Introduction

To begin, I have proposed this idea numerous times in my tenure on SHL, to little fanfare and discussion, which is a bit frustrating as we have had issues with recruitment numbers in the past, however with the subsequent Reddit drafts since, it has become less needed, however I still think it is an untapped resource we have missed out on numerous times, and the once the time is past, it is no longer available again til the following NHL season.

Proposal

We have each member, perhaps for a TPE reward, create a fantasy team for NHL, on either yahoo or espn, usually these leagues have 10-12 people who definitely enjoy fantasy hockey and would usually be active in them for the entirety of the NHL season, people who are interested in and love hockey beyond simply watching the games or following their team.

By advertising in these leagues, we could easily bring in new members, perhaps offering them a bonus here should they place higher in the standings in the league than the SHL member who is in it, making it a claimable amount of money, which would help them at the start in juniors, perhaps free training for their rookie season if they were to win the league that they were recruited in.

Lets say, a 100 people do this, this reaches out to 1000-1200 people who are in these leagues, and even at a mere 10% signup rate, that is 100-120 new members, which translates to 15 rounds of draftees, this could be a catalyst for possible future expansion getting a number of members of this degree, either in juniors or in the SHL.

These people may also know others, not in said fantasy league who would be interested in signing up and the fallout may bring in more numbers in the future. While Reddit has proven a great resource, it can't always be relied on and may bottom out eventually with no new people to sign up. It is a great promotional tool, yes, however this can be done once a year, for several months from September to October, fueling 1-2 drafts and gaining renewed interest from different areas on the net.

Implication

We would need someone to coordinate it, and keep track of who is in what league, and who signed up from which group. Perhaps rewarding the person recruiting the most people with something or the league that results in most signups with a bonus to TPE or something, otherwise, this requires as little work as posting a possible standardized messasge in the leagues message boards and hoping someone signs up from it. There on, it would be the recruiters job to help out the new member as they would be in direct contact with them in the fantasy league and perhaps keep them active long enough to make a serviceable player for the SHL, which is around 500 TPE, and will take 2-3 seasons, which is around 6 months real time, or near the entirety of the NHL season. This will help the person through the summer hockey withdrawal and hopefully have resulted in enough interactions on the site to keep them interested and active.

Result

A possible influx of 200 new members would be ideal, which is 2/12 people in each league signing up, thats only a 20% success rate and would fuel juniors for the next year, with players who are minimal 155 TPE - 200 TPE (usual inactive dropoff) these players would be usable in juniors and even if only 20-30 from that 200 make it to the SHL, that still would be a fantastic amount to bring in, given 2-3 members per team and could again provide the catalyst for expansion.