NHL hockey fans...

I decided to start a fantasy league this year. (I am going with 10 teams) I want to open it to SimHQ members first.

First and foremost, it is free, and meant for fun. The battle is for bragging rights. (Yahoo does give out cool virtual trophies lol, and your success is documented year to year)

I would prefer we get enough participation here, to have a league made up of SimHQ members only.
This is why I am announcing it early. If we need to open it up to the public the flesh out the league I will open it to the public close to draft day. (or perhaps you know a friend or family member who would be interested)

All rules can be discussed before hand, there is lots of time.
We can discuss roster size, point categories etc.
I have been playing Yahoo Fantasy since 2018. I always participated in hockey pools at work before that. I needed my fix during retirement.

If you have experience in fantasy sports, all the better. If you are a fan of hockey, and want to make watching the games a little more interesting, please join.

Ideally, I would like this to be a keeper league. A league that carries over season to season. Keeper meaning you get to keep a select number of players per year (usually 4 or 5) before the draft.
Or it can be a league that starts with a fresh draft every year. All this can be discussed.

NHL start date is October 12th.

Live draft is set for Sunday Oct. 2nd 7:30 PM EST. (can be discussed).

Please feel free to join here




Drop The Mitts Fantasy Hockey League

I'm a Blackhawks fan. The next five to six years are going to be "fantasy seasons" for me. Begin the rebuild.

It's quite interesting for me to see a German NHL fan! I would imagine that hockey is just a tad behind soccer (sorry, i meant football) in popularity in Germany.

I can't believe a rebuilding team let Dach and Debrincat go. It will be intersting to see what they can get for Kane and Toews.

There was a time there were few German players in the NHL. Now most fantasy leagues Leon Draisaitl goes top 2 in drafts.

We are very happy to have Moritz Seider playing for the Wings. He looks to be one of the premier defensemen in the league for the next decade. I remember Ewe Krupp was pretty darn good. IMHO, the German teams in the World Junior tournaments have been looking better and better the last few years. Maybe we will start to see more of their presence in the NHL.

I did not realize Seider was German. There was a time when Olaf Kölzig was the only German player I knew.
Maybe next World Cup they will be able to ice their own team. Mind you, that gaggle called Team Europe won Silver in 2016.

I like fantasy sports, so consider me a tentative maybe.

But the Flyers suck so bad I don't follow hockey like I used to, but that's surmountable. I'll kick it around.

I hope your fantasy league does better than my SimHQ Formula 1 fantasy league which has just three people playing.

I'm currently in a fantasy baseball league. I have to say that it's SO much easier doing a fantasy league now than it was in the late 80's/early 90's when you had to get all your stats from the newspaper box scores.

I can't even imagine. Back then they put out the stats once a week in the paper.

Yahoo league ? Or Fantrax ?

CBS Sports on the iPhone app.

Well I hope you join DBond. I would like SimHQ members to be a part of it.
I think there are about 5 of us who follow hockey though.

That's the beauty of fantasy sports, even if your favorite team sucks, you can still cheer on you fantasy players. It keeps the season interesting.

I forgot about CBS. I played fantasy hockey there way back in 2003 or so.

I used to get talked into a fantasy football league with some of my friends from work. I've never been a big fan of the NFL, although I really liked college football, so I had no idea what I was doing. Is was only fun to me because we took turns hosting a draft party, always with good food and drink. The prize money for the championship win was usually $1,200. The rule was you then had to take the league out for dinner with the winnings. That ate into a good chunk of the money, but it was always a really good time.

I'm thinking about joining too WT. Sounds like fun, especially if it's laid back.

Yeah, LB4LB, I miss the days of getting together with a group of about 15 guys, and having our yearly NHL draft. It was a lot of fun. Lots of beer and trash talk, ridiculing each others picks. One guy picked Alexander Daigle every year. "This is the year", he would always say. Haha. That year never came. Doing it in person made it a little more special. Just one more way the internet killed human contact.
I hope you join up as well LB4LB. Definitely laid back league, free for fun. Battling for Yahoo virtual trophies.

I would have just taken everyone to Taco Bell.

