Kevin "Snype" Jones Memorial Fantasy Hockey Championship

The League
The Kevin "Snype" Jones Memorial Fantasy Hockey Championship is a head-to-head points fantasy hockey keeper league played on Fantrax. The league was founded in 2010 by Joey Rufo.

The Teams
The league is made up of 14 teams located throughout North America. General Managers select their own team names and are often changed several times throughout a season. Team names which are beyond exceptional will earn their place in the Kevin "Snype" Jones Hall of Fame.

Commissioners
The Commissioner of The Kevin "Snype" Jones Memorial Fantasy Hockey Championship is Chris Marion. He has been the Commissioner since 2019, after previously holding the position from 2011 - 2015. Former league Commissioners are Joey Rufo (2010 - 2011, 2018 - 2019), Nicholas Veenhoven (2015 - 2016, 2017 - 2018) and Florian Jonker (2016 - 2017).

Co-Commissioners
Co-Commissioners were established in 2021. Joey Rufo (since 2021) and Nicholas Veenhoven (since 2021) serve as Co-Commissioners.

Rosters
Each team may roster up to 19 players on its active roster (15 dressed, 4 Bench) according to the following distribution:
 * 3x Centers (C)
 * 3x Left Wing (LW)
 * 3x Right Wing (RW)
 * 4x Defensemen (D)
 * 2x Goaltender (G)
 * 4x Bench (BN)

In addition, teams are afforded the following special designations:
 * 2x Injured Reserve + (IR+)

The Draft
The draft date is set yearly, preceding the start of the NHL season by no more than 7 days. There are 19 rounds, and a total of 266 selections.

Format
The draft is a "snake draft"

Order
The draft order is randomly selected immediately after "Keeper Declaration Day"

2021 - 2022 Draft
The table below shows each teams draft picks for the 2021 - 2022 Season. If the draft order has not yet been determined it will only provide the number of selections in a given round each team has.

Keepers
Keepers function on a contract based system detailed below.

Keeper Declaration Day
"Keeper Declaration Day" will occur roughly 7 days before the draft, prior to the determination of the draft order. Contract length must be declared for each keeper.

Limits
This section outlines the minimum and maximum number of keepers required to be declared per club, and the maximum term any player can be kept cumulatively under the keeper status. These limits must only be met on "Keeper Declaration Day". If a team fails to meet them all contracts will be voided, they will be limited to 1 keeper contract for the following season and will pick last in the draft. If multiple teams fail to meet the limits their draft position will be determined by a d20 dice roll.

Minimum Contracts


 * 0 keepers

Maximum Contracts


 * 3 keepers

Maximum Contract Term


 * 3 yrs per keeper
 * 6 yrs combined amongst all keepers

Position Allowances
At this time there are no limitation on the number of keepers for any given position.

Keeper Cost
The keeper cost is one round ahead of where the player was drafted in the previous draft. The cost of an undrafted player is the final round of the draft. If the General Manager does not have draft choice to pay a players cost, the next available earlier round will be used.

Keeper Restrictions
The following restrictions to keepers are in place:


 * 1) Keepers may not be dropped throughout the season if term remains on their contract. (i.e. Players kept for 1 yr or in their final contract year can be dropped at any time after "Keeper Declaration Day".)
 * 2) Contacts may not be given to any player who has not "burned" at least one year of an NHL contract.
 * 3) When a Keeper contract expires they can not be kept by any team for the following season.

Contract Buy Outs
Each General Manager will be permitted to buy out one contract in the off season. The cost to buyout a contract is:
 * A loss of 1 total yr combined amongst all keepers for 2 seasons when buying out a 1 year contract
 * A loss of 2 total yrs combined amongst all keepers for 2 seasons when buying out a 2 year contract

Each General Manager is granted one compliance buyout that will not be penalized.

2021 - 2022
The table below shows each teams keepers following the 2020 - 2021 Season. If the draft order has not yet been determined it will only provide the number of selections in a given round each team has.

Trades
Trades which do not involve draft picks are processed directly by the General Managers. Those which involve draft picks must be processed by the commissioner.

Limits
Each team must maintain the following draft selections at all times:


 * 1st Round Pick
 * One 2nd or 3rd Round Pick
 * Four Picks through rounds 1 - 7
 * 19 Total draft picks

Vetoing
It is at the Commissioners' discretion to disallow a trade if it is believed that the transaction provides one of the parties with an unfair advantage that, in their judgment, threatens the competitive balance of the League. The Commissioner will never disallow a trade because one team clearly "won". Vetoes are the worst-case scenario for any trade situation, and vetoes are only handed out in the most extreme of cases.

Free Agents
The following rules apply to Free Agency


 * 1) Players who are dropped do not have to clear waivers
 * 2) Teams may acquire 4 free agents per matchup
 * 3) There is no limitation on free agent acquisitions over the course of a season
 * 4) Teams not in the playoffs will be blocked from making acquisitions

Scoring
Most scoring categories are based (often arbitrarily) on NHL statistics from the 2018-2019 NHL season and normalized to a set fantasy point value for an average goal (even strength, powerplay and shorthanded) being set at 500 pts and the average special teams goal (powerplay and shorthanded) set at 600 pts. These stats will remain consistent unless a drastic change in NHL trends occurs. At that time, the commissioner will propose a stat change (See Rule Changes).

