[d9rat]

Something I've been playing with in my head is giving the user an option for a "Historically Accurate Draft" and a "Hindsight Draft".

"Hindsight Draft" is what you normally see in historical play. Everyone based on their actual potential so that the best players are in round 1, second best round 2, etc.

"Historically Accurate Draft" would allow historical leagues to have those hidden games still appear. Bu how to do that?

Basically, every player would have an extra "Hype" rating which would be based on where they were drafted/signed.

Hype would essentially be what scouts are seeing and how they determine how to rank players in a range (actual potential would be hidden to them, but better scouts could use potential to more accurately see the range).

Using the 1998 NHL draft:
Lecavalier would have both one of the highest potentials and highest hype ratings (he was one of the best players in the draft and the #1 pick).

Tanguay would also have one of the higher potentials but, as a #12 pick, his hype rating would be lower. Good scouts would see him as the #12 pick, worse scouts lower.

Ribeiro would also have a higher potential but his range would be low-midrange second rounder to end of second rounder (good scouts placing him higher, worse scouts worse).

Datsyuk would be a low sixth round pick pick to possibly out of the draft (once you start hitting round 5 there are a lot of players who's floors are career minor leaguer, this is where scouts start to earn their keep).

The Hype rating can start to shift once players start playing at higher levels and will gradually move to match their actual potential after a few years of playing and proving themselves.

Martin St. Louis would be a great example.

1997 NCAA FA, his Hype would be career AHLer to ECHLer. Basically, no NHL team would sign him. But after half a season in the minors he'd get a boost in Hype to 4th liner to career minor leaguer. Another season and it would be boosted to 3rd liner to Euro league import.

It would take a few years, and good scouts, to recognize the he actually has all-star potential.

This would make for historically accurate drafts, encourage teams to try out players in different line combos (maybe this player who's rated as a 3rd liner is actually a 2nd liner, let's give him some minutes to find out), and would make scouts more important in historical play.

Of course, you'd want to partner this with a "blind draft" option that blurs all biographical details save for height, weight, birth date, and country (for import rules).

But, yeah, you could also partner this with historical pre-draft stats to also create a "Analytics Hype" stat to give teams (or GMs) who invest in analytic scouting a leg-up on some players (or wrong in others).

Be fun to be looking at a player with a "career minor leaguer" scouting report but see they put up almost 2 points per game in the NCAA and think "you know, maybe I'll take a flyer on this guy" and find yourself rewarded with St. Louis or go against your scouts and draft 3rd-5th rounder who tore up the NCAA as a freshman and land Gionta.