3 of 10 spots gone.

Decided to go with a 10 team league. That will make for more talented rosters. Tope 6 teams make the playoffs.

The point system is broken up into 13 categories.

Forwards/ Defense - Goals (G), Assists (A), Powerplay Goals (PPG), Powerplay Assists (PPA), Game-Winning Goals (GWG), Shots on Goal (SOG), Hits (HIT), Blocks (BLK)

Goalies - Wins (W), Goals Against Average (GAA), Saves (SV), Save Percentage (SV%), Shutouts (SHO)

Daily rosters - Center x3, LW x3, RW x3, D x4, Util x2, Goalie x2

Bench - 4players, plus 2 Injured Reserve spots

As for keepers, I would like to go with 5 players, with a max of 2 goalies.

Just made it 4 out of 10 WT.

Great news

6 of 10 spots gone.

Make that 7 of 10 gone. Come on DBond, we would love to have you. Excellent chance the league will be full by the end of the day.

Looks like 9 out of 10 now.

The last spot is almost certainly taken.

I'm American, living in Germany. Born and raised in Chicago, City of Champions!

I think it was a smart move by the Hawks. They just should've started that move about 3 years ago. Cat was going to be an Unrestricted FA next season and he would've asked for a boatload of cash, as he should have. Hawks wouldn't have been able to afford him. Besides, we'll see how good he is in Ottawa, I think he was good because of Kaner. Dach was under-performing, so I'm not too upset about that move. As far as Toews and Kane, who knows. I think Toews is definitely gone by the deadline, but there are rumors Kaner will stay to try and shatter all the Hawks records. Either way, if they both go, probably a deadline deal. Unfortunately, the Hawks are following the model of the salary cap era to be successful. It takes about 5-6 years of terrible hockey, re-building, and then you're competitive. Thats what Tampa and Colorado did. But, sometimes it backfires (ahem...Buffalo, Edmonton, Arizona...). I like the moves that the new GM is doing, much better than Stan, and he at least has a plan. Time will tell.

Lets Go Hawks!

I just realized today that the World Junior Championship starts today !?
In August. The tournament was cut short due to covid last Christmas.
Great hockey in August, I'm in. I had to end my TSN summer hiatus.
My wife says I'm the only person in Canada watching. Funny girl.

I thought it was mandatory for everyone to watch the tournament in Canada. It seems there is always a week of official national morning when they lose to the Americans in the final. LOL !!! The Canadian media loses their minds when that happens.

I love the tournament. I watched the under 18 Helinka Gretzky tournament too. My wife calls me a hockey junkie. I will go watch local high school games too sometimes. I guess I will will always be a bit of a rink rat.

I did not realize they were making up for the cancelled Christmas tournament. I am pleasantly surprised.
You truly are a rink rat LB4LB. You are from an original six city. Totally normal.

Hockey is our real religion up here. I like the World Juniors, but losing the Olympics or World Cup is what hurts.

It sounds like the NHL will decline future Olympics, and go with a World Cup every 4 years. Fine with me. Some of the Olympic host cities are in horrific time zones.

That's great. Good to see so much interest. Thanks very much for the invitation,but I've decided to pass on it this year. Good luck to all who enter!

Bummer, the USA is eliminated from medal round contention. They were 5-0 in the tournament up until last night. Czechia played well, had a little puck luck too.
The Swiss didn't make it easy for Canada, they usually don't.
I was hoping for a US vs Canada final. The tournament does not seem the same without the Russians.

I knew the USA would lose that game in the first period. Czechia completely out played them all game. They won every puck battle, and denied the U.S. any meaningful puck possession in their own zone. USA's goalie let a couple of soft ones in, but that wasn't why the lost. Congrats to Czechia on a game very well played. The Swiss and Germany really gave their heavily favored opponents a run for their money, but how about Latvia? I always love rooting for them as underdogs. Maybe it's their really cool uni's. Love the color.

Latvia! Latvia! Latvia!

I'm hoping for a win by Finland this year. I always love to see the favorites go down.

Is it me, or does it seem like tournament is always in Canada now? I can't remember the last time it was in Europe on olympic size ice, but my memory isn't so great these days.

