THE MANAGERS' TRIBUNE
THE VOICE OF THE FANTASY GAME
A Year in Review - Part 2
2018 AND THE WACKY WORLD OF WHATEVER WE DO
BY MICHAEL HAYMAN
DECEMBER, 2018
Oh hi. I didn’t see you there. Welcome to Part 2 of the cheesy Year in Review for 2018. Glad to see you survived the first Part, which covers up to the end of June. Now buckle up, and come with me as the NHFL jumps into a new era and officially welcomes teams number 11 and 12 to the fray.
JULY
Nothing like cold beers, poolside, on a Friday afternoon after work. On July 6th, NHFL GMs started making their way to Wilsonvillains HC headquarters – aka Lake Azzo – ahead of the 2018 NHFL Expansion Draft. Established clubs needed to have their keepers set by the end of the day.
2018 NHFL Keeper List
July 7th kicked off with a delicious breakfast – prepared entirely by our host, GM for the expansion team Wilsonvillains – then a quick 2-person secret draft to select teams for golf and it was off to Fescue’s Edge for a pre-expansion draft round. Two closest-to-the-pin competition wins for Team Wilsonvillains meant that they got to select ahead of Johnny Beamsville in both the expansion draft, and in the September draft.
Back to Lake Azzo for some
And then HC Haymos fell asleep, and the rest of the league proceeded with the expansion draft
In addition to the players acquired during the two-week trade window in June, the expansion draft was rounded out when the Wilsonvillains HC selected Elias Pettersson (and flipped him to HC Haymos while he was napping!), and when Johnny Beamsville picked Dougie Hamilton (from State College MML), Robin Lehner (from Mr. Trade) and Sam Reinhart.
As if the NHFL hadn't experienced enough change in the previous 24 hours, new team names for Mr. Trade (now the Toronto High Rollers), Cerberus HC (now the Ancaster Villagers) and the White Stache HC (now the Stittsville Stache HC) were rolled out.
Then, on July 8, the great 2018 draft pick purge began for the Toronto High Rollers
July 8 – acquire Erik Karlsson
July 9 – acquire Mark Scheifele
July 10 – acquire Blake Wheeler
With those 3 trades, the High Rollers shipped out a 1st round pick, four 2nd round picks, and six 3rd round picks. Or the equivalent of an entire playoff-worthy roster.
Not to be outdone, Dick Cheese and Funky Cold Molina decided to take crazy a whole new level: Tyler Seguin, Phil Kessel and Roman Josi were sent from the defending regular season champion Funky Cold Molina, to Dick Cheese in exchange for Auston Matthews and a farm spot.
GMs then decided to dial it back down to 10, and only completed six more trades the rest of the month.
As we exit July, we take the time to wish our own slice of Hollywood, Johnny Beamsville, a very Happy Birthday (July 28)
AUGUST
The dog days of summer. Keepers have been set, a bunch of early-season trade activity had slowed to crawl, and as a result, NHFL GMs struggled to find things to do with their time:
August 12: No introduction required, because you've already encountered countless of these
August 15: Goodbye Fisher Kings. Hello Cambridge Tchuggs
August 18: Uhhhhmmmmmm........
Some kind of hockey normalcy was achieved over August 19th & 20th, as the Ancaster Villagers took a road trip with the family to visit The Team Formerly Known as State College MML, and the next thing you know Sebastian Aho, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Filip Forsberg, Jamie Benn, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon and a 1st round pick were flying everywhere. The Villagers traded away Jamie Benn for the second time this year, traded away and reacquired Leon Draisaitl and Still-Calling-Them-State-College-MML-at-this-point brought breakout-star Nathan MacKinnon aboard.
Happy birthday to some of the biggest boobs in the NHFL: the Wilsonvillains (August 8), the newly minted Cambridge Tchuggs (August 11), and the ever-giggly Brigade HK (August 18)
SEPTEMBER
We made it. Training camps opened, preseason games started – hockey returned, and so did our sanity after three long hockey-less months. Trades kept trickling in ahead of the 11th NHFL draft, scheduled for the last weekend in the month.
