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)