It's that time again: Roundtable Hockey League '010!

[Nakor]

If you were in the league last year, you should already have an email at the address registered to your Yahoo! account with your invitation to join. Otherwise just click here:

http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/bbrt

The password is: qrrbrbirlbel

The league is open to all BBRT'ers of course.

I made a few changes from last time. Those are:

- Remove GAA. I recall us agreeing both that goalies had too much weight and that this was more of a team stat anyway.
- Remove PIM. I recall us agreeing this was a poor stat (undesirable); we only really had it as a defenceman stat.
- Add HITS. So here's a new D stat.
- Add BLOCKS. And another; this refers to blocked shots BTW.
- Change IR from 2 slots to 4. A couple people had to drop good players (or lose roster spots) to sudden mass injury last year; this should help.

So a recap of the positions and stats:

3 C, 3 LW, 3 RW, 5 D, 2 Util, 2 G, 4 IR, 6 Bench.

G, A, +/-, PPP, SHP, Hits, Blocks, W, SAV%, SHO.

As always if you don't like these changes or want a change that isn't here, speak up. We have 'til draft to fix things, and I'll set this for just a few games before the season.

Best of luck to everyone!

[Frong]

No GAA? Bwuh? That's tied so closely to SAV% that it seems bizarre to me to have one but not the other. In fact, if anything, W is more of a team stat than GAA, since a good goalie can very easily be screwed out of wins by a lack of offense (I'm sure you've seen it happen plenty of times to pitchers in baseball). Hits and blocks are interesting stats, both of which I like infinitely better than PIM. The entire concept of having your fantasy team be rewarded for your players getting more PIM was just stupid, anyway. Why be rewarded for actions that hurt the players' teams in real life?

Anyway, now for the more pressing question: will we actually be able to field at least five teams this year with managers who both A) know what they're doing and B) won't go AWOL halfway through the season?

[Nakor]

If SAV% and GAA are so closely tied, doesn't that just make it make more sense not to have both? It's the same reason we quit using P a couple seasons back, because it was too closely tied to G and A.

You're right about W though. I'm just not sure what else to replace it with (if anything). The only other goalie stats are Games Started, Losses, Goals Against (total), Shots Against (total), Saves (total). ("Total" as opposed to average.)

The other skater stats to choose from are Points, PPG, PPA, SHG, SHA (all trumped by G, A, PPP and SHP already), GWG, SOG (Shots on Goal), SH% (Shooting %), FOW, FOL (Faceoffs won/lost). Nothing terribly outstanding really.

We could optionally just drop the W stat and use 9 categories. 7 forward and 2 goalie stats seems like an okay balance since we'd have 16 active skaters to 2 active goalies max per day.

[Frong]

Hmm... I suppose that could work, having only two goalie stats, though I think I prefer GAA to SV%. Seeing as the whole point of the goalie is not to give up goals, GAA is a better reflection of how good a goalie is than SAV%. Either way, it'd just look really weird after seeing so many goalie stats in past years of this league. If we simply substituted GAA in for SAV% in the original stat choices in this thread, I wouldn't complain.

Now that I look at it, FOW is an interesting stat. I'm not quite sure how it'd affect the league balance. On the one hand, it could make centers disproportionately valuable compared to wingers, but on the other hand, it could also theoretically help compensate for a lack of point scoring on the part of centers who are at least still good in the faceoff circle (or help compensate for a lousy draft). I guess in that regard, it's not unlike hits or blocks, in that it's a borderline gimmick stat that makes you strategize more nonetheless. I wouldn't be averse to adding that.

[Nakor]

If it were FO% I'd be more interested, but total won includes so many variables not necessarily reliant on skill. It also means whoever gets wingers that take face-offs a lot take the category lol.

And wouldn't save percent really be a better measure of personal skill? A dude who stops 37/40 shots is better than one who stops 13/15. The GAA really takes the team's D into account, since goalies who face fewer shots tend to have a better GAA. Not that SAV% can't be affected by skilled D, but not quite as blatantly, no?

[Frong]

Hm... I was sorta looking at it the other way around. A goalie on a team with a porous D will face a lot more shots than one on a team with an airtight D, meaning he automatically gets more chances to get his SAV% up just by being stuck behind the lousy D. Whether or not he actually stops those shots is more up to him, and technically, the guy who saved 37/40 did give up one more goal than the guy who saved 13/15. Of course, facing fewer shots is always better than facing more shots, which logically explains why you rarely see goalies with a really good SAV% but a lousy GAA or vice versa. I bet it ultimately matters little, since the same handful of elite goalies are still going to be coveted either way.

You're right about the FO%, anyway, so it's unfortunate that it's not in the possible stats list. FOW is still better than FOL, though, just by virtue of being a positive stat. I dunno, you think it's worth experimenting with it? We tried PIM for a year and found that it didn't work, so now it's gone. It might not hurt to have FOW be the experimental fringe stat this year.

[Nakor]

Actually, that wasn't our first use of PIM. It was a default Yahoo stat, and this will be the first time we haven't used it.

I don't mind experimenting with FOW I guess. I'd also like to see what anyone else joining thinks too. On my cell atm so I'll make the actual adjustments to the league when I'm home from classes.

[Frong]

Er... I don't remember having PIM in our RT leagues until last season. You really sure we had it the whole time?

In ze meantime, we still need more than our two teams before we can do anything.

[Nakor]

Yes and yes. Yahoo's default set of stats is:

G, A, +/-, PIM, PPG, SOG, W, GAA, SAV%, SHO

[Roemello]

Add a third to the mix. Back for another whoopin

[Frong]

Back for another whoopin

LOL You and I were in a vicious race for third place last year, which I eventually won. Hurray, I'm the king of the consolation match... well, sort of. Whoopity forkin' doo.

OK, I KNEW there was a reason why I didn't think we had PIM as a stat before last year - we didn't have it every year. I went back and checked all seven previous seasons' results (which I just now found out that you can do), and saw that PIM wasn't included in '02 and '06. That plus the fact that I simply wasn't paying close attention add up to explain why I forgot about PIM entirely before last year.

So anyway, once we decide whether or not to use FOW, I'll go and set my pre-draft rankings. Gotta take all the stats into account and all.

[Roemello]

Some how or other ya had to claim vengeance for the year before and our vicious battle for the title... which more or less lasted the entire season since I think we were the only ones really paying attention

[Nakor]

Gonna give us an opinion on stats to use or whether we should use FOW Roem?

[Tanis]

Now that I'm back from slaying the Allied hordes, and somewhat caught up on sleep, I'll get myself signed up as well tonight.

Maybe anyways... Depends on what time, and how many loads of stuff I take to my new place tonight.

[Frong]

So who's the fifth person gonna be this year, I wonder. We never really have any trouble getting four teams, but there've gotta be at least five or every team will basically be an all-star team. The whole thing just seems gimpy that way.