Would like some input on a new league

Hey guys. I'm re-doing my keeper league that I comish. It had disbanded a few years ago for a few reasons. Looking to get it started again with new people, and a new system. I've taken aspects of this league here, and tweaked it. Let me know what you guys think. Also, if anyone is interested, let me know. I've asked Matt if I could post it here first, just to see if he was cool with it.

There are a few kinks I need to work out, like the cap limit and so on.

Draft Date: July 1st 2009

Order of Draft: The order will be determined by June 21st 2009. The draft order will follow the standard snake drafting format: 1 to 10, then 10 to 1, and then 1 to 10 again, etc. This will be based on the previous regular season standings.

However, we’ll first divide the draft into two rounds. The first draft round will be a prospects draft for our farm teams, which lasts ten rounds. Draft order will go in reverse sequence to the draft order we just determined for the main draft. For example, the prospects draft will start with position 10 and fall to position 1, then in snake format go from 1 to 10, etc. This should help to keep things on a bit more level playing field from the start.

The second draft round will fill out for the rest of each GMs roster of the regular player draft in the order determined above. Which should last 30 rounds. Forwards, defensemen and goalies are eligible to be drafted in any position or sequence.

For the January draft, managers must let the commissioner know which players they wish to drop (up to five players) no later than seven days before the draft. If they do not, they will not be allowed to participate in the supplemental draft.

This means the initial draft is going to last 30 rounds.
The January draft will last 5 rounds.
Future August drafts will last up to 15 rounds. In all future drafts in both September and January, the regular players and prospects will not be separated into separate segments as they will be this year. In all future drafts, prospects will be available amongst already active forwards, defense, and goalies.

Drafting Limitations: Players are eligible to be drafted in our
league only if they are drafted or signed by an NHL team. Or they are of UFA status, and have played in the NHL in the past (with current intentions of playing in the NHL.

Salary Cap: To prevent a team from being completely stacked by acquiring a massive amount of young talent and letting them all age like fine wine, there will be a salary cap for each team. The cap will be set at 80 million dollars. During the season a team may NOT go over the salary cap. During the offseason, a team may go to 85 million. However, said GM must have a maximum of 80 million one week prior to the start of the first game of the NHL regular season. Not doing so will result in forfeit of the week until the team is under the 75 million mark. NOTE: A player may be dropped to achieve this goal. And by the 3rd week, if this is not achieved. One player will be dropped automatically (the lowest scoring forward at that time, even if his name is Sidney Crosby). This is to avoid tanking a season by continuously being over the cap.

The way the salary cap is counted is very simple. The league takes the each player’s yearly NHL salary and adds them up. The league does not modifiy the cap for any team in regards to 2-way contracts (if a player is sent down, the PRO contract is the part that counts.), injury reserve, or bonuses. Eg: if Gaborik is on the hook for 6 million this year, but is on IR for 4 months of the season, that GM is still on the hook for 6 million dollars.

NHLnumbers.com will be used to govern the official salary of each player. Bonuses are NOT calculated into the cap numbers if NHLnumbers.com does not have them listed. NHLnumbers.com is our authority on cap amounts. If they correct an amount mid-season. We will do the same. All GMs are responsible for their own teams, and any changes that NHLnumbers.com might do during the course of the season.

Players on the farm team do not count towards the salary cap.

Number of Players per Pro Team: Twenty Eight (28): Three (3) centres, Three (3) left wingers, Three (3) right wingers, Four (4) forwards, four (4) defense, two (2) goalies, Six (6) benched players. Three (3) open spots to facilitate 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 trades (the open spot may be filled any time prior to the initial draft up to the maximum roster of 32. All position eligibility is based on pool system league is using (TBD)

Number of Players per Farm Team: Fifteen (15). May only include players who are signed or drafted by an NHL team.

Farm team regulations: Once a player is called up to the pro team, he may not be sent back down if he has more than 10 NHL games experience. If the roster is full during a call up, the GM must select one player to drop who will then be eligible during the NEXT draft. (Example: Team A activates TJ Oshie from his farm team. He drops Jiri Novtny to the free agent pool due to an already full roster. Jiri Novtny may be picked up during the next possible draft by any team, Team A may re-drafted him if desired.)

If a player is sent back down at the (or before) 10 game mark, a GM may place him back on the farm team. However, the player dropped for the slot opening may NOT be picked back up (Eg: Jiri Novtny can not be picked back up).

Once the player joins the team, the current year’s salary for that player will be added to the cap of the team.

A player MUST be promoted to the Pro Team by the start of the next season after reaching 82 games played. Eg: James Neal is on Team A, and at the of the 2009-10 season he has played 81 career NHL games. The GM of team A may choose to keep Neal on his farm team until the start of next season, and all of the 2010-11 season if he wishes. But once he reaches the 82 game mark. He must be put on the PRO roster for the 2011-12 season.


Length of season: 20 weeks of Head-to-head competition (one-week increments), followed by 6 weeks of playoffs (three rounds of two-week increments). This amount leads to the whole duration of the regular season.