Goalie scoring was determined with the goal of valuing a goalie based on wins, sv % and goals against. The scoring for these stats when possible were based on their "real life worth" relative to a goal. Otherwise they were adjusted such that the best goalie in the 2018 - 2019 season would have averaged points at a top 10 rate. [Goalie scoring will be updated for the 2021 - 2022 season as per Mark Lepage new scoring method to fix inconsistencies this should have minimal change on the average points a goalie receives in a game]

Goals
The NHL average goal is 78 % of the time a EVG, 19 % of the time a PPG and 3 % of the time a SHG (22 % STG). The average fantasy goal has been arbitrarily assigned value of 500 pts, with the average special teams goal being worth 600 pts.
 * EVG * 0.78 + STG * 0.22 = 500
 * EVG * 0.78 + 600 * 0.22 = 500
 * EVG = 472 pts
 * PPG and SHG = 600 pts (Bonus added = 600 - 472 = 128 pts)

Assists
On average for every goal there are 1.68 assists (arbitrarily rounded down to 1.6 to prevent undervaluing of apples)
 * Aaverage = 500/1.6 = 313
 * STA = 600/1.6 = 375
 * EVA * 0.78 + STA * 0.22 = 313
 * EVA * 0.78 + 375 * 0.22 = 313
 * EVA = 295 pts
 * PPA and SHA = 375 pts (Bonus added = 375 - 313 = 80 pts)

Shots
League average shooting percentage is 9.48 % but only 7.46 % at even strength. To avoid over valuing shots even strength shooting % was used.
 * Shot = G * shtg % = 500 * 0.0746 = 37 pts

Blocks
Only 54 % of all attempted shots hit the net. A player has an opportunity to block any shot attempt so
 * Block = 37(0.54) = 20 pts

Hits
Hits are simply as valuable as shots in terms of winning a hockey game, convince me otherwise….
 * Hit = shot = 37 pts

Fights
One can obviously say in terms of winning a hockey game and being a great bro to your bros, a fight has got to be at least as valuable as an even strength apple
 * Fight = Assist = 295 pts (Bonus to major = 295 - 148 = 148 pts)

Minor Penalties
From fights we have set that a PIM is worth (295/5 = ) 59 pts. A goal is scored on a pp 20 % of the time, so 20 % of the time you should not get your points for minors.
 * Minor PIM = 2 * PIM * 0.8) = 2 * 59 * 0.8 = 94 pts

Major Penalties
The rate at which teams score on a 5 min major are obviously higher than those for a minor. What the exact rate is I could not find so I set it as on 50 % of 5 min powerplays a goal is scored


 * Major PIM = 5 * PIM * 0.5 = 5 * 59 * 0.5 = 147 pts

Gordie Howe Hat Trick
Greatness deserves bonus points...


 * Gordie Howe Hatty = 150 pts

Wins
There were two main questions asked here.


 * 1) How many goals = 1 win?
 * 2) How much does a goalie account for in terms of a win.

To answer the first question I found this article which was focused on predicting a teams wins based on a teams expected goal differentials. Following this concept with 2018-2019 stats, it can be said that if an average team were to prevent roughly 5 more goals they would win 1 more game.


 * Winteam = 5 * 500 = 2500

To answer the second question I used point shares which are explained in this article and provided for the 2018 – 2019 season here for goalies in this article. On average a goalie directly contributes to ~15 % a teams points, but I felt like this over valued a win particularly for goalies on very good teams. So rather than using the average I used Andrei Vasilevskiy’s point shares (12.5 pts) which is approximately 10 % of Tampa’s expected points for (and actual points for) so


 * Win = 2500 * 0.1 = 250 pts

Hall of Fame
The Kevin "Snype" Jones Hall of Fame was established in 2021. There are three categories for induction, team names, side bets and builders. For a team name, side bet or person to be inducted to the Hall of Fame, they must be nominated by any current or former member of the Kevin "Snype" Jones Memorial Fantasy Hockey Championship and approved by the Commissioner and Co-Commissioners.

Builders
The Builder category has been in existence since the beginning of the Hall of Fame, with the first and only builder inducted in 2021. A builder is a person who has contributed to the development of the league, and as the name refers, one who has built the game forward. For a person to be inducted to the Kevin "Snype" Jones Hall of Fame as a builder, they may be "active or inactive" and must be nominated.

Joey Rufo
Joey Rufo was inducted to the Kevin "Snype" Jones Hall of Fame in 2021 as a Builder. He not only established the league in 2010, but has been instrumental in developing it. In 2018, while serving his second stint as commissioner, he established the "insert trophy name here".

Team Names
The Team Name category has been in existence since the beginning of the Hall of Fame, with the first and only name inducted in 2021. For a Team Name to earn a place in the Kevin "Snype" Jones Hall of Fame it must be nominated and determined to be original, creative and go above and beyond the high team naming standard of the Kevin "Snype" Jones Memorial Fantasy Hockey Championship.

1 in the Brown, 2 in the Coutur
In 2018 Chris Marion established the team name "1 in the Brown, 2 in the Coutur". The team rostered Dustin Brown, Logan Couture and Sean Couturier as inspiration. As one of the greatest fantasy sports team names of all time, "1 in the Brown, 2 in the Coutur" was inducted into the hall of fame in 2021.

Side Bets
The Side Bet category has been in existence since the beginning of the Hall of Fame, with the first and only bet inducted in 2021. For a Side Bet to earn a place in the Kevin "Snype" Jones Hall of Fame it must be nominated and go above and beyond the high side bet standard of the Kevin "Snype" Jones Memorial Fantasy Hockey Championship.

The Tattoo
In 2016, ahead of their playoff matchup, Nicholas Veenhoven and Alex Taciuk engaged in a side bet in which the looser would tattoo the winners name on their inner lip. Nicholas was ultimately victorious resulting in Alex tattooing "NICK" on his inner lip. The tattoo resembled the word "DICK" nearly as much as it did the name "NICK". As of 2021, this side bet still holds as the greatest in league history. It was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2021.