Capped article ideas

[ericdaoust]

I have some ideas for some articles in the upcoming weeks, but none of them jump out as topics that have to be done now. So I am turning to the public to see if there are topics of interest that can be covered now. It just has to be related to salary-related elements in fantasy hockey. Some ideas include:

-Player contracts (or groups of players or even teams) that should be analyzed
-Concepts (recent contract extensions and what they mean in the future, etc)
-Follow-ups to existing articles (more in-depth coverage or real examples)

The floor is yours. The article will appear on the website Thursday.

My past articles are here:
http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index...layout=default

[DerekReese]

Your articles are great! I love reading them. One idea I have for an article is: Vets vs Rookies. What do they bring to your fantasy team? What to expect? Too much hype on Rookies, not enough respect to vets?

[Dobbernomics]

How about something like:

- a mock draft in a salary cap league
- a few different draft strategies for salary cap leagues
- a concept similar to 'cage match' (e.g. explain who's more valuable given certain league settings between let's say Blake Wheeler at a $2.5M cap hit vs. Bobby Ryan at $5M)

[Axeman33]

I like Dereks idea but I am going to alter is just a bit.

What about an article referring to proven vs potential. When is potential worth more then proven? Something along that lines.

[Pengwin7]

I'd love to see an article on "weird numbers".

For example, some players have strange "actual salary" structures.
Mikko Koivu has an actual salary that goes back-and-forth yearly at either $5.4m or $7.29m... then it ends at $9.18m!
That's pretty weird, makes me think that Mikko has some strange tax set-up where he benefits from the lower one every other year? I don't know.

Some guys have actual salaries that increase, some decrease.
Like Spezza is an $8m guy this year... which is high... but for the next two he's $5m then $4m... a neat future bargain.

I'm not talking about the "retirement drop off" salaries of like $5m/$5m/$1m...
More like team trends or just weird numbers (like Koivu)

For example on team trends,
In Vancouver, the players have a tendency for declining actual salaries:
Burrows $6m/$5m/$4m/$3m
or
Garrison $6.5m/$5m/$4.5m/$3.6m


Some of us are in "actual salary" pools, so identifying a few players with strange, declining, or inclining contracts can be fun to discuss for keeper pools.

[bondon]

How about something like:

- a mock draft in a salary cap league
- a few different draft strategies for salary cap leagues
- a concept similar to 'cage match' (e.g. explain who's more valuable given certain league settings between let's say Blake Wheeler at a $2.5M cap hit vs. Bobby Ryan at $5M)

I really like these ideas.

One thing that would be really cool but would take a ton of work/prep/cooperation from others would be the mock draft idea with a salary cap. Get like 11 other GMs who have experience in cap leagues and analyse your results (why you took player 'x'...who you thought was the best value pick, worst, etc.)

I dunno, just shootin the breeze here.

[ericdaoust]

Thanks for the input!

I have to make sure the ideas apply to the salary cap world, I've been able to put a few new ideas together:

Proven vs potential: I've been covering this topic a lot in the cap bargain articles but one instance where proven players are less valuable is when they are the top free agents available (Suter, Briere, Drury, Gomez, Bouwmeester, etc). I could always do something around this topic.

Mock draft: For me it would be just about the same as a non-cap league for the first few rounds. In the middle rounds I would then begin looking for bargain players. The same would apply to the "cage match" concept - most outcomes would be the same as Laidlaw's articles except for when the points are close and the salary difference is large. If I come across some great match-ups I will definitely include them in an article.

Salary (not cap hit) leagues: I hate this type of league because the variations in contract money distribution is insane. However I will do some articles outlining bargains and players to avoid in this format.

Cap league strategies: this is where I will recap some of my moves in UHL and bring some real examples to show what I did to win the regular season (not playoff ) title.

I also plan to do an article on the value of having cap space and some benefits that it gives you in managing your team moving forward.

Not sure which order this will happen, but it will happen.

[bondon]

Hey Eric, how about a mailbag type approach where you have some people send in some salary cap related questions (trades, ranks, etc.) and you answer a handful of them in article form?

[ericdaoust]

Hey Eric, how about a mailbag type approach where you have some people send in some salary cap related questions (trades, ranks, etc.) and you answer a handful of them in article form?

This is definitely one to go with for future weeks. It basically covers the cage match concept and the cap strategies among other things.