ESPN and Yahoo player eligibility.....

[J0e Th0rnton]

This is my first year using ESPN. I have a concern because they seem so vague regarding eligibility of position.

How is a player's position eligibility determined?
POSITION ELIGIBILITY
Before each season begins ESPN will determine the primary position of every NHL player available in the game. The criteria will primarily be the past year's playing time. This includes rookies as well as veterans. The listed primary positions are fixed and will not change for the duration of the season. NOTE: In custom leagues the League Manager CANNOT change the listed position of any player in the game.
Rookies will be placed on the waiver wire / free agency either prior to the start of the season or after their first official game played.

and then I read

PRIMARY Position Eligibility:
Before each season begins the system receives an updated report that details every player with their listed position heading into the new season. This includes rookies as well as veterans. The listed primary positions are fixed and will not change for the duration of the season. ADDITIONAL Position Eligibility:
The League Office uses several subjective criteria to determine additional eligibility. Among those are:

• How manyn the player minutes the player plays in a particular position
• Defensive assignments
• Where the player is usually positioned in the offensive sets

The final decision is always left to the League Office. Any official designations made by the NHL or any other organization will be taken into consideration, but may not result in expanded eligibility for a player. Owners may write the League Office with suggestions if they feel a particular player deserves additional eligibility. Eligibility will never be taken away from a player.

Can anyone with experience tell me when they usually designate positions? And how often they change positions? I want to get my lists ready.
They currently have Pavelski slotted as Center. He has played pure winger who takes faceoffs for the past 2-3 years.

But a more candid example. Rickard Rakell. Currently slotted as RW. But with the catz my league uses.......He actually comes out more valuable than Tarasenko. Yup. Its eye opening

None of their players are currently slotted with dual eligibility, despite that they say about "additional"

[PenguinHunter]

Short Answer- Nobody at ESPN knows when or if a player will get a position eligibility.

Long Answer - I have had Pavelski in a ESPN keeper league for 3 seasons. Every off season they revert him back to C. ESPN always reverts back to the position the player originally has on their player card when they are drafted or first start off in league. In MacKinnon's rookie year, (before he had played any games) he was eligible for C and RW, but Pavelski was just C eligible and had played the whole prior season at RW. Pavelski will eventually get C, RW (and maybe even LW) eligibility before some amount of time. Each year it is different and it is super annoying. I think it is a case of 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease'. So as soon as you have drafted your team, start emailing ESPN Help and explain your case for players that are on your team that should have a different position eligibility. The nice thing about ESPN is they will never take away a position eligibility, they will only add the additional one.

[J0e Th0rnton]

Short Answer- Nobody at ESPN knows when or if a player will get a position eligibility.

Long Answer - I have had Pavelski in a ESPN keeper league for 3 seasons. Every off season they revert him back to C. ESPN always reverts back to the position the player originally has on their player card when they are drafted or first start off in league. In MacKinnon's rookie year, (before he had played any games) he was eligible for C and RW, but Pavelski was just C eligible and had played the whole prior season at RW. Pavelski will eventually get C, RW (and maybe even LW) eligibility before some amount of time. Each year it is different and it is super annoying. I think it is a case of 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease'. So as soon as you have drafted your team, start emailing ESPN Help and explain your case for players that are on your team that should have a different position eligibility. The nice thing about ESPN is they will never take away a position eligibility, they will only add the additional one.

Okay, soooooooo, does Pavelski usually get his dual eligibility though? Are we talking a matter of weeks? or months? How long did it usually take you?

Because faceoff wins are worth 0.2 in our league. If someone patiently waits for him to get Winger eligibility, he could in effect, cheat the system and double stack his faceoff wins since he takes so many? Move him to RW and if he picks up an undrafted guy like Vermette, who does little BUT win faceoffs?

[PenguinHunter]

Okay, soooooooo, does Pavelski usually get his dual eligibility though? Are we talking a matter of weeks? or months? How long did it usually take you?

Because faceoff wins are worth 0.2 in our league. If someone patiently waits for him to get Winger eligibility, he could in effect, cheat the system and double stack his faceoff wins since he takes so many? Move him to RW and if he picks up an undrafted guy like Vermette, who does little BUT win faceoffs?

Yes he will get his dual eligibility. Its only a matter of time (which is not consistent with ESPN). It might be 2 weeks, it might be 1 month.

If you are concerned about people cheating the system, try out Fantrax. It is my understanding that they have an option that faceoff stats are only counted for players that are rostered in a C position on your team. Preventing people racking up winger eligible Centres to win faceoffs.

[J0e Th0rnton]

Yes he will get his dual eligibility. Its only a matter of time (which is not consistent with ESPN). It might be 2 weeks, it might be 1 month.

If you are concerned about people cheating the system, try out Fantrax. It is my understanding that they have an option that faceoff stats are only counted for players that are rostered in a C position on your team. Preventing people racking up winger eligible Centres to win faceoffs.

