot Calgary team leading the West with the playoffs well in hand it seems, might be worth it all by itself....and I am rather surprised @yave1964 parted with him, to be honest.
On the other hand, Yave would now have Price, Holtby, and Quick as his trio.

If all those guys stay healthy and play to their abilities, he should take just about all the goalie cats each and every week!!
Plus he gets Marchessault, one of those guys he seems to like who hits a number of categories.

 

You do weaken your goaltending a bit, but looking at your goalies, now with Markstrom/Thatcher Demko (you now get all the Canucks' starts and have the option to drop one if the other seems to take over the net) and Vancouver continuing to play decent defensive hockey, Cancucks' goalie stats (maybe not wins, but everything else) may serve you pretty well most weeks.

Dubnyk and Howard will have their good games, lay some eggs...again, up n down goaltending.....but overall, while your goaltending isn't elite, it can still be better than some others out there.

 

So, IMO, you both make out well if Monahan continues being the top player he is, Demko works out for you, and Duby and Howard continue to play competitive games.... and Price adds on to what SHOULD be a dominant trio of goaltenders for the Foil.

 

It backfires on YOU, if Duby completely craps the bed from here on out for the Wild (they are having a tough time winning games lately!), Howard goes down with some strange injury again, or Monahan goes cold.
Backfires on Yave if Price plays like the guy who may want out of Montreal, Quick goes down with injury, Marchessault hits a wall...then he finds himself without the elite Monahan on his roster.

 

Interesting trade all around.

High risks and high rewards for both of you here....cutting away the extras, I see this as Monahan for Price as the bottom line.

[ruxpin]

So, it turned out to be a busy day for us Bears in Hell.

 

To the Green Star Blades:   Alex Tuch & Mikko Koivu

To the Hell Bears:  Joe Pavelski

 

So, I was going to need to drop Koivu anyway and only recently picked him up. 

From my end, this was Tuch for JoePa.  Numbers are similar but JoePa gives me multi-position and also helps to replace the FWs I was going to lose dropping Koivu.    It also helps me slightly on power play categories.  Not tremendously, but a little bit.

 

I would think from TFG's side of things, she dropped Carter in this, who was doing nothing other than ...well nothing, actually.

So, Alex Tuch and JoePa are pretty much a wash for her and Koivu makes up the FWs she's losing in JoePA.   Plus, Koivu is contributing at least some offensive numbers that Carter really isn't.

 

From where I sit, I think we each helped our teams.

 

For the day for the Hell Bears:

 

Outgoing:
Alex Tuch, Mikko Koivu, Jonathan Marchessault, Carey Price

Cut:  William Nowloiterer & Matt Nieto

Incoming:

Joe Pavelski, Sean Monahan, Jacob Markstrom

Claimed:  Thatcher Demco

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@ruxpin

Pretty much spot on...right down to the Jeff Carter thinking.

Honestly, I was going back n forth on this one.
The minute I saw the offer, I almost hammer rejected it thinking, "No way am I trading Pavelski!"
But the more I thought about it, Alex Tuch really is right there with him in stats (minus FOW and some PP numbers) and I like the way Vegas is trending.

I also have Tuch in NAHANA so that is nice.

 

Then I thought to accept it...then changed my mind back to no......then thought how Jeff Carter IS wasting a roster spot and I am close to dropping him anyways even though I just picked him up not too long ago (did it because injuries and trading for an IR Byfuglien created empty rosters spots)...and how Koivu would seem like an upgrade over him AND get me back a homer player from the Wild.

 

So yea, after much mental yes n no, and because Pavelski has been so consistent for me, I finally decided Alex Tuch was worth the swap, plus the bonus of Koivu allowing me to relieve Carter of his duties and giving me more man-games with two players vs one was the way to go.

The ol gotta give to get applies here as Pavelski will be missed on the Blades.
Very solid, productive player, as you said, multi positional, and as @J0e Th0rnton likes to say... "Face offs from the wing!"

