Here's another old post of mine about a potentially big change to the draft format:
Here's another radical idea. Instead of having fixed positions for selecting players, we can try an auction-style draft. (I say "we" loosely - I don't think I've actually participated in one of these since 2009).
Each team starts with a fixed budget - say $10M. The "league commissioner" can release, in advance, a master list of the top XX players, in order (perhaps based on the average draft spot over the past five drafts).
On the first day, the highest-ranked player (who I'm guessing would be Gretzky, but might be Orr) is eligible for every GM. During that 24 hour window, every GM can do an unlimited number of bids. No max or minimum (but perhaps have increments of say $1,000). The bids can either be public (posted in the main thread) or private (sent to whoever's running the draft).
At the end of the 24 hours, the winner is determined/announced. That GM gets that player, and has the winning bid removed from him hypothetical budget. Then we'd move on to the next player up for auction (Orr, etc) on the next day.
Personally I think this would be really exciting:
- It's a new concept that hasn't been tried yet, which might make the draft seem less stale.
- It mirrors reality since there's a financial constraint.
- I think it would be fun/interesting to debate at the end of the draft - which players are the most over- and underpaid?
- It also allows GMs to think about new strategies that we've never had to consider before - do you blow your budget and get three players in the top 20, then fill out your roster with scraps? Or do you quietly sit back and watch people pick superstars, and then compete on the strength of your depth?
But there are obvious logistical hurdles. Here are a few (you can tell me if you think these are bad enough to make this a deal-breaker):
- If the bidding is public, I can easily see two (or more) GMs go back and forth in an endless cycle of trying to one-up each other, which clogs up the thread. Or if it the bidding is private, it would be challenging for the league commissioner to keep track of the dozens of messages he'd be getting every day.
- Time zones could be problematic. I'd imagine that if we ended the bidding at midnight EST, a lot of bids would come in during those last few minutes. People in other parts of the world (or those who simply like to go to bed early) would be at a disadvantage. (Though perhaps we can change this by allowing people to bid only once - which doesn't eliminate the problem entirely, but it might reduce it).
- The pace of the draft would be slow. If we're assuming 18 teams of 20 players, that's a full year. I doubt anybody here is willing to commit to that. (Or perhaps we allow people to bid on up to five players per day - then it would be two months for the draft - much more reasonable). On the other hand, every single day you potentially get to pick - so there's a reason to be involved every day of the draft.
- What happens if a GM runs out of money? I don't know. Maybe we can designate a pool of low quality players that you'd have to use to fill out your roster if you spend all your money? (Not necessarily terrible players, but ones you'd never think about drafting in a ~400 player ATD - competent, serviceable NHLers like Garry Valk, Tom Fitzgerald). Though that still raises the question - how do they get picked if more than one GM runs out of money?
I know this is a crazy idea. But I think it has enough upside that it's at least worth considering.
