Setting up keeper farm system, need opinions!

[hockeyplayer168]

Hey everyone! I'm the commish of a 12-team Keep-5 league. Our league is not totally hardcore, but the owners are all friends, so it remains competitive.

Here's the deal: Because our league allows only five keepers, owners have begun suggesting that it's too hard to draft young talent and hang on to them. So I've replied by suggesting a farm system to allow owners to select prospects without using up a roster spot. Obviously, this raises a bunch of questions, so I turn to DobberNation for advice!

How many prospects should be allowed? I was thinking 5.

How many games played should be the cutoff? I've seen 82 and 100 I think.

Should there be restrictions on calling up a prospect to the main active roster?

Is there anything I may not have thought of yet?


Thanks in advance! (This would be implemented next season.)

[Leumas]

Our league has separate farm team keeper spots ie. 12 keepers plus 3 optional farm team players.

We use age (under 24) as the eligibilty for farm keepers.

[hockeyplayer168]

Originally Posted by Leumas

Our league has separate farm team keeper spots ie. 12 keepers plus 3 optional farm team players.

We use age (under 24) as the eligibilty for farm keepers.

Yeah that's what I was imagining, 5 keepers plus optional 5 prospects. Or something like that.

Any particular reason you guys use age rather than games played? To me, it changes the whole strategy. Is the offseason a mess with under-24 stars ala Stamkos being kept as prospects?

Either way, definitely a good point to consider!

[lucifer316]

i would suggest that perhaps instead of a farm system you allow a certain number of players under a certain age and number of games be automatically kept

the problem i see for you with a farm system is that there are going to be plenty of young players who will not produce enough to become keepers however produce enough to warrant being used on the roster instead of rotting on a farm

[hockeyplayer168]

Originally Posted by lucifer316

i would suggest that perhaps instead of a farm system you allow a certain number of players under a certain age and number of games be automatically kept

the problem i see for you with a farm system is that there are going to be plenty of young players who will not produce enough to become keepers however produce enough to warrant being used on the roster instead of rotting on a farm

I'm not sure what you mean exactly...the idea is to give owners an opportunity to select potentially great players before they are worth having on the normal roster. Nobody in our league owned Brunner, Tarasenko, Yakupov, Huberdeau, Schultz, Galchenyuk, etc. last year because there's no wiggle room with only 4 bench spots. Depending on the criteria, a high age limit would certainly create the atmosphere you're suggesting, which is why I was leaning towards a 82/100 GP limit to encourage actual prospect growth.

[lucifer316]

if you have players on a farm then they are not on the roster and are not contributing to your team until you call them up from the farm

once you call them up you will still end up losing them if they dont produce enough to warrant being kept

but if you keep them on the farm until they are good enough to be kept you are likely missing out on productive years from them

[kevinsrangers]

farm teams work a lot better in full keepers. by the time most guys are able to produce enough to be rostered they are over their eligibility. we use 250 games played in our full keeper league.
i would take the sugestion of just making all players under a certain amount of games played/age to be kept as a keeper. sounds a lot better for a partial keeper league.

[hockeyplayer168]

Originally Posted by kevinsrangers

farm teams work a lot better in full keepers. by the time most guys are able to produce enough to be rostered they are over their eligibility. we use 250 games played in our full keeper league.
i would take the sugestion of just making all players under a certain amount of games played/age to be kept as a keeper. sounds a lot better for a partial keeper league.

I'm just going to ask my league. I can't even wrap my head around all the red tape and effects of letting certain teams keep as many young players as they want...

For some reason you guys are suggesting that owners won't want to sit a guy on the farm team when he isn't even playing in the NHL? The farm team isn't for Stamkos, Landeskog, and Skinner, it's for finding the next one and laying claim to him. Maybe you can't keep him forever, that's not the point, but it may give you the extra year to make your foresight worthwhile when your prospect has a breakout season.

[lucifer316]

Originally Posted by hockeyplayer168

I'm just going to ask my league. I can't even wrap my head around all the red tape and effects of letting certain teams keep as many young players as they want...

you can put a limit on it if you would like

but keep in mind they are taking up roster spaces so if an owner decides to fill his team with young players he cant fit other players on his roster

For some reason you guys are suggesting that owners won't want to sit a guy on the farm team when he isn't even playing in the NHL? The farm team isn't for Stamkos, Landeskog, and Skinner, it's for finding the next one and laying claim to him. Maybe you can't keep him forever, that's not the point, but it may give you the extra year to make your foresight worthwhile when your prospect has a breakout season.

those 3 players all went right into the nhl in the year they were drafted and had fantasy relevance why would you want to find the next of those and stash them on the farm and get nothing from their production which depending on your league size could be better than players at the bottom of your roster

[wendelclark17]

Originally Posted by hockeyplayer168

I'm just going to ask my league. I can't even wrap my head around all the red tape and effects of letting certain teams keep as many young players as they want...

For some reason you guys are suggesting that owners won't want to sit a guy on the farm team when he isn't even playing in the NHL? The farm team isn't for Stamkos, Landeskog, and Skinner, it's for finding the next one and laying claim to him. Maybe you can't keep him forever, that's not the point, but it may give you the extra year to make your foresight worthwhile when your prospect has a breakout season.

I dont think its ideal to have a farm or prospects in a limited keeper. However it does make following prospects a lot more fun.

I have two different setups in my keeper leagues.

1) 100 NHL games player limit for Fwds, 150 NHL games played limit for Goalies and Dmen. Under that limit they can be kept for as long as one wants. After that limit is reached they must be kept as full keepers on a team, not prospects

2) Once yearly draft for any players with less than 25 NHL GP ( these prospects cannot be picked up as free agents or from waivers) and then they can be kept on a farm team for a maximum of 4 years, once they are called up from the farm they cannot be sent back down and become part of a full roster.