New Salary Cap League Question

[SuperMario]

Hey all,

I'm starting up a second Dynasty league in the fall and need some advice. What is the best way you've come across to decide who gets to "sign" the free agents in the summer? One of the facets of the league will be that you can only "drop" a player without penalty when their contract is up - otherwise you must buy them out, which counts against the caphit.

For example, if the current GM decided that David Backes' new hit was too much for them, he could drop them without penalty this summer. Which process determines which other teams get first crack at the player? Is using the waiver wire priority the way to go?

Also, I'm looking for some smart managers to join if anyone is interested. It'll be a $10 (cheap fun) league on Fantrax. League will run either 16/18 or 20 teams, so still a nice little pot to win at the end of the year.

[Sulla]

waiver draft.... so no adds past a certain point and all free agents need to be released by a certain cut off

[SuperMario]

waiver draft.... so no adds past a certain point and all free agents need to be released by a certain cut off

Forgive my ignorance - but the waiver priority is then used as the draft order?

If so, does the waiver priority remain the same to start the following season?

[Sulla]

yes and can do or once a claim is made that team goes to the bottom so if someone doesn''t pick in the draft they can burn their pick later in the season

- - - Updated - - -

and you could do the waiver draft order the same as a rookie draft and go in reverse order of finishing position

[SuperMario]

Thanks Sulla, definitely a smart way of doing this.

Anyone else, or even better, any interested managers? Note that while the rules are written with 16 teams, I would love to get to 18 or even 20 teams.

League Rules:

Format: Dynasty, 16 teams, H2H One Win, on Fantrax

Dynasty: Teams keep all of their players at the end of a season, within the rules governing prospects and players on IR.

Rosters: 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 4D, 2G, 9 Bench, 2 IR, 1 IR+ (24 roster spots, 27 including IR)

Scoring: G, A, PPP, SOG, Hits, W, GAA, SV%, SV

Add/Drops: *NO MAXIMUM*. Players, however, cannot simply be dropped from your team – you must either buy them out (counts as a cap hit like NHL), or wait for them to become Free Agents and drop them in the summer. If a player is Farm Protected, you can drop them down to your minor league team.
Free agents that are picked up are signed, and they are subject to the same rules governing dropped players. What this means is, for example, if you pick up a goalie for a spot start, you are now stuck with him for the duration of his contract.

Waiver period: Two days – Does not apply to Farm Protected Players

Waiver Priority Position: is carried over from the end of one season to the start of the next, based on each team's waiver priority position at the end of the playoffs.

Trades: No maximum. Trading will close prior to the start of league playoffs.

Final Week of Regular Season: The final week of the regular season will feature manually adjusted matchups. The week will serve as a Wild Card Week. Teams battling for playoffs, or a first round bye (1st and 2nd overall) will be pitted against each other. Remaining teams will be paired off at the commissioner`s discretion.

Salary Cap :
The league will use the Average Annual Value (AAV) of NHL contracts. The Salary Cap will be the NHL Cap + 50%*. (Example – the NHL Salary Cap is at $70M. Our cap would thus be $105M.)
*The additional cap space is dependent on the number of teams in the league and subject to change before the Main Roster Draft.

Trade/voting protocol:

Teams agreeing on a trade must immediately email all the details to the League Manager. League Manager will ensure all managers are aware of the details, and - if no collusion is found - the trade will be approved in as little as 5 hours. All disputed trades will be voted on Proboards.

Vote window: 48 hours

Vote: Majority carries. If a tie, the trade proceeds.

Off-season trades: Both teams must post confirmation and all provisions including draft picks. The trading protocol for challenges and review are the same off-season as in-season, other than during the draft when trades involving a draft pick will be reviewed immediately by the LM.

Trades during July/Aug will be reviewed by the league Sept 1. There are no trades that will be put through during these months as 1) many people will be away on vacation / holidays and 2)it gives us all a short break.

Farm team:

There will be a five-round off-line prospects/farm team draft each year prior to the start of the NHL season, beginning after the first season. The draft order is based on standings at the end of the regular season, not the playoffs.

Players drafted must be signed or drafted by an NHL team.

The initial farm roster will be a maximum 9 players (to accommodate trades).

The farm team roster will increase to 15 players following the second season and then cap at 15 players.

Only players taken in the farm draft can be kept on the farm roster, or moved back and forth between the main and farm rosters during the season.

Prospects: Prospects are players who have not played 164 career NHL regular season games. Players who have played 164 or more games are not prospects and cannot be taken in the farm draft.

Players on the farm roster who reach 164 career NHL games during a season must be traded, dropped or moved to the main roster before the start of the following season.

Non-Keeper Prospects: Players picked up as FA (i.e. not taken in farm draft) who have not played at least 10 career NHL regular season games cannot be kept on the main roster at the end of a season. They must be dropped and they go into the prospect draft pool.

Trading draft pick positions: Is allowed for the following season only.

IR: Players in IR slots must be moved back onto the main roster once they are no longer designated by Yahoo as injured. Players in IR slots at the end of a season must be dropped, traded or moved to a main roster slot before the start of the next season.

