A note from the offices of the CCHL on goaltending

 As the trade deadline approaches, it's time we do a quick reminder about the goalie usage in the CCHL and how riding one goalie for 68 games could impact your playoff hopes.  

While 68 games seems like a great idea on the surface, it could be detrimental in a number of ways.  

In the event of injury, you could be left with a goalie that is ineligible for CCHL playoff action if they play under 17 games.  While David Ayres was a great story for the Hurricanes, he's now 46 years old and probably not a guy that you want the league to sign as your playoff goalie.  

If you are on pace to have goaltending where with 25-26 games left you can't get your tandem to seven games in a playoff series based on the chart (from the rules) below you may want to try to add a goaltender with some games played or press your luck with David Ayres and the other emergency backups in the playoffs.  If you don't believe you can win and don't want to sacrifice assets to add a goalie, this could be the way to go.  It could lead to some lopsided games or a very unlikely hero but I'm not betting a large sum of money on that outcome.  

There are only two or three teams in the risk of EBUG territory but wanted to point it out with 4 days left until the trade deadline.  

At the same time, it's also important to remind people about the 68-game max (the 150% rule doesn't apply since a single goalie didn't hit over 68 games played in 23-24).  If you are over this threshold, your team could be docked points (or conversely added for the draft lottery).  At the current rate, some teams are within reach of that according to the usage charge on the home page, but it's easily manageable for those teams close to the maximum.  

That's it for now.  Please ensure you monitor email and messages this week as it might be a bit busier than normal given its deadline week.  I may push games back an hour or so Thursday but it depends on how busy trades are that day.  If it's like the last few years, most business is done in the day prior as nobody wants to be up against the clock, but we'll see how it plays out.  As of now, games are scheduled for the normal time but I could push that to 7PM if it's busy.  I'll let everyone know if it's changing based on activity that day.  

45+ Regular season games played (CCHL) equals 7 games per playoff series...
40-44 Regular season games played (CCHL) equals 6 games per playoff series...
35-39 Regular season games played (CCHL) equals 5 games per playoff series...
30-34 Regular season games played (CCHL) equals 4 games per playoff series...
21-29 Regular season games played (CCHL) equals 3 games per playoff series...
16-20 Regular season games played (CCHL) equals 2 games per playoff series...
<16 Regular season games played (CCHL) equals 0 games per playoff series...