Scoring: Hybrid scoring is points-based but in a Head-to-Head format. Points are accumulated in the following categories:

For skaters: G (5 points), A (5), PIM (0.3), Shots (0.2), Hit (0.2), Block shot (0.2) +/- (1)
For goalies: W (7 points), SO (7), Saves (0.2), GA (-1)

Because the league is Head-to-Head, managers compete
against one another in week-long, pre-set Head-to-Head competitions for the first twenty weeks of the regular season (with the exception for the week of the all-star break). Each manager plays.

NOTE: The first week of the season includes any games being played in Europe or Asia the weekend before the start of the regular season.

Each week of competition refers to games played from Monday to Sunday, and managers must make roster changes before the first game of the week for the upcoming week’s match-up, which are then locked in for the duration of that week. GMs receive either a win, loss or tie at the end of the week, based on accumulated points in all of the categories combined.

Tiebreakers: Playoff seeding tiebreaker will be based on the Head to Head record between the tied teams.

Playoffs: At the end of the season the top eight teams enter the playoffs. In the first round, the team seeded first faces the team seeded eighth, the team seeded second faces the team seeded seventh, the team seeded third faces the team seeded sixth, and the team seeded fourth faces the team seeded fifth. The first round lasts two weeks with roster changes being allowed at the midway point.

The second round features the top surviving seeded team (determined from regular season standings) pitted against
the lowest surviving seeded team, and the two teams seeded in the middle play each other. Again, it lasts two weeks and roster changes are allowed at the midway point.

The third and final round pits the two surviving teams against each other for the last two weeks of the NHL regular season. Again, roster changes are allowed at the midway point.

How many Players can Managers keep? Managers may keep the whole team intact if they so wish (salary cap permitting). If players are to be dropped, for either the January draft, or August draft, the GM must make their dropped players (a max of 15 player drops per draft) known to the league one week prior via the league forum, 6 days before is too late. The GM will be unable to drop said players, and may only draft players until his roster (pro team, and farm team) is full.

Farm Team Regulations: Players are considered eligible for your
farm team roster if they have played less than 82 games for the inaugural draft. Afterwards, it may be any player that you have drafted as a prospect or rookie, and put him directly on your farm team. We will consider the stats found on the web site ww.hockeydb.com to be the final authority on whether a player is eligible or not.

Managers may not use prospects on their starting lineup unless called up during the regular season or playoffs. Such an announcement must be made on the forums. At that time, the player may be added to the lineup.

Managers can trade for as many farm team prospects as they like, but they should remember that they can only carry 15 prospects on the team at the start of the next season. After which either a prospect needs to be moved up, or one prospect dropped.


Trades: Trades can happen at any time during the year, and there are no limits on the number of trades a manager can make.

If a trade seems unfairly lopsided, a majority of managers voting against the trade within Two (2) days will veto the trade. during the off-season (April 13th until the draft in August), managers have two weeks to veto any trade.

NOTE: this rule of veto is only to be used in extreme situations to prevent managers from “stacking” a single roster. No one is here to manage everyone else’s team. If a bad trade happens to get done. So be it, the GM has his own way of managing his/her team. It is not up to the rest of the league to step in and manage a team collectively.

Trading Draft Picks: Apart from players, draft picks in both the January and September drafts are eligible to be traded.

Multi-player Trades: Lopsided trades where two players are traded for one, or three players are traded for two are allowed. These three positions will remain unfilled after draft day, but will allow managers to make a 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 player swap without having to first drop a player. It is therefore possible at various points throughout the season for a team to have as many as 33 total players on their roster (including farm team).

For example, if Team 1 trades Gaborik to Team 2 for Comrie and Turris, Team 2 does not have to drop a player before adding these
two players.

TBD trades: Not allowed, “friendly” I’ll get back to you after you’ve won the season trade are not allowed. At no point is a player allowed to trade for future considerations. This always leads to problems down the road if a player has overproduced, and even more so if the player has under produced.

Trades for cash ($$$): Not allowed. People cannot buy players or add money into a trade. Its simply not fair for the rest of the GMs who might be on a budget. Any GMs involved in this practice will have their season forfeited, including any cash they may have won. Bottom seeded teams will lose their first 3 rounds of picks.

Trade Deadline for playoffs: Usually the first week of February. After this date, no trades will be allowed until after the end of the playoffs (first week of April).

Waiver pick-ups: Not allowed. The only way to change players
between drafts is by way of trade.

Injury Reserve: None, seeing as how there is no waiver pickups.

League Changes: Every year during the off season, owners can submit proposals for rule adjustments or additions. Majority vote of six to four ACCEPTS proposed changes.

Cheating: Any GM(s) found cheating will have their season forfeit (if in contention of potential money prize, will lose their winnings and entry fee.) If in the bottom 4 of the league first three rounds of the summer draft will be forfeit. Any GM caught cheating a second time will be kicked out of the league. NO warnings on the first infractions, and no third chances.

