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*JURT* · 12-06-2020, 08:13 PM

Hello there!

I have the honor to be your new SMJHL All-Star Committee Head, taking over after a great tenure by Fuzz (I will not tag him here to avoid sending him notifications every time I edit this post). Fuzz left big shoes for me to fill, but I believe I am ready to take on that challenge.

I've been a student of Trips since he drafted me to Colorado in March and I've worked with him on the SMJHL Awards Committee for the past few seasons (which I have just resigned from, more on that later). Therefore, it's no surprise that I share a lot of his views on a lot things. As the All-Star and Awards committees both serve a very similar purposes of rewarding users who have stood out every season, these views will now carry on with me to the All-Star Committee.

The key word, to me, will be Transparency. Starting with this presser, I aim to follow Trips' footsteps and post one presser every season, to let people know what's what and ask their questions about the results who, inevitably, will let some people down every season.

I will be able, or at least I hope so, to answer most of these questions by the second key word, which is also stolen from Trips: Process. I have never been on this committee, so I don't know the exact process they used of late, but I will forever strive to reinforce the processes by which discussions among committee members are led and by which the voting happens.

I said I would come back to my resignation from the Awards Committe. Of course, there is a matter of the almost-but-not-quite-infinite amounts of time and attention I am able to spend on the league. But even moreso, I want to keep both processes (here's that word again) clearly distinct from one another. I do wish to work more with the Awards Committee than what was previously done, but always on a logistics/communications standpoint. To quote my own job application, I believe it should stay the way it is in that neither Committee knows how the other's sausage is made, but both could use more similar packaging.

Here's a list of stuff I want to look at. Some of it is going to be pressing matters while other things are long-term ideas/projects:
-Scheduled presser at the end of each season
-Harmonized communications of the committee's announcements (and, if possible, a bit of harmonization with the Awards Committee as well).
-Always improving the committee internal procedures.
-Live stream of the All-Star Game with host and color commentary.
-Finding solutions for the lack of All-Star Competition
-New ASG formulas, like the tournament one used in the NHL
-I'm always open to ideas and suggestions

Now, let's hear it with those questions.

12-06-2020, 08:21 PMNhamlet Wrote: Can you share some of your personal views on tie breaking between players with similar stats, those who are predominantly offense heavy to those with other stats and where you sit on evaluating goalies right now?

Personal opinion doesn't mean it will be shared by the committee, but I believe the All-Star Game is a show we put on for people, so it's always going to be heavily leaning towards more offensive players. In this case, the other stats could be used as tie breakers between two players with similar offensive stats, just as the relative stats of the rest of either team: a player who scored 40 points with linemates that put up 25 each is more impressive than a player who scored 40 with two players who had 50 each (those two are more likely to be in the All-Star Game anyways, obviously).

In the case of the All-Star Teams elected at the end of the year, I believe we must be a little more careful about weighing defensive results too, not only offensive one. The offensive attributes will still make a player's case for the All-Star Team or All-Rookie Team most of the time.

Evaluating goalies is a hot topic every time an awards comes out. I'm a firm believer that defense plays a huge role in a goalies performance, but the opposite is also true. Not having any information about the quantity of high-danger shots and goals from FHM makes the jobs very difficult. I don't think wins and GAA can be valued too much, although they should not be thrown out entirely. SV% is already a better indicator of a goalies performance, but the ones that I think we can rely on (and that we can find with what little information FHM tells us) are Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) and Goals Saved Above Average by 30 shots (GSAA30), as they compare a goalie to what the league average would have done in the same . I will make sure that these stats are avaiable to the All-Star Committee when the time to make our selections comes.

12-06-2020, 08:21 PMNhamlet Wrote: Also how much is it to buy an all star spot?

I'll wait and see how the other GMs are willing to offer and the charge you twice that.

12-06-2020, 08:41 PMhhh81 Wrote: First of all,, congrats! It's been an honor and pleasure to work with you since JURT came to life!

What are the first things on your agenda?

What do you think will be the biggest challenges you will face starting out?

The first thing on my agenda was settling down into the new job, obviously. I've already started to get to know the people on the committee, and I've taken a look at Fuzz's methods. Now, I want to implement some changes to it: first would re-structuring the channels in the committee's Discord server so the discussions flow easier and are also easier to keep track of. After that, I want to lay down a comprehensive set of voting and tie-breaking rules which is lacking in the committee.

I don't really think I will have to face it, but what would be the biggest challenge for me if it does happen would be long-tenured committee members resisting the changes I want to see in the committee as listed above. I don't want to pick fights over a fake hockey website, but I do want things to run the way I envision them so finding the balance could prove to be a difficult task if that situation happens.

12-06-2020, 08:54 PMLordBirdman Wrote: Hi JURT, congratulations on the new job first and foremost.

