The UHL: Round by Round

[tgraveline]

I have to admit, I'm more experienced with roto, but head to head does allow for the unexpected. I didn't expect LA to roll over VAN or STL. So head to head kind of gives it that playoff feel still. Just because you did well in the regular season, doesn't mean you will in playoffs (*cough* sharks *cough*).

[NoWayOut]

Another factor that will complicate handicapping the league is the how we go about closing the huge gap in games played between teams, especially the skaters.

If we come up with a rule that works and the unlimited cycling of players between the farm and active roster is slowed that should significantly close the gap between the teams at the top and bottom.

Just using my team as an example, they had almost 500 fewer games played then the league leader, 998 to the leaders 1484. Over a 21 week regular season that averages out to 47.5gp vs. 70.7gp a week. An extra 20+ games in a week will really skew a matchup.

Depending on that, and as Eric said, the underachievers and overachievers, plus how you happen to catch an opponents streaky players, your streaky players, injuries, the list goes on and on, make it hard to handicap the field.

[ericdaoust]

Another factor that will complicate handicapping the league is the how we go about closing the huge gap in games played between teams, especially the skaters.

If we come up with a rule that works and the unlimited cycling of players between the farm and active roster is slowed that should significantly close the gap between the teams at the top and bottom.

Just using my team as an example, they had almost 500 fewer games played then the league leader, 998 to the leaders 1484. Over a 21 week regular season that averages out to 47.5gp vs. 70.7gp a week. An extra 20+ games in a week will really skew a matchup.

Depending on that, and as Eric said, the underachievers and overachievers, plus how you happen to catch an opponents streaky players, your streaky players, injuries, the list goes on and on, make it hard to handicap the field.

I don't think it's fair to take the GP gap literally because a lot of the lower end teams had non-NHLers on their pro roster in starting positions for weeks at a time while leaving IR players on their farm for obscene amounts of time. That will skew the final GP total. Most weeks the team I was facing had at least one roster violation.

[NoWayOut]

I don't think it's fair to take the GP gap literally because a lot of the lower end teams had non-NHLers on their pro roster in starting positions for weeks at a time while leaving IR players on their farm for obscene amounts of time. That will skew the final GP total. Most weeks the team I was facing had at least one roster violation.

It's not the be all end all, but then again if you have a big gap like what I showed above, who's to say how a matchup may have turned out if the two teams were closer together in terms of games played. It's just another variable to consider.

My team probably would've still finished near the bottom but if the number of games played had been higher, maybe my team doesn't finish 18th, maybe it still does, who knows. Since I wasn't managing the team last season I don't know how close the matchups were, maybe a few extra games played each week would have swung a couple of losses the other way.

[Carcillo]

any way we can make it roto then? one month of roto for the playoffs.

To me that wouldn't make any sense and would make this whole different league. I'm definitely against it.

Like dyz said, having two weeks playoff matchups in every round is too much. Having the playoffs last even 5 weeks is a bit much but that's something you can live with when it means having 2 weeks final matchup. But to have that in every round is overkill. I think the current setup is as good as it possibly can be.

It's not the be all end all, but then again if you have a big gap like what I showed above, who's to say how a matchup may have turned out if the two teams were closer together in terms of games played. It's just another variable to consider.

My team probably would've still finished near the bottom but if the number of games played had been higher, maybe my team doesn't finish 18th, maybe it still does, who knows. Since I wasn't managing the team last season I don't know how close the matchups were, maybe a few extra games played each week would have swung a couple of losses the other way.

Well I don't think your team roster was updated even once all year. So injured players stayed on roster, there were also farm guys on roster and the bench wasn't utilized at all. Just calculate the bench (4 guys times average 3 games per week times 21 weeks) and that's already 252 lost man games. So just because some teams, my team included, had 500 more games played, doesn't give you a good picture like Eric mentioned.

