Conditional Waiver Wire Bids

OK, I get my head twisted around on this so much that I feel like the Severed Heads logo! What you see below is my attempt to offer a coherent way in which this can work, and while it is complex to write out, it is actually fairly simple in practice.

This process works under the assumption that GMs can bid on a player, with the proviso that if they don't get who they want, they can bid on another player, with preference given first to teams that bid first on a player, and second to teams lower in the standings.

The simplest way to think about this is that the waiver wire players (WWP) are bid upon in "Rounds" much like the draft. A GM can make as many bids in a single round as they wish BUT can only name a WWP once per round. The submission would be in the format below ie a GM would state "In Round one..."

Here's an illustration:

3 GMs in the pool - Cam, Doug and Bob. At present, that is also the order of the standings, Cam 1st, Doug 2nd, Bob 3rd.

On this week's waiver wire are two LW - Frolov and Lemieux, a Centre - Arnott, and three D-men - Leetch (injured again lol), Boynton, and Smith (take your pick which one)

Submissions to make a claim on the WWPs would take the following format:

Let's say Cam has one LW (Probert) and 2 D men (Tverdovsky and Numminen) he wants to improve upon/drop. Cam submits:

- Round one
- Bid on LW Frolov, drop Probert if successful (came out of retirement!)
- Bid on D Leetch, drop Numminen if successful
- Bid on D Smith, drop Tverdovsky if successful
**(note that in order to have 2 D-men bid on in a single round, you MUST offer up 2 D men in return)

- Round two
- Bid on Lemieux, drop Probert if successful (since Cam only has one LW to drop, this only applies if his round one bid failed)
- Bid on Boynton, drop either 1) Tverdovsky, or 2) Numminen depending on outcome of round one
**(Note that Cam must specify the order of preference for dropping here)

Meanwhile, Bob has one LW and one D man to drop. Bob submits:

- Round One
- Bid on LW Frolov, drop Parrish if successful
- Bid on Leetch, drop Mara if successful
**(Note that since Bob only has 1 D man he wants to drop, he can only bid on 1 D man per round)

- Round Two
- Bid on LW Lemieux, drop Parrish if successful (ie if Round one bid fails)
- Bid on D Smith, drop Mara if successful

- Round three
- Bid on Boynton, drop Mara if successful


SO - What is the result?

First we look at everyone's Round One bids:

Both Cam and Bob bid on Frolov in Round 1 - Bob is lower in the standings so Bob gets Frolov, drops Parrish
Both Cam and Bob bid on Leetch in Round 1 - Bob is lower in the standings so Bob gets Leetch, drops Mara
Only Cam bid on Smith in Round 1 - Cam gets Smith, drops Tverdovsky

Now Round Two:

Cam failed to get Frolov, but bid on Lemieux. Bob's bid on Lemieux is moot since he already filled the slot with Frolov, so Cam gets Lemieux, drops Probert
Cam failed to get Leetch, but bid on Boynton. First option to drop here is Tverdovsky, but he was dropped to obtain Smith, so Cam gets Boynton, drops Numminen

Round Three:

Only Bob bid here, but he has already dropped Mara when he got Leetch, so it is moot

Complex? Perhaps...
Reflective of reality - I think so...multiple teams can try to acquire a FA's services, but if they fail, thay can go after the next FA at the same position. First bids and lowest standing determine who gets which player.

For the record, I am happy to be the season's arbitrator on making sure WW submissions are in correct format, and determining who gets who using this system...

Thoughts?

D