Wahhh, wahh, wah from Dallas

[Enforcer]

I’m not one to call press conferences for nothing. Today I’m here to do something that I’ve never felt necessary before, in the past 13 years of being in fantasy hockey leagues.

Effective immediately I am quitting as GM of the Dallas Stars. The teams play so far this season sealed the deal; this has been in my head since the summer.


Four reasons for leaving.....


1. Teams crappy play. I took this team over in 2007 and gradually built it up to get this crap. We have no chance of making the playoffs and I have no desire to wait around 9 more months to try again.

2. This year’s ratings package is clearly inferior to last years. Defensemen in particular are awful. Guys who should put up points don’t, and the list of guys with overrated DF’s is long. Guys like Steve Eminger (sorry BJ) and Mike Mottau should not have DF’s above 80. What really ticked me off this summer was I sent in a long list of defenders that needed to be looked at and it was almost completely ignored.

3. The league is much too unrealistic as a whole. 95-100 million dollar payrolls, the trading of salary cap space, stacked teams that will always be stacked, and no one of major consequence ever hitting the UFA market. When one team has 15 ECHLers made up of 13 real 1st round picks and 2 real 2nd round picks that’s a league with a parity problem. I don’t see any point in participating in a league any longer where I have no chance to ever win anything.

4. The way the league is run in general. League settings (scoring, penalties, etc.) aren’t published. I should have known better than to join a league where the commissioners make the ratings themselves. Can’t “scout” and simulate games against upcoming opponents. Many GMs just run auto lines. I sure haven’t seen anyone fined for missing lines like was promised. I certainly now have noticed the problem of GMs not be around trying to make moves to get out of this hole.

I know none of these things are going to change. So now I guess it’s time for a new guy or gal to take over this club. I’m sure the usual suspects will be beating the door down to plunder everything of value from the new GM.

[JiriHrdina]

Sounds like someone who is upset things aren't going their way and isn't up for a challenge. So be it.

But I would correct/dispute you on a few things
- The commissioners don't create the ratings themselves. We use a pre-packed ratings system that we tweak as necessary.
- We didn't go through your long list of defense corrections because it would have required doing the same for every player. It's not fair to cherry pick some corrections. No league has perfect ratings.
- I don't know why you want league settings published. There's no "published setting" in the real NHL. In fact there's nothing strange about our league settings at all - we pretty much use the default ones.

A poor way to handle this in my opinion. Your team is losing so instead of trying to figure out why or take another crack at a re-tool...you quit and then knock the league on the way out the door. A league that is run for free for your benefit.

Plenty of people have taken teams from nothing to championships. You aren't up for the task I guess.

[Da_Chief]

Meh, I guess don't let the door hit you on your way out.

Too much blaming everything else and not owning up to your mistakes you've made.

[CMPunk]

I can understand quitting...but whining on your way out...poor form. You made the trades, you signed the contracts...it's all on you

[Swayze11]

Yea, I agree with a lot of what Grant is saying. I can't speak for most teams but the settings for my team are pretty dead on.

My best player (Spezza) has the most points. My best up-and-comer (Perron) is 2nd in points, my goalie (Anderson) is performing pretty much exactly what I thought he would, sure I have some overperformers and some underperformers but what team doesnt (CPHL and NHL).

If you had such a problem with these things why didn't you bring them up publicly?

Maybe the payrolls are a little out of whack in comparison to the NHL but so what? as long as they are consistent throughout the league there should be no problem. You are never gonna find a perfect sim league.

Its really sad to see you go, we had a lot of good talks on MSN. Good luck man.

[JiriHrdina]

The thing about the cap is that a lower cap, and not allowing cap to be dealt would only serve to restrict trading further. In fact I've had some GMs telling me we need MORE cap and MORE cheese space (not something we are going to do.

The NHL barely has any significant trading. If we are going for 100% realism that's where we'd end up - but that's no fun.

[Caged Great]

With the cap issue, I'm in two leagues, one with a fixed cap and this one.

Guess which one has nearly constant trades, and which one has maybe 4 or 5 trades per team per season.

In my other league, I'm right near the cap, and wanting to upgrade my worst D-man so that way I will be a contender again this season. Looking around that entire league, there is only 1 player that would be an upgrade that I can afford under the cap and he's untouchable. So much for that then.

Without the ability to move cap around, it makes trades almost impossible. While that would be more realistic, it would make it less of a fun league because the bad teams would have basically nothing to do for 10+ months of the year.

It sucks that you've decided to go.

[Young Guns]

I will bite me lip and just say take care.

[OILFAN #81]

Yeah, terrible form. You are quitting cause your team sucks. Fine, that is up to you. But to throw the league under the bus on the way out makes me think what Da Chief said is accurate....don't let the door hit you on the way out.

And in terms of "stacked teams always being stacked etc". That couldn't be farther from the truth. A few years back, San Jose went from dead last in the league to winning the cup in 1 year. Toronto went from winning the President's Trophy to being a bottom feeder in 1 year. Look at a guy like Dave. CBJ had terrible players and then he makes a ton of trades and he has some real solid assets.

You can't have guys like Johan Franzen as "untouchable" as you claimed and expect your team to get better. In deals, you wanted to get things without giving anything up. I mean, how can Franzen be untouchable? That makes no sense at all.

So to sum up on your points:

1. You are free to do so.

2. Ratings are not always going to be perfect. It is really hard to get every single player exactly right. I think if you ask every GM in this league, there is probably a guy or two on their team they feel should be higher, but it usually balances out.

3. There is parity in this league. I'd say about 24 or so of the team on average usually have a chance of making the playoffs. Yeah 6 or so teams usually aren't too great but that is realistic. It is not like 1 team dominates year in and year out. We've had various winners over the years. And in terms of payroll, we start out at around 67 M....the NHL will be at 60 M in 2011. That isn't a huge difference. If we put the payroll down then trades would become less and less.

4. This is the part I have a problem with. You were here for 3 years in a free league and throw it under the bus. It's fine if you have issues with it. But to say things like the commish's skew the results, etc is garbage.

Good luck with everything in the future (I personally didn't have a problem with you in the 3 years you were here), but man some of your points were in terrible form. Adios.

[cphlblackhawks]

Wow just read this after dealing with the Guering thing...
I'm going to have to agree with everyone, there are things I don't like about this league, the new software being one I don't completely understand and being able to carry over lines and what not frustrates me. But this league is well run and pretty fair as just proven...if someone has 13 firsts and 2 2nds in his roster it means he was damn good at trading, I've tried to do the same and took a lot of lumps doing it but now have some great prospects. I honestly feel you were always tough to trade with and that may have been an issue in building your team.

[Mango]

Win or lose, at the end of the day, this is a volunteer-run league. These guys spend countless of hours making this game possible for all of us. It's unfair to point fingers at any of them. They don't deserve it.

Good luck in your endeavors.

[therizzle]

So, if there's one thing we can deduce from the maturity level of your post, it's that you must have started playing fantasy hockey at one or two years of age, which is very impressive.

[Hanna Sniper]

A couple comments about a couple issues brought up

Ratings
We'll never find a perfect rating system, with 30 Gm we have 30 GM's that over rate their own players. As Gm's we are tickled pink about the players that rate a wee bit higher then we thought. The funny thing about us is that once we see their new rating we now think thats what the should be. We're not so quick to accept those that come back lower.

Rgw one thing I've learned being here is the rerates don't matter... some are up and some go down but the solid players will always be consistent. Every year I do a quick look at my tean, then a quick glance at compatible player and league wide I find things consistent. With the amount of players thats actually amazing

Trading Cap
A guy like Huet and his 9M contract would have never been traded if the Leafs didn't write a big enough check

[Knut]

[KevanGuy]

You really should ask for your money back.

[MJK]

[DFO]

I agree with everyone else - quit if you want but there was no need to throw the league under the bus. Later.

[SweetDoc]

I also agree that this isn't the proper way to exit, however, it isn't necessary to sling insults at him on the way out.

I don't have any issues with rerates other than it would appear that year to year, goalies move up and down quite a bit more than skaters; perhaps that has something to do with their importance on the team.

I have no issues with the cap or the cheese.

I have no issue with respect to how the league is run; free is fantastic and I would never question Grant's integrity when it comes to being impartial in any capacity.

I do agree with Matt in that it can be quite difficult to turn a team around via trades when many GMs never hit MSN. Easy enough to have a 5 minute conversation with a GM and see if there is a fit. Via PM takes a lot of time, sometimes a few days, and I find a lot of GMs aren't interactive via PM; no counters, no explanations, a lot of "no" and "no thanks" can get frustrating after a while. I think many GMs would agree that the majority of trade talks happen between the same group of GMs (feel free to correcct me on this) and things get stale after a while.

All in all I'm having a blast, it would be nice if some GMs were more active, but it's free and I have no serious gripes.

[Goffie]

[Antithesis]

I'll just say good luck, and best wishes. As was said, when you put artificial restrictions on trades - by having guys be untouchable (especially guys like Franzen!) it can be hard to get your team turned around (I know, I'm one to talk).

From the bang-for-the-buck sense, the CPHL can not be beat. If you are in a league where you are getting more out of the people who run it, that league will not be sustainable. One of the many things I love about this league is not having to worry if it'll be running next season. This allows for rebuilds to actually happen.