Well, basically you draft a group of players (either a live draft, or an autodraft) and based on how they do in real games (goals, assists, shutouts, wins, etc.) you get awarded points. The goal is to have the highest points by the end of the regular season. To reach that goal, you can trade with other GM's, cut players, pick other players up to assemble the best possible team.

And Heatley to the Sharks is huge. Playing beside Thornton, he'll reach Ovechkin like goal totals - 60-65. The only thing is that getting him hurt a lot of their depth - they basically had to get rid of Erhoff, Michalek and Cheechoo (although at his recent production, he's probably a slight salary dump) and they have to replace them with league minimum guys. It shouldn't be a problem if they can spot those guys easy minutes, or a low amount of minutes, but that just means the big 3 play a lot more, and have the possibilty of being worn down quicker.

What do you think Spire?

So far i'm glad we've gotten rid of Erhoff, Cheechoo & Lukowich. Those were players we needed to get rid off and i'm glad we did. However along with dumping those players and their respective salaries we've acquried one big salary thereby pushing back up against the cap (like you said filling out the rest of the roster with league minimum players).

We do get an amazing first and second lines now though with Thornton-Heatley on the first line while Marleau pivots the 2nd. I'm glad we've acquried Heatley.....don't think the implications of this trade will be seen for a bit of time though. We've also sacraficed a lot of future drafts in the trades we've done recently. After how the playoffs have gone in the past 4 years, the real test will be the playoffs. If the recent trades can get us to where we want in the post-season then i think it'll be great for us.

It's all about the playoffs for me now, 4 straight post-season failure choke-jobs have left me skeptical. I don't care how we do in the regular season as long as it gets us in the playoffs

Ok, I'm really glad SJ is getting Heatley, but at a high price for SJ IMO. Cheech was my fav player from the team and with Grier gone and now Michalek it looks like a lot of our speed is gone. This one is as tough to swallow for me as when Nolan got traded.

Looks like the Sharks are going to have to rely on their prospects because I don't see them getting anyone else especially with that cap space. If they can deliver a Stanley Cup all will be forgiven. If they do hella good in the reg season, great...just do something to transfer that to the playoffs. Those banners going up on opening night are going to be a bittersweet experience. C'mon Sharks, no more choaking around.

This isn't going to shake SJ's reputation as a talented, heartless team. Heatley is the poster-boy for that condition.

Don't know if any of you guys are interested, but I went to day 1 of the Canucks training camp, and took some pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=316180&id=760430380&l=dd51cdb225

Looks like Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are beefing themselves up very well this off season, especially Montreal.

Coool stuff!

I'll sit out on the fantasy league. I just got back into hockey the season before last. Don't really know the players or teams all to well yet.

Kessel to Toronto.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=291601

Two 1st round picks and a 2nd. Signed for 5 years at 5.4 per. Considering that I predict Toronto to be between 6th and 10th in the East this year, I don`t see the picks as a big loss, but only time will tell who won this trade.

Hopefully Toronto can ship out some spare parts such as Stajan, Van Ryn, and Stempniak for picks.

1st and 2nd round pick 2010, 1st round pick 2011. Kessel promptly signs a 5 year, $27 M contract.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=291601

Might be a steep price at a first glance, since the Leafs potentially could have a top 10 pick, but Kessel is the kind of player you try and draft with a top 10 pick, so they basically traded 2 opportunities to draft a Kessel for the man himself and a 2nd round pick.

And Boston gets 3 extra picks which could be used either at he draft, or traded during the deadline to beef up before the playoffs.

Trade works out for both teams in my opinion.