A Friendly Wave Hello

(Expect many terrible puns over the course of this season.)

Ah, the first day of the hockey season is nearly upon us. And if you’re reading this post about a fantasy hockey team on a blog about hockey jerseys, you’re probably at least as excited about this as I am.

Let’s start from the beginning. My name’s Jon. I’m a student at San Jose State, a Sharks fan, and the manager of the California Wave in the IceHL. I’d like to thank Chris for giving me that opportunity and JFred for designing such a great logo.

Living out here on the west coast and being the night owl I am, I was actually awake when the IceHL draft went down at 2 am local time. My strategy going in was to take a stud goalie first round unless I got a great pick. But I ended up getting that great pick, and so it turns out I got Ovechkin. That pick alone equals a pretty good draft overall.

For the most part, I was quite happy with the draft. The lone exception was my fourth rounder Derrick Brassard. I wish I had done a few more rounds worth of pre-draft rankings so I could have gotten someone like Jason Spezza or Miikka Kiprusoff with that pick. But that’s the risk with an auotpick draft. I did end up pretty well off with goalies. I’m very happy with Marty Turco, Dan Ellis should be solid and Steve Mason could end up being a steal (or worst case scenario, a 3rd goalie who actually get starts.)

I’m still tinkering a bit through the waiver wire, and I still think I’m a good forward or two away from being where I want to be, but I may end up fixing that through a trade along the way.

I’ll be checking in at least once a week or so here at Icethetics, but this will wrap it up for today. So, to borrow a line from a certain SJ Sharks broadcaster: Keep it real. Keep it fresh. Keep it real fresh.

    Ah, the first day of the hockey season is upon us. And if you’re reading this post about a fantasy hockey team on a blog about hockey jerseys, you’re probably at least as excited about this as I am.

    Let’s start from the beginning. My name’s Jon. I’m a student at San Jose State, a Sharks fan, and the manager of the California Wave in the IceHL. I’d like to thank Chris for giving me that opportunity and JFred for designing such a great logo.

    Living out here on the west coast and being the night owl I am, I was actually awake when the IceHL draft went down at 2 am local time. My strategy going in was to take a stud goalie first round unless I got a great pick. But I ended up getting that great pick, and so it turns out I got Ovechkin. That pick alone equals a pretty good draft overall.

    For the most part, I was quite happy with the draft. The lone exception was my fourth rounder Derrick Brassard. I wish I had done a few more rounds worth of pre-draft rankings so I could have gotten someone like Jason Spezza or Miikka Kiprusoff with that pick. But that’s the risk with an auotpick draft. I did end up pretty well off with goalies. I’m very happy with Marty Turco, Dan Ellis should be solid and Steve Mason could end up being a steal (or worst case scenario, a 3rd goalie who actually get starts.)

    I’m still tinkering a bit through the waiver wire, and I still think I’m a good forward or two away from being where I want to be, but I may end up fixing that through a trade along the way.

    I’ll be checking in at least once a week or so here at Icethetics, so, to borrow a line from a certain SJ Sharks broadcaster: Keep it real. Keep it fresh. Keep it real fresh.

I'm a Lumberjack, and I'm Okay

Hey everyone - I'm James, and I'm the GM for the Vancouver Lumberjacks. I'm a huge Canucks fan, so going after another Vancovuer team (albeit it fictional) was a no brainer.

So, the draft went through, and for those not in the know, it was an auto-pick draft. This meant that you put together your list of players you want in order, and the fantasy league will automatically draft players to your team in that order. I ended up with the 2nd overall pick. Ovechkin went first, so I was able to get Crosby, who is a guy that any fantasy team GM loves to have. I'll be banking on him all year. From there, my team seem to end up being heavy with talented forwards, as I was able to get Jason Spezza, Johan Franzen, Wojtek Wolski, Jordan Staal, and Corey Perry.

