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Post by tsn on Mar 18, 2016 19:44:57 GMT -5
The Ken Holland Award is an annual award presented to recognize the work of the league’s best general manager over the course of the year. Your 2015/16 nominees are... Josh - Tampa Bay Lightning: Josh masterfully built his team in the inaugural season of the ADHL, and not only did everyone project him to have the best team during the preseason, but he and his team lived up to that billing, as the Tampa Lightning won the President's Trophy as the best team in the league. Josh made a number of fantastic trades for his organization, especially early on that set up his team for a long run in the playoffs. Perhaps the most intriguing part of Josh's success is he managed to hold on to a number of young assets, and despite a powerhouse NHL team, his minor leagues have some blossoming talent. At the end of the day, during the 2015/16 season, the Tampa Bay Lightning were the one team no one wanted to play. Duncan - Ottawa Senators: Duncan for all intents and purposes was the dark horse for much of the first half of the season; very few owners predicted this type of success for the Sens as a relative newcomer, and yet through careful and thoughtful team building, focusing heavily on periphs and low cost categories, Duncan turned his team into a real force and one of the contenders in the East. Duncan made a number of big trades throughout the season (including being on the receiving end of a Mike Milbury award nominee) and very rarely lost a deal. His keen eye with more polished prospects paid dividends as a number of young, seemingly out of nowhere prospects like Cody McCormick, and Paul Di Giuseppe, paid huge dividends for the club when it counted the most. Sam - Los Angeles Kings: Don't laugh. This is not a joke. The Los Angeles Kings changed the game. They brought fear into the league like no one else, there wasn't a week that went by, that Grogers didn't unearth some sort of flaw in the CBA, and cause havoc against some unsuspecting manager and rules committee. He was the most diligent owner, He was easily the most talked about owner in the ADHL because of his General Managing--sometimes for the wrong reasons. His ruthlessness on the waiver wire changed the very way people approached that part of the league and he constantly benefited from it striking big with a number of deals including going out and acquiring Art Ross winner Patrick Kane (despite Rape allegations). Lets not forget his interesting "streamvar" strategy that according to Sam himself was abandoned midseason but will be brought back; but even still it showed Grogers thought fantasy hockey at a much deeper level than most. The young whiz-kid manager might not have had the success in the standings that he would have hoped, but the sheer fact that he recognized this early (unlike a Carolina, Buffalo, or Vancouver) is a commendable notion. In their rebuild, the Los Angeles Kings have accrued a top 5 prospect pool, and the team looks it could be very strong in the future given some of the pieces Grogers obtained. Did the ADHL make the right decision? Should someone else have been nominated? Voice your opinions and comments below! The ADHL will be releasing Award Nominees periodically throughout the week, so check back often.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2016 21:53:08 GMT -5
Josh will win and he's deserving, but to make a case against, TB is an exceptional starting roster (that he did of course make way better still), whereas OTT isn't at all. No manager did more with less than OTT.
As for LA, it was decided that 1/3 should be a rebuilder. There was a big push to make Sharky the nominee, due to the piles of futures he acquired while still showing everyone up and making GP in a year when 6 teams didn't. But he refused the nomination. Grogers wasn't the most accepted choice. Not to name names, there was one of us who loved the idea of him as nominee, another who hated it, and another who was on the fence. We decided to take a shot on him as the wild-card option.
