When I posted the tweet below, I didn't realize it would get as much attention as it did. I guess so many of my Twitter followers can relate to this.

Man, I don't get paid enough to be a fantasy hockey commissioner.

— Ian Gooding (@Ian_Gooding) December 4, 2020

A few people have reached out to me, curious to find out why I said this and what exactly happened. Since the issue has now been resolved (kind of), I'll disclose more about it now. There are a lot of specifics about how the league works, so I'll try to share without being too wordy.

We have a bidding system for players in an online forum. Generally speaking, valid bids must be 10 percent higher than any previous bids. The owner in question approached me about another owner's bid that was below that 10 percent by the smallest possible margin (literally a drop in a bucket). I'd observed numerous bids that in the past that had been short by that amount, but I had also allowed them assuming that they could be rounding errors. I told the owner that the bid should be considered valid, as the bid would expire in two hours and the player would then be awarded to the other bidder. My intent was that this would hopefully give him enough time to place a higher bid if he wanted to. Simply put, he was irate (I'll describe that in a bit).

Later on, the owner who placed the bid admitted that he made a data entry error when he placed the bid, which isn't considered an acceptable reason for an invalid bid. I also then determined that there was no possible way that a rounding error could have happened on this bid, using multiple methods of calculating the correct amount. Yet since other bidding activity had since taken place, I had to move ahead with my original decision. Kind of like a referee that makes a bad call or missed call late in a game. One team hates the call, but you have to play the game as is anyway.

The owner cited the league rules in which the previous high bid stands. He was obviously looking to be awarded the player for the previous high bid, and "too bad" for the other owner. That is fine and I can take the blame for the decision I made, which in my defense I didn't have a ton of time to investigate (I was literally on my way out the door for several hours). But I thought at the time my decision was nuanced and not as black and white as he claimed it was.

It was the way in which the owner responded that I took exception to. He went an absolute tirade on the league forum – on me, on the other owner, on whoever dared to disagree with him. Then he went to great lengths to try to embarrass me to seek attention to his cause. After I told owners that future bids now must be correct to the penny while apologizing to him, he replied saying my apology meant nothing without the right action (to him). He then went one step further and deliberately placed invalid bids for small amounts on numerous players. I warned him to stop, and he refused. If that's the hill you want to die on, fine, you're out. And that's how this ended.

In roughly five years of being the commissioner in this league, I had never dismissed an owner before. Prior to yesterday, this other owner and I had disagreed before, and I knew he could be challenging at times, but getting rid of him had never crossed my mind. When he responded saying that he wasn't willing to change his behavior, I knew he was now like the employee trying to get fired because he didn't get that raise or promotion. I'm willing to be patient and I will listen to points of view different from my own, but I will not stand for people who can't be civil in a discussion and exhibit continued inappropriate behavior. Life is too short for that kind of bullshit.

Never will adults act more like spoiled children than in a fantasy league

— Pat Quinn (not that one) (@FHPQuinn) December 4, 2020

Bottom line, if you have a problem owner in your league, have a fireside chat with them. Make it clear what isn't tolerated, whether it's unsportsmanlike conduct, non-payment, or general inactivity. If it's apparent that the issue won't get resolved, send the owner on their way, then go to the Dobber Forum League Classifieds to find a new owner if you or any of the other owners don't know anyone else that is interested. (In case you're wondering, yes, I have filled the spot, and it was literally done in the blink of an eye.)

Think of it as an opportunity to find a better GM

— Eric Daoust (@DH_EricDaoust) December 5, 2020

Remember that this is only a game. If it's not fun anymore, then maybe it's time to scale back or get out.

*

I usually don't talk about my own fantasy teams at this length. It's just that what happened yesterday was such a bizarre story that's been on my mind all day Saturday. If you're here for fantasy hockey information, don't worry, I've got that too. Today I'll do another quick dive into Frozen Tools and examine the points-per-60 stat. Here are your 2019-20 points-per-60 leaders (minimum 15 games):