Divisions: The 16 teams will be randomly seperated into 2 divisions prior to the start of the first season. These divisions will be permanent.

Playoffs: Top 4 teams in each division make the playoffs for a total of 8. Seeding similar to the NHL : 1 VS 4, 2 VS 3.

Draft /Draft order:

Main draft: 1st season, online with order randomly selected ahead of the draft.

Farm draft: Team finishing in last place (regular season) picks 1st, then in turn through to team finishing 1st. Repeat each round (non-snake draft).

Draft Lottery:
The first 14 picks in our Prospects Draft will be tied to the 14 lottery picks in the NHL Draft Lottery. For example, when Edmonton won the 2015 lottery, the owner of the 3rd pick in our pool would have won the first overall pick.

Team names: Managers may choose any team name using the [place] [thing] format.

Participation: Active participation is required.

[SuperMario]

Still TBD in the rules is the question asked in this thread. I'd like a few different opinions / ideas so that the one that works best for this league is chosen. Any and all feedback on the rules from those with Salary Cap league experience is more than welcomed!

[zoomwaffles]

I definitely think a draft is the way to go. Have a date by which everyone decides who they're keeping or not, and then do a draft shortly thereafter. The only tricky part of this is getting those late signings... a lot of RFAs aren't re-signing until September these days, so your draft would probably have to be very close to the start of the season. That's when we do the "re-entry" draft in my leagues... very late September. I should note that the "re-entry draft" is separate from the "amateur draft", which is where you get the newly minted NHL players (Matthews, Laine, etc). That draft happens earlier in the summer.

[SuperMario]

I wonder if this would work, something I just thought of:

Instead of a draft for the free agents that were "dropped" from their teams, have any teams that are interested in signing these players (and that can afford their new cap hits) make their intentions known. Then, using a random number generator (random.org for example), figuring out who gets to sign who. An upside to this is that as free agents sign, they can be "signed" in the new league. Instead of having it done at the last minute, it's done over the entire summer, with a big chunk being done in early July.

Obviously this idea needs a bit of tweaking, but could I be onto an idea here, or is this something that someone has tried already - or something similar - and had it fail?

[Moses]

My Suggestion...

Examine how the platform you choose (I'd use Fantrax) handles different waiver scenario's. Use an option that is built into the platform.

[Daydream Nation]

What about bidding for dropped players?

Every teams starts with $100 FA bidding dollars. You go through rounds where a team can nominate 1 dropped player for bidding. Every teams can place a blind bid on the player. Highest bidder wins. If there is a tie, lowest season finisher wins. When there are no more nominations, you place everyone on waivers and use waiver priority from the league standings.

How many players do you anticipate having in a normal offseason?

[SuperMario]

Oh I like the bidding idea actually! Adds another financial aspect to a cap league...

And as for the anticipated FA per offseason, it would probably vary greatly each year. It would likely mirror the NHL free agent market I think.

[zoomwaffles]

You need to remember the importance of parity in a dynasty league. When so few players are changing hands year after year, it can be really difficult for bottom-tier teams to make any kind of improvement. If a GM finds it impossible or overly difficult to rebuild and become competitive, they will quit, and then you'll be back on here year after year trying to find replacement GMs for terrible teams. By relying on some kind of draft or waiver priority system where the worst teams get the top pick, you're providing those bottom teams with a clear way to become competitive again. A random drawing doesn't accomplish this unless the odds are weighted in favor of the bottom teams. Likewise, an auction doesn't help unless the worst teams get more money than the best teams.

Random drawings and waiver priority also can't be used as trade assets. Draft picks or auction dollars can be made trade-able throughout the season. In my experience, the more tradeable assets you have, the more trades you have.

[SuperMario]

The whole point of doing a salary cap league was to encourage more trading, which would hopefully lead to more parity.

I hadn't thought of trading the auction dollars, that's an interesting spin on it!

[zoomwaffles]

The whole point of doing a salary cap league was to encourage more trading, which would hopefully lead to more parity.

I hadn't thought of trading the auction dollars, that's an interesting spin on it!

We did that in my football league this past season. It's a very limited keeper league (I think we keep 2?) but the draft is done by auction, where you have $200 to spend. This year we allowed teams to trade up to $10 in auction cash for the upcoming season. It really helped to balance trades, and it allowed bottom teams (like mine) to become a true "seller" at the trade deadline. Top teams mortgaged their future to win now... that gives the bottom teams an advantage next season.

[Spleentastic]

Another option: You could mix them into the farm draft you have every year, but with one caveat: a non-prospect (however you define that) CANNOT be taken in the first round of the draft.

This accomplishes a couple of things
1) It gives all GMs a shot at these players.
2) It gives a little bit of control to the bottom-feeders (i.e. that first pick in the second round becomes just a bit more valuable) while giving them options (Trade that pick to a contender? Keep it and just take a prospect? Take the veteran and hope for a better season?)
3) The caveat of not being able to take a non-prospect in the 1st round does not put the worst teams at a disadvantage by forcing them to forgo a solid veteran in favour of a great prospect.

No idea if that would work. I'm sure there are side effects that I haven't thought about.