There’s a special draft tonight, guys!
Regular drafts are scheduled ahead of time and based on historical needs of teams. As a matter of fact, the Training Commitee decided on tentative draft dates for 2011 just last night.
Once in a while, circumstances might shake out so that a team has needs that are not being met within the confines of the regular draft schedule. For example, a team might have a bunch of players go travel team-only, then have more retirees, and a few injuries, so they end up with a number of skaters closer to a game roster (14) than a team roster (20). What can they do other than wait for the next regular draft? They can request a special, or extra, draft.
GNR asked for an extra draft to be held, and also to get the first two draft picks. Opinions were exchanged. Many pertinent points were brought up, in meetings and over email. I promise. I was there. Very late. Eventually, the Training Committee voted to allow both points.
So! Tonight, there’s a draft! GNR gets the first two picks! The draft will be ordered based on the new rankings after the season opener. In order of draft pick:
- GNR (0-1)
- Heartless Heathers (.5-.5)
- Break Neck Betties (.5.-.5, beat Heathers in tiebreaker)
- High Rollers (1-0)
Other things you might want to know:
- Guts and Bolts skated in the season opener as a Guest Skater for GNR. According to the returning skater policy, if GNR chooses to draft her, they must select her first.
- GNR picks twice in the first round only.
- Scald Eagle left the Betties to return to Fresh Meat. She’s expected to be taken by GNR with their second pick. (Skate on, you crazy raptor!)
- The Training Committee is comprised of a member from each league team. We’re the voting members, but anyone can butt into a meeting and give their opinion.
- There are about 6 Fresh Meat eligible to be drafted, if that. I think.
- I’ll let you know who got drafted after I get home from Get Fit and take a shower.
- Mora Manipulator is leaving GNR to move across the country. We are bummed.
- Mora rocks out her GNR debut and finale
Thanks for the explanation, Frisky – thorough, and appreciated.
So … what’s the story with Scald Eagle being drafted and then undrafted? Is there a rule for that, or is it another “special circumstances” sort of thing?
Fresh Meat and their drafting league team have 30 days to choose to part ways with no hard feelings or strings attached. If this route is chosen, that skater immediately returns to the FM program.
Any drafted skater has 30 days to refuse the draft offer and remain on/return to Fresh Meat in order to wait it out for another draft. It’s been in the league draft policy for as long as I can remember but has only been used a handful of times.
The up side is that it gives a skater some power over her future with the league- after all, she doesn’t get to choose whether she makes tryouts or how long she’ll be on fresh meat or when the drafts take place. She does get to choose whether the team who has drafted her is the right team for her.
It speaks two things to me: RCR skaters are not commodities or employees that can be shuffled around as needed for the company and RCR skaters get to choose what program they want to be a part of. It gets back to that thing- you can’t pick your family, but you can pick your friends. RCR is one big family, but there may be a team in the league you get along better with- and if you’re going to spend hours every week with that team, you’d better be with the one you fit best with. Skating with RCR is a hobby, not a job, so you’d better enjoy it and the league does its best to allow the skaters to make the best of it- they don’t force skaters onto teams where they don’t want to be just to balance out team skill or make things more interesting for fans (the skaters tend to do a good enough job of that themselves). Leo Seltzer used to shuffle his deck- assigning skaters and team names where he felt most appropriate at any time- but that was a completely different game with paid skaters.
I’ve jokingly been calling Scald a quitter (only to her face) but at the heart of it I think she’s doing the right thing by taking a stand and showing her commitment to be with the team she wants to be with, not just the first team that picks her. Skaters often feel they don’t have a choice in the matter- and are just happy to be off Fresh Meat and onto a bouting team. It’s no easy decision either- another 30+ days on FM and missing opportunities to bout (Scald could have been on the Betties for the season opener). Not to mention the stigma that puts on you as a skater once you’ve rejected a team’s draft offer (will another team draft you if they’re scared you’ll bail on them too?). Scald’s going to prove that skaters do have a choice (even if by a round-about method) where they end up.
From the drafting team’s perspective it’s kinda crummy- they lost a pick by no fault of their own and could have picked up another talented skater who went to the next team in the order- but in this case it was a gamble they took; the Betties knew Scald had her heart set on another team. A similar thing happened a few years back when Sump Pump returned to skating after a long time off resting injury- everybody knew she was a Heather through-and-through, but she was initially re-drafted by another team. She didn’t accept the offer, of course, but had to wait for the next draft in order for the Heathers to pick her up.
