10 teams, dispersal draft

[norm]

We have a problem guys with the two open teams: Bruins and Menace.

Bruins is a weak team. It has 2 G but one is Tim Thomas. So, one goalie, 3 or 4 good 2nd tier forwards, and one good defenseman. This is not a good team -- no new mgr who knows what he is doing will take this team.

Menace is stronger: it has a good G and a good core of young players to build around: Skinner, Couture, Landeskog, Erik Karlsson.

Last summer when we had two open teams I juggled the rosters to balance the teams, then signed two new mgrs. That won't work this time -- we will just end up with two weak teams.

The action on the Yahoo msg boards as far as guys looking for teams is not good. There are a lot of leagues looking for mgrs and they are getting very little response. I have never seen the boards look like this -- two leagues had posts up for 5-6 days without a single response.

Trying to sell two weak teams in that kind of market is hopeless.

Our options include: try to find a mgr for Menace and drop the Bruins. We could hold a dispersal draft or send the Bruins players to the waiver wire. But that makes us an 11-team league, which I do not like and don't want to do. It skews our H2H schedule and we would probably be looking at bye weeks. That sucks..

Our best option then -- our only one, really -- is to disband both teams and go to a 10-team league.

That is what I plan to do.

We will hold a 4-round dispersal draft for 40 players from the Bruins and Menace rosters. The pick order will come from a 3rd party random draft order generator -- Toolbox.

The 8 farm players on these two rosters will go into this year's farm draft pool. That order won't change.

We will hold both drafts simultaneously.

No team will have to drop a player -- we will increase our rosters by 4 players -- or 40 players total.

Makes no sense putting these new players on the bench so we will add 3 starting forwards slots -- one C, one LW, and one RW -- and one more Utility slot.

I am working out the best way to structure the dispersal draft -- I will get that done quickly, then go to Toolbox for the draft order. Toolbox notifies each mgr directly of the draft order. Once we have that done I will give the league two days notice of the start of the drafts.

There will be no trading picks for the dispersal draft -- this is a one-shot deal so let's keep it simple.

Your thoughts guys?

[Mario]

I'm down for this.

[Deleted]

Understood, that is the best option.

[carlh]

Agreed, sounds like the best solution.

[Deleted]

Completely fine with this. This will certainly help the weaker teams too.

[stevet]

I think that this is the best way to handle the situation Norm.

[alextre101]

I don't want to be a pain in the ass but i would like to make a suggestion if i may. If you reject it, no problem i'll go head with the rest of the league.

Personnaly i think we should try to stay with 12 teams. The more GM we have, the better the competition and dynamic (moves, trades etc.) of the league will be. I know that right now it must be hard to find new GM but the situation is very special this season. We're very early this year ( sept 4th, more than a month away form oct 11th) and we're not sure to have a season so no one is in a hurry to join a league. But if we could find 2 GM here's what i would suggest.

1- We dismentle both team and put them all FA. Then they draft their team from all the FA available (even if they were not in menace or bruin's team but see restrictions below). Then both GM draft players that they like and build a team to their image. There's a lot of good players in the original team cause even if Boston dosen't have a lot of big names in it they still reached the final. As for Menace there's a lot young good players in it ( Couture Skinner Karlsonn Landeskog etc...) to pick from. RESTRICTION: to protect this year farm draft ( and the trades made last season) no players from the 2012 NHL draft could be picked in this draft (anyway the new teams will participate in the farm draft).

2- To help both team be better we could do like the NHL when there's an expension in the league. Each team could submit 3 players of their chosing ( could be 1 forward, 1 D and 1 G that would help the G problem) to the draft. If one players fromteam is picked by one of the drafting team, than the other 2 are automaticly protected and can no longer be drafted. That way no team could lose more than 1 player and that would give more players for the new teams to chose from.

3- Farm draft players from both team should be spread among the 2 new teams(small draft).

4- Farm draft pick for this year draft. At any time during the draft, a new GM could decide to pick the draft picks ranks of a departing team instead of a player. The draft picks rank of the other team would automaticly go to the other new GM a the end of the draft. For exemple, Menace has 4th, 15th, and 28th draft pick and Bruins 19th, 31th so it's better to get menace's draft picks but the new GM would have to skip choosing a player from the FA to do that.

I hope it's it's all clear to everyone cause sometimes i'm struggleling with my english.

I know it's working cause i did it in one of my leagues and the new 2 teams did great on their first season. On the other hand it could be hard work and i would never ask you Norm to do it if you don't feel like it. Like i said it's a suggestion and i'm willing to help get the 2 teams up if you want to.

Let me know what you think

Alex

[norm]

Alex, to respond:

First, you are saying that "if" we can find two new mgrs we then "dismentle" both teams, move all of their players to FA, then those two teams draft new teams, including any other FA players available..

Tell me: how do you get two new mgrs to agree to that?

Second, if we did that, we completely undermine our waiver priority system.

Third, and if we did decide to undermine our waiver system, we would have to set up on Yahoo immediately, with 2 of the 12 teams with no players, so the 2 new teams would know who is available on FA for them to draft.

Fourth -- if we kept 12 teams you suggest every one of the other 10 mgrs mgr in the league submit 3 players from which they will drop one to aid the 2 new teams ... won't happen.

Fifth Your point # 4 is so confusing and complicated I don't know what to make of it frankly.

Sixth -- You suggest a second "small" draft to disperse the 8 farm players among the 2 new teams. How complicated does this have to get?

Look, Alex, you suggest your ideas will work just fine if I am willing to put the work in. It is not the work Alex ... I am already doing that, in all 3 leagues.

It is your ideas that won't work .. sorry, but that is the way I see it.

[Deleted]

unfortunately the 10 teams option still looks like the best one...

[simcast]

I'm agree with your proposition Norm.

[rougie]

sounds good norm, what about having a weighed lotto like the nhl does so the weaker teams have a better spot at getting the top picks?

[Deleted]

That would have to be well thought out, but it would be better in my opinion. Something around 3 balls (numbers) - 1 for x times in playoffs since beginning of league, -1 for every 1st overall in the farm draft, maybe some other stuff to. From the top of my head I think's that's how the nhl did it.

[alextre101]

was just trying to keep 12 teams in the league but like i said if everyone wants a 10 teams then let's go with it

[norm]

Tks for the feedback guys.

I will go ahead then and set up the dispersal draft.

As far as a weighted draft order system, I am not sure if Toolbox does that -- it describes the service as a 'random' draft order generator. And guys will have different ideas on how to weight it anyway.

[Deleted]

Well now that most of the league agrees on a 10-team league, maybe a pool on a weighted draft or not could be a good idea? We still have about a month before the season starts, if it starts on time, so there is no hurry at all.