Advice for Setting up a League

Wanted to get everyone's opinion...I am going to be setting up a head-to-head Yahoo league with 10 to 12 teams (may be looking for one or two additional teams, so drop me a note if you are interested)....and wanted to solicit some points of view on the best roster/starter size per position and what would be the best scoring categories...

Right now I am thinking in terms of starters: 3 each - C, RW, LW...4 D...2 G

The following are the Scoring Category options, the yes means that these are ones that I planned on using...I would like to hear your opinions on the others...As always, thank you for all of your suggestions!!!

Forwards/Defensemen

Goals - yes
Assists - yes
Points -yes
Plus/Minus - yes
Penalty Minutes - yes
Powerplay Goals
Powerplay Assists
Powerplay Points - yes
Shorthanded Goals
Shorthanded Assists
Shorthanded Points
Game-Winning Goals
Shots on Goal
Shooting Percentage
Faceoffs Won
Faceoffs Lost

Goaltenders

Games Started
Wins- yes
Losses
Goals Against
Goals Against Average - yes
Shots Against
Saves
Save Percentage- yes
Shutouts - yes

kblayne, your league setup looks very similar to the one we've used for years. two things I'd point out for you: 1) your goalies are only 2 out of 15 players on your team (not incl. bench guys), yet you've got almost half of your stat categories devoted to them. Be careful or the goalies will be worth way too much. Also, never been a fan of +/- as it's more of a team stat and devalues the likes of Ovechkin, Lecavaier, etc.

I don't think there is an ideal set-up for league rosters or cats. However I think you should consider a few things when deciding.

I totally agree with mymmers that as you have it set - goalies are of dominant importance and that isn't likely too good - the guys with the best goalies will win more than anyone else.

Having a few more categories tends to make it more interesting and challenging. SHP and shots might increase the challenge of drafting and managing to bring your offensive cats to 8 - you could decrease goalie cats by one or not - 8x4 or 8x3 are reasonable balances.

If you limit your IR to 1 and only allow a short bench - 3 max then I think you will see more FA and trade action as well. Long benches allow hoarding and bigger IR's keep players out of the loop.

So far the input has been great...so what is the best way to cut down the importance of the goalie position...the opinions have been that their is too much weight on the position, the way I have it setup...

Should I reduce a stats category from that position, or only allow 1 Goalie in the starting lineup?

I like 2 goalies in your league but I might just chuck out GAA - that tends to be a little more of a team stat than individual. I ran with only 1 goalie last year in a 14 team league and didn't like it much - so this year decided to decrease the teams to 12 and increase it to 2 goalies.