GM Guide: Bench Management

Calgary (CP) In the second part of the GM Guide to the GDHL, I take a look at the roster spots of a team and most importantly how to manage your bench.

Firstly, there is and always will be a fine balance between how many forwards, defencemen and goalies to keep on your roster. Taking a look back at season's past, I've found that the top 5 finishers kept on average at least 3 forwards, 2 defencemen and 2 goalies on their bench with the last one being used as a floater (i.e. rookie etc.) In contrast, the bottom 5 people kept an average of 2 forwards, 2 defencemen, 1 goalie and 3 floaters. So what does that tell me? I believe people may be missing the real value a bench serves. First and foremost the bench is to provide the team flexibility when injuries occur etc. Having ~40% of your bench as rookies that may or may not play limits your ability to adjust your team when needed. The top 5 from last year seem to have made it a priority on cashing in on Pool Points NOW as opposed to 3 years from now when a rookie starts to become productive.

I'll take my so called "liking of veterans" as an example. Its not so much that I value veterans, its that I value veterans more than rookies since they have a proven track record and will give me on average more Pool Points than the younger folk in a given year. Sure they may not be flashy but they are usually reliable.

Note that this really only applies to the pool rules laid out by the GDHL (i.e. 5 year timeframe). If this was a pool that was continuous, then the balance I'm sure would be different. That being said we would hopefully have a much different rules to make-up the pool.

Remember: Rookies that break into the league and have an immediate impact (e.g. Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin) come once every 10 years. The NHL has just been spoiled the last couple of years. Usually the highly touted rookie falls flat. Case and point is Lecavalier. The defending Rocket Richard trophy winner was compared to being the next Lemieux... but didn't really become productive until his 6th year.

Fur Engee (CP)

GM Guide: Know the State of Your Franchise

Calgary (CP) Ok. So after writing this series I will give away (save a few) almost all of my opinions on how I view players, franchises and how to run them. Its an honest attempt to document what has given me success in pools (keeper and non) over the past 10 years.

To begin I wanted to write an article that is directly relevant to the GDHL. That is knowing the state of your franchise and using this knowledge to your advantage.

Know Your Place
The way I see things, every franchise goes in waves. The peaks of each wave are when you should be most competitive, while the troughs are when you are not so competitive. Depending on a multitude of factors (GM, rules of the pool etc.), this variance could be greater than others. This is much like the real NHL where certain teams do as much as they can in order to ride their wave for as long as possible to stay perennial contenders (e.g. DET, OTT) while others have constant rebuild periods with short bursts of success (e.g. NYR) and yet others who have had limited success despite ample opportunity (CLB, ATL). So where do you fit in? Do you honestly believe that you can win this year? Or do you believe that with a couple of tweaks you can win in 2 years? The answer to these questions will determine the type of moves you should be making quite considerably.

Keep it Real
A consistent theme that I've seen are GMs not being realistic with their teams expected performance. Most GMs believe that they can win when they really don't have a chance. I know what you are thinking, "Of course I believe I'll win. If I didn't I wouldn't be in the pool." If this sounds like you, then I would argue that the real reason why you are in the pool isn't because of the money. Its a way to stay in the game that you enjoy. Being realistic about your expectations is the key to be successful and to decide whether a trade is worth it.

Judging Assets
Although I don't want to get into what a player's worth is (which will be another article) what I will say is that depending on the state of your franchise you should be willing to make the deals necessary to get you to, or stay at, the peak of the wave. Too often I find GMs holding onto assets for sentimental reasons or because they believe it will make them competitive instead of cashing them in to obtain assets that will help them throughout the life of the pool.

GDHL Scenario
I was going to write down what I would do in each situation for the following scenario, but rather I'd like to hear back from you! Leave a comment on what each GM should do in the following example:

There are a couple of players: Serge Superstar, Valeri Very Good and Peter Promising. Serge is 36, a perennial all-star and is consistently in the top 10 in scoring every year. Valeri is 27, has had several good seasons and improving each time. He hasn't broken out yet but seems to be on the right track. Peter is 20 and is entering his rookie campaign after a great junior career. He may turn out to be a solid NHLer somday.

Now you have 3 GMs: Conner Contender, Mary (Since GDHL is an equal opportunity league) Middle of the Pack & Larry Last Place. From those three names I'm sure you can decipher the state of their franchises.

Question: What should each GM do if they had each of them on their team?

Fur Engee (CP)