To refresh your memory, here is a summary of every teams’ record in 2018
NHFL Standings in 2018 as of September 1
September is all about the NHFL draft. This year, the party was in Stittsville and featured the presence of an NHFL-record 11 GMs (we missed you, GOAT). Thursday afternoon was a pre-draft weekend round at Canadian Golf and Country Club, then pre-draft hot tub and drinks at Stittsville Stache HC headquarters – the host for the booze-and-hockey-infused weekend.
The Friday itinerary brought draft weekend to a whole new level. Without getting into the details too much (we’ll leave that for the draft blog), the day included
Surprise! More trades were made. Johnny Gaudreau, Roman Josi, Aleksander Barkov, P.K. Subban, Matthew Tkachuk, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and the usual gamut of draft picks, keeper spots and farm spots, all involved. All going every which way. Nothing to see here.
We finally learned the new name for the Team Formerly Known as State College MML
Proceeding to the draft itself, a couple of GMs were barely alive. Again, we'll leave the elaboration on the details for the draft blog, and just relay some highlights visually:
With the expansion draft trade window, and the busy summer trade schedule, the league entered the 2018-2019 season with 41 trades made.
Special shoutout to the league's September babies: GOAT (September 20) and Funky Cold Molina (September 28)
HOCKEY IS BACK!
OCTOBER
Games started counting for real on October 3. Johnny Beamsville and Sittsville Stache HC squared off in the full return to the NHFL for the former, and the Wilsonvillains squared off against longtime friend/enemy GOAT in their first ever NHFL match-up.
Spoiler alert: neither expansion team would notch their first match-up victory in October.
NHFL GMs had a mini-draft on the October 13 moving day:
Selecting coaches was the first step in developing each NHFL GMs front office teams. More drafts, similar to this one, are expected in the New Year.
On October 19th, the Stittsville Stache HC GM drank a lot of alcohol and traded Nikita Kucherov away to Johnny Beamsville. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you are), the deal had to be reversed due to a technicality. Turns out the rules say that you can’t trade away all your keeper spots. Anyhow, the two GMs were unable to rectify the situation and the deal fell apart, to absolutely no ones surprise.
Some of us were fortunate to hear all about it the next night, as the High Rollers lived up to their franchise name and took a handful of NHFL GMs out for a night at the ACC.
October was closed out with a bang: on the 27th, Funky Cold Molina and the Ancaster Villagers teamed up to execute a contender for trade of the year. Alex Ovechkin and a keeper spot for 5x first round picks in 2019. Ovechkin was an Ancaster Villagers for not even 3 full days before he was flipped to HC Haymos in a deal that brought back rookie and sophomore hotshots Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.
That the Villagers had THAT good of a month baffles me as much as how the Cambridge Tchuggs had THAT bad of a month. Early returns on the Wilsonvillains were positive, as they were right on the edge of the playoff bubble, despite not even winning a matchup in the month. GOAT and Stittsville Stache HC being in playoff positions at the end of the first month was nice to see considering their postseason droughts.
NHFL Win-Loss Records in October 2018
The league made 9 more trades in the month, bringing the season total up to an even 50. It would have been 51 but, you know, keeper rules and such.
NOVEMBER
The first weekend in November was another live-event get together for a handful of NHFL GMs, as the High Rollers, Villagers, GOAT and Wilsonvillains trekked over the border to New Era Field (Ralph Wilson Stadium) to watch the Chicago Bears trounce the Buffalo Bills. This event also marked the first ever NHFL matchup win for the Wilsonvillains.
Tailgating and Trading
A week later, Erik Karlsson was traded for the second time this year, this time from the Toronto High Rollers to HC Haymos in exchange for Jakub Voracek and a draft pick upgrade.
After flippity flopping Leon Draisaitl between the two of them in the summer, the Villagers and Sea Dogs decided that 2018 needed one more exchange of Draisaitl between them. This time, the Villagers traded Draisaitl to the Sea Dogs, again, along with some high draft picks for the goalies that State College MML brought in to overhaul their backstoppers back in February: Sergei Bobrovsky and Pekka Rinne. A week after adding the two superstar goaltenders, the Ancaster Villagers brought in Evander Kane and Nazem Kadri in a swap with Funky Cold Molina that saw the defending regular season champion receive Wayne Simmonds, and two picks in the top half of the 2019 draft.