Unexpected end of communication: If a GM does not log onto the forum for two straight months (without prior notification). The league will look for a replacement GM. Once a replacement is found, the AWOL GM may not reclaim his team, or the entry fee. A simple log-In to the forums is not hard to do. Note: Logging in to change your roster on the league website is not enough. A log in to the forum is key to keeping yourself active.

hey does anyone want to start a keeper football or baseball pool?????????

What are those?

That's a massive wall of text to read through there. Going to need to give some time to read it all over.

As for a baseball league, I have thought of being involved in one this year but I am SO clueless when it comes to baseball that it would have to be with guys who are not hard core into it or I would just get obliterated.

I've done football league, one year. Despite finishing the regular season 1st overall (without having a clue who I was picking) and then finishing the offseason in 2nd. I can say that I am not interested in doing that all over again. Injuries are so frustrating, they would only get posted an hour before gametime. And most of the time, players were gametime desicions anyways.

As for baseball. I tried doing one to get myself back into baseball. It didn't work. I was a no show for most of the season, and saw changing my lineup as a chore more than anything else.

I'll pass on that, but thanks for asking.



Now.....Brandon and Ray, what do you think of the league I have up there. Its alot of text as Joel mentioned, but its the rules outline for the league

Hey Brandon,

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really into baseball or football.

Have fun!

Cheers,
Matt

Hockey is about it for us. We'd brave up on an NLL Fantasy pool.

Salary.... using real cap.... not for me. I'm in one right now like that. I wonder if after 15 years if it'll be the end of the pool. Hasn't been a trade in months. 12 owners. Hell I tried to give a guy away to another fellow a couple of weeks ago. (Labarbera) He wanted him. He has Luongo. He agreed to the asking price. He couldn't pull the trigger. Cap was in the way. We couldn't resolve the cap concerns... I was upgrading a pick.

If you're using real salary, I recommend that you set the cap (we're at $85.05) and then as the season goes on add space. Say $2.0M or $3.0M a month. This will encourage trading. At the end of the year, you go back to the base. Our base is NHL x 1.5.

Another significant problem is D-men. They're worthless. Even Liddy gets bounced all over. Big priced D-men waive out of the pool on a regular basis. I waived Gonchar at the beginning of the year. No takers. D-men should be 1/2 price. Their points to dollars ratios says this is correct. I think this means you should go NHL salary x 1.25 in producing a cap figure. Jeff Carter waived out at the beginning of the year. At the time his points to dollars ratio didn't look reasonable. (it was a mistake on the part of all the owners)

Rebuilding teams are forever getting into trouble. As their kids get the big dollar contracts they find themselves in situations where they must dump.

I'm tied for 1st, and it sucks.

Going to have to agree. I've moved on from salary cap leagues as they have almost always ended up in some really wierd things happening.

What ScoopnRed are describing is exactly what is happening in one of 2 salary cap leagues I have left. Highly paid defensemen are next to useless, with guys like Chara and Visnovsky unclaimable because of their salary. Highly paid forwards have greatly reduced value. Kovalchuk right now is available in the league and he can barely give the guy away.

Recent offer for Kovalchuk? Modano and a 5th round pick. The salary is so handcuffing that it makes it no fun. It does make low salary guys gold. I currently have Little and Frolik on my roster and they are worth way more then Kovalchuk in a league like that,

Now all of that being said, you can make it work, but you need to have some really creative ideas to manage the cap. Lots of care needs to be taken into account when factoring in how high the cap should be (our cap in a 16 owner league is 61.4 million....way too low in my mind), as well as what to do in the future if the cap suddenly drops due to economics etc. It's the whole balance between realism and fun. I find too much realism is not enough fun for me, and a salary cap has to be handled very carefully or it can go sideways quickly.

Thanks guys, this is exactly what i was looking for. I was in a dynasty league. And unfortunately. Little was done to prevent a player from having Thorton/Lecavalier and all the big guns, so he kept them from year to year. Won every year until people didn't want to play anymore. I'll need to find out a way to balance it out without a salary cap.


Here is an idea I had and I've worked on a bit, its called winner's burden. I think it really helps out the bottom two teams, especially in dynasty leagues that allow teams to keep a lot of players.

Winner’s burden: The top two teams (regular season standings) do NOT have their own respective picks in the first round of the August draft of the following year. The two picks are given to the two last place teams, 9th place finish gets the 10th pick (last pick in the first round) and the 10th place team gets the 9th overall pick. (Unless they trade it away between the end of the season and beginning of the draft). While the 2nd place team gets the first pick of round two, and the 1st place team gets the following pick. The order is then followed by standings.

Example: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-10-9 // 2-1-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 // 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 // etc…
This is not to say that the first and second place team cannot trade FOR a first round pick.

That's another interesting idea to balance out the power, Jay. Greg and I discussed scenarios a lot when we were designing our league, which is why we came up with the cascading feature. It was a way to give lower teams a hand up while not getting into the intricacies of a salary cap.

Your idea of the "winner's burden" could also work, although you'll need to ask yourself how much of a hand up do you want to give the lower finishing teams.

It can be a difficult balance to achieve: keeping the league competitive, while not punishing higher ranking GMs too much.

Thanks Matt. And yeah its pretty difficult. Even with limited keepers.