IMO HM goes to DET, WPG, and CGY. All of whom made smart moves and are in good position now and down the road.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 12:03:36 GMT -5
Don't like the LAG nominee one iota. This award should be what we want GMs to act like, Josh a standup member all year.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 12:05:31 GMT -5
Don't like the LAG nominee one iota. This award should be what we want GMs to act like, Josh a standup member all year. To be fair there's already awards for GM who contributed the most and GM who is the nicest. This is supposed to be about strictly hockey
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Post by casperx22 (PHI) on Mar 19, 2016 12:15:36 GMT -5
Don't like the LAG nominee one iota. This award should be what we want GMs to act like, Josh a standup member all year. To be fair there's already awards for GM who contributed the most and GM who is the nicest. This is supposed to be about strictly hockey And you guys decided on LA who dismantled a good team in the name of mediocrity? That is the ultimate troll job.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 12:21:29 GMT -5
To be fair there's already awards for GM who contributed the most and GM who is the nicest. This is supposed to be about strictly hockey And you guys decided on LA who dismantled a good team in the name of mediocrity? That is the ultimate troll job. Personally, I agree their were better options, even if we wanted to go for a rebuilder (SJ deserved it), but I don't agree he dismantled it for mediocrity. Solid prospect pool, a lot of picks, and not a terrible roster.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 12:33:20 GMT -5
To be fair there's already awards for GM who contributed the most and GM who is the nicest. This is supposed to be about strictly hockey And you guys decided on LA who dismantled a good team in the name of mediocrity? That is the ultimate troll job. I nominated him for his diligence, surprising eye for talent, and for the sheer fact that he was doing things that completely changed the way we all had to approach fantasy hockey. Grogers threw a wrench in my plans on numerous ocassions because I basically couldn't use waivers. I had to sell Byron for super cheap. How many times did he find some loophole, or missing player? Compare that to the rest of the league. No one was doing what he was doing to that degree. Grogers is a total asshole (and perhaps that's why he is such a bastard on waivers), and I've gone on record to say he needs to mature and be nicer to people in the league or else he'll end up with 29 enemies who'll never trade with him, but he grinded out my respect with the way he continued to find talent and improve his team from November on. I realize it's not a popular nomination, and I fully expect Josh to win (that's where my vote went) but Grogers is deserving of this in my mind.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 12:33:38 GMT -5
Well the idea was that one rebuilder likely deserved to be involved because that style needed to be represented. I wanted sharky in there personally, he has IMO the best prospect pool and the old kicker, made gp. I personally feel LA's team is worse off then when he started by a rather large margin and should be considered for removal before Gm of the year haha but this was group nominations and after multiple pages of discussion, I caved and said fine.
I personally feel that Duncan deserves this award and it isn't close. To me, from who more is given, more is expected and TBL was the run away favourite for this league. Every year there are three sites that list which teams are the best to start a keeper league with, all three had the same top 5 and all had TBL as heads and tails above the rest. (Other 4 were ANA, CBJ, DAL and WPG). I took TBL to the finals in PBHL last year easily when Kuch, Palat, Stralman and TJ weren't worth much, Caspar called me a rape artist when I traded TJ + 1sr for Nyquist. I'm not saying that Josh did a bad job because he didn't, he did great, but it was his to lose when he started. Duncan took a team that no one really wanted, one of the last taken and turned it into a top contender. I think that is much more impressive than remaining the best team in the league. Again not knocking josh, his team will walk to the championship, I just judge by greatest improvement in what ever build teams are on. my pitch haha. I expect josh to win.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 12:44:01 GMT -5
Me and Bry wanted Sharky as the 3rd but he wouldn't allow it and pushed hard for Grogers. I said I was ok with it but would prefer other options, Bry absolutely hated it.
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Post by casperx22 (PHI) on Mar 19, 2016 13:08:35 GMT -5
Well the idea was that one rebuilder likely deserved to be involved because that style needed to be represented. I wanted sharky in there personally, he has IMO the best prospect pool and the old kicker, made gp. I personally feel LA's team is worse off then when he started by a rather large margin and should be considered for removal before Gm of the year haha but this was group nominations and after multiple pages of discussion, I caved and said fine. I personally feel that Duncan deserves this award and it isn't close. To me, from who more is given, more is expected and TBL was the run away favourite for this league. Every year there are three sites that list which teams are the best to start a keeper league with, all three had the same top 5 and all had TBL as heads and tails above the rest. (Other 4 were ANA, CBJ, DAL and WPG). I took TBL to the finals in PBHL last year easily when Kuch, Palat, Stralman and TJ weren't worth much, Caspar called me a rape artist when I traded TJ + 1sr for Nyquist. I'm not saying that Josh did a bad job because he didn't, he did great, but it was his to lose when he started. Duncan took a team that no one really wanted, one of the last taken and turned it into a top contender. I think that is much more impressive than remaining the best team in the league. Again not knocking josh, his team will walk to the championship, I just judge by greatest improvement in what ever build teams are on. my pitch haha. I expect josh to win. This, this post couldn't be anymore perfect. I 100% agree with everything in this post.
