Hold a Mid-Season Re-Balance Draft to Maintain the Competitiveness of Your Pool and Add $ to the Pot!
by Mr. Carol Pominville and Mr. Stephan Erechook
Pools often lose their competitive edge early on, with the winner frequently becoming apparent within the first couple of months.
By the time New Year rolls around, the outcome is usually a foregone conclusion, leading to waning interest and apathy among participants.
To keep things engaging throughout the season we suggest this half-way mark Re-Balance Draft System.
Introduction of a Re-Balance Draft System
Here is an example of a 10-member pool at the half-way mark of the season.Use your method of determining the half-way mark
- a majority of the teams having 41 games played?
- date mid-point?
| Poolie | Jan. 11th Current Points | Projected Final Points based on current PPG |
|---|---|---|
| Ron | 200 | 400 |
| Stephan | 194 | 388 |
| Brad | 180 | 364 |
| Michel | 175 | 353 |
| Lorna | 165 | 328 |
| Tony | 150 | 300 |
| Dave | 140 | 282 |
| John | 123 | 249 |
| Ryan | 123 | 249 |
| Carol | 100 | 200 |
In this example, Carol is projected to finish 200 points behind Ron. So, let's give Carol a chance to catch up in the second half of the season by allowing him to purchase a potential 200 points worth of players.
At the half-way point of the season, the spread between Carol and Ron is 100 points. Since half the season is still left to play, we expect both teams to double their current points, Carol ending with 200 points, and Ron with 400. In an effort to make the pool more competitive, Carol is entitled to purchase 200 additional potential points with his player picks.
Carol may select any number of additional un-drafted players provided the drafted players have not currently earned more than a combined total of 200 points. This uses the same logic - if these players scored 200 combined points in the first half of the season, they will likely do the same in the second half.
AND, for EACH player selected, Carol must add $5 to the winning pot (or some amount that your pool can decide).
These extra players do not replace any players on Carol's team, Carol keeps all current players. These newly drafted players are added to Carol's team, starting at 0 points.
The newly drafted players give Carol additional players who have the potential to earn significant points in the second half of the season.
If this group of selected players currently have 200 points, then they can be expected to score an
additional 200 points in the second half of the season, thus closing the gap between Team Carol and Team Ron,
making for a closer finish, and also a bigger pot!
The Re-Balance Draft encourages strategic decision-making. Do you select fewer high-scoring players for less money, or bank on a lot of lower-scoring players having a great second-half of the season, but for more money?
Stephan, in second place at only 12 projected final points behind Ron, is also eligible to make a pick for the point difference.
He could pick a player who is currently in 649th place with 12 points. But, at $5 dollars per pick, will he? (Well, see our real-pool example at the bottom of this page to see what happened to Team John who decided to go for it in a similar situation!)
In terms of strategy, yes, Carol with a big point gap, could load up on just-called-up Rookies or stars returning from injury, but with a cost-per-player they're making a bigger bet compared to everyone else.
Enacting the Re-Balance Draft
- A second draft meeting is not required.
- The pool administrator should notify the Poolies a few days prior.
- Eligible participants can email the pool administrator their desired players.
- Unique player selections will be maintained.
- If two participants express interest for the same player, the higher ranked participant gets priority.
- Some groups may prefer to have the lower ranked player have priority. Choose pity over merit perhaps? In a current points tie, a coin toss or more goals scored can decide? or higher $ bids? Decide for your pool.
- Once any conflicts are resolved, the impacted Poolies who did not get their picks can make alternative selections, and this continues until no conflicts remain.
Trading Re-Balance Draft Picks
These picks can be traded, although with a caveat:- Say that Brad used the handicap system to select a player with 20 points on Jan. 11.
- Unfortunately, a month later, his handicap pick suffered a season ending injury.
- Brad can replace the injured player, but the new player must not have had more than 20 points on January 11th.
- This rule prevents unfair trades where one could swap a lower-point player for a higher-point one later.
On TheHockeyPool.com, you can draft these new players as CustomA players, and change their displayed position type to RBD (or any other unique type of player) in order to identify them and help your pool administrator enforce these trading rules.
Recognition and Reward for the Mid-Season Leader
- At the halfway mark, the individual in first place deserves acknowledgment for their astuteness, hockey acumen, fine taste, moral character, and distinguished countenance in the form of monetary compensation!
- BUT, instead of an immediate reward, 50% of the first place prize at the end of season will be given to the mid-season leader, ensuring continued motivation and competition.
- In our example Ron has guaranteed himself 50% of the first place winnings at the end of the season for being the mid-season leader.
- However, of course, the prize payout should be determined by all the poolies at the start of the draft.
Fees for Trades?
You can implement something like a $5 fee per-trade or per-pick, or some additional cost that the poolies agree upon to help sweeten the pot.Benefits of the Re-Balance Draft System
The introduction of a Re-Balance Draft not only revitalizes the competition but also rewards participants like Ron for their strong start to the season.
