09-23-2020, 03:00 PMhonkerrs Wrote:

09-23-2020, 02:52 PMjfisherr Wrote: Thank you for doing what I was too lazy to and putting this situation into words. I think HO should allow a one time position swap for goalies to become skaters.

This would likely increase player retention, as first-gens that create as goalies would actually have a pathway to future playing time besides getting 6-10 games as a backup every season. This would also help alleviate the lack of depth we have at certain positions (defencemen currently) that are resulting in a number of teams fielding sub-500 TPE IA defencemen.

HO should also be doing a better job at advertising which positions are actually needed. Many first time creates don’t understand that the goalie market is already flush with elite talent.

However, I do see some pushback in this suggestion from GMs and HO. I can see GMs, both SHL and SMJHL complaining about allowing free position swaps as it could screw up their roster in the short term and long term. Allowing these position swaps should thus only occur during the offseason so teams can plan around this. Additionally, there could be some possibilities that a user creates as a goalie in order to tank his draft stock, allowing a team to get additional prospects, knowing that this user is going to position swap from goalie in the future. A rule change must then account for the following;
1. Goalie saturation
2. Team planning
3. Potential abuse.

To counter these, at the present I think HO should implement something like allow any current goalies a free one time position switch. This would likely immediately alleviate the current goalie logjam.
Moving forward however, all future created goalies should only be allowed to position switch in the time between the end of their rookie season, and the time they get drafted into the SHL. This allows both SMJHL and SHL GMs to plan for the prospect’s position switch, and would prevent any abuse of the system through draft stock manipulation.
Ideally in conjunction with these rules, HO would then implement a “Position Need Tracker” of sorts, allowing first-gens and recreates to accurately assess which positions are truly needed, allowing these new users to make informed decisions when making their player.

Feel free to make any suggestions or anything, tagging @honkerrs and @PremierBromanov to get some good dialogue ongoing.

Great wording and suggestions fish.  Exactly why I didn't want to propose any changes because I'm not good at wording things but I think you outlined some great possibilities. I agree with @Ragnartoo that we need a position tracker honestly.  Most other leagues have it, so why shouldn't we??

 I will agree that it players could take advantage of this situation in the draft but personally I think it is worth it still.  In other leagues you can swap from like Relief Pitcher to Starter and vice versa.  Maybe no one can swap to goalie but goalies can swap to skaters sort of thing.  Anyways, hope smart people take the data and make some rules =]

Yeah of course, I just think GMs will pushback as they could have a plan for the future in place that could get blown up by a goalie wanting to position switch. This acts as a compromise between allowing no switches and allowing mass switches. However, if GMs have no concerns about this, then let’s just allow free position changes for all goalies in the SMJHL.