For the last week or so, 6 of us have been test-driving a fantasy hockey league (of sorts) at www.whatifsports.com. In a nutshell, you get $50 million to spend putting together a fantasy hockey team, of any combination of players from any era. For example... you could have a goalie from the 1920s, playing with Bobby Orr in front of him, and Peter Forsberg up front. Admittedly, the 6 of us that played a 10-game exhibition season are pretty much hooked (at least most of us are).

That being said, we want to play a full 82-game season (plus playoffs) with a full 24-team league. I'm sending this email out to everyone who I think might be interested in playing for just a $9.95 signup fee. I've got about 20 people or so on this invite. Feel free to forward on to any other fantasy hockey leagues you might be a part of, or to any other friends who enjoy hockey. I'm not holding spots for anyone... the first 24 to sign up are IN. If we dont have a full league after 7 days, I believe it will open up the league to outsiders until it fills up. So if you are interested, SIGN UP SOON!

This thing gets very in-depth. You need good players on both offense and defense, as well as solid goaltending, to be successful. You can spend $15M on Gretzky or Orr in their primes if you want... but that one player will be about 30% of your cap. Money management is key. As you play the season, you'll have players get fatigued and need to sit for a game or two. You'll have injuries. You'll have to waive high-priced guys to pick up a couple lower-cost guys to field a healthy team. Trades are not only allowed, but encouraged. You can set offensive schemes (which lines are aggressive, which are conservative), defensive schemes (same as above), when to pull your goalie if he's
playing poorly, which players on the other team you want to key on... etc etc. You dont NEED to set all these things, but it just adds to the realism. The exhibition season that we played only had limited functionality, and we were all hooked. I really think the "real" season will be a blast.

Here is a link to the site to sign up. If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me here or at work. I want to get this league full ASAP. It really will be a great time.

http://www.whatifsports.com/x.asp?u=/nhl-l/gotime.asp?lid=9310.ptf=9.95&r=388246

If this link doesn't work, go to www.whatifsports.com, and join an existing hockey league. The league name is NHL9310.