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This is the eleventh post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

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Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
Thank you too! That's really helpful insight.

Another really obvious question: there's 10 teams in the league I'm in, which means there'll be 160 players chosen, right? Should I bother ranking beyond, say #200?

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
I'd say 200 would be a good amount to rank. /sees own list of 90 names

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

I agree, 200 is good.

There is also something to be said for ranking only, say, 100, and going with Yahoo's selections for the remainder, especially if you don't know a ton of players and aren't up to researching 100 players who are foreign to you. That way, you can do your research only on the guys Yahoo picks for you once the draft is done. There will be plenty of good players in the free agent pool after we're done, especially for bench slots/sleeper picks.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
Another question! (Sorry, I've been messing around with this on and off all afternoon.) Will we know what our draft position is before the draft happens?

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
I want to know this too! Also if it should change my strategy -- i.e. at 10, I probably won't get Ovie or Crosby, so I should look at other good forwards to move up, plus take advantage of having next consecutive pick.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
We're not getting our draft positions. I think Commish-non already said we were doing an randomized autopick draft.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
It's possible that yahoo lets you know what the draft order is once you've established a draft date, isn't it?

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

I unfortunately don't know if we will know our draft positions beforehand.

I could schedule our draft and then cancel it to see, but it might draft us. We'd all have to agree that we are cool with allowing Yahoo to maybe draft us in a draft we completely throw out afterwards.

Is that something you all would like to do? Kind of our own version of a mock draft? We could do that, say sometime midweek (or perhaps next weekend if that works better for folks, but I'm going out of town, so my time will be more limited), and that will serve as a more "actual" mock draft, as well as answering some questions for me like whether we'll know our draft positions and how long it will take them to schedule an autodraft for us after I say we're good to go.

Unfortunately, I can't do this in the DDHLB league, because I'm still in there as an extra person and it won't let us draft with an uneven number, but I can do it in the DDHLA league. The info gathered would be applicable to both leagues.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
da

Just a question -- when is the absolute last day to sign up (if there are still spaces)?

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
ayrt

There are still places in both leagues. I believe we're planning to draft in the last week of September, probably somewhere around the 26th or 27th? So, we'd have to finalize and lock the league right before then. I'd recommend joining at least by the 20th, though, to give yourself time to set your draft list, etc.

If you can't do it before then, you can certainly just go with the main Yahoo player ranking list, which will still give you great players, just maybe not players you especially want.

Please do join us! It's fun! :D

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
Is there any chance at all you would consider not autodrafting? I know setting a time might be tricky but I'm soooooo bad at setting things up for an autodraft and always end up missing some key pieces.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

We did discuss the possibility, but I don't think there's any way to coordinate the GMs we have all over the world to draft at the same time.

I understand the angst of not being sure of picking the players you absolutely want in an autopick draft. I have those anxieties, too! And even in a live draft, you don't often wind up with the guys you exactly want (or, as has happened to me, you panic and get a guy you want, but then wind up missing out on others you really need!).

One thing I like about autodrafting, is that it adds an element of uncertainty that allows for learning more about players you might not be familiar with. With the size of our leagues, we will all wind up with very good players, and if there are some we really don't like, there will be a lot of excellent free agents available, or we can explore trades.

Is there any other info or draft strategies that I could give you that will help in setting up your list? I feel like we've not covered everything about it, and I'm happy to offer any assistance I can to help you feel more confident in the autodraft process.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-05 10:31 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 12:27 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 12:30 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
I'm definitely good with that. Though I think I'm in league B, so maybe I don't get a vote, haha.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
ayrt

Not necessarily! If another person joins, I'll stick them in DDHLB and then we will have an even number and can do our draft dry run. :)

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
I believe it will randomize the draft order right before it does the autopick, so there won't be any way to know draft position ahead of time.

I was going to suggest that there be a 24-hour warning before autopick is turned on, so that people can put the finishing touches on their lists. Also, I think you said you were planning to do the drafts the fourth week of September? Can I suggest we do it the third week instead? That will give people time to think about and complete trades and stuff before the start of the season.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

That's what I was afraid of re: draft order. It makes it a little more uncertain as far as how one arranges tiers of players within the rounds, but that seems that it makes the tiers of rounds themselves more important. It appears to be a tradeoff.

