Minor League Roster Size

[Ellsworth Hearts]

I have found "building through the draft" a strategy that NHL GMs have that we fantasy GM's don't to an extent.  NHL has their minor league AHL...which has a lower level league ECHL....and on and on.  The current size limit of 15 is restrictive with the number of draft picks we have available each year.  I propose that we streamline the excel doc to line up the Minor Roster with the size of both draft pick sections.  Essentially making the minor league size capped at 41 players.  Cell C99 Through C140 keeping the two extra cells in C100 & C101 (moving to C141 & C142).  Prospects reaching age 25 during the season will need to be promoted or released at the end of the season.  Drafting an 18 year old that takes a while to make the NHL roster by 23 (5 years) and four picks each year unless you traded for or away give you a total of 20 players.  Terminate the requirement for points for a forced call up.  Teams will be expected to put forth their best roster (not leaving high point scoring players (NHL talent) on minor league rosters given their ability to pay the dude (available cap).  Example: Tim Stuetzle (LW - OTT) currently ranked 187 for the season.  We could argue that 16 teams by 24 spots is 384.  If any minor league player finishes the season ranked 385 or higher they are a forced call up.  Using my bad team for an example:  I started the season with 15 players above 384.  One could argue that I need to make better decisions.  I currently have 10 players ranked above 385 and thus my team is 15th out of 16.  I don't have hitters, blockers, goal scorers, assists, blah blah blah...LOL.  at least not enough of them.  My first pick results the last few years, 4th; 6th; traded; 4 players drafted last year, 5 from the year before that.  my first round pick from 2017 is still rostered at 21 years old. I would rather not see managers forced to drop players (to draft new players) and have those that draft finally make a NHL team via promotion or trade and then start producing and end up on another managers team.  As it stand there is 1 team that has less then 13 Minor Leaguers rostered.  Pending a trade Bowe will be sitting with 8 minor leaguers.   TC has 13 and the rest of us are split between 14 (6 teams) and 15 (8 teams).  The potential to fail at picking players that fail to succeed far exceeds the time for some players to develop.  

I'll be very interested in reading the responses...

[Stark Direwolves]

I am definitely in favor of this. I'm a member of this coalition for something challenging and unique. I'd like to see this idea at least have some traction and get discussed. Thanks for posting, Ells.

[Dwayne Bowe]

Maybe I read it wrong, but go to 41 minors?

[Lannister Lions]

I would be in favor of increasing the minor roster size, but definitely not to 41. I think a bump to 20 would be very beneficial, though, for most teams.

[Fantasy Express]

I would love an increase in minor league size as well to around 25 since hockey players can take a while to develop to usable NHL players

[Dwayne Bowe]

20-25 would be fine, though I don’t think that can be changed until the start of the 2021 season.

[Fantasy Express]

I would like to see the minors expanded to 25 players as it takes hockey players a while to develop into usable pieces

[Edmonton Crunch]

20 makes sense, 41 seems like a bit of overkill and an administrative nightmare

[Blue Flames]

20-25 I think sounds good. I don't think it could be fairly implemented in a year where those draft picks have been traded though. Less value may have been given to 3/4 round picks if a manager thought their minor roster was 'full'. I don't think I'm in that case for the record, just thinking out loud on that one.

[Frost Giant]

I'd place my yes vote to increase to 20. 25 would be the most I'd like to see it go. It would be nice to be able to keep a few long shots and see if they make it.

[CFL Rejects]

I would agree,

[Team Canada]

Bump

[Frost Giant]

After discussion with the board members. It has been decided that the minor roster will be increased from 15 spots to 20 spots to take effect immediately. I will be updating the sheets to reflect the additional 5 spots.