Pre-season Injuries

It's that time of the year again when players are congregating on training camp and fantasy owners are holding their breath that not too many casualties will be sustained. Already the Fitzsy Stars have lost Pitkanen and Fleischmann for a short period of time to start the season.

Ray brought up an idea that has been twirling through my mind all summer. I personally don't like drafting so early because there are so many unknowns with players ... injuries that go unreported over the summer or that will happen during training camp, before they even set foot on the ice.

I feel strongly that we need to figure out some kind of rule to deal with lengthy pre-season injuries. In my mind, the best way is for an owner to drop said player prior to the season starting and pick a free agent from the free agent pool. This way everyone can start the season on a more even footing.

Of course we would need to set some parameters:

1) The only reason for dropping a player and picking up a free agent would be because of an injury that occurs during training camp or that has gone unreported during the summer.

2) The injury should be of a serious enough nature that the player is expected to miss at least two months (eight weeks) of playing time starting from the beginning of the season.

3) The owner would have to drop the player in question, which means players with keeper potential would most likely not be dropped anyway.

In my case, neither Fleischmann nor Pitkanen would be eligible for this rule because neither injury is serious enough. Fleischmann is expected back in early October, while Pitkanen should be back by mid October at the latest.

Please post your comments and suggestions here.

Ummmmm how about drafting three players that dont have contracts? i deserve something for that i mean you really got to try hard to draft that bad Damn good thing the Fleury thing wasn't announced before we drafted cause i'm sure i would have snagged him upas well.

Motley Crue schrieb:

Ummmmm how about drafting three players that dont have contracts? i deserve something for that i mean you really got to try hard to draft that bad Damn good thing the Fleury thing wasn't announced before we drafted cause i'm sure i would have snagged him upas well.

Which three guys did you draft without contracts? LOL.

I'm not really for it.

I really don't see September 1st as being too early. As a matter of fact if it was done any later I wouldn't be able to draft because I'm so busy until the end of the month. The only night I would have been able to do it this year is ironically the night I'm doing Joel's (if he chooses me) and even then, I'll be in China. Early september is fine to draft.

If you ask me its luck of the draw when you draft a player and he gets injured during pre-season. What would we do if we drafted the week before the season started and a dude would go down with an injury? Last year I was royally messed up with my team in regards to Dmen who didn't play at the beginning of the season but I rolled with it because it is part of fantasy hockey, as is injuries.

Jason schrieb:

I'm not really for it.

I really don't see September 1st as being too early. As a matter of fact if it was done any later I wouldn't be able to draft because I'm so busy until the end of the month. The only night I would have been able to do it this year is ironically the night I'm doing Joel's (if he chooses me) and even then, I'll be in China. Early september is fine to draft.

If you ask me its luck of the draw when you draft a player and he gets injured during pre-season. What would we do if we drafted the week before the season started and a dude would go down with an injury? Last year I was royally messed up with my team in regards to Dmen who didn't play at the beginning of the season but I rolled with it because it is part of fantasy hockey, as is injuries.

Injuries are indeed a part of fantasy hockey my friend ... I think everyone knows and accepts that.

However, it sucks to START the season on uneven footing, and this rule would help to protect against that to a certain extent. That way everyone can go into the season on even terms.

In many cases GMs would choose to roll with injuries anyway, such as in the case of Erik Johnson last year. He's a definite keeper and I can't see Brandon having dropped him. Ditto for Keegan and Ryan Whitney.

Bottom line: I really don't see what the big issue is with being able to drop role players with long-term injuries before the season starts. All the manager would be able to do is add another player who was passed up 300 times by the ten managers during the keeper selection phase and the draft. But at least that player would be healthy.

Comments from anyone else?

Not to be a prick about it, but define a role player in fantasy hockey.


If (as an example) you get to drop a player because of an injury, but I would have wanted him on my team non-the less, injury or not. Why can't a pick him up? Or what if I expected player A to play this season but as it turns out he'll be in the minors, or he is holding out? How about some dude that lights up the pre-season and now he's on everyone's radar, but I didn't draft a guy who gets injured so I can't have him. That's not even footing either.

If two or three people get to add and drop players before the start of the season then the rest of the league is left at a slight disadvantage.

Now, if you are talking about a 1-2 round redraft every year in which a team can throw 1-2 players back into the FA pool a week before the start of the season, and everyone has a shot at other players, then I change my tune and I support the idea. But the idea of having a few people partake in a mini-redraft based on certain conditions isn't fair IMO.