Name	Pos	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	Per 60 PTS
DAVID PASTRNAK	R	BOS	70	48	47	95	4.3
CONNOR MCDAVID	C	EDM	64	34	63	97	4.2
LEON DRAISAITL	C	EDM	71	43	67	110	4.1
EVGENI MALKIN	C	PIT	55	25	49	74	4.1
ARTEMI PANARIN	L	NYR	69	32	63	95	4
NIKITA KUCHEROV	R	T.B	68	33	52	85	4
NATHAN MACKINNON	C	COL	69	35	58	93	3.8
BRAD MARCHAND	L	BOS	70	28	59	87	3.8
STEVEN STAMKOS	C	T.B	57	29	37	66	3.8
MIKA ZIBANEJAD	C	NYR	57	41	34	75	3.7
JONATHAN HUBERDEAU	L	FLA	69	23	55	78	3.6
PATRICK KANE	R	CHI	70	33	51	84	3.4
SIDNEY CROSBY	C	PIT	41	16	31	47	3.4
AUSTON MATTHEWS	C	TOR	70	47	33	80	3.3
TOMAS TATAR	L	MTL	68	22	39	61	3.3
TRAVIS KONECNY	R	PHI	66	24	37	61	3.3
KEVIN FIALA	L	MIN	64	23	31	54	3.3
KAILER YAMAMOTO	R	EDM	27	11	15	26	3.3

As you can see, the names at the top of the list are who you'd expect. The first 14 names on the list are players you'd expect to see. We all know that these players make the most of their icetime, which isn't usually limited. After that, there are some players that you might not expect to see here that maybe aren't considered elite. Could an increase in icetime help even more?

Tomas Tatar

Tatar is an interesting one. Outside of Montreal, it might not be well known that Tatar led the Canadiens in scoring in 2019-20 (61 points), and he did so 14 points clear of the next-highest scorer Phillip Danault. Tatar was the team's leading scorer even though four Habs forwards (Danault, Joel Armia, Max Domi, Brendan Gallagher) averaged more icetime than Tatar (16:18). That's why Tatar's 3.3 PTS/60 was significantly higher than the next-highest total from Gallagher (2.6 PTS/60). After that, no Montreal regular averaged more than 2.2 PTS/60.

Over his career, Tatar has never had more than a 2.7 PTS/60, which he reached last season. Both Tatar's PTS/60 and IPP (between 71 and 75%) have never been higher than they've been in Montreal. That's why it's a bit surprising that the Habs may decide to move on from Tatar after the season, as he has one year left on his contract. Marc Bergevin decided to sign newcomers Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli to lucrative contracts this offseason, which could be another reason that Tatar and Danault (also a UFA after 2020-21) may not be back after this season.

Travis Konecny

Like Tatar, Konecny also led his team in scoring and points per 60. This in spite of averaging the fifth-highest time on ice total (16:48) among players who played at least as many games. Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes, and Jakub Voracek all averaged more icetime than Konecny, as did Oskar Lindblom before his cancer treatment.

Konecny also delivered on the power play, leading the Flyers with 23 power-play points and leading Flyers power-play regulars with a 82.1% PP IPP. Only a handful of players had both a higher power-play point total and a higher PP IPP, a testament to how productive Konecny was on the power play.  

Konecny's icetime has gradually increased from season to season, as has his point totals. Also of note: his shooting percentage has increased from 8.3% in 2016-17 to about 13% in 2017-18 and 2018-19 to about 17% in 2019-20. As that icetime continues to grow, so should his point totals.  

Kevin Fiala

We know how hot Fiala got during the second half of last season. That hot stretch was enough for Fiala to take not only the Wild scoring lead (54 points) but also the points per 60 lead (3.3 PTS/60). In terms of Wild regulars, Fiala was way down the list in icetime (15:24), behind all of Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mikko Koivu, and Luke Kunin.

The low icetime was tilted toward the first half, when Fiala was averaging around 14 minutes per game. As the second half began, Fiala started to average 16-17 minutes, which seemed to be fair. As you might expect, the Wild have a very even distribution of icetime, with no forward averaging more than just over 17 minutes per game. Yet the coaching change from Bruce Boudreau to Dean Evason seemed to help Fiala. Now that Fiala has established himself as a bona fide scoring threat, that might change.  

As was the case with Tatar and Konecny, Fiala's IPP was high (80.6%), a characteristic of being productive. That and a higher-than-normal 5-on-5 shooting percentage of 9.7% suggest that we shouldn't expect a massive jump in production from Fiala. Yet the second-half production indicates that bigger and better things are to come.

Kailer Yamamoto

For more on Yamamoto, see my Ramblings from last weekend.

*

For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding