IFHL 2005 Entry draft/What to do discussion

[X-SHARKIE]

Hello everyone and thanks for coming here to make a statement.

As the NHL Lockout continues and it becomes more and more likely that there well be no NHL season, along with that no NHL entry draft in June.

In the past we have had are entry draft shortly after the NHL's.... The entry draft was a success last summer IMO.

Now my question is. What to do with this summers upcoming draft, in which many of us have put big value into and traded to aquire more picks or used our picks to aquire assets?

Please answer the poll above and post your reasoning if you like.

Explanation of the above

1. No draft until the NHL holds theres, this one is clear, we don't have an entry draft until the NHL holds there own, which who knows when that well be.

2. We have are draft in the summer with a weighted lottery based on last years standings...Each 5 slots have a seperate lottery.

Example: 1-5 in a lottery for the 1st pick, 6-10 in a lottery for the 6th pick, and so on.

3. Same thing as above except we'll go by 10's... So picks 1-10 well be entered in a lottery and the winner would get pick #1.

4. We have a A draft and it we just use last years standings.

5. We have a draft and it's complete random order by luck of the draw.

Post your thoughts

Click to read more...

 

[DutchLeafsfan]

I would personally like to have a draft (heck, we otherwise have completely nothing to do), although we would have to be careful with rules and all that to avoid confusion.

Regarding the draft order, I am personally (not surprisingly I suppose) not a great fan of a completely random lottery. The other options, ie same order (assuming we do have a lottery for the #1 pick like last year), 5 spot lottery or possibly 10 (although less desirable in my case), would be ok. I personally do not see too many reasons to change the draft order in a huge way though, given the relative lack of changes in our teams...

 

[SensGod]

I don't think we should have a draft until the NHL has a season, or we find out how the NHL would have a draft this season.

REason being is that people will not be happy unless we do it like the NHL does it...Crosby is on the line here.

 

[Mike Modano]

I agree with Laurens. on top of that, we can't start a season, if the real one's out for another year. If the nhl decides to do a draft this summer, we'll do it too. If they won't, we won't either.

 

[X-SHARKIE]

I have to agree with Dutchleafsfans on this one completely.

IFHL is very quiet with this lock out, to keep attention to the league and for it to move forward so when the NHL does resume, where ready to go...IMO the Entry draft is very important.

I voted for the 1-5/ 6-10/ 11-15 ect. But! I also would think that 1-10 wouldn't be so bad.

I just believe we need to have an Entry draft no matter what.

I for one have 3 top 10 picks based on last years standings, and would be willing to see all 3 picks go 8-9-10 in the end, loosing out on Crosby...if it meant that it was done fairly and that the Entry draft is here.

 

[sgandour]

It is time to take this apart one point at a time...

First AND MOST IMPORTANTLY... I (and each of you) must remove our collective bias'.

That means no "well I ended 27th last year, but lots of players are older on my team and I have no depth so I would likely have dropped to out of the playoffs this year" and no "well I have ended last two years running so safe bet I would again" and no "well his team was really improving so he would have been much better and should not be considered." That is the hardest thing to get past, but the most crucial. There are two issues we must address, and neither are personal opinions or bias. The first is what is best for the league. The second is what is fairest to all the teams in the league.

We will start with that second one.

Fairest to all the teams. Well, in fairness one could argue a complete 1-30 draft is the only fair way, but we all know that teams going from top to bottom or bottom to top of the league happen VERY RARELY. In general, teams make small steps up or down from year to year. Granted a few make big leaps or falls, but it is nearly impossible to predict those one or two teams per year, and in fairness TO ALL TEAMS, unfair to guess each. However, to just ignore that some teams will struggle to match last years numbers, and others improve on them, if only slightly seems unfair. So acknowledging big leaps and falls are hard to predict, and unfair to guess based on infrequency, but acknowledging small moves are more frequent and unfair not to consider, I would make these conclusions...

This FAIRNESS TO ALL Issue seems to eliminate a completely random draft, and eliminates the exact draft used last year. So it favours either a weighted lottery with 5 teams or 10 teams vie'ing for the first pick or no draft until the NHL has one.
I personally would suggest a weighted lottery with 10 teams. The worst teams likely would still be near or at the bottom, and since it is weighted would still get likely the odds for the best picks, but then at least the teams 5-10 who may have sunk a few spots (which is somewhat common) if there was hockey now get a chance (slim but a chance) at that Crosby pick whereas a five pick lottery gives them none. For that reason, if we have a draft, I would lean that way for fairness... even though it means 10 teams having a shot instead of just five, and thus a risk I could pick as low as 10th instead of as low as 5th (removing my personal bias). However in fairness, the NHL ruling will have to be agreeable to the majority and they are in the same boat. So if the NHL GMs can agree to whatever the NHL decides, we should easily be able to abide by their rulings. So an NHL decision coming first would be the most fair option. The weighted lottery with bottom 10 teams I think the next most fair.

HOWEVER... this brings us to the first issue needing addressing. What is best FOR THE IFHL? How many of us have lost interest in the IFHL with no hockey? You don't think that includes you? Do you check the IFHL site daily? Weekly? Monthly? Do you talk trade with other GMs at all? Or are you mostly at sit and wait and not think about the league right now? Wait for NHL before acting in any fashion? This league needs a serious event, something to draw interest and activity to keep interest alive. The IFHL may very well not survive a lost year OR MORE (another real possibility) if we just sit til the NHL makes our decisions for us. Granted that would be the most fair way to handle this, but can the league survive that long to utilize the most fair decision?

The alternate decision above while still quite fair and logical, would allow us to draft as scheduled and not wait. It may very well be necessary to keep the league alive and the GMs interested and thus active.

My vote (after this long winded explanation) is for a draft, using the bottom 10 teams from last season with a chance (weighted of course) of landing first overall.

Now if this option is voted in, we must decide how to weight the teams for the lottery.

Steve NYI GM

 

[DFF]

I don't think we should have a draft until the NHL has a season, or we find out how the NHL would have a draft this season.

REason being is that people will not be happy unless we do it like the NHL does it...Crosby is on the line here.

Agree!....This league is aligned to the NHL. I dont think we should change that.

 

[Focker]

Agree!....This league is aligned to the NHL. I dont think we should change that.

I also agree with both Dallas Flames Fan, SensGod, and Mike Modano. It doesn't make sence to me to have a draft without the NHL first holding the draft.

 

[KingTY]

werd......lets go accordingly with the NHL