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Post by Jesse (Avs) on Oct 31, 2011 5:27:05 GMT -7
Just figured I'd start a thread since we've been discussing this in the chatbox for a bit.
Obviously we're in a spot right now where the league is becoming unbalanced, and we're close to half the league without GMs. It'd be a good time now to kind of discuss where we can go from here, and throw around some suggestions.
The bottom line in my mind is that we just need more GMs. If everyone can do a little bit here and there, just telling friends, posting on hockey/sports boards, whatever you can to get some interest going, it would help. The lower end teams can all be rebuilt easily with the talent pool in this league, its just a matter of having someone to guide the team on a constant basis (lines, calling up guys to develop, etc). I know the Commish was doing that for a while, but obviously its hard to manage 15 teams plus run the league.
Picking up a 2nd team will help too, just to keep lines coming in and guiding the team if you have time for it. As far as I know, this is what we've got in that regard: Leafs / Dallas NJD / Edmonton Chicago / Boston Colorado / Carolina
So if you have any suggestions, now would be a good time to talk about them. Just please stay friendly about it, a few of us (myself included) take things too personal here sometimes, so just keep in mind we're all here to have fun!
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Post by DevilsGM/OilersGM on Oct 31, 2011 5:45:03 GMT -7
well i'll make another post on fhockey.com about it sometime today
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Post by Jesse (Avs) on Oct 31, 2011 5:48:42 GMT -7
well i'll make another post on fhockey.com about it sometime today Sounds good. I few months back I'd done them, the blue line and another EHM forum, but I dont think we got much of anything that time. All depends on who catches it I guess!
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Post by tanya on Oct 31, 2011 5:51:17 GMT -7
i think with most ppl they like fresh leagues i know from experience ppl seem to not wanna go in a league where it's past season or more
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Post by Jesse (Avs) on Oct 31, 2011 7:09:23 GMT -7
i think with most ppl they like fresh leagues i know from experience ppl seem to not wanna go in a league where it's past season or more That's the other idea I guess we could talk about too is starting over in hopes we could attract a bigger crowd from the get-go, then go from there. I really don't want it to come to that, but if half the teams aren't being managed, the game loses its meaning and fun, and it will just continue to get lopsided. I'm on the fence about it, but if it were an option, is there anyone who would be interested in starting from scratch and filling out the league that way? And would you still be interested in running it Shawn?
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Post by LongIsland on Oct 31, 2011 7:52:55 GMT -7
I'm not interested in a restart, personally. Worst case scenario I'd like to just keep going with the core that we've had for a long time now and most GM's take on a second team. From my experience a restart kills a league. The GM's we still have are primarily invested because of the work they've put into their teams, if you take that away I'd say a lot of the core will leave soon after because it'll be like what's the point?
I am willing to take on a Western Conference team in the mean time.
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Post by flamesgm on Oct 31, 2011 8:28:33 GMT -7
This is my first online league since 2003 or something... but I have been here almost daily for over a year and I don't really like to see this league dying. But there isn't much I can do to help. Anyway I'm going to be here until the league dies. if re-start will be made then I need to think twice... So I don't have any solutions but I just wanted to give my support on you efforts to keep this league live. The idea of waiver draft somehow doesn't feel good, since I have been making lot's of efforts to build this team.
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Post by LongIsland on Oct 31, 2011 9:53:47 GMT -7
A way to make the league more active and interesting would be to use the boards more than the chatbox. That chatbox makes the league look like there's no activity.
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Post by LongIsland on Oct 31, 2011 9:54:48 GMT -7
Also, I will take over Detroit.
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Post by columbusgm on Oct 31, 2011 10:47:10 GMT -7
See the responses here are exactly why I suggested a waiver draft might help. There's a few reasons why;
1. The current GMs keep their core talent together, thus the players that are important to them. Sure you don't get to keep all of them, but it'd be enough to keep people interested. Speaking as the Columbus GM, I have a good young team with no real holes. My main strength is depth, as opposed to individual stars. But I'd be okay with giving up some of that depth in order to balance the league and make things more competitive. I know I'd like to hang on to some of my players, because they are MY players. But we make trades all the time, just think of this as another trade.