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Post by casperx22 (PHI) on Mar 19, 2016 13:12:33 GMT -5
And you guys decided on LA who dismantled a good team in the name of mediocrity? That is the ultimate troll job. Personally, I agree their were better options, even if we wanted to go for a rebuilder (SJ deserved it), but I don't agree he dismantled it for mediocrity. Solid prospect pool, a lot of picks, and not a terrible roster. His roster is terrible considering where it started. People overrate his prospect pool as well. Not that it is bad, but considering the roster he started with he should be rivaling Dal and SJ for best futures and still had a decent NHL roster.
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Post by casperx22 (PHI) on Mar 19, 2016 13:13:55 GMT -5
And you guys decided on LA who dismantled a good team in the name of mediocrity? That is the ultimate troll job. I nominated him for his diligence, surprising eye for talent, and for the sheer fact that he was doing things that completely changed the way we all had to approach fantasy hockey. Grogers threw a wrench in my plans on numerous ocassions because I basically couldn't use waivers. I had to sell Byron for super cheap. How many times did he find some loophole, or missing player? Compare that to the rest of the league. No one was doing what he was doing to that degree. Grogers is a total asshole (and perhaps that's why he is such a bastard on waivers), and I've gone on record to say he needs to mature and be nicer to people in the league or else he'll end up with 29 enemies who'll never trade with him, but he grinded out my respect with the way he continued to find talent and improve his team from November on. I realize it's not a popular nomination, and I fully expect Josh to win (that's where my vote went) but Grogers is deserving of this in my mind. There is no rhyme or reason to what Grogers does. Anarchy and chaos doesn't make him a genius.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 13:39:13 GMT -5
I nominated him for his diligence, surprising eye for talent, and for the sheer fact that he was doing things that completely changed the way we all had to approach fantasy hockey. Grogers threw a wrench in my plans on numerous ocassions because I basically couldn't use waivers. I had to sell Byron for super cheap. How many times did he find some loophole, or missing player? Compare that to the rest of the league. No one was doing what he was doing to that degree. Grogers is a total asshole (and perhaps that's why he is such a bastard on waivers), and I've gone on record to say he needs to mature and be nicer to people in the league or else he'll end up with 29 enemies who'll never trade with him, but he grinded out my respect with the way he continued to find talent and improve his team from November on. I realize it's not a popular nomination, and I fully expect Josh to win (that's where my vote went) but Grogers is deserving of this in my mind. There is no rhyme or reason to what Grogers does. Anarchy and chaos doesn't make him a genius. Nope it makes him a prepubescent teenager.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 15:02:33 GMT -5
Even though he removed himself from the nominees, I want to give a shout out to Sharky for best rebuilder. He stayed active in trade talks throughout the year, always tinkering to bring in the best futures without ever falling foul of our CBA. Comfortably making the minimum GP was icing on the cake.
From the nominees, I voted OTT. Rookie GM takes a non-playoff roster and turns it into a contender without much fanfare -- well done man.
That only just beat out Josh's season in my eyes. Yeah, TB is a great roster to start with, but 69 wins is incredible. That might be a season record that lasts a while.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 15:17:08 GMT -5
I agree margin is very close, don't want to discredit Josh. I just believe it would have been a bigger story had TBL not been a top 3 team than being one. No one gave musso a chance and he had the leagues 2nd best record. Rookie GM part was something I didn't even consider but only convinces me further of my opinion.
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