Question of the Week: I opened the player pool for the preseason and now my current season’s draft picks are missing. What happened?

Answer: When you open the player pool prior to the draft, the system thinks you have already drafted and therefore does not show you the current season’s draft picks. Don’t worry, though, they are still there! You will get them back fully intact when you switch back to the draft mode.

This will have some impact to owners who want to trade current season draft picks.

Here are some options for commissioners to consider:

1) The commish can keep track of any approved pick trades and then modify the draft order accordingly when that gets set up. (The draft can be fully customized round-by-round, so it’s easy to get traded picks in place manually.)

2) The player pool can be temporarily closed in order for trades with picks to be made and then reopened again after they are executed.

3) Draft pick trades could be temporarily held back while the pool is open. When the pool closes (at the draft set-up time),  this would be the ideal time for these trades to be set up and executed before the draft is started. (Ideally all trades should be wrapped up at least an hour before a draft starts just to ensure the draft board locks in the order correctly.)

4) Consider closing the pool on weekends or one weekend a month in the preseason to allow for trades with draft picks to happen during that window.

We are planning to introduce new functionality in the future that will allow you to do both — have the player pool open and still trade the current season’s picks.

To switch back to draft mode, commissioners should go to League Settings > Edit Rosters and choose “These are complete rosters but still draft this season” in the bottom Keeper Options section and hit Save.

Related QOTW: Opening Free Agency Pre-Draft