Kicking off Challenge 14 - Rebirth of the Winnipeg Jets!

[bruins72]

A little over a week ago we announced what our next TBL challenge would be. We're playing a fantasy challenge where the Coyotes are gone and the Jets have returned. Here was the setup story...

Here is the setup story...

While the lawyers and the NHL battle it out over who can buy the struggling Coyotes and their financial nightmares, the team gets to the point where it's hemorrhaging money (even more than it is now) and is dissolved. The league holds a dispersal draft where all of the Coyotes players are absorbed back into the other teams in the league. Shortly after this Jim Balsillie wins his fight against Gary Bettman and the NHL, due in part to the team dissolving when he could have saved it with a move. Jim Balsillie is getting his NHL franchise and it's going back to Winnipeg! The league is allowing the Jets to pick players from the other teams in the league that are comparable to the players they lost when the Coyotes folded. It's not quite an expansion draft but it works. So now you'll start out with your new Jets roster and a staff of former Jets players and staff. Can you show the world that Winnipeg deserves an NHL franchise?


We ran a series of polls where you had 4 choices to replace each player on the Coyotes with a new player that would take their place on the Winnipeg Jets. For the most part, whoever the TBL community voted for went onto the new team. However there were a few changes that had to be made for the sake of balancing the game. First off, somehow we had too many contracted players and a few minor league players were released (but you retain their rights). There were a few tie votes in some polls and in those cases, I just picked a winner from the tied choices. A few players primary positions were adjusted to balance the team. Nothing major there. Once all of this was done we discovered that we were under the NHL salary floor. So what we did was swap out two of the players that were voted in, Jason Pominville and Travis Zajac, with two former Winnipeg Jets stars. Your team will now include Keith Tkachuk and Teemu Selanne! That brings the total number of former Jets included on your new Jets team to 4, Shane Doan and Teppo Numminen being the other two. Another thing to keep in mind is that due to my misjudgment on some of the choices offered for replacement players, we've had to tone back the PA (potential ability) and CA (current ability) of some of the players. We've also "de-randomized" the younger players. This means that rather than have a prospect have great potential for one person and just okay potential for another person, we'll all be starting with the same players having the same potential. We felt that it was a bit more fair this way.

So there are a few other things you should all be aware of. First off, you're going to need to download the customer DB made for this challenge. For help with installing custom databases, please read this thread. There will also be a new Challenge Stats Recording Spreadsheet to download. We've made some changes to the spreadsheet to include a bit of code at the bottom of what you copy and paste into the Challenge Stats Recording thread. It is very important that you use this new spreadsheet and include the code in your posts because this will really speed up the process of entering all of the stats for everyone and figuring our the winners. Lastly, there is a new Challenge Rules Cheat Sheet. We've slightly changed how the UFA Pyramid works and elaborated on a few other rules. Please be sure to re-read the rules here. Please note that the graphic for the UFA Pyramid in the rules needs to be changed. The rules themselves will properly describe the new way the pyramid works. I will post links to the new Stats Recording Spreadsheet, Cheat Sheet, and Database in a reply to this thread.

Oh and one more thing... once you've started up your game and look at your roster you are going to see the little "Ret" block next to Numminen, Tkachuk, and Selanne indicating that they are retiring at the end of the season. Well this isn't exactly the case. Numminen will retire after your first season. Selanne will retire after your second season. Tkachuk will retire after your third season. The game just shows that it knows a player is planned to retire and puts that note in. So yes, you will lose one of these old Jets each season (Doan is still younger and not set to retire). They've also all got NTCs (No Trade Clauses). That means you cannot trade any of these 3 old Jets. If you want it to fit into the story, part of bringing these guys back to the Jets meant that they were given NTCs. If they weren't given NTC and then were traded it would be a pubic relations nightmare. These guys are meant to bridge the gap between the old original Jets franchise and this new one.

So, I think that's about it. Let's get this challenge under way! Don't forget, if you have Questions or Feedback on the challenge rules or structure (basically anything other than discussing your team and experiences with it) please use this thread.

I'd also like to add a big thank you to Lidas! His idea kicked off this whole thing (a fantasy team for everyone to use) and he also did all of the database work (quite quickly I might add!). Thanks, Lidas!

[bruins72]

Here are the links to the files needed for the challenge...

Modified Lidas DB

New Cheat Sheet

New Stats Recording Spreadsheet