EHM The Blue Line

So when exactly is the draft starting? Saturday 3:00 PM EST again? That's 9:00 PM Central European time if I'm not wrong.

What will happen if I don't make a pick during my 90 seconds spot? Autopick strategy will be applied?
90 seconds x 14 teams = pick every 21 minutes
I hope I won't fall asleep at least for 3 rounds

McQwak wrote:So when exactly is the draft starting? Saturday 3:00 PM EST again? That's 9:00 PM Central European time if I'm not wrong.

What will happen if I don't make a pick during my 90 seconds spot? Autopick strategy will be applied?
90 seconds x 14 teams = pick every 21 minutes
I hope I won't fall asleep at least for 3 rounds

Correct, the draft is on October 2nd at 3:00 PM. I like to use 3:00 since it seems to give a decent range of time zones:
12:00 PM US/Can Pacific, 8:00 PM London, 10:00 PM Finland.

If you don't make a pick within the 90 seconds, it'll draft the next highest rated player on your rankings list. I'm not sure whether it also uses your autopick strategy, but I would assume it does if you have one set.

B. Stinson wrote:If you don't make a pick within the 90 seconds, it'll draft the next highest rated player on your rankings list. I'm not sure whether it also uses your autopick strategy, but I would assume it does if you have one set.

So I just went there intending to start doing my rankings list. Is it true that there will be all the players on the list? It doesn't drop the keepers out of it automatically? If so, it'll be a heck of a work to do it yourself before starting the actual ranking. Or else I just can't do it right. The Pre-Draft Player Rankings tool/list doesn't look so very user friendly at all, as there is only the players name, IRL team and position to be seen there. No stats from last year, no nothing. Pheeww, maybe I just do the draft live, based on feelings

kuulapaa wrote:

B. Stinson wrote:If you don't make a pick within the 90 seconds, it'll draft the next highest rated player on your rankings list. I'm not sure whether it also uses your autopick strategy, but I would assume it does if you have one set.

So I just went there intending to start doing my rankings list. Is it true that there will be all the players on the list? It doesn't drop the keepers out of it automatically? If so, it'll be a heck of a work to do it yourself before starting the actual ranking. Or else I just can't do it right. The Pre-Draft Player Rankings tool/list doesn't look so very user friendly at all, as there is only the players name, IRL team and position to be seen there. No stats from last year, no nothing. Pheeww, maybe I just do the draft live, based on feelings

To be honest, I'm not actually sure how the keepers will figure into the draft, if at all. My original assumption was that the draft would simply be a normal draft, minus however many keepers your league is keeping. So we'd be keeping six guys, and then drafting for (23 - 6) = 17 rounds to complete our open roster spots. But it appears that ESPN has listed a full 23-round draft, with the top-six listed as "reserved for keeper selection".

The only thing I can think of is that we would use these first six rounds to pick a player from our team we want to keep. But then it wouldn't make any sense to have a keeper deadline prior to the draft, so I don't know.

As for ESPN's rankings list, I've never been much of a fan of it. Like you say, it's pretty void of information. In fact, I'm checking it out now, and it looks worse than previous years.

Maybe the keeper players will appear in ESPN's auto-rankings and then not be available to pick once the draft has begun? Of course, it really makes setting up your individual custom rankings more difficult.

I had the same assumption as you. Our first 6 picks are listed as "Reserved for keeper selection". Do you know how are these first picks listed for players who didn't select keepers? (Círyatan and Danny)
Maybe those who didn't make keeper selection can use their first 6 picks for any player from FA but those selected as keepers by another players. Because their picks are not reserved for keeper selection. Those who made keepers selection will automatically select their keepers in the first 6 rounds. From 7th round on the picks will rotate in snake style as usuall.
Would this make sense?
Actually, we'll see

I wouldn't be very happy if it would go the way you assume for the ones with no keepers, McQwak. I felt that it's not just a privilege but for some part also an obligation to be forced to select keepers. If I'd known that you could just ignore it or in my case choose only five keepers and be able to pick someone a round earlier than everybody else starts their draft - well, that I would have called an advantage.

I agree, kuulapaa. Some team's cast-aways are better than other teams' keepers. Some of the weaker teams from last season would probably benefit from not keeping a player in some positions.

Yeah, I agree... The correct way should be that they'll use their LAST 6 picks to complete their rosters. Simply after the snake draft is over for players with keepers, then they can continue with their 18-23 round picks. But I doubt this will happen.
Maybe Círyatan and Danny didn't even notice that they're in the league. Why don't they react?

kuulapaa wrote:I wouldn't be very happy if it would go the way you assume for the ones with no keepers, McQwak. I felt that it's not just a privilege but for some part also an obligation to be forced to select keepers. If I'd known that you could just ignore it or in my case choose only five keepers and be able to pick someone a round earlier than everybody else starts their draft - well, that I would have called an advantage.

You are correct with the assumption that keepers are required. We do in fact have to have six keepers. Ciryatan and Danny have both been inactive, or have not yet accepted their invite, so they're a special case where I had to do something on their behalf. My options were to make selections for them, for better or for worse, or to simply leave them go as unset. I feel an entire off-season was ample time for new managers, so I think the fairest thing to do is leave their teams unset.