It was in Europe in 2020. Canada definitely gets their fair share of hosting, but that is probably because people in Canada will actually go watch.
IIHF World Jr. Tournament location history

I can't dispute that! I've been exactly to one hockey game in my life and that was only because the tickets were free. This was back in like 2002 or 2003.

Panzer, you do realize you are 1 out of 329.5 million ?

Both Florida teams are very good.
I wouldn't go to an NBA, MLB or NFL game if the tickets were free.
I might get interested in the NFL if Toronto had a team. But the NBA and MLB bore me.

Last time I went to a NBA game was in 2006. A friend of mine from work had a brother who worked for the Pistons organization and he took me to a game for free once. He is a really big Pistons fan and a good friend, so I went and acted like I enjoyed myself. Truth be told, I hated it. The music was so #%&*$# loud. The game was boring, so they had to have so many loud and bright distractions going on just to keep people interested. I felt like I was at some ridiculous carnival. After each whistles they had people running on the court jumping around to loud music and bright lights flashing like crazy. There was also an obnoxious public speaker announcer that was just trying to hype the crap out of the crowd. It just seemed so desperate. I had a pounding headache after that. After that I always made some excuse whenever he offered. Now as far as the NFL, all I got to say is it's the Lions man. It's like watching paint dry. If you like field goals and no third down conversions made, there the team for you. lol. Old man rant=off.

I won free tickets at work, for the Raptors against the Sixers, in 2001. It was a playoff game. And still I was bored. The whole time I was wishing it was a hockey game. I was amazed at the athletic ability of the players. Something you don't see on tv, is how much sweat is mopped up during the game.
I've been to about 5 Blue Jays games over the years, it is a massive chore to stay interested.

Playoff baseball I can watch, but game 79 of a 162 games season. Pass. There is no urgency.
I was happy for the city of Toronto in 2019 for the Raptors to win. The parade drew between 1.5 and 2 million fans.
If the Leafs ever did it (they won't), it would be even bigger.

Um...yes? How does that change the fact that hockey in the US outside of the Northeast is simply not nearly as popular as baseball, football and basketball?

And it doesn't matter that the Florida hockey teams are good. Both of them still have crappy attendance.

Perhaps stay in your lane Panzer. Check the top of the list. NHL Attendance

Hockey is HUGE in Minnesota. It's like a religion there. It's HUGE in Michigan. California has three NHL teams. Sure football and basketball are the biggest audiences in the states, but baseball is slowly dying IMHO.

Especially with younger generations. Baseball is just too slow. But like I said previous, I can appreciate playoff baseball.

Canada vs Czechia 4pm est
Sweden vs Finland 8pm est
Canada and Sweden are the only 2 undefeated teams. Winners of each game play for gold/silver.
2 losers battle for the bronze.

Canada better be ready for Czechia. Looks to be a great game.

Absolutely. Watching meaningful hockey in August is great.

Canada vs Finland for Gold/Silver
Czechia vs Sweden.

Finland shut down Sweden to win 1-0. Canada needs to play a full 60 mins, something they have yet to do. A little to relaxed early in games and giving up odd man rushes.

Interesting fact, Canada has only played Finland once in the medal rounds. For bronze in 2012.

The Finland vs. Sweden game was a defensive chess match. Not a lot of highlights. But defense wins games. The Fins look disciplined. They can beat Canada if they stay focused. I don't know why the Swedes don't wear their blue sweaters more often. Those are sweet.

WOW

Wow is right. Canada dodged a big bullet there. The puck was right on line, but not enough near the end. I think it was MacTavish that stopped it from going in. I thought Canada outplayed them the first 2 periods, then the momentum turned to Finland. I just love 3 on 3 overtime. I was standing the whole time. Great game, great tournament. Now if I can only make it until the NHL season starts. The women's junior tournament start soon, but that just doesn't cut it for me.

I think Finland gained some confidence killing off 7 penalties. Canada might have lost some of it's mojo not scoring on the PP. MacTavish is the kids name who prevented the puck going in.
Finland has definitely established themselves as a hockey superpower.
I have no interest in women's hockey either.