Your league's prospect draft

[Axeman33]

I am curious how many here are in a league where you do your prospect draft prior to the actual NHL draft.

One of my keeper leagues started our prospect draft today and I must say, it does add a bit of intrigue when it comes to prospect research, especially if you are simply looking for mock drafts to compare, etc.

So what say you. Does your league do it's draft early and what do you think of the process?

[Jouko-Pouko]

We start our prospect draft one week before the NHL draft so that we're completely done by the time the NHL draft starts. I really like it. It gives good managers an edge because you have to do some work to draft well. It's also very interesting to follow the NHL draft to see how high and to which team your prospects go to.

[Shift Disturber]

All three leagues that I'm involved in that have a prospect draft do it after the NHL draft. Two of the leagues limit the draft to players who were selected in the NHL draft so there's your reasoning for that. I like the idea though as it would be fun.

[JagrBomb]

how do you make this thread and not post the results

[jmouland]

I'm in round 18 of a 25 round inaugural prospect/farm draft (limits 100gp skaters and 60gp for goalies)...It's going well, I think. It's the first time I've been in a league like this and I definitely like that it is happening prior to the NHL draft.

[Axeman33]

how do you make this thread and not post the results

It literallyl just started this morning.

We are only 7 picks in.

FWIW, no D has gone yet.

[sammynos]

Amateur draft for us was in August last season.

[YzermansLegacy]

I agree that it would be a lot more fun to draft guys prior to the NHL entry draft - an added bonus for trying to nail your own mock plus the standard valuation of players based on their abilities as opposed to situation. But, for me it would come down the farm rules.

For example, in my main league, a player is only farm-eligible for 3 years from when he signed/was drafted (suggesting he's not brought up to the main roster). So in my case, it's really critical to look at the short-term situation a particular player is going to be coming into on - meaning we need to know which team drafted him. We can't sit on a high-upside guy that won't become keeper-worthy within that 3-year window, so identifying a player along with an "open" situation is paramount to creating a useful farm.

So I guess I see benefit to both styles depending on league settings - but my preference would be to draft before the big day when possible.

[Jouko-Pouko]

I agree that it would be a lot more fun to draft guys prior to the NHL entry draft - an added bonus for trying to nail your own mock plus the standard valuation of players based on their abilities as opposed to situation. But, for me it would come down the farm rules.

For example, in my main league, a player is only farm-eligible for 3 years from when he signed/was drafted (suggesting he's not brought up to the main roster). So in my case, it's really critical to look at the short-term situation a particular player is going to be coming into on - meaning we need to know which team drafted him. We can't sit on a high-upside guy that won't become keeper-worthy within that 3-year window, so identifying a player along with an "open" situation is paramount to creating a useful farm.

So I guess I see benefit to both styles depending on league settings - but my preference would be to draft before the big day when possible.

That must be a shallow league - not many prospects are NHL ready in 3 years from the draft. I haven't crunched the numbers but I'd guess there's only 20-30 players worth drafting per year with those rules and maybe half of them become keepers after 3 years.

[kevinsrangers]

Our draft starts September 1st. So this is great that you guys give a ton of notice for me. But a lot can change from now till then so make sure you check back here and post some of your mistakes(sure to trades our signings).
Every bit is appreciated.

[YzermansLegacy]

That must be a shallow league - not many prospects are NHL ready in 3 years from the draft. I haven't crunched the numbers but I'd guess there's only 20-30 players worth drafting per year with those rules and maybe half of them become keepers after 3 years.

Yep you're quite Jouko - it's for the league in my sig, 10 teams, limited keeper. We also only have 5 farm slots, so farm is quite small at 50 total. I'd go further and say truly only about ⅓ (of your 20-30 estimate) become keepers after 3 years. We also incorporate free agent signings though, so guys like Krug and Brunner who sign late and play almost immediately hold a bit of a premium and help fill things out.

We don't have a separate prospects draft, we incorporate them into our main draft. Makes for a slightly more volatile draft as most years (not this one obviously), the top pick may or may not go in the 1st round.

In the end, most prospects wind up as trade bait, although you do get the odd outlier like Forsberg who was drafted a bit later but did so well in his age-20 season that he'll be kept this year. The format really pushes you to look at the situation/depth chart in addition to the prospect.

[Axeman33]

I quite enjoy the early draft. It gets my nose into the prospects early and hopefully gives me a leg up on my competition in my other leagues when they run their drafts.

[Fast Tony DeNiro]

I actually like the idea of holding the draft before the NHL holds theirs. For the most part my league's draft roughly follows the NHL....defensive players drop of course, but generally players go around the same pick in my league as they do in the real draft. Kinda kills the buzz a little bit since I know there are plenty of GMs in my league who don't delve super deeply into the prospects and just take whoever is the highest drafted player left when it comes to their pick.

Holding it beforehand would force everyone to actually do some research throughout the year and know who they like and don't like. Could be fun.

The only real problem I see is I think a lot of leagues tend to limit draft eligible players only to players who were actually drafted. Could cause an issue with some of the highly ranked players the last few years that for whatever reason ended up going un-drafted.

[marshal]

Our league conducts a free agent/prospect draft usually in the fall. We're allowed a multitude of keepers on our main team and farm team and any of the non-keepers go into the draft. Personally, I would prefer to have our draft earlier in the year - around the time of the actual NHL Entry Draft. I suppose an advantage of having it in the fall near the start of the season is that it allows managers in our league to find out where free agents go, which would certainly influence where they'd be taken in our draft.

Another advantage of having it later is coming on here to find different opinions about prospects and perhaps how some spent their summers, who they trained with, etc. Having a prospect draft before the NHL holds theirs would be quite entertaining methinks - would really force everyone in our league to do their due diligence in terms of targeting who they want and I imagine mock drafts and evaluations by guys like Bob MacKenzie and Craig Button would be even more valuable.

[finminer]

My league's rules are pretty unique, which creates some interesting strategies, especially when it comes to prospects. It is a keeper salary cap league but salaries are determined by auction draft under a $200 cap, which sets the highest salaries around $60. We can contract up to 10 drafted players for 5 years max. So it is much more market-based than using NHL salaries, and you have the ability to get some real bargains if you play it smart. We have a separate 8-man prospect roster and the prospect draft is right after the NHL auction draft. Anyone can be drafted in the NHL draft; if you buy a prospect, you're taking a risk by potentially spending cap non-productively and by losing a roster spot. The prospect draft is limited to players under 40 games, but they can be kept down until they reach 120 games, or max 5 years. The real kicker strategy-wise is that when promoted, prospects have an automatic salary of $5. There is no requirement that they have to be NHL-drafted, so this encourages early drafting of prospects. So, for example, McDavid was drafted two years ago, and it is likely that the top names in the 2017 Entry Draft will go in our prospect draft this year (most of the top ten for 2016 were drafted last year). My first year in the league, I was given an extra #1 draft pick as an expansion team, so I took Stamkos and Doughty a year before they were drafted. I also picked up Giroux as a throw-in to a trade (great steal on my part). I wound up with both Stamkos and Giroux at $5 salary for 5 years, when their open market value was more like $50-$60! Of course, that gives you more cap room to spend on higher-end players, and I won the Cup in my 4th year.