I am comfortable with this deal.

[ruxpin]

This doing moves & add/drops on my phone while on my commute is playing havoc.  I made some minor moves yesterday and forgot to reset my lineup.  It wasn't one of these where I thought I did and it didn't work or some glitch nonsense.  I completely forgot.  So there is TAVARES on the fricken bench and getting two assists while half my starting slots aren't playing. 

 

Grrrr!

[pilldoc]

58 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

This doing moves & add/drops on my phone while on my commute is playing havoc.  I made some minor moves yesterday and forgot to reset my lineup.  It wasn't one of these where I thought I did and it didn't work or some glitch nonsense.  I completely forgot.  So there is TAVARES on the fricken bench and getting two assists while half my starting slots aren't playing. 

 

Grrrr!

 

Welcome to the club.... been there done that....

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@yave1964

 

Boy....so far that Parise-Johnson for Edler-Byfuglien trade is looking REAL good for ya!

I knew Parise was coming around a bit, but he now looks like he is flat out ALIVE at this point...and Johnson has been productive.

Meanwhile, I've only gotten the minimum from Edler so far (only one game played for me granted), so hoping he picks up the peripherals soon.

I guess I really won't know the true value of the trade from my side till Big Buff gets back, as he was, after all, the centerpiece of that deal for me.

In the meantime, congrats on your nice haul as it is paying dividends for you NOW.

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

  To be perfectly honest Parise to me was a throw in at a position that I didn't need help at, left wing and I figured maybe a week or two tops and I would move him out if he didn't put up points. never expected him to be the best player in the deal to date, you know that Johnson was the player that tipped it over the edge for me.

  Saw you were looking for wingers and shopping Jones, shoot me an offer if the mod strikes.

[J0e Th0rnton]

I get the occasional offer and I apologize if I don;t respond. been hecka busy

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Some more trade news...featuring the very active Foil and their GM @yave1964

 

First up, a simple one for one swap between the Foil and AKOF:

Yave acquires defenseman Alex Pietrangelo

AKOF acquires forward Jakub Voracek

 

Nice defensive pickup for the Foil...at his best, Pietrangelo is sort of a do everything type defenseman, contributing in almost all categories even though his current numbers don't look all that impressive. Personal injury and the entire team being on a downswing have contributed to that, but he actually should be better than what he has shown so far..... likely what Foil management is banking on.

 

AKOF picks up the underperforming Jakub Voracek. The Flyers are another team who are on a downswing, and at HIS best, Voracek puts up better numbers than what he has this year as well. Still though, Voracek can still put up some decent assist numbers and is good to generate SOG....if the Flyers ever get their PP out of the gutter, Voracek may become even more valuable.

 

So basically a swap of underperforming players at different positions here.

 

Next up, The Foil does business with yours truly, manager of the Green Star Blades.

 

Foil Gets:

G- Martin Jones (SJ)

RW- Brendan Gallagher (Mon)

 

Blades Get:

LW- Zach Parise (Min)

D- Brayden McNabb (VGK)

LW- Taylor Hall (NJ, currently on IR)

 

The Blades having 4 goalies, decided to roll with veteran Tuukka Rask, the red hot Robin Lehner of the Islanders, and what looks to be the regular starter in Chicago moving forward, rookie Collin Delia....thus Martin Jones became expendable.

Yes, the Blades are taking a chance that Lehner may regress once again and Delia may fizzle out or even be demoted, but sometimes, ya just gotta take a chance....and the chance to re-acquire the NOW hot Zach Parise a solid hitter and blocker in McNabb and Taylor Hall (do I even need to explain WHY this guy is still coveted?) was too good to pass up.

 

I had been shopping Jones around to a number of GM's but Yave is always Johnny on the Spot (or is that Dave on the Spot?) and he and I went back n forth a bit till we settled on what you see here.

 

The Foil end up with 4 goalies now...and one can only wonder what his brainwaves are generating now.... heheh.