Conversely, it serves as a reminder that poor initial picks, as seen with Carol, come with a cost, and a cost not just in shame, but financially as well.
In summary, these proposed changes aim to breathe new life into your hockey pool, fostering excitement and engagement throughout the entire season.
By recognizing mid-season leader(s) and implementing a handicap system, you can pave the way for thrilling comebacks and ensure that every participant remains invested until the very end.
A Test Example from 2024/2025
TheHockeyPool went back to a 6-person draft in the 2024/2025 season to see what the effect of a Re-Balance Draft might have looked like.A caveat is that when we did this in late 2025, we ignored who was injured at the begining of the year (Jan. 7) which is when this mock re-balance draft was done.
Okay, so grains of salt all round, yes?
On January 7th, 2025 (the half-way point of the 24/25 season based on days), the standings were as follows:
| Rank | Team | Points | Mid-Season Points Behind Leader | 2X Points Behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mich | 634 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Stefan | 628 | 6 | 12 |
| 3 | John | 625 | 9 | 18 |
| 4 | Andrew | 619 | 15 | 30 |
| 5 | Harry | 549 | 85 | 170 |
| 6 | Larry | 529 | 105 | 210 |
Based on this, we had the teams do a re-balance draft with the lowest ranking players getting first dibs on the leading scorers as of Jan. 7, 2025.
The teams drafted as follows, adding these players starting with 0 points by setting their start dates on the team to Jan. 7:
| Poolie | Player | Team | GP | Goals | Assists | Points as of Jan 7 and thus Projected for Second Half | Actually Scored in Second Half |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Larry | SEAN MONAHAN | CBJ | 54 | 19 | 38 | 40 | 17 |
| ANZE KOPITAR | LAK | 81 | 21 | 46 | 39 | 28 | |
| BRADY TKACHUK | OTT | 72 | 29 | 26 | 37 | 18 | |
| MATTHEW TKACHUK | FLA | 52 | 22 | 35 | 36 | 21 | |
| ALEKSANDER BARKOV | FLA | 67 | 20 | 51 | 35 | 36 | |
| COLTON PARAYKO | STL | 65 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 13 | |
| TOTALS | 210 | 133 | |||||
| Harry | ALIAKSEI PROTAS | WSH | 76 | 30 | 36 | 35 | 31 |
| TROY TERRY | ANA | 77 | 21 | 34 | 33 | 22 | |
| ANTHONY CIRELLI | TBL | 80 | 27 | 32 | 33 | 26 | |
| EVGENI MALKIN | PIT | 68 | 16 | 34 | 32 | 18 | |
| BRAD MARCHAND | BOS / FLA | 71 | 23 | 28 | 32 | 19 | |
| CAMERON ATKINSON | TBL | 39 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | |
| TOTALS | 170 | 120 | |||||
| Andrew | IVAN BARBASHEV | VGK | 70 | 23 | 28 | 30 | 21 |
| TOTALS | 30 | 21 | |||||
| John | LUKE HUGHES | NJD | 71 | 7 | 37 | 18 | 26 |
| TOTALS | 18 | 26 | |||||
| Stefan | DARREN RADDYSH | TBL | 73 | 6 | 31 | 12 | 25 |
| TOTALS | 12 | 25 |
As you can see, each player drafted the maximum number of points in the fewest number of players.
At $5 per player, Larry and Harry contributed an extra $30 to the pot each, Andrew, John, and Stefan another $15, so in total this would have enriched the pot by $75.
In the "Points As of Jan 7" column, these were the points the players had scored up to the half way mark, and so one might reasonably expect those players to continue to score at that rate.
BUT as you can see in the "Actually Scored" column, this mostly wasn't the case.
Another way to think of it is to look at the TOTALS rows. Larry hoped he was buying an extra 210 points, but only got 133. Harry hoped for 170, but only got 120.
John and Stefan made out like bandits though with some good or lucky drafts, with two players who had excellent second halves of the season.
Here's what the final standings of the pool looked like WITHOUT the Re-Balance Draft:
| FINISH WITHOUT RE-BALANCE DRAFT | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Poolie | Points |
| 1 | Andrew | 1255 |
| 2 | John | 1253 |
| 3 | Mich | 1237 |
| 4 | Stefan | 1220 |
| 5 | Harry | 1094 |
| 6 | Larry | 1073 |
| Difference between first & last | 182 | |
| FINISH WITH RE-BALANCE DRAFT | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Poolie | Points |
| 1 | John | 1279 |
| 2 | Andrew | 1276 |
| 3 | Stefan | 1245 |
| 4 | Mich | 1237 |
| 5 | Harry | 1214 |
| 6 | Larry | 1193 |
| Difference between first & last | 86 | |
The Re-Balance Draft tightened up the spread by almost 100 points. Larry and Harry picked poorly, or it would have been even more competitive.
If you try this out, please let us know so we can see how your pool fared!