Quote Originally Posted by fungchen3 View Post
P7 and others have a great handle on logistics, so I'll shelf that, but add what I can. I commission 3 leagues - 2 that are serious, 1 that has been around since 1994. Here's some random points that I would like to share, based on my experience of playing fantasy longer than some of you have been alive ...

A.) Make your points mirror the value of NHL players as much as possible in the big picture. D point bonuses are a must for me. In my main league (the 1994 one) our scoring is as follows:

FORWARDS: G=2, A=1, PP/SH =+1, GWG=+2, HAT=+1, SHOOTOUT G=1
DEFENSEMEN: G=3, A=2, PP/SH =+1, GWG=+2, HAT=+1, SHOOTOUT G=1

The top-10 skaters in my league finished:

1. McDavid, 176
2. MacKinnon, 173
3. Ovechkin, 172
4. Malkin, 171
5. Hall, 163
6. Carlson, 163 (D)
7. Kucherov, 162
8. Burns, 156 (D)
9. Gostisbehere, 154 (D)
10. Laine, 153

That list of 10 includes 3-4 serious contenders for the Hart trophy. The Art Ross winner, the Rocket winner, the 2 highest goal scorers, the NHL's 2 highest scoring defensemen, etc. Pretty good composition if you ask me.

... of course, that's without muddying with waters with other stats, etc. You can tweak to your liking, my point is: Make sure defensemen have adequate value. There have been years Karlsson and Burns have be top performers in my league, during their monster years, and rightfully so. You never want a player like Roman Josi being drafted in the 30th round, behind a player like Jeff Skinner, as example.

B.) Add fun little twists like "team captains." In the league I've referenced ^, teams designate one forward as "CAPTAIN" and that forward earns "D Points" (G=3, A=2, etc.) Captains can't be switched during the season, only in the offseason. However, (2) "alternates" are named at the beginning of the season, and one of them can fill in as captain in the event of injury, so your team is never without a captain.

C.) Make it a pride league where the monetary winnings are secondary. Money makes people do weird things. The winner of my 1994 league gets $50. That's peanuts. But, they get their name engraved on a large trophy that has already graduated to a 2nd large base. They also get to keep the trophy for a year like the real Cup. This is a keep-44, large league with farm teams and all. Sometimes a GM will go for a full on rebuild that could take 5-6 years and they are committed to the process and love every second of it. Why? Because they take pride in their outline and process, and aren't taking a financial hit.

D.) Have the "right" GMs in the league, for the right reasons. If a chunk of GM's are happy-go-lucky hockey buds who are wanting one thing, and another chunk are sharks looking to take advantage of people, it will not end well. Set GM expectations and select the right peeps or you'll end up with an ulcer or PayPalling a lot of refunds.

E.) Emotionally engage your GM's and get them involved. Have everyone secretly vote for "GM of the year" (can't vote for yourself). Have them help choose division names (perhaps after hockey legends, etc.). Have fun awards and the end of the year. For example, you could have the "Paul Coffey Award" and the GM with the highest scoring defenseman gets a $5 gift card to Starbucks for a free "Coffey" etc. Make it fun.

F.) Keep it simple(ish). I know I might be in the minority here, but being an old school pooler, I got used to running leagues where I had to compile the team stats with a pencil and paper, after reading the box scores in the newspaper - literally. I think there a reason why Fantasy Football is embraced by so many - it's fairly cut-and-dry. People have jobs, careers, mortgages, families, etc. Making fantasy hockey a full-time job, where you're studying every possible stat on the score sheet is a nightmare, at least to me. Not to mention, stats like +/- are terrible in real life, let alone fantasy.

This is just some food for thought that I wanted to share.
Wow, I REALLY appreciate this post. Those are some awesome ideas. In the league I do commission right now I do implement some fun small minor things in the offseason. And with your scoring, I totally agree. I provide a boost for d-men too. I as well had years where Burns and Karlsson were right up there with the league's best.

With out responding to each individual point I really do thank you for your post. This is where I think it would make a large league like this fun, using a lot of your suggestions. That sounds super cool. To be able to implement that all successfully it would be awesome to have a few commissioners like I said and we could all deviate tasks to manage and what you've included above could be distributed between us as well. Making a league with 31(or 32) teams it would be super cool to get everyone engaged with awards and such, kind of like the NHL. While not being based on NHL criteria but our league criteria. I really, really like the info you've provided. Daunting task at hand, but I'd really like to see if anyone is up for this challenge.

One last little bit again, I think the other hardest part is finding the balance of the right GM's. Hard to gauge a potential GM for a team over the internet. i am pretty good judge of character and you can usually tell someones interest and commitment via the discussion you have with them in the recruiting process, but sometimes it still is hard to find those perfect fits.

From all you awesome folk's who've responded, does a starting a league like this sound appealing at all?