Joining My First Keeper League

Well, I have been debating putting together my own keeper hockey pool league together for a little while now, but I haven't had a lot of commitment from some of my friends who are usually in my normal annual pools. I know there is a little bit, but truly not enough to put the effort in to make sure the experience is really cool & fun for people to not only stay in, but attract more interest from other people.

This summer, I have gotten the opportunity to join a league, thanks to a friend who has been in this one for a few years. The league, QMHL, will be getting together for their annual drafting day, which will put players into mine and another new team's coffers, thanks to an entry draft and a supplemental draft.

The entry draft would occur first, as it would include all players that are not currently on a QMHL team, which there are eight teams in already. The expansion teams would have a weighted opportunity for the top picks in the rounds for the entry draft, which I remain hopeful for the top pick.

Now, there's a bit of a catch for the eight teams already in the pool... they have to pare their teams down to the salary cap during the draft (equals that of the current NHL salary cap of $56.8 million) and those players will not be available for drafting until the supplemental draft. Players are also measured on their current salaries, not their actual cap hit to their NHL club, so this poses some more interesting math, especially for a number of players who have front-loaded contracts. All eight of the current teams in the QMHL are all over the cap limit, most by a long ways. It really makes me wonder how they operated last season.

Now, I've got myself partially organized so far, using my already assembled list for my hockey pools and incorporated a column showing the players already taken and then a good portion of the current salaries, taken from HockeyBuzz.com, which is the reference point for this pool. I do have fill in more of the salaries, but I already have a good idea of what I'm doing.

Looking at the list already, I have determined that my first target pick for available players is Steve Mason of the Blue Jackets. He's a keeper that I think is a real keeper... pardon the play on words. Surprisingly, he's still available for the taking and he is still on his entry level deal, which should prove to be very beneficial for building the rest of the team. I'm thinking I have a good chance at that number one pick in the entry draft, so he would be my first overall pick.

Other good players still available for this draft include, Zach Parise, Jonathan Toews, Mikko Koivu, Marc Savard, Tim Thomas, Patrik Elias, Ray Whitney and Devin Setoguchi. I am going to have to go through the list of players again to see who else I am going to prioritize for this draft.

Of course, I have to think up of a good team name... hmmmm...