ASK SLAM!

ASK SLAM!

By CHRIS NICHOLS -- SLAM! Sports

Hey Chris: I am wondering about the status of Turek for the rest of the year. Is he going to get starts like a #1 or not? The reason I ask is that I am in desperate need of offense, and have been offered Sakic and Legace for Aebischer and S. Kozlov. I declined, but am proposing a counter along the lines of Aebischer for Kovalchuk. I have Cechmanek now, and Turek is a FA. Direct me oh enlightened one!
Thanks, Eric

I would not trade Aebischer. With Aebs and Cechmanek, you�re fine in net. Turek will likely lose out to Kipper.

Chris: I've avoided the injury bug all season...until recently. In the past 3 weeks, I have lost Gonchar, Lindros, Esche, and now Bonk with Thibault already in the only IR slot. With all these injuries already (and have only dropped Lindros for H. Sedin) I cant afford to keep Bonk on my bench. The available C's are: Arnott, Conroy, McCauley, Zhamnov, Arnason, and Vasicek. Who should I pick up?
Thanks! Michael

Zhamnov has the most upside, but Conroy is really hot right now and we know he can produce. Either of those two is fine.

Great job as always Chris, here's my latest question. Blake has been my steadiest player all year so needless to say his injury is devastating. I am currently two games out and am considering trading him to a team out of contention for either Redden or Schneider thinking the chance to win this year justifies taking a little hit on the "keeper" issue for next year. Redden is younger but Schneider might help more now? Free agent pool has slim pickings, DeVries, Rachunek, Dempsey, those kind of "leftovers" HELP!
Thanks, Bob Y

Redden is your best bet, for sure. Schneider actually really isn�t much of a downgrade from Blake, but they�re both old men by hockey standards. Redden is only 26 and has good stats.

A couple of questions: I'm in a rotisserie league and just lost Bonk to IR. Should I have replaced him with T. White who is available? I actually took Vyborny, since I've got enough centers and my +/- sucks anyway. Also, I've got four goalies, Raycroft, Roloson, Prusek and Nurminen. Was wondering if I should drop Nurminen for someone like Conklin or Snow. Nurminen get me lots of starts but the GAA has been awful lately. Thanks.
John, Washington, DC

Craig Conroy would be a better bet, if available.

Raycroft, Roloson and Prusek are fine, but I would not be starting Nurminen at all.

(Mine) Keith Tkachuk, Adam Foote, Miikka Kiprusoff for (His) Patrick Lalime, Ryan Smyth, Valeri Bure. I'm a 1 in goals, an 8 in PIM�s, and 4-5 in all Goalie categories. Do this deal? I'm thinking no, or that I could try to get someone better on forward. Thanks, as always for your fast reply, oh wise one.
Andy

Good instincts. Kipper and Lalime are fairly close, overall. Lalime will get more wins but Kipper should be better in the other categories. I�d stick with what you have.

Love your column, thought I'd see what your thoughts are on the deal I just made - my Cloutier, Kvasha & Markov for his Recchi, Renberg, Pitkanen & Prusek. It leaves me with Kipper, DiPietro & Prusek in net. Lang, Forsberg, T. White, Recchi, Nolan, Renberg, Barnaby, Saprykin, Langenbrunner and Langfeld up front and McCabe, Chara, Sopel, Zidlicky, Pitkanen and McGillis on the blue line. Yahoo roto league (G, A, =/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, SH%; W, T, GAA, SA% & SHO) Also, would you have dropped someone other than Hrdina to allow trade to go through? Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

Dropping Hrdina is fine, although I guess there were a few candidates that could have been booted. I don�t honestly like the deal from your perspective. Cloutier is a full-timer on a winning team. Recchi is decent, but not in his class. Prusek is a backup and in a one-year league, Renberg and Pitkanen are depth players. For me to give up Cloutier, it would have to be for a better forward than Recchi. That said, he�ll at least get you decent point totals.

Chris: as always, excellent column, keep up the good work. Would you rather have Morrison and R. Blake or Iginla and K. Johnsson? Standard Yahoo H2H league, all stats count. Thanks.

Assuming Blake is healthy, I like the Blake/ Morrison side. If Blake missed more than a few weeks, I�d lean toward Iggy. Right now the team is saying about a week or so for Blake.

Have a fantasy hockey question? Drop me a line at chris_nichols@canoemail.com. I do my best to answer all questions within 24 hours, depending on the volume of emails. Please keep the questions short. Your fantasy questions may be answered in our Ask Slam! section.

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