He also gets Montreal's Brendan Gallagher, who I drafted, had been very happy with, but you know, get some, give some, etc, etc...

Gallagher was NOT my first choice to give up to acquire the players I did, but he seemed to be the guy that got Yave to make this deal a go, so here we are.

 

Funny that I posed just a bit earlier how Parise was looking real good for the Foil.....and now I get him back.
Zach BETTER not turn OFF the heat now that he is back with the Blades...…. I may need to buy him out if he does.... 

[ruxpin]

32 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

I had been shopping Jones around to a number of GM's

 

Hmmm.  I should check my spam folder.

 

I like both deals for yave, heavily.   

 

Voracek is too stupid for words.  The player, not the trade for him.  But in fantasy, he's entirely one dimensional.  That's one thing in NAHANA, it's a complete mess in this league with the peripheral categories.  Worse, his stupidity is infecting his ability to even do well in his one category.

 

The problem I have with Parise in this league is similar to my "one trick pony" indictment of Voracek.  Parise isn't stupid like Voracek, but he's only really good in a category or two and streaky at best at that.  And he just had a hot spell, so he's hit his relevance quota for a month or so.  Hall, IMO, is no different though in the offensive categories he tends to put up better numbers so at least there's that.   

 

Yave didn't seem to trade for need here in either trade, so have to imagine he's trading for currency to go shopping.  Did that well.   (along those lines, yave, no I'm not trading you Tavares for Jones).

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@ruxpin

 

Yea, even I could see by trading Jones over to Yave it likely meant he may be gearing up for more deals down the road.

Still though, I feel I made out alright here.... Parise may be streaky these days, but fortunately, he doesn't have to carry all the offense for the Blades....and he HAS been building up to what he is doing now for some time now.

His Minnesota team overall is suffering from lack of scoring, but they are coming around a bit and whenever the Wild are scoring, Parise is usually in the middle of it all.
Taylor Hall just needs to stay healthy and on the ice.... looking over the numbers, even with the time he has missed, he still ranks up there with some of the better forwards in the league production wise.... and between whenever I get Hall back and Parise, they both should help me pretty much own the SOG category most weeks (I have a few others that are quite the shot generators as well).

I just got tired of coming up just short in the peripheral categories on many weeks....tried bolstering that while still maintaining offense up front.

 

McNabb is a very specific use player.... hits and blocks.

 

After this trade, not counting Big Buff who I have on IR, I should have a nice selection of defensemen, so if anyone wants to try and deal for one or two, I may be open to that.  

[yave1964]

I now have Jones, Holtby, Price and Quick in net which is obviously one too many. Everyone pretty much knows the type of players I like, multi category, preferably multiple position eligible players as well, one of them has to go in the right deal for that type of player. Feel free to shoot me an offer.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

And BOOM...there it is...
Mr. @yave1964 and his wily dealings..... sending off one of his 4 starting goalies.

 

Putting on the Foil Gets:
RW- Phil  Kessel (Pit)

 

Nasty Angryman (really, he has been angry all season...I wonder why?? )

G- Braden Holtby (Wsh)

 

Honestly, of the four goalies, I am a bit surprised that Holtby was the one dealt.... then again, in order to get a player with the fantasy value of Kessel, the best and most stable one had to go? Perhaps.

 

Hmmm...guess Mr. Angryman didn't like MY offer when I tried sending him Martin Jones...but then again, I wasn't asking for Phil Kessel either.... ah well. 

 

Looks like both managers are gearing up for long playoff runs...………...I best continue closely monitoring my own ammo...both these GMs are a little too close for comfort for me in the standings!

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Angry sent me an offer involving Rantanen at first and it turned into Holtby straight up for Kessel. In fact, he had inquired about Holtby a few days before you and I did a deal.

 

  Yeah, I would have preferred to deal either Price or preferably Quick but neither would have gotten me Kessel who is a power play god which is an area I needed to bolster.