David Aebischer signed with the Phoenix Coyotes. It is just a one year deal. The one year deal will give Aebischer the chance to prove he can play as a number one and potentially sign a better contract after next season, it also buys PHX one year to wait for Kipper to become a free agent. Kiprusoff rejected the Calgary Flames initial offer and has stated if he is not signed before camp then he will test the UFA market next summer. Aebischer will have limited value. PHX has a good young D-core and should be better than they were last season, but The Great One has yet to show much faith in his goalies and could easily turn to Tellqvist if Abbie struggles. We might even get another peak at David LeNevue next season. Abbie is a decent gamble for deep pools or if you want to have a bench starter for insurance.
Ty Conklin has signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is a $500k one year deal that just ads an experienced backup to help MAF. Don't look for Ty to help your fantasy team much. He could be worth a match up add VS bad teams.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Trades
The Ottawa Senators have traded LW Peter Schaefer to the Boston Bruins for RW Shean Donovan.
Schaefer will step into top 6 minutes in Boston and play with either Savard or Bergeron. Donovan will play the 3rd of 4th line and have no value to offer managers other than match up use. Schaefer could be a very valuable player to managers in deep leagues and could break out next season. 60 points seems realistic for Schaefer and if he catches fire in Boston he could pass that.
The Carolina Hurricanes have acquired center Matt Cullen for defenseman Andrew Hutchinson, forward Joe Barnes and a 3rd round pick in the 2008 draft.
Cullen returns to Carolina where he won a Cup. He will step in and play a key role on the PP point and will have increased fantasy value from what he had in New York. Cullen gets a nice amount of SOG and should get around 20 goals and 50 points.
Hutchinson has a chance to play soem PP point for the NYR but its a long shot. Keep an eye on Hutch, who is more of a PP specialist than all around D-man. He could be great for match up play if he gets time with the Rangers next year.
Barnes is a prospect who should not be on your fantasy radar.
Schaefer will step into top 6 minutes in Boston and play with either Savard or Bergeron. Donovan will play the 3rd of 4th line and have no value to offer managers other than match up use. Schaefer could be a very valuable player to managers in deep leagues and could break out next season. 60 points seems realistic for Schaefer and if he catches fire in Boston he could pass that.
The Carolina Hurricanes have acquired center Matt Cullen for defenseman Andrew Hutchinson, forward Joe Barnes and a 3rd round pick in the 2008 draft.
Cullen returns to Carolina where he won a Cup. He will step in and play a key role on the PP point and will have increased fantasy value from what he had in New York. Cullen gets a nice amount of SOG and should get around 20 goals and 50 points.
Hutchinson has a chance to play soem PP point for the NYR but its a long shot. Keep an eye on Hutch, who is more of a PP specialist than all around D-man. He could be great for match up play if he gets time with the Rangers next year.
Barnes is a prospect who should not be on your fantasy radar.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Formats and Settings
Leagues: Single Season, Keepers and Dynasty
I have enjoyed playing in many different leagues and formats of fantasy hockey over the years. I like keeper leagues and dynasty leagues the best. If you can find a reliable group then it really adds to the managing experience year after year. Often, single season leagues lack in activity. Managers have no desire to make trades, and if they are out of the running two months in, they see no point in managing the rest of the season. If you are in a keeper league or dynasty then you have plenty of motivation to try to improve your team or make moves. It makes for a much more interesting season and insures a certain level of activity. Single season pools are great, but in keepers it opens up so many other options. You can develop youth, take more gambles and every move you make requires more thought. The benefit of single season leagues is you can get an entirely new team each season and they require less time. There are pros and cons for each, but for my money I like the keepers. Dynasty leagues add the element of money and cap space and there are rules about adding players and dropping them that effect your keepers and draft picks. These leagues are more for experienced managers who are willing to put time into the league each year. I have known very successful managers who started in dynasty leagues without ever playing any other formats before. Its basically a time commitment and the rest can be picked up very quickly.