I was absolutely intending to give ample warning for everyone to finalize their lists!

As I said above, I was planning on the weekend of the 26th/27th, which would leave a week and a half before puck drop on the season, but if you think we need more time than that, I'm open to moving it up.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
I do think we need another week. A day or two for people to look at their teams and figure out who they want to trade with, a day or two for the person who they asked to trade with to consider and say yay or nay, a day for the league (unless it's going to be set up so the approval process doesn't happen? is that a setting that can be changed?) to not object, a day for the traded players to become active (because in my experience you can't use them until the next day) all adds up fast, and that's assuming everything goes smoothly and there aren't counter offers or rejections.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

I see what you're saying, and I don't have an issue with it. So, are you saying another week before NHL puck drop (so, September 23 would be two weeks before the season starts) or another week before September 26/27, which would be September 19/20? I'm leaning more toward that Wednesday, the 23rd, but I'd be willing to do the 19th or 20th. I'd love to hear feedback from other GMs.

I would like for league approval for trades to still be a thing. It is a changeable setting, and the other two options are commissioner approval (I don't think I alone should have that power nor do I particularly want it) or no approval at all. While I doubt there will be any issue with people trading unfairly, I like the league involvement that league approval engenders.

I'd like mention that trading can (and I hope does!) continue well into the season, so puck drop on October 7 (a night when only a few teams are playing) is not a hard deadline. Though you are right in pointing out that there is a one-day waiting period before a player is active on a GM's team roster, so that is a delay for everyone to consider.

Also, everyone should remember that the first week of fantasy hockey scoring, due to the spread-out nature of the first week's slate of NHL games, lasts from the Wednesday puck drop through the 2nd Sunday (October 7-18).

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 04:45 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 05:03 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 05:51 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 05:09 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 05:57 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
Last year I played in a yahoo public league and we didn't find out the random draft order until about 30 minutes before the draft. However, that was a live draft so auto pick might be different.

Have we decide what scoring categories we're using for sure? I was waiting to finish tweaking my predraft list until that was settled. If we're going to do an in-league mock draft I'd like to finish ordering my list first.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

I don't even recall how my public league drafts went in the past. For friends leagues, we did an autodraft the first year and a live draft the second, but we picked the live draft time. Weirdly, I can't recall how order was decided then, either. It was probably standings from the year before, so I didn't pay a lot of attention, since I won the league, so was last. ;)

If anyone can think of a good way to randomize it ourselves, I just discovered it is possible for me to set the draft order. I have no idea how I would go about randomizing that, though, and I don't want to cause any upset in that process. It is something to consider if knowing the order beforehand is important to everyone. I am open to suggestions on fair and anonymous ways to make the order totally random.

As for categories, there hasn't been a lot of discussion, but it seemed that a desire for SHG or SHP was expressed, and I know someone else besides me liked hits. That would seem to make our categories:

Skaters:

Goals, Assists, Power Play Points, Short-Handed Points (or just Short-Handed Goals), Plus/Minus, Penalty Minutes, Shots on Goal, and Hits

Goalies:

Wins, Goals Against Average, Save Percentage, and Shootouts

That gives us 12 categories, which is an even number, but with two categories that are only occasionally scored in (SHP and SOs), so ties shouldn't happen that often. We can add or drop a category if you all would really rather have an odd number of categories.

Also, remember the Cook Rating web site! It will help you rate your lists based on our specific categories.

http://www.beerleagueblog.ca/cook-rating/

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
I like blocked shots. SHP are almost a novely item to me but I don't feel particularly strongly about it.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
NA

I've played in the same league for 5 years, and though I've only ever won once, I've been top in SHP every season. I'm always in favor of that stat. :P

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 01:54 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

Would you like to add blocked shots? Or would you like it to replace something else?

I've never used blocks before, but I like that it gives D and less offensive Fs more value.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 01:57 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 02:08 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
I like Short-Handed Points rather than Short-Handed Goals, because the other one is Power Play Points.

I'm fine with even categories. I assume ties would be minimal over the course of a season.

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 04:03 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

- From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2015-09-06 04:43 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy Hockey

From: (Anonymous)
C!N

Don't apologize for asking questions or for playing around with the draft stuff. I'm happy to answer any questions, and this one you've asked is one I've been wondering about myself...