I also got Ray Whitney, Justin Williams, Evander Kane, Lars Eller, Kevin Porter, Drayson Bowman, and Nazem Kadri. Some of these later guys will be up and down from the AHL this year, but depending on what's available, I may hang on to them for a bit - we'll see what happens.

On defence, there's some work to do. Michael Del Zotto, Lubomir Visnovsky, and James Wisniewski are all good pick ups, but that's where it ends. My bottom 3 defencemen are rounded out by Toni Lydman, Matt Niskanen, and the AHL-bound Thomas Hickey.

However, my goaltending ended up being the biggest weakness - my best two were Michael Neuvrith, and Mathieu Garon. I also got Justin Peters and Johan Backlund, but that wasn't much of a comfort. I knew I needed to balance this out a little, as in a league where goalies get 5 points per win, having two back ups would be my downfall.

As such, I was able to compelte the following trade with Andrew, GM of the Seattle Aviators:

Vancouver gets: Antii Niemi & Sergei Kostistyn

Seattle gets: Michael Neuvrith & Corey Perry

I didn't like having to part ways with Perry, but with Niemi looking like he'll get the majority of the starts on a good SJ team, I'm in a good spot to get 5 points every time that team plays. I'd have rather kept Neuvrith than Garon, but I believe that Kostistyn will get all the chances in the world on an offensively-depleted Nashville team. The goals have to come from somewhere, right?

On a whole, I know my team isn't the best on paper now. With snaking drafts, high or low draft picks mean you go for long stretches without drafting. I'm going to need good years from guys like Crosby, Franzen, Spezza, and Niemi to keep me competitive. However, anything can happen, and I'll just have to keep my eye open for good deals and the waiver wire, which is fine.

If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, feel free to pass them my way - I'll definitely look at them. Click here to review my team, and click around for the other teams, too.

IceHL Fantasy Season Starting

Those selected to manage teams in the 2010-11 IceHL fantasy league were notified and activated over the weekend. The draft was completed Sunday morning and the season begins on Thursday!

Congratulations to everyone who was assigned a team! And to those that weren't, better luck next time. The league is public so everyone will be able to follow along all season. Save this link:

The IceHL - 2010-11 fantasy league

You can track scores, stats, standings... everything you can do with your favorite NHL teams, you can do with the IceHL. And join us throughout the season for the occasional Live Chat where you can talk with IceHL GMs, make suggestions, ask questions and gain insights into running teams created by and for Icethetics fans.

This season will be a blast!

Update on Monday · Oct 4 · 2010 | 10:13 AM PDT by Chris

Welcome 3 new IceHL Fantasy bloggers! Scott K (Winterhawks), James W (Lumberjacks), and James L (Hellcats) have joined the team and will be writing about the league this season right here at icethetics.info/fantasy.

Update on Tuesday · Oct 5 · 2010 | 12:13 PM PDT by Chris

Just added another blogger too the team. Jon W (Wave) will also be writing about the IceHL fantasy league this season right here at Icethetics.

IceHL Fantasy League

Lately, I've been trying to think of ways to revive the IceHL project. If you're new to this, the IceHL was a fantasy hockey league where readers made all the decisions. You picked what cities would have teams then voted on user-submitted logo designs. All in all, we ended up with 30 unique teams. It was an exercise to get creative, and brand teams from the ground up.

So I thought, why not set up an actual IceHL fantasy league this year? We'd use an online service like Yahoo or ESPN. Icethetics readers could own and manage IceHL teams and go head-to-head throughout the season. And maybe there could be a small prize or two for the winner.

This is not a done deal yet. I haven't decided whether to do it. But there's been a big response on Twitter and via email, so I'm going to take the next step. If we use ESPN, which is most likely, you can only have up to 20 teams in your custom league. This means we won't be able to use all of our IceHL teams, unfortunately.

My guess is there are more than 20 of you that will be interested in joining this league. (I could be wrong.) That being said, everyone who wants in will have to apply to play. Here are the rules:

Applying for an IceHL team

I'm not going to require that you have experience playing fantasy hockey, but at least that you have an attention span long enough to finish the season. I know a lot of people start a team and forget about it by December. You have to be willing to commit if you're going to apply.