They already made the league, and are pretty dead set on trying ESPN this year..........Maybe ill talk them into Fantrax next year.

We already have a yahoo keeper league, but we always run 1 year leagues too using different websites. Last year we tried CBS. AWFUL, don't ever do it. Weekly averages.....LMAO. The system was broken so badly.

[LawMan]

Short Answer- Nobody at ESPN knows when or if a player will get a position eligibility.

Long Answer - I have had Pavelski in a ESPN keeper league for 3 seasons. Every off season they revert him back to C. ESPN always reverts back to the position the player originally has on their player card when they are drafted or first start off in league. In MacKinnon's rookie year, (before he had played any games) he was eligible for C and RW, but Pavelski was just C eligible and had played the whole prior season at RW. Pavelski will eventually get C, RW (and maybe even LW) eligibility before some amount of time. Each year it is different and it is super annoying. I think it is a case of 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease'. So as soon as you have drafted your team, start emailing ESPN Help and explain your case for players that are on your team that should have a different position eligibility. The nice thing about ESPN is they will never take away a position eligibility, they will only add the additional one.

Everything PenguinHunter said above is 100% correct. Every off-season ESPN wipes all dual-eligible players down to single positional status. This off-season the only exception is Byfuglien is listed as a RW/D.

From my recollection top fantasy guys are usually the first ones to get dual eligibility (likely due to what PH said about squeaky wheel getting the grease). If I had to guess I'd say Pavelski gets dual eligibility by the end of October at the latest, again this is just a guess, ESPN refuses to acknowledge when, how or why they come to dual positional decisions. If your league is head-to-head and gives points for FOW it's certainly worth it to grab as many potential C/W eligible players as possible and then slot them into winger positions each night.

[J0e Th0rnton]

Here is a question.

[LawMan]

Here is a question. Do they just globally change the player to dual status, or would it only happen if you complain and send emails for them to change it in your league?

Because if you need to complain, nobody in my league would bother and everything is kosher

It's a "global change" thus, once ESPN adds dual-status that status then exists in every ESPN league. Further, there is no way to manually alter eligibility or "lock-down" the positional eligibility in your league.

[PenguinHunter]

Here is a question. Do they just globally change the player to dual status, or would it only happen if you complain and send emails for them to change it in your league?

Because if you need to complain, nobody in my league would bother and everything is kosher

In ESPN every league is based off of one set of position eligibility. So even if no one from your league says anything, guys from other leagues will, and then ESPN will change it for every league.

Every year ESPN asks how they can improve their fantasy hockey site, and the last two years I have suggested that there be a league manager tool that allows them to change the position eligibility for players in their league. Then guys in your league could make a case to the commish for a position or there could be specific standards that need met within your league.

[J0e Th0rnton]

I just joined a random public league to set a predraft list, and nobody is designated a position.

They are all just listed as "F" "D" and "G"

Is that a good thing? maybe they heard the complaints?

[joe jones]

I have been using espn for a number of years and can confirm what other comments say above. There is no rhyme or reason to it - at some point espn will simply add the dual/triple eligibility and then you're good to go. It usually doesn't take too long.

[LawMan]

I just joined a random public league to set a predraft list, and nobody is designated a position.

They are all just listed as "F" "D" and "G"

Is that a good thing? maybe they heard the complaints?

Hmmm that sounds strange. My ESPN league has been re-loaded for the season and every forward is designated as either RW, LW, or C. If you create a dummy leagues as league manager it should give you a list of players and their position.

[davemoosehead]

I just joined a random public league to set a predraft list, and nobody is designated a position.

They are all just listed as "F" "D" and "G"

Is that a good thing? maybe they heard the complaints?

The league you joined only has "F" slots, instead of the traditional C, RW, LW. It's the default setting for ESPN public leagues and is unrelated global eligibility.

My experience has been the same as others. They don't add dual positions until after the regular season starts. And when they do, it's random as to who gets what and when. It's probably the biggest downside to using ESPN.

And by the way, the only reason Byfuglien has dual positions now, is because Dobber complained over twitter about it and Cory Pronman saw it. So Cory (who works for ESPN) "pinged" someone in the fantasy department who updated it early.

[J0e Th0rnton]

The league you joined only has "F" slots, instead of the traditional C, RW, LW. It's the default setting for ESPN public leagues and is unrelated global eligibility.

My experience has been the same as others. They don't add dual positions until after the regular season starts. And when they do, it's random as to who gets what and when. It's probably the biggest downside to using ESPN.

And by the way, the only reason Byfuglien has dual positions now, is because Dobber complained over twitter about it and Cory Pronman saw it. So Cory (who works for ESPN) "pinged" someone in the fantasy department who updated it early.

I found the positions once I clicked on player rater.

Moosehead huh? Are you a fellow Haligonian mooseheads fan? Or is your name regarding the beer itself? lol