Fantasy Hockey Advice: What To Do with Injury-Prone Superstars

Ask anyone who plays fantasy hockey to name a few players that appear to be made of glass and the same names will probably come out of everyone's mouth. 

Gaborik, Semin, Connolly, and Havlat.

Sure, there are more, but 4 out of 5 fantasy hockey players agree that all of these players come at the cost of your sanity.

So, what do you do with these players? If you are in a standard one year league, you are better off avoiding them like the plague. If you are playing in a keeper league, low-ball the owner until they're on your team. If that doesn't work, just ignore them until the price drops; and it will, once that owner starts to realize the pain that comes along with owning any of these infamous china dolls.

Alexander Semin is going to bring you to tears at least twice a year—and not just tears from laughter because he fights like a girl. But when he is playing, he is capable of producing at least a point per game, and owners eat that up. Tim Connolly is the one out of the aforementioned four players that I probably wouldn't make any noise trying to acquire; but Havlat, Gaborik, and Semin are all certainly worth the risk in a keeper league, IF, you can get them cheap.

Eventually each one will play a full season, or at least a long stretch without getting injured. Now, during that time you are going to be tempted to hold on to Semin or Gaborik in the hope that they actually play a whole season. You may even be in the process of doing so right now with Martin Havlat. 

DO NOT DO THIS! 

Trade for them when their stock is low, and sell when their stock is high. If you can. There is always some sucker willing to bet the house on this being the year they won't get hurt, and when they are on fire, sell HIGH. 

Even knowing all of this beforehand, I took the risk on Semin—and overpaid—earlier this year, only to see him drop two days later. Well, with any luck, he gets it going again, and if he does—I'm going to trade him. I promise. 

It's my New Years Resolution actually.

Note:  Even as I write this I'm holding onto Martin Havlat - I know he's going to make it through the whole year this time, I just know it.