Hello, everyone. My name is Kenneth, and I am excited and honoured to be able to join Apples & Ginos in a writing role! Every two weeks, you will see an article mainly focused on keeper and dynasty leagues. This way, while the beautiful team at A&G covers the redraft content throughout the year, you can also keep tabs on guys to watch out for in more long-term formats via this article. Today, I am focusing on trade tips for these longer-term leagues and some general ones you can follow to understand better how to value players in potential trades.
1st Trade Tip: Know each team’s direction and needs
The first thing you need to nail down in every keeper and dynasty league is every team’s roadmap to contention and their positions of strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you are a contender, you likely want to find the rebuilding teams with a win-now player in a position of weakness for you. This could be an excellent place to start, as teams with a consistent rebuilding mindset for their roster should want high-end prospects and unproven young players for any late 20s or early 30s players with a strong track record for production.
If a rebuilding team has a player like Brock Nelson, and you need a C/LW option, you might be able to acquire him for a young player and prospect who won’t help you with your contention window. Over the past three seasons, Nelson has scored 37, 36, and 34 goals this past season, and with the Islanders, it’s unlikely to see his role change anytime soon. This can also work in reverse if you are rebuilding or retooling; selling high on some veterans that would not contribute to you in 2-3 years for younger players and prospects would be a wise choice. Players like Ryan O’Reilly, Gustav Nyquist, and Mats Zuccarello are just a couple of examples of guys you can offload to further your plan to take some lumps now for a brighter future the next day.
2nd Trade Tip: Mutual control over negotiations leads to good results
This mainly applies if you initiate trade talks with a team and come up with the first trade offer. From my experience, letting the other manager have options for multiple parts of the trade generally helps pique the other side’s interest. Usually, it leads to more reciprocity in furthering trade talks in a positive direction. An example would be giving the other person the option of which secondary player to include in the trade or the option of what pick to send your way.
For example, in a 16-team dynasty league, I wanted to make a significant win-now move and acquire Tage Thompson and Mikhail Sergachev. In negotiations, I kept the options open for the other manager, offering Jonathan Lekkerimäki instead of Matthew Wood since the other person valued Lekkerimäki more. However, I also maintained some control in a mutual sense; when they asked for Oliver Moore to finish the deal, I held my ground and insisted on Mackie Samoskevich as the final inclusion instead. The negotiations were complicated and took up to a week, but being patient and helping the other person feel like they aren’t being pushed around in a mutual exchange goes a long way to making a blockbuster deal happen.
3rd Trade Tip: Does this deal improve me in some way in the long term?
This is the most crucial tip of the three. Whenever you’re making a trade in any long-term league, you need to think about how this will improve the outlook for your roster beyond the shorter-term scope. Let’s hypothetically say that you are in a position to compete soon, but you’re looking for that final piece to push you over the top to be a firm contender. Your roster needs a strong winger, preferably RW, and you see a rebuilding team put Alex Tuch on the block. Regardless of format, Tuch on Buffalo and his role are locked in, with top-line and PP1 deployment. Also, at 28 years old, this acquisition will benefit your team in the short and longer term.
It’s best to structure an offer roughly according to the other person’s needs. Some may prefer younger, established NHLers who are unlikely to reach Tuch’s production consistently, while others may like a pure prospect package for the positions they’re in clear need of. For a player like Tuch, you can offer a package including Tyson Foerster, Matthew Coronato, and either a prospect or draft pick! Foerster would fit the young NHL player with good upside beyond what they’ve shown in their career. It gives the rebuilder at least someone they know will be a valuable player for them immediately and could look better as time goes along. While Coronato would be the prospect with the pedigree with some NHL games under his belt, he needs some time to round out his game and breakthrough for Calgary. It could look different depending on your roster and the other person’s asking price and needs. Still, it’s roughly a young player in Foerster, a prospect in Coronato, and a draft pick for the rebuilding roster that has Tuch in this specific situation. If this goes through, you’ve gone up several levels in production and certainty at the precise position you needed in the first place. You’ve also been able to find and acquire a player who won’t be falling off soon for you, which answers the question of you being able to improve your team short-term, but more importantly, in the long-term!
Thank you. If you’ve gotten this far, I will be supplying this content for Apples & Ginos bi-weekly, so I look forward to that throughout the season! My Discord name is Kenny710; let me know if you have any questions or comments. I also run a Fantasy Hockey Site dedicated to Keeper and Dynasty Leagues; I do it with my great buddy Mason! If you are interested, here is the link: https://continuousforecheck.wordpress.com/
Remember to treat others with kindness and love one another!
-Kenneth
Apples and Ginos 