The Rookie Draft

[Rob]

If we do protect first round draft choices, we would have to do it in a few years or offer some sort of compensation to teams like me who have handed out my first rounders like candy for the next.

Right, it would have to happen effective 2019 - so that none of these picks have been traded.

[Capn Cally]

If we do protect first round draft choices, we would have to do it in a few years or offer some sort of compensation to teams like me who have handed out my first rounders like candy for the next.

Yes - Earliest would be the 2018 draft so not for a year and a half... Not many of those picks have been dealt, and the only 1st rounder that was traded, you actually have received!

[GypsieDeathBringer]

I'm a big fan of protecting 1st round picks.  I've been screwed and benefited from it as the real life Canes have traded away and received 1st rounders and nothing sucks more than knowing I'll miss out on a top prospect because Jim Rutherford wanted to have all the Staal brothers on a team. 

Speaking of changes; this might not be the place, but since we are basing future salary cap limits partly on unspent cap in our league we should have a cap floor.  We lost 2 million for next year just as the NHL's cap is increasing almost entirely because the Coyotes are sitting on 40m.

[Rob]

I'm a big fan of protecting 1st round picks.  I've been screwed and benefited from it as the real life Canes have traded away and received 1st rounders and nothing sucks more than knowing I'll miss out on a top prospect because Jim Rutherford wanted to have all the Staal brothers on a team. 

Speaking of changes; this might not be the place, but since we are basing future salary cap limits partly on unspent cap in our league we should have a cap floor.  We lost 2 million for next year just as the NHL's cap is increasing almost entirely because the Coyotes are sitting on 40m.

I feel like there's always going to be a team rebuilding and sitting on cap.  There has been every year so far.  But I am not opposed to a cap floor.  I just haven't thought through how to implement/enforce it. 

[Rob]

But on the other side of that, the real life Cane's are sitting on a ton of cap which lifted the NHL average quite a bit.  Not to the same relative amount, but enough to not make our system anomalous, this year at least.

[Anthony]

Yes - Earliest would be the 2018 draft so not for a year and a half... Not many of those picks have been dealt, and the only 1st rounder that was traded, you actually have received!

In that case let's start it next year! I knew I had two but I honestly didn't think I had mine anymore. Glad I do because I'm going to be BAD real soon.

If we did want to implement a protected first round pick sooner, I'm willing to work with you guys to get Philly his pick back and start it in 2018

[shooter47]

The one thing that I like about the Draft Keepers is that it helps keep all teams stocked with prospects. Not to pick on anyone but Philadelphia and Anaheim have both recently traded away the majority of their supplemental draft picks but were still able to add some decent prospects thru draft keepers. I think that this rule helps keep all teams somewhat stocked and it will be less likely that a team is completely run into the ground.

I don't think that the system is completely fair to all the teams but like Rob I do like the wrinkle that it provides. I haven't been very fortunate as the blues since they have been a good team and have drafted pretty low in most drafts (They traded a first round pick away for Jay Freaking Bouwmeester!). I think the best Draft Keeper that I have so far is Robby Fabbri.

I think if we eliminated the draft keepers then our Supplemental draft would get deeper but this would just lead to more players being passed over in the draft and being signed as FA's during the year. Right now there are probably 1.5 draft keepers for each team which would be 45 each offseason. The supplemental draft allows us to select another 60 players each year which leaves us with roughly 100 players added each offseason. This will end up pushing more players to FA and prevent teams from acquiring young cheap productive players which every team needs to fill out their roster.

[GypsieDeathBringer]

I feel like there's always going to be a team rebuilding and sitting on cap.  There has been every year so far.  But I am not opposed to a cap floor.  I just haven't thought through how to implement/enforce it.

Maybe we don't have to have a real one, as I'm not a fan of making teams acquire players they don't want.  They could just sign any random free agent to a one year deal to get them to the cap floor.  That doesn't add anything to the league.  The NHL has the salary floor set to 16m below the cap.  Maybe we could just use that 16m for equation purposes and make that the largest free cap allowed when figuring it out.  Wonder where that would set our cap for next year???

[Capn Cally]

The one thing that I like about the Draft Keepers is that it helps keep all teams stocked with prospects. Not to pick on anyone but Philadelphia and Anaheim have both recently traded away the majority of their supplemental draft picks but were still able to add some decent prospects thru draft keepers. I think that this rule helps keep all teams somewhat stocked and it will be less likely that a team is completely run into the ground.

My suggestion was that only the NHL 1st Rounders not be available for us.

Every team would still have the option of picking up 3 of their parent team's NHL draftees, drafted in round 2 through 7 in the NHL draft.
Some teams might have three 2nd rounders, others might have a 2nd rounder and then a 5th and 6th or something like that.

But to your point, there would still be 3 players added each year "for free" to the minors for each team, plus 3 draft picks if they don't trade them away - 1 of which will be an NHL 1st rounder; 2 of which will be 1st rounders if the team in DNHL finishes 11th or worse (2nd round would be picks 21 and up, so 21-30 are still in the real NHL draft 1st round).

[Anthony]

My suggestion was that only the NHL 1st Rounders not be available for us.

Every team would still have the option of picking up 3 of their parent team's NHL draftees, drafted in round 2 through 7 in the NHL draft.
Some teams might have three 2nd rounders, others might have a 2nd rounder and then a 5th and 6th or something like that.

But to your point, there would still be 3 players added each year "for free" to the minors for each team, plus 3 draft picks if they don't trade them away - 1 of which will be an NHL 1st rounder; 2 of which will be 1st rounders if the team in DNHL finishes 11th or worse (2nd round would be picks 21 and up, so 21-30 are still in the real NHL draft 1st round).

I think this is the best solution.