Perhaps we should do a roll-call? All managers post that they are here and ready for the season, and those who we don't hear from by this Wednesday or Thursday will be relegated and replaced? What do you guys think of that? (I say Wednesday or Thursday because we would have to leave some time for a new manager to be invited, see it, accept it, and do something with the team before the draft on Saturday).

B. Stinson wrote: Perhaps we should do a roll-call? All managers post that they are here and ready for the season, and those who we don't hear from by this Wednesday or Thursday will be relegated and replaced? What do you guys think of that? (I say Wednesday or Thursday because we would have to leave some time for a new manager to be invited, see it, accept it, and do something with the team before the draft on Saturday).

I think it's only fair to relegate them by thursday if they haven't responded. Send them another mail(as I guess you already have sent them one) and tell them to post here or be gone.

We either boot the guys who have not selected keepers, from the league or we select them ourselves for them. My suggestion...since they cannot actually even get here to select keepers...they are not going to be active...so tata for now...get someone active in.

Given the situation and amount of current inactivity, I decided that we unfortunately have to let Danny go from the MHL.

But, the good news is that joehelmer has already been moved up from the OHL to take the spot! And Joe will in fact get a chance at picking his keepers.


On another note, here's what I plan to do with Kent Mighty Turnips:

Since Ciryatan is new to our leagues, and because he's at least been active within the last month, I've decided not to demote him this soon. Instead, I'll avoid selecting any keepers for the team, which I'm assuming will allow them all to go back into the pool for everyone else to select. Then, to avoid potential benefits of not having keepers, I'll be bumping the team to last (14th) in the draft order.

I think these should be the most beneficial to everyone - Ciryatan gets a chance to come back to his team, while everyone else will have some extra players in the pool, and also a slight bump-up in the draft order.

How do i change my draft list just incase i cant make it? I don't see the option anywhere...

getzlaf15 wrote:How do i change my draft list just incase i cant make it? I don't see the option anywhere...

There should be an option on your team's homepage for Pre-draft Rankings and Autopick Strategy.

Screenshot (bottom of the post).

There is a page to look at the 2011 projections with Minstrel Hockey League scoring type and it's even possible to look at only the players available(http://games.espn.go.com/fhl/tools/proj ... 94&avail=1). I'm just wondering why our teams still have the other than keeper players in their rosters too. Is it because of the two teams that haven't picked their keepers? If all the extra players would've set free it could be possible to use that page and make some pre-draft scouting. Which would be nice.

kuulapaa wrote:Is it because of the two teams that haven't picked their keepers?

Joehelmer have made his selection already.

kuulapaa wrote:There is a page to look at the 2011 projections with Minstrel Hockey League scoring type and it's even possible to look at only the players available(http://games.espn.go.com/fhl/tools/proj ... 94&avail=1). I'm just wondering why our teams still have the other than keeper players in their rosters too. Is it because of the two teams that haven't picked their keepers? If all the extra players would've set free it could be possible to use that page and make some pre-draft scouting. Which would be nice.

No, it's just the way ESPN does it; they'll clear when the draft comes.

You're right, though - it would be nice if they did it sooner, to give us a better idea of who will be in the draft. It doesn't look like we can do it manually, either - I just tried it now, and there's no ways to drop a player on the Drop Players screen.

B. Stinson wrote:You're right, though - it would be nice if they did it sooner, to give us a better idea of who will be in the draft. It doesn't look like we can do it manually, either - I just tried it now, and there's no ways to drop a player on the Drop Players screen.

Well - it's good to have something left to develop for the years to come, ain't it.

Archi/B72, did you guys really keep Nabokov as your goalie? You know he is signed with the KHL, don't you?

Manimal wrote:Archi/B72, did you guys really keep Nabokov as your goalie? You know he is signed with the KHL, don't you?

I'm guessing Archi didn't look over his keepers that well. I think I had set my keepers at the end of last season, before he signed with the KHL. I relinquished my claim to the team quite a while before the keeper deadline. Looks like Archi dropped the ball on that one.

Oh f:censored:

No I didn't know he'd signed with the KHL. I'd been working on the assumption that if they're in ESPN then they're still in the NHL

Never ever never assume that the player lists on ESPN or Yahoo Fantasy Hockey are up to date in any way shape or form. Every year that I've played I've found players ranked high in their auto-draft rankings that were injured for the season (or a large portion of it) or not playing in the NHL. They seem not to update things until after the season starts. They also seem to forget to include some youngsters that might be making the roster for their first time. They'll add them as UFAs a few weeks into the season. One year when I played, that happened with MA Fleury. I think it may have happened with Crosby too. It's stupid.

Quick note:

I plan to keep the first post of this thread up-to-date with our rules, dates, teams/managers, etc. That way nothing important, like upcoming dates, will be buried and strewn about the thread.

With that being said, I've highlighted our rookie GMs for this year in blue. McQwak, joehelmer, and Ciryatan will be in the race for the 2010-11 Calder Trophy. Last year's winner of the Calder was batdad after an outstanding regular season performance, and an appearance in the finals.

I am not gonna make it to the draft tonight. I've got a theatre-premiere to go to. I have set up my strategy and lists and I hope I don't draft too many bad players. You guys have fun!