Roto vs H2H
Once you decide what type of league to be in, you will need to decide what type of format to use. There are two basic styles, Rotisserie(Roto) and Head to Head(H2H). Roto allows you to stack the stats from your players over the course of the season and gain points in the standings based on the season total in the categories of the league. H2H pits one manager against another week by week and your team gets a win-loss record for the season. In H2H formats there is a playoff system and Roto's winner is decided by whoever achieves the most points in the season. Both leagues allow active management and the ability to adjust your team in season to improve your chances. A problem in Roto leagues is that many managers feel they have no chance to win two months into the season or don't want to put the effort in to make up a large margin. This leads to less competitive leagues and lost interest the following year. If you are in a keeper league this can be devastating, and even if its a single season league with you and your buddies they might lose interest and not play the next season. H2H formats allow for managers a chance to win late into the season. Going into the last week before the playoffs of my keeper H2H league there were 4 teams that had a chance at the 6th place spot (12 teams total, 1-6 made the playoffs). The 6th seeded team ended up going to the finals of the playoffs. This format allows for a more competitive environment the full season, however it allows for a large luck factor that Roto does not.
In a H2H format, anything can happen week to week. There is always an element of luck involved in any fantasy sports league. From injuries to draft position and so on. H2H leagues allow for even more luck. In a Roto league you can make trades and add players from your leagues free agent list to overcome injuries. Smart and active managers are rewarded in Roto and can overcome bad luck. H2H's playoff format allows for weaker teams to knock of the best. If you had the Minnesota Wild goalie, Backstrom, as your goaltender last season then you were very lucky. The final weeks of the season, which are also the playoffs in H2H formats, the Wild played Edmonton three times. Edmonton had nothing to play for and had mailed it in the last few weeks. If you played against the team who had Backstrom you were very unlucky(this is also why I don't value goalie that high). Anything can happen week to week and even if you have the far superior team you can be knocked out with a run of bad luck. Some managers hate this format because they don't want to be beat by someone who is "less knowledgeable" or that puts less effort into their team all year. I love the format because anything can happen and it has a greater level of activity from top to bottom all season.
Categories and Scoring
There are many different options available to leagues for scoring. You can use various categories and you can weight them so certain stats are more important than others(2pts for goals 1pt for assists and so on). You can also decide to go with only a scoring league and eliminate goalies. How you decide this should be by getting the input of all the managers in your league, and being sure that all managers understand the categories and scoring before your draft.
Some of the categories to chose from are Goals, Assists, +/-, Points, Power Play Points, Power Play Goals, Power Play Assists, Short Handed Goals, Short Handed Assists, Short handed Points, Game Winning Goals, PIMs (penalty minutes), Face Off Percentage, Shots on Goal, Shooting Percentage and Game Tying Goals.
For Goaltenders some of your choices are Wins, Starts, Save Percentage, Goals Against Average, Shutouts, Goals Against, Even Strength Goals Against, Save Attempts, Saves made.
Most leagues use/allow for twelve categories. The split for most formats are 8/4 with the 4 representing the goalie stats(another reason I do not value goalies that much). You can set up your league any way that you want. I hate face off percentage because most centers are even, there are only a handful of elite centers at face offs, and most teams have multiple centers thus negating the high percentage of the elite. The category just has always seemed pointless to me. I love Short Handed Points and PIMs because it makes more players valuable then just the top scorers.
The set up I like to use is (all categories weighted even) Goals, Assists, +/-, PPPs (power play points), SHPs (short handed points), PIMs, SOG (shots on goal), GWG (game winning goals), Wins, GAA (goals against average), SV% (save percentage) and SO (shutouts).
Positions
Most leagues allow for Centers(C), Left Wing(LW), Right Wing(RW), Defensemen(D), And Goalies(G). There are also options for just forward slots that allow for all C/LW/RW to be used and Wing(W) slots that allow for LW/RWs to be used.
Using just forward slots takes away from managing lineups, but having a few forward and/or wing slots also allows for some flexibility for managers. No matter who the fantasy provider you use is, they will have errors and lack of updates on position eligibility. You might draft your favorite player knowing that they are a LW and your fantasy provider might list him as a center all season. Having a few flex positions allows managers to overcome these errors and allows them to overcome roster issues (too many centers, not enough LWs or RWs). Flexibility is a good thing, but it is good to keep as much of the management in the game as possible.
Finding a balance between forwards and defense position is not that important. The leagues settings will give you set options and guidelines in most cases.
Goaltenders are a hard position. If you allow a team to hold too many you can get managers that horde them and if you don't allow enough then you run into issues with injuries. Remember that there are only 30 NHL starters and fewer capable backups.
The categories tie into the positions you use, so be sure to make sure you weight them carefully.
