Proposal #3 - The Omnibus Proposal

Sep 21 at 10:51 PM

FuNHL Proposal

Short summary:

1) Abolish IR rule

2) Abolish Waiver Wire (as there will be no “waived” players)

3) Reduce to one WD with set date in early-mid December each year

4) Allow unlimited promotion/demotion of prospects (like a farm team) without penalty

Detailed explanation (TL; DR):

We have always tried to emulate the NHL as much as possible, while trying to keep the complexity of rules and laborious management to a minimum. The IR rule, while well intended, has stopped being what it was supposed to be, and is now mostly used after WD2 once there is no penalty to use it. By allowing promotion of prospects (see below), the IR rule becomes largely moot, and allows GMs to either plan wisely for potential injury, or make trades to address issues that arise.

The waiver wire arose as a consequence of prospect promotion, but is very onorous to maintain and monitor. Sometimes a rare player of some utility (who is not morbidly injured) comes along, but most of the WW discards were out for lengthy periods or bottom end players. By allowing GMs to promote prospects and send players back to the “farm” team, the would be WW discard remains with the team. If another team see utility in that player, who is not in use by their owning GM, there is a ripe opportunity to make a trade offer to acquire said player. As such, I don’t believe dropping the WW would reduce trading.

Each year we have a small number of undrafted players who turn out to exceed expectations, and these are picked up at WD1. But by WD2, deck chairs on the Titanic are shuffled, and the drops are of minimal utility, such that less than half the teams in the league even improve marginally through WD2. In our busy lives, the amount of work to prepare for WD2 far exceeds its utility. Moreover the intent of added gatherings/interaction via WDs is lost by WD2, often with barely half the GMs actively “attending” by phone/online, and most drafting by proxy. I think we lose little of value by dropping WD2. We can keep WD1 and set a fixed date (eg 2nd Saturday of December each year) so people can plan for it. The drop rules would stay the same, protect an active roster minus two, and keep prospects. The only difference is that players demoted to the “farm” would by default be protected but this would in turn expose more prospects if they have been brought up. Either way, the same number of players are available as usual. I hope with just one WD that we can achieve greater participation too.

All of this derives from the free promotion/demotion of prospects. This makes GM have to consider not only the long term value of futures (eg next years anticipated #1 pick) against the insurance of depth players who can step in for injury. This is exactly what NHL GMs have to consider when they manage a farm team and NHL roster as both future and immediate value have merit. It also creates greater utility for prospects, giving them added value (and attraction) for trade purposes. We do not increase the number of prospects (as I think 8 long term locked up players is ample) as there is justifiable resistance to have even more players tied up and undraftable each year.

Here is the End of the Long Version of Proposal for Voting.

Thank you

Bob