Due to the high volume of requests, for the first time ever the Nation Network will launch a hockey pool open to all of our faithful readers! Details are after the jump.

A little further down the page, every entrant will be asked to construct their own team – 14 forwards, seven defensemen, and four goaltenders (we cheated a little on the number of goaltenders because we didn’t want to leave certain players out). The scoring will be explained in each section, and it’s going to be slightly different than what most will be used to, so please keep it in mind when making selections.

Forwards

Scoring:

• Goal: Worth 1.25 points
• Assist: Worth 1 point
• Plus/Minus: Worth 1 point

Example: Last season’s Hart Trophy winner was Corey Perry. He recorded 50 goals, 48 assists and a plus-9 rating. If he matches those totals exactly, he will be worth 119.5 points – 62.5 points for goals + 48 points for assists + nine points for plus/minus.

Why are goals valued more? It’s simple: goals are rarer in the NHL than assists, and so players that score them should get a little extra consideration.

Please pick one player from each category below:

Defensemen

Scoring:

• Goal: Worth 1.25 points
• Assist: Worth 1 point
• Plus/Minus: Worth 1 point

Example: Last season’s Norris Trophy winner was Nicklas Lidstrom. He recorded 16 goals, 46 assists and a minus-2 rating. If he matches those totals exactly, he will be worth 64 points – 20 points for goals + 46 points for assists - two points for plus/minus.

Please pick one player from each category below:

Goaltenders

Scoring:

• Shutouts: Worth 5 points
• Save percentage: Worth 2.5 points for every 0.001 above 0.900.
• Goaltender must play in at least 10 games to qualify - if he fails to meet the threshold he'll be worth a basic value of 50 points.

Example: Last season’s Vezina Trophy winner was Tim Thomas. He recorded nine shutouts and a 0.938 SV%. If he matches those totals exactly, he will be worth 140 points – 95 points for save percentage and 45 points for his shutouts.

Why are goalies valued this way? For years, hockey pools have based goaltender value on wins and goals against average. The problem is that these are heavily team-based measures – good goalies on bad teams are constantly overlooked because they rack up the losses and face a lot of shots, driving up their GAA. It’s impossible to remove team effects entirely, but under this system goalies get credit mostly for their save percentage. The shutout category recognizes a) goalies that play a lot and b) goalies that put together perfect games.

Please pick one player from each category below:

Entering

To make recording everyone’s entries a little easier, I’m going to ask entries be formatted in a specific way. IMPORTANT: ENTRIES NOT FORMATTED IN THIS WAY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. For each set of players, please record just the last name, followed by a dash, and please do so in the order presented above.

Example: Aaron A. Aardvark loves the alphabet (and alliteration), for obvious reasons, so he decides to pick the player with the highest name each time. His entry would look like this:

Malkin – Backstrom – Eriksson – Iginla – Datsyuk – Hall – Briere – Crosby – Alfredsson – Burrows – Couture – Bouchard – Backes – Hodgson – Boyle – Byfuglien – Campbell – Burns – Ehrhoff – Chara – Carlson – Fleury – Miller – Bryzgalov – Brodeur

This contest will close promptly at 7:00 PM EST on Thursday, October 6 – the starting point for the NHL regular season. Please have your entry in by that time by placing it in the comments section below.

Mandatory Product Placement

Have we mentioned that the Nation Network offers a high-end hockey pool guide, specifically designed to help in situations like this? Have we also mentioned that at its current price - $5.00 – no other comprehensive fantasy hockey guide is less expensive? Still not convinced? The link above also includes a sample of what is included with the Nation Network Draft Primer.

Prizes?

Naturally, for a big, season-long contest like this there must be prizes, right? I went down to Wanye Manor (pictured above) to ask for prizes from the Nation Network’s grand poobah himself. He reacted poorly, throwing a discarded coffee cup at me and taking off down the street. Eventually he stopped running, and turned to talk to me:

• Me: Please, Wanye, can we have some prizes?
• His Excellency Baron Wanye Von Gretz IV: Of course! Take anything you like out of the top bag in my shopping cart!

We will continue to negotiate with Wanye. Rest assured that prizes will be included, once we convince him to hand over something more value than the black milk crate (‘What do you mean nobody will want it? Look how sturdy it is!’) that he originally wanted to give to the first-place entrant.