Settings/Rules
There are all sorts of these and they vary from provider to provider. Most of them are common sense and a lot of them are about league content and conduct. Stuff from being able to change a team name to giving the commissioner the ability to edit rosters and transactions. I will only touch on a few of the ones I view as key.
Goalie starts for H2H leagues. The number of starts you require per week in H2H leagues should go hand in hand with how many roster spots you chose to allow for goalies. Most teams play at least twice a week and some play as many as four. A good common number to use is three starts. That means each team will have to carry at least two goalies and they can not just ride one all season. It also insures that a manager stay active when daily changes are allowed.
Daily changes vs Weekly is a common debate. Its a lot like deciding what topping of pizza to get. Many dislike the daily changes because it requires more time and effort to manage while people that dislike the weekly argue that it does not allow a chance to overcome injuries and to insure the best match ups. For my money, I think Roto leagues need to allow daily changes and H2H leagues that allow daily changes are greatly more fun than weekly. Otherwise you just set your team once and don't need to even check it again until next Sunday. Not much fun in that...
Waivers should always be used. This insures managers can not abuse the free agent players and adds value to saving your waiver for when that next Ovechkin hits(managers not familiar to hockey will soon learn that most every season there is an impact player that gets added to the league late and needs to clear waivers). I also believe you should set you league so that any changes made take place the following day. Again, this is to prevent abuse and if for some reason an error is made(a manager drops a player by accident) then the commish can fix it before it causes a bigger mess(another manager adds the player dropped in error and then conflict hits).
Move limits are also a hot debate. Some people feel very strongly both for and against. Finding a common ground can be difficult. I hate limiting moves in any way. Any limit to activity in the league is a bad thing. You want managers to be active and to care about the league. If you limit moves you limit activity and a reason for managers to check their teams daily. If you are in a league of people that have limited time due to work/family and everyone in the league except 1-2 people are in the same position then you might want to have a limit to insure everyone has an even playing field. The 1-2 managers that are against limits can find another league to kill time in due to the majority.
Trade Vetoes and Voting: Nothing tears a league apart faster than bogus trades and having a couple managers feeling screwed over. I think the Commish should have veto power and that a vote system be preset. Voting can be done on the message board of the league or by e-mail if people desire the vote be kept anonymous. The last thing you want is for a team to be out of the running and trade all his best players to his buddy so his buddy can win, you need to be prepared for anything to happen so that you can insure a fair league for everyone. Plus you want everyone to enjoy it as best as possible. Even if you are not in a keeper league, it is fun to play with the same group each year. A solid group of managers is hard to find, having rules in place and allowing for votes is key to making sure everyone is on the same page and sticks around each season.
Live Draft vs Other can prove difficult. No matter how many managers you have in your league, finding a common time to do a live draft is always a pain. Other options are e-mail drafts or picking players in the league one at a time through the draft order. When a manager places a player on his roster then the next manager in line goes. This is vary hard to regulate and manage to insure no errors happen. A live draft is by far the most fun. I don't know anyone that has ever done one that disliked it. Live Drafts are exciting and in some cases are the best part of the season.
Keeper leagues often trade picks along with players in deals, thus making live drafts impossible in all of the free fantasy providers. There are other solutions to this. Your league can set up a chat room to do the draft and add the players to their teams as you go, or you can do an Instant Message draft also adding the players as they are selected. This is generally more work for the commish but if good records are kept in season and available to everyone then the draft order should go smoothly.
Dynasty leagues are usually done in an e-mail/message board format in which managers bid on the players they want. Live Drafts are very hard to do in dynasty leagues.
These are some basic and general things to help get new managers and commissioners ready for the upcoming season. If you have any specific questions or feel there is something I did not cover, please contact me and I will address them in the Q&A section.
I have enjoyed playing in many different leagues and formats of fantasy hockey over the years. I like keeper leagues and dynasty leagues the best. If you can find a reliable group then it really adds to the managing experience year after year. Often, single season leagues lack in activity. Managers have no desire to make trades, and if they are out of the running two months in, they see no point in managing the rest of the season. If you are in a keeper league or dynasty then you have plenty of motivation to try to improve your team or make moves. It makes for a much more interesting season and insures a certain level of activity. Single season pools are great, but in keepers it opens up so many other options. You can develop youth, take more gambles and every move you make requires more thought. The benefit of single season leagues is you can get an entirely new team each season and they require less time. There are pros and cons for each, but for my money I like the keepers. Dynasty leagues add the element of money and cap space and there are rules about adding players and dropping them that effect your keepers and draft picks. These leagues are more for experienced managers who are willing to put time into the league each year. I have known very successful managers who started in dynasty leagues without ever playing any other formats before. Its basically a time commitment and the rest can be picked up very quickly.
