League contraction

Today I tested how the sim deals with contraction given that we have a number of teams without GM's and with the difficulty in finding people to take over I decided it was best to simply cut these teams from the list.

The teams due to be cut following the completion of the playoffs are as follows.

Dr Lovestinks Meat Surprise
Monroeville Zombies
St Louis Spirit
Watford Capitals

After testing with contraction, those teams players and couches would be released to free agency meaning this years could be rather interesting.....

As for picks, there are a few picks that would be affected by this. Bearded Badgers 1st round pick was owned by the Zombies so I would need to do some more testing on how that pick is effected. Also MK Giraffes own the Spirit 1st round pick and the Ant Hill Mob own the Capitals 2nd round pick.

I will do more testing on this but if it simply takes out those picks owned by other teams I will simply allocate the players selected manually so those teams do not lose out. The Badgers pick is the interesting one, if possible I will simply remove that pick so everyones picks move up by one.

The last issue with this is it makes the divisions uneven and this is where you guys come in. How would you prefer me to deal with re-alignment?

As it stands, the Federov conference teams are the ones that have unbalanced divisions so we could just move a Brind'Amour team to the Guerin division or we could do something more drastic and realign the entire league using the patented random number method. Options in the poll!

What about the cap? The contraction would allow every remaining team to take on an extra star and a couple of roster players which obviously costs money. We are reducing the leagues cap in real terms without reducing the players total wage bill in real terms. An increase in the cap of some 5-7% or so should do it.

This is starting to sound like CBA negotiations haha

Ill happily have my pick back

mc_homer wrote:
After testing with contraction, those teams players and couches would be released to free agency meaning this years could be rather interesting.....

I have heard that the head couch of the Zombies was extremely comfortable. I shall be going all in for this in FA!!!

Hahahaha shhh you Yes cap is another thing. I will get some ideas together and put up a poll about that too.

I'm not too fussed how we restructure each conference/division. Which ever way causes the fewest problems for you.

I agree with buff the cap will have to increase. What about contract limits? Some teams will have more capacity then others to pick up the FA's. maybe a one off player contract buyout period?

Sounds reasonable to me.

I have tested the draft and the Bearded Badgers pick (along with the other 2) are simply wiped from the sheet. So that sorts out the Badgers pick, for the other 2 I will simply add in picks manually. They wont show up on the entry draft order sheet but when those picks would have been made I will just manually allocate them to the relevant teams so that the Giraffes and Mob do not lose out.

Driz probably wouldn't notice...

This is true, although I bloody would! That's a decent pick that is - not a Nathan MacKinnon but maybe a Barkov...

I struggling to work out how or why the league is having a baby

Having read, not understood...then having someone else read it for me, and me still not understanding - I have come to the conclusion...I'm perfectly happy to go with the flow and whatevers easiest for you.

Driz, the league is moving from 20 teams to 16 due to difficulties in keeping active GMs.

The four teams being cut are Dr Love Stink Surprise, Watford Capitals, Monroeville Zombies and St Louis Spirit (all currently inactive).

To accommodate this there will be a realignment. You are asked to vote on which of the 3 options you prefer.

A) One team move from the Brind'Amour Division to the Guerin Division. Everything else to stay the same.

B) Put the 16 teams in a bag and draw the teams out in to 4 new divisions each with 4 teams.

C) or 2 conferences of 8 teams each without divisions.

I did have another idea for dealing with the extra players......

Instead of just releasing to free agency, would you guys prefer to do some kind of draft?

mc_homer wrote:I did have another idea for dealing with the extra players......

Instead of just releasing to free agency, would you guys prefer to do some kind of draft?

It would save time and a lot of hard work for you. I can imagine the frenzy for some of the players being completely manic

I'm all for it

OK but what if you draft a player you can't afford?
How would the draft order be decided?
Would draft picks be tradeable and with what?
When would the draft take place? Before or after the entry draft?

Yeah i would prefer a draft. It helps the cap issue, because we won't have people bidding up to the max cap for players.

I think the draft order would have to be random. The regular draft already gives the lower ranked teams an advantage.

As for drafting a player you can't afford, then surely you make a trade. Same as if you have a contract up for renewall that you can't afford.

Surely we could sort the draft order out between ourselves.

I'm sure we can all take a look at our performances over the previous 5 seasons and where we were in the original draft, then make a fair judgement from that!

How about for starters

As we have 15 gentlemen... it will be Ladies 1st!

The only other reserved place will be 16th, which I will take. The reason behind this - as the eldest you always have to take last spot and also at the end of last season, I did change teams.

Anyone else?

I assume we would do it fantasy draft style so who ever picks 1st in the 1st round picks last in the 2nd round? This seams the fairest way.

The issue I have, and I'm sure other have is that I would only want maybe 5 or 6 players from the total of the four teams. And at least 4 of those players would probably be wanted by everyone else (no, no-one else wants Stamkos? okay, I'll have him). As for the rest, I would be clogging up my team with bits I don't need or want, especially with the entry draft on its way meaning I can't promote a prospect because I'll have a Kyle Wellwood or a Nik Hagman - too good to throw but not good enough.

If there was a draft, I would want to be able to trade away those picks, because other than my first round pick (and possibly not even that), I would throw them all. For me, free agency would be best as I can then go for those few players I want and ignore the bulk. I realise this entails slightly more work for some of the guys on here, but in reality when a team folds, the players get signed up in free agency, not via a draft

Surely the cap adds a little to the procedings as it will make it a bit tougher for teams close to the cap. This then allows teams picking later in the draft a chance to get some top talent as others might not want to spend big on high end players?

The idea of a draft would include a free buyout so you can drop whoever you end up picking. Even if we did a 2-3 round draft and release the rest to free agency?

sportsportsport wrote:Surely the cap adds a little to the procedings as it will make it a bit tougher for teams close to the cap. This then allows teams picking later in the draft a chance to get some top talent as others might not want to spend big on high end players?

1. With a cap increase, no.
2. If you were close to the cap and wanted for eg a Kovalchuk or a Stamkos, surely you sign them and release 5 or 6 has-beens/will-never-make-its from the team.

Is retiring those players an option? It would save all the Hassel with who gets to pick first and the cap having to change.

That is a thought Iggy. Though losing the likes of Stamkos and Kovalchuk from the game would be disappointing it does solve a number of headaches. Perhaps they could be reincarnated in youth form through the entry draft?