If you are awarded a team, you must be willing to use the IceHL team's name and logo that is assigned to you. Changing it without permission from the commissioner will be grounds for termination from the league. So how do you apply for a team?

Application Instructions

Apply by posting a comment below which must include the following:

• Your first name and last initial (ex.: Chris S.), no screennames
• Your email address (it will only be seen by me and is the only way I'll be able to contact you if you are awarded a team)
• In the body of the comment, please note your experience, if any (remember, it doesn't matter), playing fantasy hockey and list your preferred IceHL team choices. List at least 3 and no more than 10. (If no teams on your list are available to you, one will be assigned at random.) Also please note whether you designed any of the winning IceHL logos. Teams will be assigned to owners based on order of preference. All 30 teams and logos are listed below.

How owners/teams will be selected

The only fair way I can see to select owners and assign teams is at random. However, some applicants will be given an advantage in the selection process. If you designed any of the winning logos for the IceHL and would like to participate in the fantasy league, your name will go in the hat twice, while everyone else's goes in once. This doesn't assure you'll get a team, but it does give you better odds (which you deserve for your hard work).

Other advantages will be revealed later. However, I don't want to give them away now so as to avoid potential cheating.

IceHL teams

Select your preferred teams from this list.

Alaska Huskies		Atlanta Arsenal
Baltimore Blue Crabs		Boston Colonials
Boulder Beasts		Calgary Cavalry
California Wave		Chicago Hitmen
Dallas Outlaws		Detroit Motorheads
Edmonton Kodiaks		Hamilton Steelcats
Houston Hellcats		Milwaukee Lagers
Minnesota Mammoths		Montreal Olympiques
New Orleans Gators		New York Guardians
North Carolina Nighthawks		Portland Pioneers
Quebec Armada		Regina Renegades
Salt Lake City Scorpions		Saskatoon Sharpshooters
Seattle Aviators		St. Louis Archers
Tampa Bay Barracudas		Vancouver Lumberjacks
Washington Sentinels		Winnipeg Winterhawks

If you would like to apply for a team in the IceHL Fantasy Hockey League, please read the application instructions above. Failure to follow the 3 simple instructions will disqualify you from consideration.

Update on Monday · Sep 27 · 2010 | 12:33 PM PDT by Chris

Forgot to mention something. All applications must be submitted by Thursday night. None will be accepted after that time... unless I deem it necessary for some reason. Then the winners will be announced on Friday morning. If you are selected and do not reply within 24 hours, your team will be given away to another applicant.

Applications close Thursday at 11:00 PM

Update on Wednesday · Sep 29 · 2010 | 8:22 PM PDT by Chris

A lot of great response to the idea of an IceHL fantasy league. Already around 100 individual applicants looking for one of 20 IceHL teams. I think it's safe to say we'll move forward with this. And I'm going to set it up through ESPN's fantasy website, in case you were wondering.

With so many entries, I know most of you will be disappointed by not getting a team. Some have asked whether we could do two separate leagues of 15 teams so we could at least use all 30. This is still an experiment so I'm going to stick with just the one 20-team league for now. We'll see how it goes and maybe do it up next season.

My vision for that would include an extension of the IceHL project next summer in which we expand the league to 40 teams and set up two 20-team fantasy leagues in 2011-12. Then maybe we take the top 3 or 4 finalists from each group and do a playoff pool for the ultimate IceHL champion.

Back to this year's league. I have some more details for you. The 20 teams will be divided up into four divisions, each of which will be named after a popular IceHL artist. We'll be using the guys who had by far the highest number of nominated and winning logos in the project.

The IceHL divisions will be named: Wheeler Division, Smith Division, Robbins Division and Taylor Division. Just my way of making sure we don't forget about our incredible designers. By the way, the league will be available for all to see and follow along with, so even if you don't own a team, you can still feel involved.