Prospect Frenzy vs. New Draft Discussion

[Nos - Sharks]

So I've been discussing a protocol change with Derrick privately and essentially this is what's on the table...

Currently we sign prospects not from the current year's Entry Draft with 10 games or fewer on June 1st, first come, first served. This means whoever posts first via the proboards 'Last 10 Posts' feature will sign all players in said post.

What I'm proposing is an additional draft in lieu of the random frenzy. It would consist of three rounds and the players available would be those who have been drafted/signed by an NHL club by June 1st. This would eliminate the random signings throughout the draft keeping its integrity in tact. For instance, a highly touted prospect such as Jonas Gustavsson signs a contract on June 4th but we're in the 2nd round of the draft, he would not be eligible to be drafted in this draft but would be placed into the Waiver Draft instead. Giving everybody the opportunity to draft the player instead of leaving it up to luck and to the person who is online during the time a player is signed.

This would be the new draft structure:

Prospect Draft June 1st
Entry Draft July 1st
Waiver Draft August 1st

The current Prospect Draft would be renamed the Entry Draft (makes more sense anyway) and the new draft would be named the Prospect Draft. All current picks would remain, obviously, you'd just gain the extra 3 draft picks.

Something to consider, how to determine draft order? It could be totally random, determined by the previous season's standings or (and this is my favorite) it could be determined by season's end waiver order. This would keep managers somewhat honest when it comes to using their waiver priority, especially when it comes to managers sending Minor League players to their farm. For the first year I think a random order is probably the best course of action and for the following year we can decide which of these methods we want to implement.

NOTE: Any prospect not from the current year's Entry Draft would be eligible in the new draft. This would include prospects with over 10 games played but no Minor League players. Minor League players would fall into the Waiver Draft.

Thoughts? Yay? Nay? I think it would give the league a little more structure and it avoids luck playing a part in signing players. Everybody gets a fair shake and who doesn't love drafts?

NOTE TO DERRICK: We may have to push the start of this draft a week or two into June instead of the norm June 1st, it might be hard to have all of this finalized in time. I'm hoping managers are active at this time and can respond and vote in the future poll but I'm being realistic.

[Markus - Hurricanes]

I like the idea. Also very impressed by the additional value to the waiver order if that ends up being the deciding factor regarding the draft order.

I can certainly say I already had those "first come first served" plans for June 1. but would propably lose the player(s) I'm looking to sign due to time zone differences.

[Mark - Bruins]

How about just abolishing the "first come, first served" frenzy and allow all the prospects into the normal prospect draft at a later date? The frenzy was always an unfair crap-shoot because a difference of a few seconds could mean that one team signs 10 players with a single post while another team gets nothing. I think there has been a lot of controversy in the past about this rule and it would make things simpler & fairer if we abolish it.

I still don't know why we have a prospect frenzy to begin with. Is there a real reason why we're signing quality prospects for free right before teams can draft them during the prospect draft? I just remember Derrick randomly putting it in the rules one year and that was that (NOTE: not bitching at Derrick, just saying it was an arbitrary rule to begin with). Although I have used this rule before, I've always thought it weakens the prospect draft since there are fewer quality prospects left for people to draft. How much more exciting would it have been to see where Gustavsson would've been drafted compared to other prospects instead of having 3 or 4 GMs complain that they "signed" him first on the forums (which actually happened)?

In regards to Nos's proposal, I don't understand why we need what is basically a "second" prospect draft when not all teams participate in the prospect frenzy to begin with. Sure, it sounds like a great idea until you have to release half the players you drafted because your farm team is full after picking so many new players each year. This "second draft" would cheapen the value and depth of the "real" prospect draft. It would definitely make the later rounds of the "real" prospect draft more valuable and give us a higher quality draft overall.

Is there even an advantage of having the "prospect signing frenzy" or a "second" prospect draft?

I agree with Nos that we need to simplify things... so why not do the simplest thing and completely remove this unnecessary rule?

[Nos - Sharks]

I agree with Mark that at the very least we should abolish this frenzy just because I feel like it's a pretty unfair endeavor.

