Greetings! Thanks for taking a look at this crazy idea I have for a theme league.
The Idea
The 1992-93 season was, in my mind, the end of a great era of NHL hockey. It was the last season the league used it's traditional Conference and Division names. The last year the Stanley Cup Playoffs included a divisional format. In other words, the game I grew up falling in love with before one Gary Bettman decided to take it to the masses by giving us an East and West, regional divisional names, and in the early phases of his now infamous over-expansion plan. The league was packed full of stars and offense ruled the day. Over 20 players finished with 100 points or more. Defensemen scored a ton. The euro invasion was underway with Mogilny and Selane scoring 76 goals each. It was the best of times, and it was the beginning of the worst of times, with Bettman sanitizing the game and the dreaded trap and clutch and grab era lurking in the near future.
Coincidently, the league had 24 teams in 92-93. Exactly what we need to fill a sim league. So a franchise league could potentially be lots of fun. Unless of course you got stuck with the Senators, Lightning or Sharks. And so I present the following theme. Sign up to play as one of the 24 NHL teams from the 1992-1993 season. We then strip the historical rosters and throw EVERYONE into the draft pool. And we have ourselves a 24-team Fantasy Draft. You may select ONLY players from 1992-1993. There will be enough to fill the rosters, and it will be a balanced distribution of talent across the league. Initial draft order will likely be random, but then we will snake after teh first round.
The Fun Part (assuming you're crazy like me)
After we play out our fantasy season with 92-93 NHL players, we don't progress. We don't regress. We use our season results to determine a new draft order, we throw all the players back into the pool, AND WE DO IT ALL AGAIN. So the players never change (other than what team they play for and who they end up with as teammates), there are never clones, the rosters are always unique, and the talent distribution changes every season!
Some Rules
No clones
No twisting
No MLers
Trades are allowed and encouraged
NO playoff intensity
I'll be back later to answer questions and provide more details. In the meantime, if you are interested, please sign up in this thread.
Here is the list of team names I'd like to use, with my proposed division alignment (the NHL used 4 that year, I have to split them best I can. Did anyone remember that Tampa played their first year in the Norris?)
Quebec Nordiques metalmaster
Montreal Canadiens slimebot
Boston Bruins whalers10
Ottawa Senators brouhaha
Hartford Whalers pttsbrghkid
Buffalo Sabres
New York Islanders damag
New York Rangers zero1940
Pittsburgh Penguins chuckinrlp
Philadelphia Flyers god_mike
New Jersey Devils asher413
Washington Capitals jcarver67
Calgary Flames damagemiller
Edmonton Oilers nucknocup
Vancouver Canucks greeny9
Winnipeg Jets taybaijor
Los Angeles Kings yogsloth
San Jose Sharks chuckinrlp (2)
Minnesota North Stars pmd1020
St Louis Blues svengali
Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit Red WIngs bobprobert
Toronto Maple Leafs the_jsa
Tampa Bay Lightning pttsbrghkid (2)
4/4/2011 9:30 AM (edited)