In what has to be the most anticipated season in NHFL history, the 2018-2019 NHFL Draft in Ottawa could NOT come soon enough. 
     
We sit less than 2 months away from our first post-expansion NHFL draft.  Since early July, all 12 teams have shored up their keepers and begun to move their picks and players around trying to get that upper-hand prior to the draft on September 29th.  I’m not sure if it’s because of expansion, increased participation in morning group-chats, message board interaction or just a GMs so-called “knowledge”, but this offseason is dragging on and on and on with anticipation. 
 
We spend hours, literal hours weekly on the phone (or in person on the golf course) talking all that is the NHFL and the upcoming draft.  “Who’s going to be drafted with the 4th pick?”  “Which rookies will go off the board first?” “Who’s going to move down in the draft?” are some of the questions that have come up among the hundreds of others.   
 
First, I’m going to backtrack a little to July 7th, and the day of expansion.  Brian and Wes collected the attending GMs around the pool and with a glorious backdrop, began to select their inaugural teams.  Brian, with the first selection in the entry draft chose future Canuck stud Elias Pettersson (which he then flipped to Stupid Michael Horman) and then rounded out his team with strong keeper-quality players he acquired prior to the draft in Claude Giroux, PK Subban, Sasha Barkov, Shane Gostisbehere and Henrik Lundquist.  Wes, taking the more cautious approach, weaved his way through unprotected lists and went in a more youth-oriented direction with the selections of Dougie Hamilton, Robin Lehner, Sam Reinhart, Alex Galchenyuk to go along with some veteran experience and leadership in Shea Weber and Mike Smith.  At this point in the day, it was official, we were 12.  With that process now complete, the true NHFL offseason could begin, and boy did it.   
 
There were negotiations going all night long and only 2 short days later, the big moves started to happen.  A trade between the Toronto High Rollers and Fisher Kings was announced that saw the High Rollers acquire one of the best defensemen in our league, Erik Karlsson along with 2 x 6th round and 2 x 7th round picks in exchange for 2 x 2nd round picks and 3 x 3rd round picks.  Shortly after that announcement, the High Rollers acquired Mark Schiefele, the 80th, 84th and 178th picks in this years’ draft from the Stittsville Stache for 2 x 2nd round picks and 1 3rd round.  2 days later acquired Blake Wheeler, an 11th and 2 x 12th round picks from State College for the 6th overall and 2 x 3rd round picks.  In 3 days, the High Rollers moved out 1 x 1st, 4 x 2nd and 6 x 3rd round picks for Karlsson, Schiefele and Wheeler.  Those are some of the top players in our league, and to go along with Price, Rask, Barzal and Marner that a strong-ass group for the High Rollers.  Some questioned trading 11 picks for 3 players but with that group, it’s hard to argue. 
 
Perhaps feeling the pressure of the High Rollers and Fisher Kings recent moves, Dick Cheese pulled off one of the bigger trades we’ve seen in recent years that saw the team trade budding superstar Auston Matthews and a Farm Spot to Funky Cold Molina for top players Tyler Seguin, Phil Kessel and Roman Josi.   
 
I’m not sure if you’re following along here, but it’s now the 11th of July, 3 months before teams even draft their full rosters and the amount of moves has been insane…and only to get worse.   
 
The Fisher Kings send the 10th overall pick in 2018 and a 12th in 2019 to Brigade HK for a 2019 1st rounder and a 12th in this year’s draft, shortly followed up by Fisher Kings trading the 9th overall in 2018 and 15th rounder in 2019 to Stittsville for another 2019 1st rounder and a 9th in 2018.  Not to be outdone, defending Fifty Mission Cup champion and newly named Ancaster Villagers acquire a 1st in 2019 from GOAT for a keeper spot, and then acquires another 1st in 2019 from Dick Cheese along with a Farm Spot, 7th, 9th and 11th round picks in exchange for Max Pacioretty, a 2nd and 4th round picks in 2018.  This goes along with the 1st that Ancaster acquired in the Giroux deal with the Wilsonvillains during the expansion draft.   
 
Told you it got worse.  In a matter of 3 weeks, in the dead of summer, when hockey is supposed to be in the “offseason” we saw the following: 
 
-    Karlsson, Schiefele, Wheeler, Matthews, Seguin, Kessel and Josi all find new homes. 
-    4 x 2019 1st round picks switch hands.  Not 2018, 2019! 
-    3 x 2018 1st round picks traded 
-    5 x 2018 2nd round picks traded 
-    6 x 2018 3rd round picks traded 
-    1 keeper spot 
-    2 farm spots 
 
There have been some smaller pick swap deals and many other conversations (including talks of another possible 2019 first rounder moving which fell through) and as mentioned earlier, we still have just over 2 months to go.   
 
Daily conference calls with multiple GMs as we discuss draft strategies, possible picks or trades are getting more common, and more intense.  We’ve hit a bit of a lull recently as we wait for draft guides and yahoo to release position and player rankings which will only bring back all the action in the next coming weeks.  Personally, this offseason I believe has been one of, if not the best in NHFL history.  Technology has made eet some much easier to communicate, either be on the message board with our nonsensical memes, gifs and texts or on the phone with sometimes 5 or 6 GMs involved in our conference calls.  With 2 small letters, “Jn” on the message board, we know there’s a GM just waiting for his phone to ring.    
 
I’ll bring it back to earlier in the article when I asked why all the activity in this offseason, compared to years previous?  We knew expansion was coming and every GM did what they could to maximize return for players that they could lose, or be unable to draft in the upcoming draft.  But after the expansion draft, that should have been it, summertime.  We all take a breather from the stress of expansion, enjoy some Sherman or Steamwhistle brews, a little pool, beer, boil and bud for the summer months.  But nooooooooooo, not the NHFL.  WE. GO. HARD.   
 
Just because there’s no NHL, doesn’t mean we’ve got to stop.  As Diddy once said, “we won’t stop, cause we can’t stop.”