2. New GMs would come in to find stronger teams (or would be joining and selecting a stronger team) and a more balanced playing field, so they'd be able to choose better whether to rebuild, build depth, or fight for the cup (as it is most new GMs are forced to rebuild, a couple could work on depth). It's not starting from current rosters, which I agree is the place most GMs want to be at, but it's something that would draw people in. "Join us, you choose a team, select the core players you want to keep around, then build your new team the way you want to"
3. It's really flexible. We can do this anytime; offseason, regular season or playoffs. Sure, it may be kind of weird to interrupt a season to make wholesale roster changes, but GMs often will do a complete overhaul of their team during a season. If we wanted to advertise that we were going to have a waiver draft in the near future (say, after the next season) it'd mean GMs would have an extra choice; you can focus on building your core that you get to keep, or you can fight for the cup this year and lose players outside of your core. Rebuilding and core-building would be two separate things.
As well, there's the way the draft is done. You can protect 6 players, 10 players, 15 players, whatever. Protect the pro 23, but not the farm. Protect all under 23, some over. Protect all over 23, some under. There's so many ways we could choose to do it. And then when we're picking there's flexibility. Let's say I haven't protected Marc Staal, and my pick is up; I could choose to pick/protect him, or choose someone else. And numbers? I mean, I'm not saying a waiver draft where we protect 10 players, and then choose the other 40. We could do a waiver draft where each team picks only 1 or 2, or as many as 9 or 10. It's entirely up to us. And there can be limits - in the NHL expansion drafts, teams that lose a player got to add one more to their protected list. So we can set things up where we're able to do that (in which case our protected list would be longer and ranked, so if we have 10 protected, then someone picks #11, #12 is auto-protected).
4. It's a new thing. How many people love the draft? I certainly do. I love pouring over the prospects, figuring out who are the ones I want. This would be the same kind of idea. Each GM is tasked with choosing who to protect, which can make for some interesting, but agonizing, decisions. Old and skilled vs young with potential. Protect 6 defense, or no defense. Which goalie, if any? And then you get to look at other teams lists and see who you'd like to pick up. Imagine I don't protect a Marc Staal or Evgeny Kuznetsov, and you really want to get him. It creates a whole new excitement for people.
Anyways, the main drawback I see is it'd be a lot of work for each individual GM, and probably a lot of work for the organizer(s) - though not necessarily. It'd also take time. The draft takes a while as it is, to have a waiver draft could be even worse. But those things can be dealt with. For example, give GMs a week to make their protected lists. Then a week to make a list of who they'd like to pick, in an order. If the list has, say, 60 players each GM, then after 2 weeks it'd be really easy to just sort things out and probably have almost 3 rounds done. Maybe give another week to update lists for another 60 players, and then we'd have 5 rounds done. Or we could give less time, or use the standard entry draft time tables (could do it where, if you miss your pick, then you just get to keep the next on your own list).
Point is, it'd be new, fun, and exciting while also balancing the playing field. And the flexibility is massive.
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Post by LongIsland on Oct 31, 2011 10:55:38 GMT -7
Obviously, I'm against the waiver draft. I mean I just traded 3 protectable players for 8 young guy to eventually fill out my team...
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Post by Jesse (Avs) on Oct 31, 2011 13:36:23 GMT -7
Yeah, I also wouldn't be interested in a waiver draft, mainly because we would still have the issue of no extra gms to maintain the newly built teams. It would even out the talent but without gms and thru trades, we would return to this scenario here.
I like the idea of our core guys just taking up 2nd teams, because id really hate to lose 5 seasons of work. Just thought id put the idea of a restart out there, kinda glad it got a negative response lol
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Post by LongIsland on Oct 31, 2011 14:35:07 GMT -7
I'd be willing to take a second team (Detroit) on a permanent basis. Then remove that team from the open team list thus making the league seem more full. Could even open a second account. If someone came and really wanted Detroit I'd always be willing to take a different one. At the very least it will spike my interest in the league. Which had a lot to do with trading kovalchuk and Tavares, my team required little management because most the roster was set.
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Post by DevilsGM/OilersGM on Oct 31, 2011 16:00:27 GMT -7
A way to make the league more active and interesting would be to use the boards more than the chatbox. That chatbox makes the league look like there's no activity. i had thought of getting rid of the chatbox for some time now
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Post by Jesse (Avs) on Nov 1, 2011 13:14:10 GMT -7
In an attempt to kind of bring this back to the thread instead of the chatbox (comments eventually get lost)..
The waiver draft, and the cap lowering idea would both work in a system where we had 30 human GMs, and bad team management led us to where we are now. But that's not the case (for the most part).. the reason we're so unbalanced right now is because half of the teams don't have a GM to do any managing.
No matter what type of waiver draft we would go forward with (although I agree, if it would be a permanent fix, the possibilities would be quite vast), the non-human teams would in a season or two become what they once were. They'd be overpaying for big name players, losing out on 2-way contracts, and not being able to develop or accurately choose draft picks.
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