Goligoski - gone cold? NEED ADVICE ASAP!!

[Rocketman9]

Gents,

I am pretty close in the peripheral stats with some of the top guys and need to put myself over the top. I think I am ok with offense on my team but it is more Hits / Blocks that I could possibly gain control of if I make the move I want to make. I need some insight as there is something pushing me not to do this.

This move involves the team in my signature. It is playoffs and there is 2.5 weeks left. All of the teams I am up against or may be up against are all around good and I don't think I can afford to try and gamble on sacrificing categories.

That being said, Goligoski has been an absolute bust for me since I traded for him. He doesn't contribute anything offensively anymore, he barely gets 1 hit a game (0.7) and doesn't do much for blocked shots. I think with my team below, I should have offense covered the rest of the way, as well goalies. My weak spot is hits and blocked shots. The best dman I can find that won't hurt my +/- is Brooks Orpik. he has been hitting a ton lately and gets a lot of blocked shots. He is obviously ranked much lower than Goligoski since he is a defensive defenseman. I will play Goligoski tonight, but I am thinking of adding Orpik the rest of the way. This will add 2 games to my sched this week and 1 next week and change nothing for the final week.

Does anyone think this is a bad idea? Does anyone have any other suggestions of a player I may be missing? I would like to make this move today if I can. I am looking for a healthy combination of +/-, blocked shots and hits.

Thanks for the help and sorry for the long winded thread.

[Mike]

Headed out to lunch right now, but I'll dig into our Left Wing Lock databases for you when I return...

[Rocketman9]

Thanks Mike, much appreciated. He has 1 pt in his last 10 and contributes next to nothing else.

[Rocketman9]

For Reference, I have included the top hitting D available. The stats beside each player in order are +/- PIM Hits Blocks (these are all I care about)

Luke Schenn (W - Mar 16) 3 50 225 97
Alexei Emelin -13 215 78
Matt Greene -3 43 214 94
Mark Fistric -3 37 208 96
Jared Cowen -1 31 182 71
Ryan O'Byrne 0 47 158 118
Anton Volchenkov -3 34 157 117
Luca Sbisa -4 64 157 82
Brad Stuart 18 25 153 99
Robyn Regehr -19 43 151 91
Milan Jurcina -29 28 148 103
Andrej Meszaros DTD 6 38 144 88
Deryk Engelland 7 49 136 60
Nicklas Grossmann 6 34 133 128
Jan Hejda -12 22 123 111
Cory Sarich -1 58 120 52
Toni Lydman -1 42 118 141
Erik Gudbranson -21 69 115 59
Jonathan Ericsson DTD 17 47 114 41

I have also included the top blocking defenseman with the same stats as above:

Brett Clark -25 20 102 165
Andrew MacDonald -5 20 35 157
Bryan Allen -3 66 91 151
Carl Gunnarsson -4 18 94 142
Toni Lydman -1 42 118 141
Hal Gill -4 35 61 139
Nick Schultz -9 36 68 131
Niklas Hjalmarsson 6 12 37 130
Barret Jackman 21 48 87 130
Nicklas Grossmann 6 34 133 128
Kevin Klein DTD -10 74 74 127
Roman Hamrlik 5 32 53 124
Karl Alzner 12 29 58 124
Douglas Murray 4 31 107 123
Steve Staios -16 51 53 122
Mike Weaver 2 10 87 120
Chris Phillips 5 14 112 120

[Mike]

See private message.

[jomo666]

You didn't list Jay Harrison, but he is right on par with the leaders in the league. He missed 10 games this year for Carolina, so his seasonal totals look average on the surface, but he has been consistently putting up 1-3 hits and 2-5 blocked shots per game. I actually picked up Harrison and dropped Goligoski this week. It's paid off so far, though don't expect a ton of offensive production. He's only owned in 11.9% of ESPN leagues, so I figured I'd throw him out there in case he is in yours.

[Rocketman9]

Thanks for the tip on Harrison. He has been taken for a while. I took a lot of things into consideration and Mike opened my eyes to a guy I wasn't even considering. After my go to guy was snaked from an underhanded player whose only goal is to make sure I lose, I narrowed it down to Fistric (thanks Mike), Jackman, and Grossman. I took strong consideration of games played, and I was looking to try and maximize this. I also considered recent stats. The guy that fit in the best was Grossman. I get 2 extra games out of him this week and 1 extra in the final week. His numbers lately are very compareable to Fistric's and Jackman just does not have enough games left to justify the pickup. Think it was a good move?

[Mike]

Thanks for the tip on Harrison. He has been taken for a while. I took a lot of things into consideration and Mike opened my eyes to a guy I wasn't even considering. After my go to guy was snaked from an underhanded player whose only goal is to make sure I lose, I narrowed it down to Fistric (thanks Mike), Jackman, and Grossman. I took strong consideration of games played, and I was looking to try and maximize this. I also considered recent stats. The guy that fit in the best was Grossman. I get 2 extra games out of him this week and 1 extra in the final week. His numbers lately are very compareable to Fistric's and Jackman just does not have enough games left to justify the pickup. Think it was a good move?

Grossmann's been very physical since coming over to PHI and has three games left this week. I like it.

[mbr311]

This is great. I've had Grossman for about 2-3 weeks now b/c he helps so much with hits and blocks, I picked up Jackman a bit ago b/c he helps in those 2 areas plus he's scoring and I often use Fistric towards the end of my scoring period for hits and blocks (he can kill my ATOI though).

Mike busting' out the research I love it! Just goes to show you there really is a formula to win but it different for every single team. If you put in the time to understand your deficiencies like you did - well that's a huge advantage to how most people play the game. I'm in the same boat as you I score like mad but need help in hits/blocks/PIMs

[Rocketman9]

Grossman turned out to be better than Orpik last week anyway. Hopefully that continues.