Lumberjack Be Nimble

Hey guys — James checking in from the Lumberjacks. After a rough start to the season, I've managed to pull together a few wins in a row, and we sit at a respectable 2-2 now. Here's some updates on recent moves:

From the Waiver Wire/Free Agency, I've picked up:

• Martin Biron: I needed another goalie who, y'know, wasn't in the AHL. Biron won't get tons of starts, but he's a solid hand when in net, and I'll be able to get a few points out of him when he is.
• Tom Poti: Injury prone, yes, but, be plays on Washington, and I needed defencemen in the worst way. He hasn't done much for me so far (injuries, shocking), but he'll get me a few points eventually... right?
• Kris Russel: Once again, another defenceman. He hasn't really done much for me so far, but he's sadly an upgrade over what I had before.
• Filip Kuba: Kuba has been out since the star tof the year, but he's coming back soon, and the guy puts up points, especially on the PP. I'm glad I picked him up.
• Kyle Wilson: Playing the odds here - Wilson is getting 2nd line and PP minutes in Columbus, and it's inevitable he'll get some points. He got 6.4 points for me last week, which is pretty good for someone who no one else wanted. Once again, it was an upgrade.

All in all, the pickups I've made have been minor, but, I'm in a better spot than I was before. As for the rest of the team, there's good an bad. First off, the good:

• Sidney Crosby is doing exactly what I hoped. I can count on him to get me at least a few points every night, and you need that kind of consistancy in a league like this.
• Mathieu Garon has been a surprise, but a welcome one. He got two shutouts last week, but sadly, only one of them counted - a complete mistake on my part, as I didn't have him in the line up that day. Luckily, it didn't cost me a win, but it was a wake up call for sure.
• James Wisniewski, despite the suspension, is getting 1st PP Unit time in Long Island, and he's puting up points. Part of me wants to trade him while his value is high, and I know he can't keep this pace up for the whole year, but I just can't justify dealing away my top scoring defenceman right now.
• Justin Williams has turned out to be pretty solid - he's actually my second highest point producing forward (behind Crosby, of course). I've seen a lot of his play, and the guy is clutch - he's had a few game winners, and I think he'll continue to do so.

However, with the good, there's the bad:

• Antii Niemi's stock couldn't be lower right now. He's not getting starts, and when he does, San Jose is playing terrible. Right now, I definitely lost the Perry/Neuvrith for Niemi/Kostistyn trade.
• My ace in the hole, Jordan Staal, was finally set to return from off-season foot surgery... and promptly breaks his hand in practice, and will be out for another 6 weeks. I was really hoping he would help shore up my offence a little, but I'll have to wait even longer.

All in all, I could be much worse. I'm not getting a huge amount of points, but luckily, neither have my opponents. I know I have no say in that though, so I just have to focus on getting better players at the right time — that's a little tricky though, when 19 other GMs are doing the same thing.

Up this week are the Houston Hellcats — a 3-1 team. This will be a good test this week.

I'm a Lumberjack, and I'm Okay

Hey everyone - I'm James, and I'm the GM for the Vancouver Lumberjacks. I'm a huge Canucks fan, so going after another Vancovuer team (albeit it fictional) was a no brainer.

So, the draft went through, and for those not in the know, it was an auto-pick draft. This meant that you put together your list of players you want in order, and the fantasy league will automatically draft players to your team in that order. I ended up with the 2nd overall pick. Ovechkin went first, so I was able to get Crosby, who is a guy that any fantasy team GM loves to have. I'll be banking on him all year. From there, my team seem to end up being heavy with talented forwards, as I was able to get Jason Spezza, Johan Franzen, Wojtek Wolski, Jordan Staal, and Corey Perry.

I also got Ray Whitney, Justin Williams, Evander Kane, Lars Eller, Kevin Porter, Drayson Bowman, and Nazem Kadri. Some of these later guys will be up and down from the AHL this year, but depending on what's available, I may hang on to them for a bit - we'll see what happens.

On defence, there's some work to do. Michael Del Zotto, Lubomir Visnovsky, and James Wisniewski are all good pick ups, but that's where it ends. My bottom 3 defencemen are rounded out by Toni Lydman, Matt Niskanen, and the AHL-bound Thomas Hickey.

However, my goaltending ended up being the biggest weakness - my best two were Michael Neuvrith, and Mathieu Garon. I also got Justin Peters and Johan Backlund, but that wasn't much of a comfort. I knew I needed to balance this out a little, as in a league where goalies get 5 points per win, having two back ups would be my downfall.

As such, I was able to compelte the following trade with Andrew, GM of the Seattle Aviators:

Vancouver gets: Antii Niemi & Sergei Kostistyn

Seattle gets: Michael Neuvrith & Corey Perry

I didn't like having to part ways with Perry, but with Niemi looking like he'll get the majority of the starts on a good SJ team, I'm in a good spot to get 5 points every time that team plays. I'd have rather kept Neuvrith than Garon, but I believe that Kostistyn will get all the chances in the world on an offensively-depleted Nashville team. The goals have to come from somewhere, right?

On a whole, I know my team isn't the best on paper now. With snaking drafts, high or low draft picks mean you go for long stretches without drafting. I'm going to need good years from guys like Crosby, Franzen, Spezza, and Niemi to keep me competitive. However, anything can happen, and I'll just have to keep my eye open for good deals and the waiver wire, which is fine.

If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, feel free to pass them my way - I'll definitely look at them. Click here to review my team, and click around for the other teams, too.