I agree with matty to a certain degree... I can understand the frustration of being stuck with a decent player who is injured long term and not being able to do anything about it till mid season. Jay does have a point though that in essence no one can predict an injury (disclosed or undisclosed) and thus the playing field is level for all involved. My only concern is that if someone is labeled as `injured` in the weeks prior to the start of the season, and this rule is in place, that manager may be able to gain to some extent in terms of recent knowledge (recent trades, cuts, contracts, etc) and thus improve their team as a result. In my case, lets say smyth goes down this year pre-season. I get to replace him with a player on the wire, and sundin has just been signed to play with the wings. If I grab him I would undoubtedly have an advantage on the rest of you for the remainder of the year. Im not sure that wouldnt sit well with most of you and potentially cause certain problems... anyways, if there is interest in this we can vote it out and go from there

Jason schrieb:

Now, if you are talking about a 1-2 round redraft every year in which a team can throw 1-2 players back into the FA pool a week before the start of the season, and everyone has a shot at other players, then I change my tune and I support the idea. But the idea of having a few people partake in a mini-redraft based on certain conditions isn't fair IMO.

This is a good idea actually. I can't tell you how much it aggrivates me to do a draft in early September, and then to lose a player with a long term injury before the season even starts. I feel we need to come up with a solution to this issue, or else hold the draft later in the season from now on.

Injuries can happen at any time, it is true, but the closer the draft is held to the start of the season the less likely we would run into this sort of thing.

i don't think we should have a rule in place for this. im down with drafting later on if that is what we decide to do.

I would say that we hold our draft much later next season in a 'live' format. We could do it as late as a couple of days prior to the start of the season. Problem solved.

I'd have to vote for simply doing a later live draft as well if we can make it work. There's too many sticky possibilities with allowing people to drop and redraft players closer to the season while not allowing others - even it's for good reason.

Sorry about your luck is my attitude. This becomes a really odd scenario to understand. More complications. Potential is there for poor feelings. The thinner the rule book the better.

Regarding rules. We as team owners are obligated to take advantage of loop holes. Having more rules on the books, creates more loop holes. Thus, from a league perspective, the fewer the loop holes the better. One guy taking advantage of a scenario, might upset others. Later in the year, it has the potential to damage the January draft.

I love the draft. this is the time of year when drafts are being held by all leagues. In my other pool, we do it in June. I loved that we held it over a period of time. Lots of action. Lots of excitement. Trades.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts everyone. This is a tricky issue and one that we seem somewhat divided on for sure.

Glancing at the responses, I think it's pretty clear that we shouldn't do anything for this year. We'll hold a vote next year and see what everyone prefers. It looks like the two most reasonable options would be:

1) Hold the draft as a one-day event later in September. Greg and I would prefer this simply because of the time constraints on doing a slow draft. Everyone has a different schedule and different access to the internet, and I know there were a couple of guys who made decisions on the fly this year because the rest of the group was trying to keep the draft rolling.

2) If we do the draft earlier in September as we did this year (either one-day or slow draft), I think we should consider the simple suggestion that Jay made. I think it's a good one because it would address "unknowns" in player situations while keeping everyone on a level playing field. The solution might be to hold a one or two round re-draft prior to the start of the season, whereby everyone would have the chance to drop one or two players and then draft one or two more.

Again, this is an issue we seem to be divided on. Best idea I think is to wait until next spring and then hold a league vote on it.

Would welcome input from anybody who hasn't already offered it.

I know I had broached the subject with Matt privately to seek his opinion. I see it has brought some good feedback from everyone.

This is how I see things.

Originally the league agreed to hold the draft on the third Saturday of September each year. Agreed by all.

Then we voted on having a slow draft starting September 1st. Majority ruled.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages granted.

In drafts held earlier, there is a lot less information available to ALL gm's. Whatever the information is, it might have swayed you from picking one player over another. For the most part, in our league, all of the STAR players are kept anyway. So we aren't talking superstars anyway. If they were superstars, chances are teams would hold on to them regardless.

If we continue to hold a slow draft similar to this year's draft, may I suggest a one-time free agent add/drop period where teams can drop a player and pick up an undrafted player. Maybe drop players one day and then 2 or 3 days later pick up players perhaps in reverse order of last year's finish.

This gives everyone a chance to make a correction on updated information. Just a thought, would love to hear other's opinions.

Fitzsy Stars schrieb:

Motley Crue schrieb:

Ummmmm how about drafting three players that dont have contracts? i deserve something for that i mean you really got to try hard to draft that bad Damn good thing the Fleury thing wasn't announced before we drafted cause i'm sure i would have snagged him upas well.

Which three guys did you draft without contracts? LOL.

Zherdev, Anton Babchuck, Marc-Andre Bergeron