Advice on how to integrate farm team

[BernyBoyD]

Hello everyone!

Not sure it’s the right channel to post this, but I couldn’t find a better one.

See league in signature. This year will be our 7th in this dynasty. Another GM and I want to propose a new farm team system, but we don’t have any experience with it, so I figured I’d ask here.

What’s your farm system (rules and management)? What are the likes, and don’t likes of it? In your opinion, what’s the best way to start?

We’re in an 11 teams fantasy keeper (12) points only league. Cap league. 10F, 4D and 1G + 5 bench (GM’s choice)

Draft lottery, money for the top 3 (not eligible for the lottery).

As of now, the first few picks usually go with young prospects on their ELC (Kappo and Hugues for this year).

We have the feeling that we might lose a few GMs if we’re going too deep for the farm...

As of now, here’s the brainstorm results:
- Year one, a special farm draft. From year 2, we add draft rounds (to the number of farm players)
- to qualify, ELC, no year burned (can have played 9 games, and sent down)
- if during the year, you want to promote a farm player, you must use a FA for it. (Brings a question on what happens to the draft next year...)

Questions:
- how to manage the regular keepers with the farm keepers (year over year)
- how to manage a system where a GM can draft a Kakko and have him active in the regular lineup, abs at the same time another youngster that could have more games played?

Thx a lot for the help!!!

[Eskimo Brother]

My first question is what platform do you use for the league, as that affects a lot.

Next is, what do you want the farms teams to achieve for your league, and what do you want to avoid. Everyone and every league is going to be different. Especially with caps.

[Jaysus]

If you currently have no farm, I would just add a few rounds to your draft and/or have a short "free agent frenzy" afterwards to fill your spots. In my league we can add/drop one player per week anyway so we'd fill up.

In our Fantrax league we each have 5 minor spots that you can send a player to if he's played less than 10 games. you can pull him up for a few and send him back down if he's still under 10. If he goes over 10 games he can stay there until you pull him up, then he can't go back (I have Binnington in mine and I'll pull him up after our draft for good). Players in the minors to don't count against your cap and are kept in addition to your keepers. And obviously they don't earn you points when they are there.

[BernyBoyD]

My first question is what platform do you use for the league, as that affects a lot.

Next is, what do you want the farms teams to achieve for your league, and what do you want to avoid. Everyone and every league is going to be different. Especially with caps.

Excellent point for the plateform, didn't thought is could be a problem. We use PoolExpert, but I've been trying to change. What do you recommend?

As for the second point, the main goal is to enrich the GM experience and avoid a too complexe structure. By adding a farm, it allows GM to work harder to find talent, as well as draft for the current year.

I'm looking at a simple setup that will allow our dynasty to evolve a little.

[BernyBoyD]

If you currently have no farm, I would just add a few rounds to your draft and/or have a short "free agent frenzy" afterwards to fill your spots. In my league we can add/drop one player per week anyway so we'd fill up.

In our Fantrax league we each have 5 minor spots that you can send a player to if he's played less than 10 games. you can pull him up for a few and send him back down if he's still under 10. If he goes over 10 games he can stay there until you pull him up, then he can't go back (I have Binnington in mine and I'll pull him up after our draft for good). Players in the minors to don't count against your cap and are kept in addition to your keepers. And obviously they don't earn you points when they are there.

I like the idea of adding few rounds to the draft.

How does the call ups and down works with the lineup setup? One of the bench is for the minor? And if you call a player up, and passes 10 games, he has to stay. So your farm is now short of 1 player? How do you manage the draft the year after?

Thx for the comment! I will help a lot!

[Jaysus]

I like the idea of adding few rounds to the draft.

How does the call ups and down works with the lineup setup? One of the bench is for the minor? And if you call a player up, and passes 10 games, he has to stay. So your farm is now short of 1 player? How do you manage the draft the year after?

Well first you need to have room on your regular roster, or drop a player to make room. If he stays up i guess you are technically "short" a farm player for the moment but in our league you can add/drop 1 player from the free agent pool once per week as needed, so you can just grab another guy with less than 10 games for your minors. Draft is the same every year. 12 keepers, 7 round draft and fill the rest via free agency.

[ACC90]

Here is our system (wasn't perfect, but it's only our second year). We also use PoolExpert :
-We only have a farm team of 6 rookies (ELC) maximum that count in the cap space. It's your choice how many rookies you want in your farm team and it also help some GM's that want to go all in and have extra cap space without using his farm team.
-Some of our GMs don't have deep knowledge about incoming prospect so with only 6 rookies it's good to have a great balance between GM's strategies.
-We keep 10 regular players and all our rookies are automatically protected if you don't activate it during the season (we see in PoolExpert how many games some players are activated). If you activate it, you need to consider him in your 10 keepers if you want to keep him.
-If one GM trade one of his activated prospect to another GM, the new GM can put it back in his farm team. Maybe we will change this strategy because I found some kind of a loophole. For example I had Svechnikov activated and another GM had Brady Tkachuk... we juste trade them 1vs1 at the end of the season and we had another player protected.

[junyab]

The one I was in (a Yahoo League that eventually folded) had the following rules/guidelines in red below. It was done manually by the Commissioner using the Commissioner's Notes feature.

Any skater with less than 50 games played or any goalie with less than 20 games started can be added to this list during the season.

Once the game limits are reached, the players do not need to called up right away, but must be added to your team prior to the beginning of the following season. Any prospects not recalled before the first game is played will be placed on waivers.

If a player is called up from your prospect list once the games limit is passed, they CANNOT be returned to your list. If the games limit is not passed however, they can be called up and demoted as you see fit.

If a player on the prospect list who has passed the games limit is dealt, they can remain on the prospect list for the acquiring team at that point.

Any player currently signed or drafted by an NHL team is eligible, provided we have completed our prospect and turnover draft for that season. Prospects cannot be signed between the last game of the regular season and the completion of our drafts.

If a player on the KHL list returns to the league during the current season, they must be to the active roster within one week of their first game played or that player will be placed on waivers. If a player on the KHL list signs to return to the NHL during the offseason, they must be added before the first regular season NHL game. They do not need to be counted as part of the salary cap keeper limit for that offseason.