The art of the deal…it can make or break you. This gem from September of 2007:
Many have said to me….that there was always one deal made in a fantasy league that always turned a season around or made someone’s season fall flat on their face. Now while this isn’t always true….sometimes it really is. There is no true science to the trade. However, I can tell you this….don’t be caught on the wrong side of one. One key adage does always ring true though. Goaltending wins championships. Yes, it is great to have so much offense you don’t know what to do with yourself but if you don’t have at least solid goaltending, you will fall faster than anything ever imagined.
A person can always find offense…but take any league that has two starting goaltending slots….if you have a 12 team league…thats 24 spots taken up right there. Consider there are 30 teams in the league and you better believe that goalie you put in there is awfully damn important. A fatal decision there could spell doom. Now you’re going to ask what does that have to do with trading in fantasy hockey? Oh, it has some impact. Especially when you are trying to trade strength with strength….always have a backup plan. I have seen a number of years where the dreaded injury bug hits right after you make a big trade. I am not saying it will happen but damn if you take that much of a risk….have some insurance. A goalie for a forward is always an interesting trade and usually between two teams that feel they can contend for a title.
Trades that big can even have a ripple effect in leagues. I will disect one trade real quick for everyone. A few years ago a friend of mine had drafted Brodeur before me….I got stuck with Peter Forsberg. Now everyone will say…why on Earth would you want to trade Forsberg? Well because I was stacked at Center and the emergence of Brad Richards made Forsberg expendable. For months…I went back and forth…trying to get a trade together for Brodeur. Honestly I didn’t really want to part with Forsberg but I had to take a risk. Though I was in second….I knew the playoffs were coming up and I didn’t feel comfortable with Luongo (Pre-Vancouver), Nabokov, and Esche.
I knew he needed a center to cap his team…he was in first place…stacked with very good goaltending and an emerging Kiprusoff…who was killing the league in the second half and everyone knew it. Two days before the league trade deadline…I nailed it…I secured Forsberg for Brodeur straight up. People were screaming in my league for weeks…no one could believe such a blockbuster trade could happen between the top two teams. It was an even trade until………. Forsberg got hurt two weeks later….and Brodeur went on one of his patented late season stretches where he became hot enough to melt butter.
The rest was history…I cruised thru my league playoffs…won the league, and well…got a reputation (fairly or unfairly) as being the shrewdest dealer out there. A fantasy player is always looking for that angle…digging just beneath the surface for that trade that will put him or her over the top. A goalie-forward trade is usually that type of make or break deal. Now that doesn’t mean that other trades won’t have the same effect…forwards for defense…forwards for forwards even will have some impact as well. The key is to always be a couple steps ahead. You never want to be the one to say, “Oh if I had only made that trade, I could have won this league.” It is better to take a risk…why wonder what could have been.
Other great deals happen when some teams feel they are struggling out of the gates and feel they need a tremendous jolt to their team. Obviously, these deals can either work fantastically or fall completely flat. I never make a move in the first month or six weeks…..it shows an obvious sign of panic that other players will catch onto quickly and they will exploit you for it as the trade deadline nears. You can’t always make a trade from a position of strength but always look at your surroundings (transactions, what other teams are doing, etc.) and gage it from there. I have made a number of deals in the middle of the season when my team was languishing in the middle of the pack and the team just would catch fire right near the playoffs. Honestly, I have been really lucky….I have only had a few trades come back to haunt me really bad.
The only thing that does hurt more is making that trade then to lose that player in the playoffs or watch your team limp in with injury after injury….but hey that’s for another column.
Just keep in mind…..being trade happy won’t win a league but sitting on the bench won’t either. There is a happy medium…and that one or two trades can make a difference between winning and losing. Next week we will get ready for the draft by disecting what players you may just want to draft.