I'm all for restricting minor movement but at the same time using the bench should become mandatory. Otherwise it's pointless to try to make the games played become more even as it won't happen if some teams are still sitting with the same roster from October to March and don't even use the bench guys.

[ericdaoust]

It's also worth noting that the active GMs designed their teams to take advantage of streaming, giving them more call-up options on a daily basis. With the voting to reduce streaming, I've already taken steps to move my roster away from this.

[tgraveline]

I'm just trying to maintain a roster thats adheres to the rules and then try to win.

[dyzfunctioned]

Yea, introducing roto isn't going to happen.

The goal is to encourage bench utilization and discourage cycling this coming season - however, all we really have is the honor system for both. There's nothing on fantrax I can do to limit callups from the minors, and likewise there's nothing on fantrax I can do to force managers to use their bench. I don't have the time to examine every team's lineup before each matchup to make sure they adhere to the rules.

However, we will utilize some form of honor system and will develop rules to punish if they are seen to be manipulating the rules.

[ericdaoust]

Yea, introducing roto isn't going to happen.

The goal is to encourage bench utilization and discourage cycling this coming season - however, all we really have is the honor system for both. There's nothing on fantrax I can do to limit callups from the minors, and likewise there's nothing on fantrax I can do to force managers to use their bench. I don't have the time to examine every team's lineup before each matchup to make sure they adhere to the rules.

However, we will utilize some form of honor system and will develop rules to punish if they are seen to be manipulating the rules.

I've said this before and I'll go back to it again. If you want to promote bench use and discourage streaming, then cut off the mid-week call-ups altogether like we do in playoffs. Call-ups can still happen for injuries/IR, NHL demotions, etc. Otherwise we just set our rosters on Sunday night and go with that.

I just do not like having regular season and playoff roster management rules be so different.

[Carcillo]

I've said this before and I'll go back to it again. If you want to promote bench use and discourage streaming, then cut off the mid-week call-ups altogether like we do in playoffs. Call-ups can still happen for injuries/IR, NHL demotions, etc. Otherwise we just set our rosters on Sunday night and go with that.

I just do not like having regular season and playoff roster management rules be so different.

NHL has different rules in playoffs and regular season too regarding call-ups.

If I want to call-up Granlund mid-week, I should have the option to do so. Not just in case of injuries but other than that too. Now there should be limit how often I can do that weekly but removing the option alltogether isn't something I want to see to happen.

[ericdaoust]

NHL has different rules in playoffs and regular season too regarding call-ups.

If I want to call-up Granlund mid-week, I should have the option to do so. Not just in case of injuries but other than that too. Now there should be limit how often I can do that weekly but removing the option alltogether isn't something I want to see to happen.

NHL teams don't play every day. In the UHL we have players from every team so we can potentially do 3-4 transactions in a day. That's where using the NHL as a reference is a mistake.

[Carcillo]

NHL teams don't play every day. In the UHL we have players from every team so we can potentially do 3-4 transactions in a day. That's where using the NHL as a reference is a mistake.

Oh course. But we can say the same about every other rule as well (salary cap; only 24 teams vs. 30 in NHL etc.).

I like playoff roster freeze and have had that in every keeper league I've ever been. I don't think having different rules in regular season and playoffs regarding call-ups is confusing or anything like that.

[tgraveline]

Can you limit mid week moves? I don't like having to set my lineup though on Sunday and having it stay that way, because if someone plays poorly, then I can swap my bench at least, or are we not saying that would be affected?

[ericdaoust]

Can you limit mid week moves? I don't like having to set my lineup though on Sunday and having it stay that way, because if someone plays poorly, then I can swap my bench at least, or are we not saying that would be affected?

I was proposing that the pro-farm shuttle be turned off during the week but that you can change your daily lineup (active/bench) as you see fit. I'm fine with whatever happens, but if there's a goal in mind we might as well just go with that and not just do it half-way.

[tgraveline]

Yeah, because as long as Injuries or demotions can be fixed I don't mind just locking it for the week to be honest.