The Manifesto in The Flesh

Desolation Row · Subject: The Manifesto in The Flesh Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:34 am

[size=24]Nutbars du Canucks

A new season of hockey is nearly upon us and there’s a few of us diehard fans that are already thinking about our hockey pools. Since most of my hockey friends are already in long term keeper leagues, I've been thinking for the last couple of years about starting a new keeper league that caters to serious managers. When I told my buddy Greg about it he agreed to join on the
spot. He immediately offered both his brains and his looks to the cause, on the condition that I provided the slave labour. He also agreed to pay me with ten pounds of quality Swiss cheese if I wrote up a league manifesto.

Now that I’ve done this, we need eight serious managers to join our new keeper league. This is long term, so please apply only if you're serious about being in this hockey pool for at least five years, win or lose.

RULES

Sport: NHL Hockey

Type of league: Points-based, Head-to-Head keeper league

Number of teams: Ten

Commissioner Duties: Split between Matt Jackson and Greg Chapler

Website: ESPN Fantasy (free)

Cost: $60 per year times ten teams = $600. To be split
evenly between winner of the regular season and winner of the playoffs less what Paypal takes.

Draft Date: Saturday, September 20th, 2:00 PM EST. To keep
things consistent, future drafts will also be held on the third Saturday of September unless the majority votes to change (well in advance!) It’s a live draft, so all managers have to be online for the draft.

Order of Draft: We will be using a free Fantasy Draft order Generator for our pool. It will create a random draft order for the first round and send an email to all GMs. Once allotted, the draft order will follow the standard snake drafting format: 1 to 10, then 10 to 1, and then 1 to 10 again, etc.

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 five rounds. Draft order will go in reverse sequence
to the draft order we just determined above. 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 feature 25 rounds of the regular player draft in the order determined above. Forwards, defensemen and goalies are eligible to be drafted in any position or sequence.

In future years the drafting order will be determined by how teams finish in the regular season. The team that finishes 10th gets the first pick (unless they’ve traded it away), and the 1st place team gets the tenth pick. Again, the snake drafting order will be followed, except in cases where draft picks have been traded. NOTE: Players cannot trade draft picks or positions for the
initial draft in September 2008.

Drafting Limitations: Players are eligible to be drafted in our
league only if they are drafted or signed by an NHL team.

Number of Players per Team: Thirty (in the following format): Two centres, two left wingers, two right wingers, four forwards, five defense, two goalies, eight benched players and five farm team prospects. (Or for those who prefer shorthand: 2 C, 2 LW, 2 RW, 4 F, 5 D, 2 G, 8 BN, 5 FT prospects.) All position
eligibility is based on ESPN ratings.

This means the initial draft is going to last 30 rounds.
The January supplemental draft will last 5 rounds.
Future Sept drafts will last up to 20 rounds (15 skaters plus
5 Prospects). However, 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.

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). Our season starts with the NHL on October 4th, 2008 and finishes with the NHL regular season on April 12, 2009.

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), +/- (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 (excluding the week of the all-star break). Each manager plays every other manager at least twice (18 games), with the other two match-ups being pre-selected randomly before the start of the season.

NOTE: The first week of the season includes the four games being played in Europe 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, which in our league starts on Monday, March 2, 2009. 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? Cascading feature
will help to prevent dynasties from forming. Top two finishers get to keep a maximum of 10 players; third and fourth place keep up to 11 players; fourth and fifth place keep up to 12 players; seventh and eighth place keep up to 13 players; ninth and tenth place keep up to 14 players.

Only prospects that are still eligible for their farm teams in
September are excluded from these numbers.

For the September draft, managers must let the commissioner know which players they plan to keep no later than one week before the draft. If they do not, the commissioner will keep the players with the best points totals from the previous season, in descending order.

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

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 three (3) days will veto the trade. during the off-season (April 13th until the draft in September), 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.

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. To get around ESPN software limitations we will add three (3) blank roster positions over and above the 25 regular spots and 5 farm team spots. 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.

Trade Deadline for playoffs: February 3rd 12:00 PM EST (NHL deadline). After this date, no trades will be allowed until after the end of the playoffs (April 12th).

Waiver pick-ups: Not allowed. The only way to change players
between drafts is by way of trade.
Injury Reserve: Since there is no salary cap in this league, having an Injury Reserve is moot. Injured players can be kept in a bench position.

Farm Team Regulations: Players are considered eligible for your
farm team roster if they have played 25 or less NHL games. 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 can use prospects on their starting line-ups at any time during the regular season or playoffs. Players that are Farm Team eligible at the beginning of the year remain as prospects for the entire year. They do not have to be moved up to the regular team after they’ve played their 26th game. For example, Steven Stamkos is eligible for farm team status in September 2008. The
manager who chooses him can use Stamkos on their starting ine-up whenever they want during the 2008-09 season. The big bonus here is that Stamkos can be used as an active player, but he won’t take up one of your bench spots that you’ll use for other active players.

In September of the following year all prospects that have played more than 25 NHL games by the end of the 2008-09 NHL playoffs
have to be dropped or frozen into one of your keeper slots. Prospects that have not yet played 25 NHL games can be held over as farm team prospects, which is in addition to your allotted
number of keeper slots.

Managers can trade for as many farm team prospects as they like, but they should remember that every September they can only protect and carry forward up to five (5) farm team eligible players. Again, any additional prospects will either
have to be moved up to the regular team or dropped.

EXCEPTION: Teams that finish in positions 7 and 8 during the regular season can protect up to six (6) prospects before the
following September draft. Teams that finish in positions 9 and 10 during the regular season can protect up to seven (7) prospects before the following September draft. This is to help less successful managers rebuild their teams faster.

KHL Rules: In situations where a manager loses a player to the KHL, they will be reimbursed as follows. If that player scored more than 75 points during the previous season, the affected
manager will be allotted one extra second round draft pick in the next September draft. If the player scored between 60 and 74 points, the affected manager will be allotted one extra third round draft pick in the next September draft. If the player scored between 45 and 59 points, the affected manager will be allotted one extra fourth round draft pick in the next September draft.

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

Final Request: Please come prepared to the draft as only sixty seconds will be allotted for each pick. We're picking 300 players in this initial draft so it is going to be a marathon ... I anticipate five to six hours is a good estimate. Future drafts will require less time. The January supplemental drafts are only five
rounds, and future drafts in September would allow for up to 20 rounds (15 regular players and 5 farm team picks).[/size]

Buffalo Cab Co. · Subject: Re: The Manifesto in The Flesh Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:55 pm

In the "how many Players can Managers keep" section,

it is stated that 3rd and 4th place finishes keep up to 11 players and 4th & 5th keep up to 12. I believe it to mean 5th and 6th can keep up to 12. Just a clarification.

Fitzsy Stars · Subject: Re: The Manifesto in The Flesh Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:58 pm

Yup, you're correct Ray. Good eyes. As always you are keeping us on our toes.

Buffalo Cab Co. · Subject: Re: The Manifesto in The Flesh Thu Oct 02, 2008 4:00 pm

Well, if I had caught it a month ago, then maybe, but I missed it the first 10 times I read it.
Drop the puck already!