The Mini-Game Wheel

Hey all you poolies out there!  Here is the announcement you've all been waiting for!

Okay, if you've really been waiting for this announcement, there's a good chance that this has been one of the longest summers ever for you.

Last season, the mini-games were somewhat of a success and the goal this off-season was to find a way to make them a little bit better.  I was thinking good and hard about it and there was a part of me that thought that announcing what those mini-games were ahead of the draft took the spontaneity out of the competition, as Ryan picked four rookies through the draft and pretty well went wire-to-wire, pretty well guaranteeing his money back, at the least.

This year, I am going to put that spontaneity back into the mini-games with the Mini-Game Wheel, which will make its first appearance at the big hockey pool draft on October 8th.  After the draft has been completed and we all have our teams, we'll have one more small event, spinning the wheel to choose our three mini-games that we'll play.  When a game is selected, it will be removed from the wheel and we'll add a new game, just so we have three unique games through the season.

The six games, if you can make them out on the wheel there, include the three we had last season, the rookie pool, the PIM pool and the goalie survivor pool, and then I added the outdoor games, a plus-minus competition and shorthanded points, just as examples.

The intention is to make sure everyone is paying attention to the draft itself, as we go along and the mini-games are to be that bonus.  There is no stopping a team from taking four rookies again through the draft, nor is there any reason why you couldn't load up on teams that will be playing an outdoor game (Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto, St. Louis or Chicago), but you're taking a pretty good gamble, assuming that that slot will stop on the wheel.

I was hoping that the mini-games would be a good add for those teams who are not necessarily in the money and give them something to play for and I hope with the addition of this wheel, it will certainly bring a little bit more excitement to the season.