As for what happens outside that 30-day post-draft window, then we get into a mid-season or off-season defect policy whereby there’s even more hoops to jump through.
So all that said, why have the draft process we do if skaters can choose to bow out or reject a draft offer? Typically, believe it or not, the teams and league leadership know what they’re doing better than our Fresh Meat. Over the years they’ve developed a pretty good, balanced system for distributing talent throughout the 4 teams and the teams spend time getting to know the Fresh Meat in order to know whether they’d be a good fit in their program. I’ve heard from lots of skaters over the years how they weren’t sure they’d like a team or they really wanted to be on a different team… but almost all of them fall in love the skaters on their team and end up being die-hard members of the team that picked them.
In my experience with RCR, the team everybody always wants to be on: GnR. The team most don’t wanna be on come draft day? Betties. But every Bettie I know well tells me once she got to know the team she loved being there and wouldn’t wanna be on another RCR home team.
Speed, thanks for the detailed answer to my question – I’m sure this is going to help illuminate what’s still a fairly obscure theme for most fans.
I am curious about the fact the fact that a team who loses a draftee this way doesn’t get compensated for the loss. Why wouldn’t they get, say, an extra pick in the next draft?
By the way, I don’t know about the majority of Fresh Meat wanting to skate with GnR, but hey – who could blame them?
My question is this: at the last draft a lot of talent was left on the table, and instead of taking what they could get and at least having a full charter, GNR stuck with only 14 skaters, which necessitated this special draft. Is there a minimum that a team has to have on their team charter? It so, it should definitely be more than 14. Don’t get me wrong, I am SO excited about GNR new draftees, and I’m sure these points were considered when TC voted to have this special draft. I’m just curious about the inner-workings of the sport that I love.
Yes, we discussed that GNR had the opportunity to draft a couple more bout-ready skaters at the previous draft. Can’t really get into details with that one, but it did come up.
There weren’t a TON of skaters in the last regular draft. I imagine, with 35 or so ladies on Fresh Meat now and a lot of room on rosters, that the next draft will be a big one.
“Extra pick” is hard to justify and even harder to quantify… especially when each team is given the opportunity to draft as many as they like- up to the 20-person team cap and the limit of Fresh Meat available on draft night. So an “extra pick” doesn’t mean anything compared to an extra first round pick for two shots at the top skaters of the draft pool. The reason it’s hard to quantify is that you’re assigning a value to that skater and the potential effect she could have on a team. Was that individual such a great loss, or rather has such potential, that your team deserves an extra pick in the first round? Hard to say with skaters coming off Fresh Meat and definitely a very subjective stance. What if the Betties took Scald as their 4th pick, sort of after thought at the end of the night after no teams drafted her? Then would it be right for the Betties to get an extra first round draft the next time around?
The only concrete policies affecting draft order are those pertaining to defecting/free-agent skaters and retired skaters returning to their original team. Those are skaters who have a history on the track and have proven their worth have to be taken in the first round of the draft by the team they’re predetermined for (if any). So effectively it’s more likely other teams “lose” their first round draft than anyone gain an extra.
In regards to Amanda’s question, which has come up on the forum as well, about teams (in this case, GNR) not drafting more skaters in the last regular draft, necessitating the special draft:
First, I believe there were only two eligible skaters who were not picked up in the last draft, so GNR could not have filled their charter even if they wanted to. Secondly, should a team be required to draft whoever is left, just to boost their numbers, even if they feel the remaining skater(s) would not be a good fit for their team, are not strong enough skaters yet, don’t fulfill a need the team has, or any other legitimate reason?
I don’t think it would be good for anyone involved to have skaters on teams who are only there because a team had room and they had to take everyone who left after all the other teams were done picking. Not to mention that skaters actually get more training and practice time on Fresh Meat than on a team, which could help them develop stronger skills more quickly, and thus be more ready when the next draft rolls around.
Just $.02 from a recent GNR draftee…
While I don’t disagree with your sentiment, I think the issue comes this time around when GnR left 2 on the table then almost immediately called for a special circumstance draft. Special drafts can only be held for a team with 14 or less active skaters on the team. The GnR effectively put themselves in a special circumstance in order to hold a special draft (conveniently timed when Guts, Scald, and others would be eligible for draft).
I totally agree teams shouldn’t be required to fill their roster nor do I believe that every eligible draftee should be taken their first time around. But that’s a lot easier for you (drafted) and me (a dude) to say. Being one of two left on the table when a team has 6 open spots? Seems hard to stomach.