My question for you is at what point in the season would you like to make All Star selections and host the All Star game? How many games through the season should pass before selections are made? How soon after that point will the game be held?

The All-Star game has always been around the halfway mark of the season, just as in the NHL. I intend to maintain this tradition, although we might change it from "the closest sunday to the 25 game mark" to "the sunday after the 25 game mark". I would like to begin the selections process the Sunday before that and close it on the Wednesday, so the rosters can be announced on the Thursday (that should give us enough time to do the filework). This way ensures that we have as many games played as possible so we can make a better selection, while also not bringing us to a date that is too advanced in the season.

12-06-2020, 09:23 PMJumbobone19 Wrote: Wrong questions lol

Any changes to the criteria of all-star selections? Any stats that might be viewed differently?

And what are you most excited about in this new job?

My anwer to Nham already answers part of that first question, but I'll add this. The thing I like about having a committee is that every member has their own opinion of what makes an All-Star. Everyone will make a selection based on what they judge is more, and that's how we get a decision that is more likely to be representative of the whole league's opinion. If I force the committee members to vote based on definite criteria or to fill out an evaluation grid I put up myself, then it's my vision that will be represented in the final results and that's not what I aim to do. The one thing that might change is IA eligibility. I'd have to dig into the past All-Star Games and Teams, but I seem to recall seeing inactives making the final rosters. Since the goal is to reward users for the players they've worked and still are working on, inactives should be uneligible to play the All-Star Game and be on the All-Star Teams. EDIT: Either I was remembering it wrong, or remember the one instance when it might've happened and blew it out of proportion. Anyway, thanks to Fuzz for clearing it up.

I'm mostly excited about some of the long-term projects I have, that I will not start working on right away. When I am comfortably settled as Committee Head, I want to work on some of the most ambitious projects I listed when starting this presser. If I had to choose one, the idea of streaming the ASG with a host and a color commentary guy to analyze the or even just pull out stats and fun facts about the players in the game is probably the one I'm looking forward to the most, I think it could make for a very interesting event.

12-06-2020, 09:40 PMJNH Wrote: How will you address the under-representation of deserving Berserkers?

In the long-term, there are a few ideas that I want to experiment with to see if they're viable. If they are, some of them would allow for more players from each team, which would help with that kind of feeling that deserving players aren't making the cut. Even then, we will still have a limited amount of places.

Or you know, my answer to Nham's second question works too.

Code:
1760 words, ready for grading

Nhamlet · 12-06-2020, 08:21 PM

Can you share some of your personal views on tie breaking between players with similar stats, those who are predominantly offense heavy to those with other stats and where you sit on evaluating goalies right now?

Nhamlet · 12-06-2020, 08:21 PM

Also how much is it to buy an all star spot?

hhh81 · 12-06-2020, 08:41 PM

First of all,, congrats! It's been an honor and pleasure to work with you since JURT came to life!

What are the first things on your agenda?

What do you think will be the biggest challenges you will face starting out?

LordBirdman · 12-06-2020, 08:54 PM

Hi JURT, congratulations on the new job first and foremost.

My question for you is at what point in the season would you like to make All Star selections and host the All Star game? How many games through the season should pass before selections are made? How soon after that point will the game be held?

Jumbo · 12-06-2020, 09:23 PM

Wrong questions lol

Any changes to the criteria of all-star selections? Any stats that might be viewed differently?

And what are you most excited about in this new job?

JNH · 12-06-2020, 09:40 PM

How will you address the under-representation of deserving Berserkers?

*JURT* · 12-07-2020, 10:37 PM

Updated to here!

FuzzSHL · 12-07-2020, 11:16 PM

I would like to point out that while IA players have slipped through the cracks before, we always ended up replacing said IA player with an active for the All-Star Game, and no inactives were voted to the end-of-season All-J teams. I think we only had to replace one IA player in the history of the ASG, but I'm not 100%. I just wanted to clarify that in the thread for those reading.

And, for that matter, every team was always represented by at least 1 player (I hadn't seen this brought up yet but I did want to clarify that too if anyone was concerned).

Behind the scenes, you're already killing it and I'm very excited to see how things are moving forward with you at the helm.

Aleksi Kettu

*JURT* · 12-08-2020, 12:34 AM

12-07-2020, 11:16 PMFuzzSHL Wrote: I would like to point out that while IA players have slipped through the cracks before, we always ended up replacing said IA player with an active for the All-Star Game, and no inactives were voted to the end-of-season All-J teams. I think we only had to replace one IA player in the history of the ASG, but I'm not 100%. I just wanted to clarify that in the thread for those reading.

And, for that matter, every team was always represented by at least 1 player (I hadn't seen this brought up yet but I did want to clarify that too if anyone was concerned).

Behind the scenes, you're already killing it and I'm very excited to see how things are moving forward with you at the helm.

I edited the OP, thanks for clearing that up!

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