Roto vs H2H
Once you decide what type of league to be in, you will need to decide what type of format to use. There are two basic styles, Rotisserie(Roto) and Head to Head(H2H). Roto allows you to stack the stats from your players over the course of the season and gain points in the standings based on the season total in the categories of the league. H2H pits one manager against another week by week and your team gets a win-loss record for the season. In H2H formats there is a playoff system and Roto's winner is decided by whoever achieves the most points in the season. Both leagues allow active management and the ability to adjust your team in season to improve your chances. A problem in Roto leagues is that many managers feel they have no chance to win two months into the season or don't want to put the effort in to make up a large margin. This leads to less competitive leagues and lost interest the following year. If you are in a keeper league this can be devastating, and even if its a single season league with you and your buddies they might lose interest and not play the next season. H2H formats allow for managers a chance to win late into the season. Going into the last week before the playoffs of my keeper H2H league there were 4 teams that had a chance at the 6th place spot (12 teams total, 1-6 made the playoffs). The 6th seeded team ended up going to the finals of the playoffs. This format allows for a more competitive environment the full season, however it allows for a large luck factor that Roto does not.
In a H2H format, anything can happen week to week. There is always an element of luck involved in any fantasy sports league. From injuries to draft position and so on. H2H leagues allow for even more luck. In a Roto league you can make trades and add players from your leagues free agent list to overcome injuries. Smart and active managers are rewarded in Roto and can overcome bad luck. H2H's playoff format allows for weaker teams to knock of the best. If you had the Minnesota Wild goalie, Backstrom, as your goaltender last season then you were very lucky. The final weeks of the season, which are also the playoffs in H2H formats, the Wild played Edmonton three times. Edmonton had nothing to play for and had mailed it in the last few weeks. If you played against the team who had Backstrom you were very unlucky(this is also why I don't value goalie that high). Anything can happen week to week and even if you have the far superior team you can be knocked out with a run of bad luck. Some managers hate this format because they don't want to be beat by someone who is "less knowledgeable" or that puts less effort into their team all year. I love the format because anything can happen and it has a greater level of activity from top to bottom all season.
Categories and Scoring
There are many different options available to leagues for scoring. You can use various categories and you can weight them so certain stats are more important than others(2pts for goals 1pt for assists and so on). You can also decide to go with only a scoring league and eliminate goalies. How you decide this should be by getting the input of all the managers in your league, and being sure that all managers understand the categories and scoring before your draft.
Some of the categories to chose from are Goals, Assists, +/-, Points, Power Play Points, Power Play Goals, Power Play Assists, Short Handed Goals, Short Handed Assists, Short handed Points, Game Winning Goals, PIMs (penalty minutes), Face Off Percentage, Shots on Goal, Shooting Percentage and Game Tying Goals.
For Goaltenders some of your choices are Wins, Starts, Save Percentage, Goals Against Average, Shutouts, Goals Against, Even Strength Goals Against, Save Attempts, Saves made.
Most leagues use/allow for twelve categories. The split for most formats are 8/4 with the 4 representing the goalie stats(another reason I do not value goalies that much). You can set up your league any way that you want. I hate face off percentage because most centers are even, there are only a handful of elite centers at face offs, and most teams have multiple centers thus negating the high percentage of the elite. The category just has always seemed pointless to me. I love Short Handed Points and PIMs because it makes more players valuable then just the top scorers.
The set up I like to use is (all categories weighted even) Goals, Assists, +/-, PPPs (power play points), SHPs (short handed points), PIMs, SOG (shots on goal), GWG (game winning goals), Wins, GAA (goals against average), SV% (save percentage) and SO (shutouts).
Positions
Most leagues allow for Centers(C), Left Wing(LW), Right Wing(RW), Defensemen(D), And Goalies(G). There are also options for just forward slots that allow for all C/LW/RW to be used and Wing(W) slots that allow for LW/RWs to be used.
