Can you believe it’s finally opening night (for the Oilers anyway… as if anyone else matters)?! After months of sitting around, and rehashing the same argument thousands of different ways, the NHL regular season is finally back!  That means it’s also time for another round of NationDrafts.

I feel like I’ve waited a long time for hockey to come back – it was starting to take it’s toll on all of us. Now that the NHL IS back, we can finally stop staring at depth charts (until the first injuries), looking at draft prospects (until December, probably earlier), and we can actually argue about the games! Not only that, we can once again make fun of Flames fans for the hilarity of their hockey team, and not just their offensive odours and general demeanour.  Flames fans are awful to say the least. 

Anyway… the regular season also brings us the opportunity for another favourite past time – merciless trash talking.  The idea of holding bragging rights for life over each and every one of you is a wonderful thought.  It’s a sense of power that every hockey fan should feel. Enter NationDrafts.

THE RULES

NationDrafts are pretty simple. You can pick out consistent NHL players, right? NationDrafts is as easy as that. All you have to do is sign up at www.nationdrafts.com and select the best team you can based on the player boxes provided. The ultimate goal is to get the maximum amount of goals/assists/points out of your team, so choose wisely. The cost to play is $20, and a portion of all money raised will be donated to the Edmonton Inner City Children’s Program. (A complete set of rules is listed here.) 

After your roster has been set, let the trash talking begin!

THE PRIZES

No contest is complete without some prizes, and when your wizardry leads you to victory you will surely reap the rewards.  This year, we raked together some slick and sexy prizes courtesy of our friends at the Pint and Oodle Noodle. Some of the prizes include:

• Grand Prize – $1000 Gift Card
• NHL signed jerseys
• iTunes Gift Cards
• Oodle Noodle Gift Cards

Most importantly, you won’t just be playing hockey drafts for some slick prizes, you’ll be playing for a great cause.  Part of the proceeds from NationDrafts will go help the Inner City Children’s Program.

If you don’t know, the Inner City Children’s Program works to foster positive relationships, self-confidence, and skills acquisition for inner city kids.  They have an important job, and we want to raise as much money for them as we can. Besides, playing fantasy games for charity is pretty amazing.

Enjoy the ride, hockey fans. The NHL regular season is back, and we’ve got 6 months of trash talking to do.