Good evening guys,
Tonight, I am receiving a number of emails from GM's who are a bit confused on the minors for the upcoming season. I have ZERO appetite IN changing the format that a majority of GM's voted in favour of in the spring. However, I am willing to propose a compromise to bridge into the first year of the return of the minors.
Some GM's struggled with the notion that once a player is protected, he is protected until he is released to Free Agency. Protected players are ineligible to play in the minors - this was implemented so that the integrity of our Majors will be maintained.
Some teams cannot dress a full line-up for week 1. Some have struggled to make trades based on the protected rule.
I would like to propose the following...
1) We will hold a one time only "September" waiver draft (only name I could think of) for 2017-18. This will allow teams to choose if they wish to draft one more player or not.
2) You will not need to drop a player to participate in this one time only draft.
3) Teams with 25 players can still participate and will be granted a one time only exemption to carry 26 players. Only those teams that meet this requirement tonight (IRISH, HELL, SPART, XMEN) will be able to carry 26 players. Once a trade is made to get them back to 25 or under, they will be back to the usual limit.
4) Teams will be able to choose to enter this drafted player into the Week 1 line-up retroactively.
This should solve all of the issues and transitions us into the new rules. Once we get 13 yes votes we will begin the draft. Week 1 is a 12 day week. My hope is to complete the waiver draft by Monday.
We are basically adding an optional round 13 for this year only. Draft will happen here on the forum.
Please post your vote below.