Phase One: The Draft

Hello to all.

I know that it is June. Early June at that. But ........... this off season will roar by us faster than a three day old sausage undercooked at a midday summer picnic.

So, Phase One of my off season plans concerns our upcoming September draft. I was most unhappy with last years draft, in fact, it almost killed me.

Way. Too. Long.

So, I want to open the forum to discuss possible solutions so that when September rolls around, we are organized, united and feeling festive.

There are many possibilities of course. Live Draft. Slow Draft. Some sort of mix.

I have always been a fan of the live draft. Great fun. One can drink large quantities of red wine whilst awaiting ones next pick etc......... The trouble is, our league holds so few players that a Live Draft takes just a crazy amount of time.

On the other hand, a slow draft can be massively time consuming and frustrating with constantly checking and rechecking to see what the status is of the draft is.

I will get the ball rolling with my suggestion and we can just toss ideas around until we come to some sort of conclusion. Of course, Matt will be out of touch until the end of the month, but I don't see any reason why we can't get things started.

So, my ideer:

A Live Draft that takes place on either the 23rd or 24th (Fri or Sat) of September which would not be 17 painfully long rounds, but rather 5 or 7 rounds and would be followed by a Slow Draft to be completed in the following week. In a sense, it is the best of both worlds. We get the Live Draft feeling without having to sit in front of our computers for 6 hours and having to endure all the lower back pain that comes with that activity.

I am all ears, however, should someone have another strategy.

Greg.

PS What we will also need is a site where we can all communicate better. Last year we had the windows messenger catastrophe followed be having to constantly hit refresh on our forum. Painful. Who has a better solution? Surely it exists.

Hey Gregger,

I like your idea of the combo draft. Best of both worlds in your own words. I will look into ideas about holding the live draft.

Ciao for now!

Ray

Thanks Ray. I was talking to John the other day on Skype and the idea of a combo draft just hit me from out of nowhere.

Do you think that if we started the Live Portion on the 23rd, for example, that we would have enough time to finish before the regular season started?

Does anyone know when it starts?

The NHL schedule isn't out yet but Ithink we can get our draft done in a few days, a week the most. The schedule should be out in about 2 weeks.

OK. That sounds positive.

Bumped into this possibility for us come September:

http://www.meebo.com/

Anyone used it before?

I made it a Poll damn it.

Let's see what everyone thinks!

Love
Greg

PS Happy Off Season to everyone.

i like the combo so we can hammer out the first 5 rounds or so in a couple hours and then finish it off with a slow jam lol

it will be nice to start near the end of the september so we can avoid early injuries and can have a better idea what prospects got a good shot at the big club

I went on into Meebo and created an account. Took about 44 seconds. I then had the option of creating a room which I called the Nutbars du Canucks Live Draft. The whole things looks terribly promising.

When someone has a little free time and energy, please go into Meebo and create an account and then let me know so I can add you to this room and we can give it a test drive so to speak.

The cool thing is that it is a private room which would be only for our group and it would allow is to hold a pretty peppy live draft without all that nonsense that we had to endure last year. I would also recommend a timer for us such that each GM had only 2 minutes per pick. That of course is something that we could hammer out later, but it seems that we are on the correct path.

My name in Meebo is ......... DesolationRow

Ok, I did it. It took me 35. It would've been less if it only would've accepted my age as being 333.

Oh well, my ID is BuffaloCabCo.

Shocking I know!

Sounds good Ray. Once the dust settles tonight, I will try and add you as a friend (despite your age) and then see if we can make a connection.

G

OK so Ray is into meebo and I have found him and reluctantly added him to my buddy list. At last count I had one buddy.

Need nine more and we will have the makings of a pretty festive Live Draft.

Drop everything at once and log into meebo.

Cancel dinner parties. Call in sick. Don't bathe the kids.

Create a user account and let the fun begin.

Only 96 days remaining until draft day!!

ok so i cancelled my friday dinner plans, told work i wouldnt make it in today and let the kids stink up the place. But creating an account on Meebo only took me about 15 seconds, now what do i do with the rest of the day?? lol

ShoresideSituations
is my name on Meeeeeeeebo

OK my good man. Found you and added you to my buddy list. That means, I officially have two buddies now.

Things are heating up.

Put your feet up and make me a trade offer including both Pavelski and Mueller.

G

6 votes in and 4 to go.

I suspect that the 4 that we are waiting on are:

Matt
Jay
Scoop
Chris

Only 96 days left until draft day guys.

done and done.

my id is fitzystars








i mean soostorm lol

site seems great, will make it easier to get trades done!

I continue to be a supporter of slow draft. We run one in the other pool in which I play. It's currently running.

Slow draft is phenomenal. The pool has a month, in which all the pool members are busy. Many trades take place, because there is time. Interest is peaked for a MONTH. Lots & lots of fun. Lots & lots of activity. Anyone that likes trading, is wise to participate in a slow draft at some point in time. How else do you get a dozen guys to pay HEAVY DUTY attention in an off season month?

Additionally, I am always SUPER PARANOID that trying to select one date in September for the draft will become impossible for me at a later date. I will be coaching hockey again this coming winter. One team, perhaps two. I have no clue as to what the hockey schedule looks like at this point in time. The draft is early enough, that I can keep my fingers crossed. Can you imagine your coach skipping the first practise of the year to attend a Fantasy Hockey pool draft? I can't really imagine this. Unfortunately my right hand man, Red, would also be at the hockey practises. I would gladly entrust him to draft for me. If I got stuck in a corner, I would then look to engage another buddy, to draft for me. We all know though that drafting is a very important and exciting part of the overall process in which we are participating. My intention is to remain in Nutbars for the foreseeable future. I've really enjoyed interacting with this group of fantasy players. In comparison to the league in which Red plays, we've been a wonderful group. This greatly enhances my wishes to remain.

Talk to you soon!

SCOOP

Good input Scoop.

The overall vote is getting tight with 7 votes cast.

To be perfectly honest, if the combo live draft/slow draft is tough for anyone I would be more than happy to go with a standard slow draft beginning September 1st.

I have done slow drafts before and I have found them time consuming. Does anyone have any tips on how to optimize a slow draft? For example, could we have a maximum length of time we are willing to wait on a GM?

im fine with sep 1st slow draft too

I'm the same as Brandon
i would vote either or

OK, things are becoming somewhat clearer of late it seems. We have three votes yet to be cast, but things seem to be pointing in the direction of a slow draft starting on the 1st of September. In light of what Scoop said, it seems to be perhaps a very sensible option.

Matt we have not heard from of course as he is frolicking in Africa.
The other two GMs are perhaps, although I am naturally not certain, are Jay and Chris.

So, we will wait to hear from these three fellers and then we can officially put Phase One in the books.

I voted for slow draft. Just easier for people than to organize a date that may not work for everyone. My other pool is slow draft and I find it fun.

I suppose another advantage of the slow draft is that we could add our own players with ESPN making it perfectly clear to everyone who is available and who has been taken. In last years Live Draft there was a lot of confusion that seemingly could be avoided with a slow draft.