Using just forward slots takes away from managing lineups, but having a few forward and/or wing slots also allows for some flexibility for managers. No matter who the fantasy provider you use is, they will have errors and lack of updates on position eligibility. You might draft your favorite player knowing that they are a LW and your fantasy provider might list him as a center all season. Having a few flex positions allows managers to overcome these errors and allows them to overcome roster issues (too many centers, not enough LWs or RWs). Flexibility is a good thing, but it is good to keep as much of the management in the game as possible.
Finding a balance between forwards and defense position is not that important. The leagues settings will give you set options and guidelines in most cases.
Goaltenders are a hard position. If you allow a team to hold too many you can get managers that horde them and if you don't allow enough then you run into issues with injuries. Remember that there are only 30 NHL starters and fewer capable backups.
The categories tie into the positions you use, so be sure to make sure you weight them carefully.
Settings/Rules
There are all sorts of these and they vary from provider to provider. Most of them are common sense and a lot of them are about league content and conduct. Stuff from being able to change a team name to giving the commissioner the ability to edit rosters and transactions. I will only touch on a few of the ones I view as key.
Goalie starts for H2H leagues. The number of starts you require per week in H2H leagues should go hand in hand with how many roster spots you chose to allow for goalies. Most teams play at least twice a week and some play as many as four. A good common number to use is three starts. That means each team will have to carry at least two goalies and they can not just ride one all season. It also insures that a manager stay active when daily changes are allowed.
Daily changes vs Weekly is a common debate. Its a lot like deciding what topping of pizza to get. Many dislike the daily changes because it requires more time and effort to manage while people that dislike the weekly argue that it does not allow a chance to overcome injuries and to insure the best match ups. For my money, I think Roto leagues need to allow daily changes and H2H leagues that allow daily changes are greatly more fun than weekly. Otherwise you just set your team once and don't need to even check it again until next Sunday. Not much fun in that...
Waivers should always be used. This insures managers can not abuse the free agent players and adds value to saving your waiver for when that next Ovechkin hits(managers not familiar to hockey will soon learn that most every season there is an impact player that gets added to the league late and needs to clear waivers). I also believe you should set you league so that any changes made take place the following day. Again, this is to prevent abuse and if for some reason an error is made(a manager drops a player by accident) then the commish can fix it before it causes a bigger mess(another manager adds the player dropped in error and then conflict hits).
Move limits are also a hot debate. Some people feel very strongly both for and against. Finding a common ground can be difficult. I hate limiting moves in any way. Any limit to activity in the league is a bad thing. You want managers to be active and to care about the league. If you limit moves you limit activity and a reason for managers to check their teams daily. If you are in a league of people that have limited time due to work/family and everyone in the league except 1-2 people are in the same position then you might want to have a limit to insure everyone has an even playing field. The 1-2 managers that are against limits can find another league to kill time in due to the majority.
Trade Vetoes and Voting: Nothing tears a league apart faster than bogus trades and having a couple managers feeling screwed over. I think the Commish should have veto power and that a vote system be preset. Voting can be done on the message board of the league or by e-mail if people desire the vote be kept anonymous. The last thing you want is for a team to be out of the running and trade all his best players to his buddy so his buddy can win, you need to be prepared for anything to happen so that you can insure a fair league for everyone. Plus you want everyone to enjoy it as best as possible. Even if you are not in a keeper league, it is fun to play with the same group each year. A solid group of managers is hard to find, having rules in place and allowing for votes is key to making sure everyone is on the same page and sticks around each season.
Live Draft vs Other can prove difficult. No matter how many managers you have in your league, finding a common time to do a live draft is always a pain. Other options are e-mail drafts or picking players in the league one at a time through the draft order. When a manager places a player on his roster then the next manager in line goes. This is vary hard to regulate and manage to insure no errors happen. A live draft is by far the most fun. I don't know anyone that has ever done one that disliked it. Live Drafts are exciting and in some cases are the best part of the season.
Keeper leagues often trade picks along with players in deals, thus making live drafts impossible in all of the free fantasy providers. There are other solutions to this. Your league can set up a chat room to do the draft and add the players to their teams as you go, or you can do an Instant Message draft also adding the players as they are selected. This is generally more work for the commish but if good records are kept in season and available to everyone then the draft order should go smoothly.
Dynasty leagues are usually done in an e-mail/message board format in which managers bid on the players they want. Live Drafts are very hard to do in dynasty leagues.
These are some basic and general things to help get new managers and commissioners ready for the upcoming season. If you have any specific questions or feel there is something I did not cover, please contact me and I will address them in the Q&A section.
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