Top 10: Things I Was Wrong About in the GDHL

Calgary (CP) Okay. I will be the first to admit when I'm wrong about my predictions. As much as I would like to think that I know the game and how its played, sometimes I get the blanket pulled from underneath me. In no particular order (and hence no numbering), here are 10 things I didn't foresee happening.

Ihor's Team Winning the GDHL This Year
Wow. Was I way off base here. After what I thought was a solid draft, Ihor finished in 6th place almost 300 PPts out of first. Of course this was triggered by Triska's fire sale early on, but I believe he knew that he didn't have a legit shot at winning this year.

Flyin' Elbows Competing for the Title
Ok. I think I get a mulligan on this one. I said that he would be competitive IF everyone stayed healthy. But realistically, even if everyone were healthy, Mark probably would be in the lower third anyways. The totally bombing of Gagne, Afinogenov, Roloson, Emery and Havlat hurt him.

Kane Isn't NHL Ready
Boy did this kid prove me wrong. I thought he was too small (5' 8", 160lbs) for the NHL level and thought that he wouldn't be ready for 2 more years. 72 points later and a lock for Calder makes me believe that Trevor will have an exciting team with both him and Toews in the stable.

Price Would Play Second Fiddle to Huet
Although I knew that he would be the goalie of the future for the Habs, I never thought that he would take the reigns over by trade deadline. Paul seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to evaluating talent on the Habs... or maybe its that since he's a fan he keeps an eye on them. Whatever the case, Price is a keeper for a long time to come.

Brad Richards is a 95 Point Player
Man this guy is so frustrating. One year after my trade with Ryan, it looks to be like a trade that was worked out even. I always thought Richards was capable of 95 points. Now I'm not sure whether he'll score 80!

Mike Ribeiro is a Bum
When Ryan announced the drafting of Mike Ribeiro in Round 5 of this years draft, I'll admit that I thought it was a waste of a pick. Going onto a 100+ PPt performance this season, I'm forced to eat my words. Well done Ryan!

Dan Cloutier Would Make His Triumphant Return
A very subtle move that shifted the balance of power early on. On the first day of free agency, I was going to sign Pascal Leclaire but instead went with Dan Cloutier believing him to have a better chance to be the No.1 since the emergence of Norrena in CLB. Guess who got Leclaire? Kevin. Almost 110 PPts including 9 SO later... man did I blow that one.

Rookies Would Not Have A Great Impact This Year
I've often thought that we were spoiled between the Ovechkin, Malkin and Crosby years. I never thought that we'd get another bunch of rookies that could have an immediate impact in the league for a long time. But this year, there is Kane, Toews, Backstrom, Price, Niskanen, Enstrom, Mueller, and Gagne that will force me to re-evaluate my position on rookies. Although there are no immediate superstars in the this group right now, all of these guys most likely will be in a couple of years. My one parting shot to this is that NONE of the top 4 teams dressed a rookie for any significant period this season ;)

Malkin Needed Crosby to Be Successful
With so much attention being focused on Sidney, I thought that this was the big reason why Malkin had so much success last year. He wasn't playing against the opponents top players so he had a 'free ride'. After Crosby went down Malkin's production actually went up! Truly amazing and would be a Hart winner if not for Ovechkin and his even more ridiculous play.

Final GDHL Standings
Heading into the season, this is how I had things:
1. One Eyebrow (Ihor)
2. Leaf Haters! (Kevin)
3. Sather's Eyes (Victor)
4. Bear Skins (Mike)
5. GGopher (Jordan)
6. Flyin Elbows (Mark)
7. Boomers (Paul)
8. Whalers (Adam)
9. Airborne Attitude (Ken)
10. Sith (JW)
11. Shamrocks (Trevor)
12. John Doe (Ryan)

This is how it ended up:
1. Leaf Haters! (+1)
2. Sather's Eyes (+1)
3. Bear Skins (+1)
4. GGopher (+1)
5. Boomers (+2)
6. One Eyebrow (-5)
7. Airborne Attitude (+2)
8. Sith (+2)
9. Shamrocks (+2)
10. Whalers (-2)
11. John Doe (+1)
12. Flyin Elbows (-6)

Wasn't too far off but over-estimated the impact that Ihor, Adam and Mark's teams would have.

Fur Engee (CP)

GDHL Rules: The 'Franchise' Player Tag

Calgary (CP) Its been many many months since I last posted. A lot of exams, work, and well I've been extremely busy. With the GDHL 2007-2008 season coming to a close, I wanted to get this article up to get some good discussion happening. I still have a back log of posts on the way that will be rolled out over the playoff time so we have stuff to talk about in the summer... including Final Team Report Cards *gulp*.

In any event, this will be a start of a series of articles that should spark debate on possible improvements in our next iteration of the GDHL. Here we will discuss with the concept of a "Franchise" tag, but first I'd like to define a term that I will use later one.

Elite Player - One that is realistically capable of leading their respective position in PPts for a given season within the time frame of this pool.

Basic Concept:
Before each season starts (after draft) each GM places a "Franchise" tag on 3 players for each team except their own. After all votes are tabulated, the 3 players with the greatest number of "Franchise" tag votes on each team will be the team's Franchise players (i.e. each team will have 3 Franchise players). In the event of a tie, the player with the greatest number of PPts the previous season will be used. During the season, whenever a trade is made involving a player with a "Franchise" tag, there must be an equal number of "Franchise" players exchanged between the GMs. Since the voting is done after the draft of each year, the "Franchise" tag for players can change from year to year.

Why Have a "Franchise" Tag?
I guess you could call it the "Kevin Kwasny" rule. No fault is put on Kevin since he has shown himself to be a powerhouse in the GDHL with 2 convincing victories, but this proposal will:

• Prevent one team from having a boat load of elite players.
• Prevent teams from having NO elite players.
• To theoretically improve the equality and evaluation criteria for trades.
• To keep all teams in the league competitive year after year.
• Decrease GM inactivity.
  

As mentioned before, this is no slight on Kevin since he did not 'force' the other GMs to make the trades (although I'm still convinced he has some Jedi mind control technique he's perfected) but I'm going to use his team as an example.

Alex Ovechkin
Jarome Iginla
Evgeni Malkin
Marian Hossa
Sergei Gonchar
Dion Phaneuf

I'm sure everyone will agree that all 6 are elite level players. They will be on his team for the final 3 seasons of the league and he is a virtual lock to finish in the top 2 spots each successive year and win the dynasty prize.

Taking a look at other teams in the GDHL, there are some with only 1 or 2 elite player on their team which will greatly hinder their chances of being competitive with the rest of the league within the next 3 years. If a team isn't being competitive, what motivation does the GM have to work on his team? In an ideal world, the separation between first place and last would be 200 PPts, not 500 PPts. A 200 PPts spread averages out to be 10 PPts/player which someone can swallow. A 500PPts spread works out to a whopping 25 PPts/player which is insurmountable.

The Big Questions:
Do you think this will work?
Will it solve our problems?
Do we even have a problem to solve?

Fur Engee (CP)