Feedback Wanted: Simple Sheet Playoff Pool

[Pengwin7]

Does anybody do a live draft with friends where they take turns picking players in a playoff pool?
I made the attached Excel sheet and am hoping some of my men's league hockey teammates might want to join.

Just curious if anybody had any suggestions on making a "live" playoff draft fun & interesting?!

(Of note: My men's league hockey teammates are a big mix of casual & average hockey fans.
So it's not like they can name the key players on each team. I want to have something to present the options for each team.)


Thanks for any feedback.

[Bass56]

I find the best way is to gather up in one room and have all of the names of the players listed on a spreadsheet like yours but with their respective season outputs; especially if your guys know little about each individual player (kinda relates to our exchange in regards to watching games vs numbers only).

I would then connect a laptop to a screen or TV and have a separate sheet where I would add the chosen players 1 by 1 to their respective teams after they are drafted. Each team would have a time limit (1:30 mins approx.) per pick and you would cross out all the taken players as your draft unfolds.

I have done this and I feel it's a better option to having everyone bring in their individual sheets and start looking for names left and right as the draft goes. It can also allow easier access to trades during the draft (if you allow that).

A live auction draft is another way to go at it, but once again, with the information made available to everyone and having all players together at the time of the draft. I find a live SOLO draft is not as enjoyable.

Best of luck man

[suvojitde]

Many of my playoff pools (or pools that I participate in) also work the same way as Bass indicates. Typically I create a separate sheet to list the players being chosen by each team while crossing them off from the master list (similar to the list you have). So I have 2 sheets -
1) For the players and crossing them off once they get picked, and
2) For the actual teams - Team 1 (Rask, Giroux, Backes, etc.), Team 2 (Crosby, Fleury, Bergeron, etc.)....

The interesting twist to this could be to limit the number of max players from each team - e.g. a poolie cannot select more than 2 players from a team

EDIT: I also color code players in the master list that are injured or players that I know are playing hurt or just back from a major injury

[LawMan]

We do an annual playoff draft auction style with the following format that we've found is a lot of fun. It's a $200 buy-in with winner take all, points only.

1. Every manager gets $100 to buy a team of 10 skaters, maximum 9 forwards.
2. Before the draft managers draw numbers to determine the draft order, managers are then seated around a table in this order.
3. Starting at number 1, the manager on the block nominates a player and then must bid at least $1 (he can open for more) for that player.
4. Going in order around the table, each manager must either raise the bid or pass, once a manager passes hels out for that player.
5. Bidding continues until all but one manager passes with the highest bid winning the player and being charged the corresponding bid amount.
6. During the draft we allow trades of players, and auction dollars. We've had crazy situations where managers gave away players for free because they wanted another roster spot to spend their dollars on. Also one guy in the group has the Sportscentre music which must be played every time a trade occurs.

We usually have a few managers who bring laptops for the draft. One of them will create a google spreadsheet that is accessible to all guys with a laptop. One guy is in charge of adding all of the players purchased, the team and the cost. The nice part about google spreadsheets is there are multiple people who can modify them so disputes are uncommon.

These rules create a really good balance of excitement with the auction while maintaining some order. The problem I have with an "all out auction" is that near the end you'll get a lot of disputes over who bid $2 first and it's very difficult to keep a handle on the action. The circular formation and flow of our draft allows everyone to follow the action fairly easily and have some fun.

All of our managers are fairly knowledgeable and everyone generally brings their own spread sheet and predictions so we don't feel the need to make printouts for the group. For a more casual draft I'd say it's fine to have a spreadsheet with all the playoff eligible players points output for the year, that way everyone still has a chance, the hardcores will still have the advantage by knowing the ins and outs of what's going on in the league.

[suvojitde]

We do an annual playoff draft auction style with the following format that we've found is a lot of fun. It's a $200 buy-in with winner take all, points only.