May 17, 2011 14:05:43 GMT -5 Mark - Bruins said:

In regards to Nos's proposal, I don't understand why we need what is basically a "second" prospect draft when not all teams participate in the prospect frenzy to begin with. Sure, it sounds like a great idea until you have to release half the players you drafted because your farm team is full after picking so many new players each year. This "second draft" would cheapen the value and depth of the "real" prospect draft. It would definitely make the later rounds of the "real" prospect draft more valuable and give us a higher quality draft overall.

I don't think all teams participate because of time zones, not being available at that exact time, and because only one or two managers get everything of value. If there was a draft, though, I feel like everybody would take notice and participate. It puts more emphasis on its importance.

The Entry Draft has loads of talent already which is why I don't think it cheapens the current prospect draft. There's too much talent already. We only have 3 rounds with 12 teams, that's 36 picks, hardly more than the first round of the real NHL Entry Draft. There are so many quality prospects in a single Entry Draft from the first two rounds to some quality steals in the later rounds. For instance, Teemu Pulkkinen was drafted in the 4th round of the real draft and I drafted him in the 3rd round, since then he's become one of the more highly sought after prospects. Not to toot my own horn too much. Plus, this gives us something more to do in the off-season, keeping everybody active throughout the year basically, which I like.

As far as no room for these prospects, you're right, you'd have to determine which ones to keep but this is supposed to be in place in the interest of fairness. The idea was to propose the expansion of our rosters after this had been put in place. Adding an OHL/WHL squad of 19 to our roster for players with limited NHL experience (10 games or fewer) the other rosters would remain in tact, same rules, etc. but we'll save that discussion for when this has been settled.

Any other managers want to chime in with opinions? Is this poll worthy?

[Derrick - Senators]

I am not against abolishing the "frenzy" rule, but I feel like it would have to be replaced with something. The whole point of it in the first place was to promote league activity and give managers something to do in the off-season until the drafts started.

If this "something else" turns out to be a draft, I don't see any other way around accommodating this rule than to have some sort of roster expansion to make room for the newly acquired players. Rosters are strained now as it is.

I think the idea of the proposed "prospect draft" is to make the process "fair" for drafting the recently signed prospects (fewer than 10 NHL games played not from the current years draft class) as well as potential prospect stars (more than 10 NHL games played) who are available. This 1). makes the process more precise and fair 2.) Adds value to the Entry Draft picks 3.) promotes league activity and 4.) adds another dimension of value (waiver priority for the previous year, or however the draft order would be determined) to the league.

And then of course the "Entry Draft" would be reserved for the current year's draft class only. This way, there isn't any confusion as to who can be drafted, and top 10 picks aren't slipping to the third round because managers want to draft prospects off the board.

[Aubrey]

May 19, 2011 3:53:10 GMT -5 Nos - Sharks said:

Any other managers want to chime in with opinions? Is this poll worthy?

I feel like polls are useless because not everyone votes anyway, and then nothing gets resolved.

[Markus - Hurricanes]

May 20, 2011 12:46:23 GMT -5 Aubrey said:

May 19, 2011 3:53:10 GMT -5 Nos - Sharks said:

Any other managers want to chime in with opinions? Is this poll worthy?

I feel like polls are useless because not everyone votes anyway, and then nothing gets resolved.

We had everyone voting regarding the elimination of keeper slot trading (10 votes, 12 teams and 2 without owner afaik). I think this would be significant enough to draw an opinion from everyone. At least it should be.

edit: actually rumor around the block is that the Toronto franchise has a new owner, but no official word is out on the matter yet..

[Derrick - Senators]

May 20, 2011 14:11:15 GMT -5 Markus - Hurricanes said:

May 20, 2011 12:46:23 GMT -5 Aubrey said:

I feel like polls are useless because not everyone votes anyway, and then nothing gets resolved.

We had everyone voting regarding the elimination of keeper slot trading (10 votes, 12 teams and 2 without owner afaik). I think this would be significant enough to draw an opinion from everyone. At least it should be.

edit: actually rumor around the block is that the Toronto franchise has a new owner, but no official word is out on the matter yet..

I will set up a poll concerning this issue. I understand not every manager wants to type out a post and would rather just submit a vote, which is fine. If the league votes to abolish the "frenzy," replacement options etc will be discussed afterward and as they may or may not come up.

P.S. The "Toronto has a new NAFHL GM" rumor has blown up recently. Its been all over the internets. So we will see what happens with that within the next week or so.