Cool. I made a call on doing this poll. Looks like it was the wrong call. I'm pushing the trade through now.

Final Poll!

TOI, ATOI, or Shifts?

Some background facts:

All three are dominated by Defensemen, but forwards will still contribute.

Last year, Ryan Suter led all players at 29:03 TOI per game, while John Tavares led all forwards at 20:40 and finished 92nd overall.

Drew Doughty led the league in total shifts with 2,674. Sean Monahan led all forwards with 2,236, ranking 33rd in the league.

The big difference between TOI and ATOI is that TOI is a counting stat, while ATOI is an average stat. Please note how TOI and ATOI will affect the value of rugged forward grinder types who excel in Hits, Blocks and PIM (but less so in G, A, STP and SOG):

If a grinder gets 12 minutes a game, he will HURT your ATOI if you play him, but he will HELP your TOI (and shifts) if you play him.

Here's a link to the TOI and Shift stats at nhl dot com:

www.nhl.com/stats/player?fetchKey=20152ALLSASALL&ord=desc&sort=avgTOIPerGame&viewName=timeOnIce

My keeper has a really good GAA, therefore I want to keep it. Also, it seems relevant to fantasy or whatever.

After discussion from the boards, Hodge and I determined that we will increase our skater categories from 8 to 9.

We've already determined that PPP will change to Special Teams Points (STP). Therefore, here are the current 8 categories that are locked in for next year: G, A, +/-, PIM, STP, SOG, HIT, BLK

There was still open discussion on TOI vs ATOI vs shifts. These are similar categories, so let's table that for now, and we will simply vote on TOI to represent all three of these similar categories. If TOI is selected, we can have a separate vote or conversation on choosing one of TOI, ATOI, or Shifts.

You need to select one category to add among Faceoffs, TOI, Defenseman Points, and GWG.

Faceoffs gives more value to centers, especially centers that have RW/LW eligibility. Both scoring and grinder-type centers will gain value.

TOI gives more value to reward elite all-around players and workhorses, but especially defensemen, and especially the players that play a lot but don't score a lot, like Ryan Suter and Roman Josi and Danny DeKeyser

Defenseman Points gives more value to offensive defenseman.

GWG gives more value to goal scorers.

The poll has closed, and everyone has had a chance to speak up. We've got some direction and it's time to move forward.

Here's what we used last season:

11 Skaters compete in 8 categories: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SOG, HIT, BLK
2 Goalies compete in 4 categories: W, SO, GAA, SV%.

Based on the comments, here's what I think it's safe to say:

1. Because "The more roster decisions the better", we will have more than 12 total categories next year.
2. But we definitely don't want to give more power to goalies.
3. Goalie categories will remain at 4, but we may replace a goalie percentage category with another goalie category.
4. We will add at least one skater category.
5. Changing PPP to STP seems to have a consensus. So that's done.
6. No other skater categories will be dropped.

I will be creating a couple of separate polls. One to discuss adding skater categories, and one to discuss swapping out goalie categories.

Seven of our twelve league members voted, and by a 5-2 margin, we have selected Thursday March 5th as our league trade deadline.

As mentioned above, this is 3 days after the NHL Trade Deadline, which is scheduled for Monday March 2nd.

EDIT: ESPN League has been updated.