This is the last year that we will be using this draft format.  After talking to enough of the owners I can safely say that we have enough consensus to make the move to the Cohen/Ron model in 2011-12.  I will detail the basic changes here so that we are all on the same page.

The draft will take place on Friday night during week 4 of our regular season.  One day after you turn in your week 4 lineup.

The order determination will stay the same,  by order of finish the season before with the Stanley winners and losers always being the last two no matter their record.

No team will ever have more than 24 man roster as they enter the draft night.  The waiver wire cannot be used during the regular and off season until after the draft is over.  Likewise the roster freeze date (no WW or Trades) will be the end of week 16 of the regular season.

Each team will draft an un-owned player in the normal fashion but must at the same time immediately drop a current player off of their existing roster.  This keeps everyone's rosters at 24 at all times and makes the dropped players now available to be drafted by the teams behind the current drafter with one exception,  no team can pick a player that is dropped by another owner in the same round ex:  The first pick in round 2 has the ability to pick any un-owned player and all players dropped in round 1 also etc etc etc.

One year later,  immediately after the 2012-13 draft,  this system will have seen it's second full event and the roster freeze date will be moved up to the end of week 17, also the IR category will be added to each team.

The IR will be two slots added to each roster that are reserved for players that you will be able to move into that position during the regular season instead of dropping them during a transaction.  They are still owned by the team but they can no longer be used or traded or waived etc by the team.

The last day of the season all IR players get moved to full roster status and each team will at that point have between 24-26 players during the off-season.  If a team has more than 24 players at the start of the next years draft they must drop all extra players in the first round as they make their pick.  ex: team 1 has 26 players and picks player x,  they must drop 3 players right then and there in the first round to get back to 24 immediately.

In the off-season and during the draft,  all teams can trade picks and players but no one can ever be under 24.  Any overage of players must immediately be dropped during the teams next pick.  All teams must be at no more than 24 players as of the picking of the 84 position (round 7 last pick).   

Personal Thoughts:  This new system,  19 months from now,  will make our Hockey Draft one of the largest horse-trading-events of any league in existence. It will award current hot players to teams that may be struggling at the time and likewise will allow very savvy owners to compile prospects and fresh meat dropped by lesser owners in a stock-market-like environment.  There is something in this system for all styles of owners and it will make draft night the Uber-Event that it is supposed to be.

The waiver wire gets a boost the following year with a further pushback date and IR position added to it.

So to recap all changes:

2010-11 season = PA category on standings page.  Pools added

2011-12 season = New Uber Draft and WW/Trade pushback date