Six DeVries of Separation

love that team name, and this is the 2nd year in a row that Joseph Ampon has caught my attention with a witty team name. last year it was "He ain't heavy, he's my Brodeur". Joseph Ampon plays in a 12 team roto league at CBS Sportsline. as a general rule i like the engine at CBS Sportsline, in fact NFL.com runs their football leagues with that engine and although their FA search options are very cumbersome overall the look and feel of it is very good. i have no personal experience with their fantasy hockey engine but it looks very similar to their football setup. anyway, Six DeVries, nice. maybe i'll see if i can play a game of six degrees to get from me to Elisha Cuthbert, shouldn't be too hard.
let's see, i grew up in the same town as Larry Robinson and got an autograph when he was a player winning all those cups for les Canadiens. Robinson later became coach of the New Jersey Devils where he coached Scott Stevens. Stevens was signed as a FA by the Devils and it cost them 5 first round draft picks sent to the St. Louis Blues. Stevens was on the Blues with Brett Hull in 1991 during the height of Hull's goalscoring greatness. Hull played with Wayne Gretzky for 18 games at the end of 1996 as the Great One was winding down his career. Gretzky passed along the captaincy of the Kings to Rob Blake when he left to join the Blues and later the Rangers. Blake played on the Kings with Sean Avery in 2006 and Avery dated Elisha Cuthbert for a good part of 2006 (at least). i'm not sure if they're still dating but still, that's 6 degrees of separation between me and Elisha Cuthbert. that was actually a lot harder to figure out than i thought it was going to be.
Joseph is presently in 2nd place in his league that allows weekly changes. the settings on his league are: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPG, SHG, SOG, W, GAA, SV%. it's a goal happy league so if you're choosing between two potential guys for your team, take the sniper of the two. the lineup starts 2C, 4W, 4D, 2G which doesn't make for a lot of depth in a 12 team league so expect superstar C's are on everyone's team and defense corps will be full of big scoring types.

Let's take a look at Six DeVries of Separation.

C - Sidney Crosby - A+ - best player on the planet.
C - Scott Gomez - A- - Alaskans must be a friendly people if we consider the amount of assists that Gomez gets every year.
W - Patrik Elias - B - some don't believe anymore. i'm not sure i do either. he's rosterable but my best advice would be to see what you can get for him.
W - Alexander Frolov - B+ - he shoots a lot but his +/- potential worries me.
W - Milan Hejduk - B+ - dude scores. in this league setup he's a very good guy to have.
W - Jason Pominville - B- - still has lots of opportunity and may get up toward 40 goals this season.
D - Marc Andre Bergeron - B- - he shoots the puck and goals in the teens seems reasonable to me.
D - Roman Hamrlik - C - i thought this was a good move by the Habs but they seem to be going a different direction with their PP point options.
D - Jaroslav Spacek - C- - never been a fan. i suppose he's decent for +/- and is defensively responsible.
D - Niklas Lidstrom - A - arguably the best D in the world, if you don't count Bobby Orr or maybe my personal pick, Borje Salming.
G - Nikolai Khabibulin - B- - solid G2 option. i don't have high hopes for the Hawks getting a ton of wins this year though but the ratios should be fine.
G - Evgeni Nabokov - B+ - others ranked him higher than me but he's a decent G1.
BN - Nathan Horton - B - unsung. 30 goals. probably won't break your lineup at C unless you have an injury.
BN - Mark Recchi - B - i suppose i have to concede that he's been a decent player for a lot of years but i still worry about his defensive play and i don't see him as that much of an upgrade on Roberts on his own team.
BN - Sami Salo - C+ - plenty of potential for this grade to skyrocket. he's been hurt to start the year but he'll get 15 goals this season which is always nice for a D.
BN - Pascal Leclaire - C+ - i don't like the odds that his stellar start continues.

in looking at your standings (bearing in mind that we're only a couple weeks in) you're flagging in PIMs and A, while you're middle of the road in +/-, W, and SOG. given your lineup i'm not at all worried for your totals in assists or wins, they'll come but you do need to work on PIMs, +/- and you need a little more SOG.