1. Every manager gets $100 to buy a team of 10 skaters, maximum 9 forwards.
2. Before the draft managers draw numbers to determine the draft order, managers are then seated around a table in this order.
3. Starting at number 1, the manager on the block nominates a player and then must bid at least $1 (he can open for more) for that player.
4. Going in order around the table, each manager must either raise the bid or pass, once a manager passes hels out for that player.
5. Bidding continues until all but one manager passes with the highest bid winning the player and being charged the corresponding bid amount.
6. During the draft we allow trades of players, and auction dollars. We've had crazy situations where managers gave away players for free because they wanted another roster spot to spend their dollars on. Also one guy in the group has the Sportscentre music which must be played every time a trade occurs.

We usually have a few managers who bring laptops for the draft. One of them will create a google spreadsheet that is accessible to all guys with a laptop. One guy is in charge of adding all of the players purchased, the team and the cost. The nice part about google spreadsheets is there are multiple people who can modify them so disputes are uncommon.

These rules create a really good balance of excitement with the auction while maintaining some order. The problem I have with an "all out auction" is that near the end you'll get a lot of disputes over who bid $2 first and it's very difficult to keep a handle on the action. The circular formation and flow of our draft allows everyone to follow the action fairly easily and have some fun.

All of our managers are fairly knowledgeable and everyone generally brings their own spread sheet and predictions so we don't feel the need to make printouts for the group. For a more casual draft I'd say it's fine to have a spreadsheet with all the playoff eligible players points output for the year, that way everyone still has a chance, the hardcores will still have the advantage by knowing the ins and outs of what's going on in the league.

Sounds like a lot of fun. Have to try this sometime.

[Dutch]

I am in a playoff pool where we do a draft as well.

Just basic lottery for first pick, and then from there we pick a team (not sure yet how many players we do this year)

So on that note. What are some of your guys strategies for playoff drafts? Do you stack up on players from one team and hope they make it, or do you spread it out with the risk of losing 1 or 2 players each round.

Also, which teams would you put your stock in this year? I have a feeling the blues, hawks, and penguins are not going too far this year so they may be sexy picks for many but not good ones at same time.

[LawMan]

Points only the strategy is to pick your final 4 teams as more games played = more points and try and load up on those players. Your pool will likely have 8+ people and there's only money for 1 or 2 so it's go big or go home, no sense in playing it safe with players from many teams and coming in fourth.

Myself I'm avoiding the central division at all costs with St. Louis, Chicago and Colorado it's anyone's guess who survives the first 2 rounds and then team that survives will be beaten up a good bit. I may try and steal a few Colorado players late for cheap but I think Chicago and St. Louis' studs will be overpaid for. I like Pittsburgh to make the Final 4 because their division is so soft and I believe MAF may have finally have a solid playoffs. Boston I like to go deep but their players will be expensive and other than Iginal and Lucic they spread out their scoring a ton. I like the Ducks to get to the finals in the West so may try and get their players on the cheap as well.

[dooley89]

Everything I have done in the playoffs has been similar - I posted a thread last year about a company pool I joined.

They handed everyone a list of playoff players based on regular seasons points and points per game.
Everyone also got a sheet with 6F spaces, 4D spaces and 1G space to fill in their picks.
It was up to everyone else to follow along and cross off drafted players.

The person with the 1st pick chose their goalie last (Goalies were drafted in a seperate round at the end).

They submitted everything on officepools and we kept up to date as the playoffs went on!

[Dutch]

Points only the strategy is to pick your final 4 teams as more games played = more points and try and load up on those players. Your pool will likely have 8+ people and there's only money for 1 or 2 so it's go big or go home, no sense in playing it safe with players from many teams and coming in fourth.

Myself I'm avoiding the central division at all costs with St. Louis, Chicago and Colorado it's anyone's guess who survives the first 2 rounds and then team that survives will be beaten up a good bit. I may try and steal a few Colorado players late for cheap but I think Chicago and St. Louis' studs will be overpaid for. I like Pittsburgh to make the Final 4 because their division is so soft and I believe MAF may have finally have a solid playoffs. Boston I like to go deep but their players will be expensive and other than Iginal and Lucic they spread out their scoring a ton. I like the Ducks to get to the finals in the West so may try and get their players on the cheap as well.

great points. Thanks for that!

How does one feel about Philly & Dallas this season? Those are my darkhorse thoughts.