Re: WHL (World Hockey League) - Settings / Inaug.Draft / Discussion
Thank you to GM of the Firebirds....
What got you into fantasy hockey?
A buddy of mine got me started with the local office pool. Points only, I think there were about 8 or 10 of us in that pool. I did fairly well that year and it came down to my buddy and me for the championship. He won, but I was hooked and have been in some kind of pool every year since.
What made you decide to join the WHL?
I had a fair amount of success with our office pools and was looking for a bigger challenge. I felt I was ready to see how I could do against the "big boys" and I was fortunate enough Penguin selected me to be a member of the WHL. I also participated in 3 other pools in addition to the WHL that year and 3 of the 4 pools I entered at that time are still going today, but the WHL is the most challenging and most fun to be part of. It is also the most active - by far!
You clearly made a dramatic shift recently with your numerous trades to add players to help compete now, compared to re-building, what made you change strategy mid season?
I don’t see it as a change in strategy. It was more like an evolution. I was on the fence about being a buyer or seller this year. After being near the bottom of the league for the last 4 years, my team had finally started to be more competitive. After the short week my record was 8-9 which I thought was pretty good considering my opposition were the big guns of the league. The Thunder was our next match-up and I knew I was in tough against them, but after that I felt I had a good chance to do fairly well for the balance of the schedule - with some changes. I was happy with my D & G but needed to improve my Forwards. This year I have also been spared so far on the injury front (knock on wood!) - so I decided to go for it. I managed to keep my core in place while improving my Forwards. Time will tell if it all works out and I still have time to tweak my lineup before the trade deadline, if necessary. It would be nice to make the playoffs but that is a long shot in my opinion however I feel I have a realistic chance to move up a Tier if I finish well.
Which WHL GM would you like to grab a beer with?
Tough question. There are so many good GMs in the WHL I’d love to talk hockey with over a few beers, but I think I’d go with JP in Tampere. Finland would be a great place to visit and I’d love to talk prospects with him.
What is your go to beer?
Usually Corona - but I also like several of the draft beers you can buy in the stores now.
What interests do you have outside of fantasy hockey?
I really enjoy Curling. I used to curl quite a bit back in the day, but my knees don’t like the sport much anymore, so now it’s a spectator sport for me. I also like to go on short trips to check out the NHL cities. Visiting all 32 NHL arenas is on my bucket list and so far I’ve been to 7 - so still a long way to go. So far, the best arena to watch hockey I’ve been to is the Bell Centre in Montreal and the worst is the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. That pains me to say it as I’m a life-long Leaf fan.
What made you choose your team name?
When I first entered the league I named my team the Flint Firebirds as my nephew played for the Plymouth Whalers in the OHL and they had just moved to Flint. I changed the name to Sierra Sasquatch after the Flint owner caused a player rebellion and I wanted to distance myself from the team that was a mess at the time. I was never really happy with the Sasquatch theme so I decided to go back to the Firebirds but I put the team out of Fresno (pop 503,000). Fresno only has college and semi-pro sports teams so the Firebirds have been welcomed with open arms and we still enjoy great fan support. There is a real buzz around the city about the moves we made and the players really enjoy the lifestyle here.
What is one real world accomplishment (non fantasy hockey) you are proud of?
There are two actually. For the first, I was asked to lead a team to develop a new Fire Management Strategy for the Province of Ontario that would direct the province on how to respond to wildfires. The strategy we developed has been modernized since then, but many of the concepts we put into the original are still in place today. The second was being a member of the first non-American Incident Management Team to be put in charge of fighting a cluster of forest fires in the USA (Montana). It’s a fairly common practice today but at the time it was a pretty big deal.
What is your current occupation and how did you get into it?
I am NOT an Engineer lol. I am a Forester and spent my career working for the government of Ontario in both the Forest Management and Fire Management programs. Working outdoors always appealed to me and when I was 17 years old I was hired as a “Junior Ranger” with the government. I really enjoyed the work so it became my life’s calling.
What would be one new idea you would like me to consider implementing?
I really like many of things the WHLInsider does - these interviews are awesome as it helps us to get to know the other GMs in the league. I also really like the polls you do after each trade and the comic relief is also great in your tweets. The one thing I would like to see you do is re-tweet all the questions (and your answers) that you get on “ask me anything” days so we can all see them. Another option would be to put them into the WHL thread in the Forum as not all WHL GMs are on Twitter.
You can now ask me one question...
There has been a lot of discussion about Goalie stats in the WHL. What are your thoughts on the current stats - keep them the way they are, or change them - and what changes would you make?
After a goalie just scored a 10.6 point game, and a 8 point game after, shows how valuable goalies can be. Has a skater ever put up 18+ points in a week, let alone in 2 games?
Two thoughts....take the highs with the lows and leave as is.
Or, reduce the value of shutouts slightly, and reduce the impact of goals against slightly.
Follow me @WHLrumourmill for rumblings from around the World Hockey League