Waiver Wire options

Mark Streit - becoming the obvious PP option for the Habs.
Brent Burns - not getting enough print but getting lots of ice time and opportunity with a really good offense.
Nathan Paetsch - one of my D sleeper picks this year. he'll contribute. i promise.
Karl Rachunek - heading up the Devils PP. not enough contributions yet but that'll get better.
Brendan Witt - one of my fave PIMy D options.
Antoine Vermette - will surprise this year. 30 goals. yes, you heard me.
Scott Walker - traditional PIM option that is getting used in all situations over the last couple seasons.
Drew Stafford - good, young scorer.
Daniel Carcillo - young scorer. pesty type. plenty of PIMs
Mikael Samuelsson - DTD presently but getting good 2nd line duty so far this season.
Petr Sykora - if he gets to play among the top 6 forwards he'll probably finish top 3 in team scoring.
Petr Forsberg - hasn't signed yet so just sit and watch him sitting on the wire for now.
JS Aubin - i'm pegging him for the lion's share of starts for the Kings.
Manny Fernandez - i think he's a better goalie than Tim Thomas.

drop Jaroslav Spacek to add Mark Streit - the Habs signed Roman Hamrlik to be a puck mover for them on the PP and it's looking like they're not going to use him that way. Streit is taking up much of Hammer's PP ice time. in fact, as soon as Sami Salo is ready to play he should be starting for you.
drop Roman Hamrlik for Brendan Witt - i didn't want to make this suggestion but we're barely a couple weeks in and you're already lagging behind in PIMs. Witt will get a ton of those. i'd also be looking at Daniel Carcillo for a wing spot if you can find room to fit him into your lineup.
watch JS Aubin very closely. you have Pascal Leclaire as your G3 right now and he's been playing WAY over his head, right along with his team in Columbus. i expect that more wins will be found in Los Angeles over the course of the season and am willing to bet that Aubin gets a decent shake at holding down the main job for the Kings.
watch Petr Forsberg, and Daniel Carcillo closely too. if Forsberg signs anywhere he's an immediate add as your C3 ahead of your bench D or G; if you find you're still lagging behind in PIMs then Carcillo is a nice add there too.

Trading Options

you presently have offered a trade up to Blame Canada where you would give up Nathan Horton and Mark Recchi to get Jonathan Cheechoo. you're a Sharks fan so i see where you're going here and if you can get that deal then you begin to solve some of your own problems with your roster. there aren't many better SOGgy players than Cheechoo and there's probably a lameass Sharks joke to make here too having to do with SOGgy, water, and Sharks so i'll just put it out there and you can insert your own joke as desired.
Blame Canada is in an interesting predicament at W right now though. Todd Bertuzzi just went down with a concussion and he's also rostering Teemu Selanne presently so he doesn't actually have enough W's to put into his lineup. consider offering up two of your W's to try and land Jaromir Jagr off of him if your Cheechoo offer isn't flying. maybe Elias/Recchi for Jagr gets it done.

offer Nathan Horton and Mark Recchi (or Frolov or Pominville) to Frozen Fury for Jason Blake and Mike Cammalleri. any combination of one of your wingers to land this package of players would be AWESOME. be prepared for this deal to be declined though, i know i wouldn't want to give up Cammalleri at the best of times. if you have to downgrade Cammalleri then target Paul Stastny off him instead.

offer Nathan Horton to Pens for Brian Rolston. stats are fairly similar between these 2 guys last season but you have to bear in mind that Rolston didn't have Marian Gaborik to help with his offense for half of last season. i expect Rolston's stats to go up exponentially with Gaborik sniping along on the PP.

offer Nathan Horton and Roman Hamrlik to Thir13een for Marc Savard. Savard is his C3 but he'd be of a good amount of use to you. he gets PIMs and he scores a lot. 13 is also looking a bit wonky for D. this might work.

Conclusions

your team looks to be in good shape. the assists that you're missing will come, fear not, you have Scott Gomez (and that's all that guy does) and you have the best hockey player in the world on your team. you'll be fine there. your settings make you want to get goalscorers since you have the extra categories for PPG and SHG, not points rather goals. target goalscorers.
your W's and D need a little bit of work and that's where you should try to make some moves. you can find a couple good options on your wire for some help there.
you're going to have to figure something out for some PIMs. it's too bad i wasn't quicker with this since Chris Neil was on your waiver wire until yesterday. Daniel Carcillo and Brendan Witt are both on the wire though and are/will be fine sources of PIMs that hopefully won't hurt your +/- much at all.
it looks as though you'll need to try and make some trading moves so go ahead and throw ideas out there. comment on the blog or email me if you have questions. good luck.