High Maintenance Points

Tuesday night I went to the Washington Capitals vs Vancouver Canucks game. I wanted to see rookie sensation, Brock Boeser. I’ve watched some Canucks games on TV but it just doesn’t properly display Boeser’s talent. The stud rookie is impressive (and what a waiver wire addition!).

I love players like Boeser and Alexander Ovechkin. They’re easy. If playing, both are in my lineup. Some positions in fantasy sports are inherently high maintenance. Even though I tinker with my teams quite a bit, I don’t enjoy the high maintenance positions. Two positions constantly requiring tinkering are catchers in baseball and goalies in hockey. Since catchers and goalies have days off, these roster positions can easily fall behind in games played.  Managing catchers and goalies can be tedious and I’d like to just say “to hell with it,” but games not played are points not earned.

There are some strategies, truth be told, than” to hell with it.” One guy in my league has five goalies and is the only player over on goalie games. Luck has a little play in this strategy; few or no injuries provide a cushion for space to assemble such a roster. This strategy is a matter of preference, and mine is to use my roster spots for skaters.

For my team I was playing with two goalies and falling behind so I added a third, and as of now, I am five games back which is manageable. However, I would be willing to give up a goalie if one of my studs gets injured or I want to stash a player. Of course, I will need to monitor my numbers and ensure I will have to make sure I don’t fall too far behind.

Streaming is another option. Since you likely drafted one or two top goalies,  use an additional roster spot to stream goalies. This does require evaluating matchups, monitoring team lineups, and working the waiver wire. (Whew! Talk about “High Maintenance!” ) Mind you I’m the girl who can shower and be out of the door in less than 30 minutes.

Anyway, streaming, which is not my preferred method of operation, but you might be different, and this tactic can also be used at the end of the season. But to avoid giving up a roster spot for an extra goalie now,  wait and stream goalies at the end to catch up on games behind.  As part of the process, skaters will have to be dropped, but injuries may solve that problem, as the number of games behind will determine when you need to start streaming.

A third strategy is to roster both the starting goalie and back-up goalie from the same team, a path requiring little maintenance. When the starting goalie has a day off, plug in the back-up goalie. If the starting goalie is injured, you already have his back-up. This approach works best if planned form so target teams with a good pair.

Note that these strategies also work for baseball, and you draft will be stronger if you know which strategy you’re going to use. Are you going to roster five catchers? Are you going to draft Austin Barnes and Yasmani Grandal?

Below are some pairs worthy of consideration. Goalie points are based on Yahoo! season points through 1/11/18. Catcher ranks are from RotoWire 2018 rankings.

Hockey Goalie pairings:

Baseball catcher pairings:

Follow Elaine @ElaineC_Speaks.