The beginning of the NHL season is less than a month away. 82 meaningless regular season games to position teams for the real action, the playoffs. Thank God for fantasy hockey. Just a reminder, the dinner/rules discussion/auction is at Chris' place 5 pm Saturday, October 3. Call him at (724) 861-9404 for directions if you don't have them from the last newsletter.
It is still unknown how many teams we will have. It will be somewhere between 10 and 12. We should find out from Tom real soon. If he is in, we will look for another team to make 12. If he is out we will have 10.
There weren't a lot of comments on the auction procedures. I was planning on using $100 to acquire players, but then I read in my fantasy hockey preview book that ten times the number of players to be auctioned is a good amount to use. This would mean we use $150. Maybe $125 is a good compromise. But I still think $100 would work fine. We can vote on this before the auction. If anybody cares enough to want to know in advance so they can prepare, let me know and I can try to have an e-mail vote on this.
By the way, it is a sad day when a noted hockey publication attempts to capitalize on the lack of fantasy hockey information available by putting out a rag that it has the nerve to call a fantasy hockey magazine. Fortunately, I had a few minutes to review it before I decided it was a waste of money. So they have player projections. But 100+ pages of stats? How about some player analysis? I will have to laugh when I see half of you guys with it at the auction. On the other hand, I spent too much for some book that has OK fantasy hockey information and at the very least will also give me some ideas for the league in case at some point we want to make some changes. Maybe next year you will be able to purchase the "Guenzel Fantasy Hockey Preview" at your local newsstand. I just won't mention how bad I suck every year.
Back to the auction. Chris had a few comments that are worth mentioning. First, he thought we would just have an open auction, where everyone can just yell out their bids. Most auction rules (they were mostly fantasy football) that I looked at had some kind of bidding order. Chris thinks this would slow the auction. An open auction could be a little confusing but should work OK if that is what we decide on. Based on the opinions of those I have mentioned this to, everybody seems in favor of it.
Chris also questioned my idea of drafting the last 3 roster spots. I thought this was a decent idea, but it doesn’t matter. There are no real sleepers and most of the players in the last rounds will go for $1 or $2 anyway. So your $100-150 will have to fill rosters consisting of 7 or 8 forwards (the number of reserve forwards, 1 or 2, will be voted on), 5 defensemen, and 2 goalies.
The question has also been raised regarding free agent acquisitions during the season and if salary is a factor. The free agent procedure will be unchanged from previous years. Auction dollars remaining after the auction has been completed are worthless. As always, free agents will be available on a first come, first served basis for "free" (you just have to drop a player.) The number of roster moves will also be determined before the auction.
Here are the things we will be voting on before the auction starts. Majority rules.