The Ancaster Villagers kept their strong season on track with another excellent month, but it was division-mates Dick Cheese and Stittsville Stache HC that were the creme of the crop in November. In the season-long standings, the Villagers maintained their position at the top of the pile, and Johnny Beamsville held steady at the bottom.
NHFL Win-Loss Records in November 2018
2018-2019 NHFL Standings as of December 1, 2018
Patrik Laine went off. After scoring only 3 goals and 5 points in all of October, Laine scored 18 goals in 12 November games. Just enough to not be awarded the NHFL player of the month (probably had something to do with the 1 lone assist that Laine got all month)
DECEMBER
The year may be winding down, but NHFL trades are maintaining their torrid pace. On December 1st, Wilsonvillains, HC Haymos and the Toronto High Rollers teamed up for a 3-way trade that involved Henrik Lundqvist, Tuukka Rask, Matt Murray, Shayne Gostisbehere and a 1st round pick. The very next day, GOAT and Stittsville Stache HC agreed to the biggest trade of the year:
To GOAT: Nikita Kucherov, Marc-Andre Fleury, William Karlsson, P.K. Subban and a keeper spot
To Stittsville Stache HC: Mikko Rantanen, Patrick Kane, Martin Jones, Sean Monahan and Aaron Dell
Christmas morning had an NHFL flavor to it, as a couple GMs tried to convince the Toronto High Rollers to live stream the birth of their Christmas-day son; Parker "T.J." White. The 7 lb, 15 oz addition to the NHFL family.
That brings us right back where we started - only celebrating the 1-year wedding anniversary of a wedding, instead of the wedding itself. I am sure I missed some significant events, it is certainly challenging to think back and recall everything of note that happened in this league or to GMs of this league, because SO MUCH HAPPENED. All the trades, the get togethers, the drafts, the chats, the moves, the family changes, the life changes, the Canadian marijuana law changes, etc, etc. Part 2 finishes here with the league standings for December, and for the 2018-2019 season to date, and because I can't help myself, Part 3 will dig into league stats and fun facts for the the calendar year 2018.
Saving the worst for last, cheers to Toronto High Rollers for managing to squeeze their own birthday in around the birth of their new son, their anniversary, Christmas and New Years (December 30).
The High Rollers may have won at life in December 2018, but there isn't any doubt as to who won on the NHFL ice in December 2018. The Cambridge Tchuggs had the best month of any NHFL team in 2018, taking 44 of 60 categories. HC Haymos and Dick Cheese had decent months in their own right, but both paled in comparison to the steamrolling that the Tchuggs did.
For the season, HC Haymos closed out the year with a couple decisive match-up wins and leap frogged the Villagers into 1st place overall.
NHFL Win-Loss Records in December 2018
2018-2019 NHFL Standings as of January 1, 2019
There is so much that could be added to this. Over the course of the year, we've developed so many nicknames, catchphrases and idioms.
Jn. Just dew eet. You Piece of S. Hahan Babaa. James. Morman Horman. Racist Kris. Ka-Blank! Sheeeeeeeeit.
It's almost impossible to qualify when each phrase entered our day-to-day lives, who coined it, or even why we think it's funny. But none of that matters. What matters is that, at this time next year, we're going to have a whole new list of ridiculous additions to our vocabulary, and we'll have developed them without even thinking about it.
"Without even thinking about it"
Every year, as the calendar nears the changeover to the next, I try and look back at what I was able to accomplish, what changed in my life since last year at this time, and what part did I play in dealing with whatever the change was.
I polled a majority of the GMs in the NHFL to see what they reflected back on, and it very clear that 2018 will be looked upon with fondness by this group.
A number of us had significant and noteworthy positive changes at the office and/or shop.
Some of us welcomed new additions to our family.
Some were able to accomplish something around the house that made them proud.
Some exceeded their own expectations in their extracurricular activities.
Some of us went through some very challenging stretches, where our attention was pulled away from the group and our resilience was tested, or our patience was strained.
Some of us experienced this multiple times.
Some of us suffered personal losses.
But whether it's a new addition to the family, an accomplishment at work, or struggling through arduous times - we can all look back on the year that was, and be proud of what we helped make happen, or what praise we earned, or what we evolved into.
MICHAEL HAYMAN / HC HAYMOS
