League Layout

[Jason]

Draft Date: Up coming season draft TBD
Cost: 60 dollars + Fantrax admin fees to be collected on January 15th for the following year. After January 15th if a team hasn't paid, their trading privileges will be locked until payment. If by Feb 1 payment hasn't been received, the GM will be replaced without reimbursement for the current season.

Winning payout:
1st regular season gets 50%
2nd regular season gets 20%
1st playoff gets 30%

Order of Draft: Draft order will follow the standard snake drafting format: 1 to 10, then 10 to 1, and then 1 to 10 again, etc. This will be based on the previous regular season standings & the result of the Draft Lottery (round 1 of the draft only).

Lottery Balls:
Last place: 13 balls
11th place: 6 balls
10th place: 4 balls
9th place: 2 balls

Drafting Limitations: Players are eligible to be drafted in our league only if they are drafted or signed by an NHL team. Or they are of UFA/RFA status, and have played in the NHL in the past. Players must not be retired (not allowed to pick Gretzky).

Salary Cap: None. Salary caps are murder for trades and they can really ruin a league unless 100% of the people are on the up and up of contract statuses, promotions/demotions.

Number of Players per Pro Team: Twenty Five [25]: Three (3) centers, Three (3) left wingers, Three (3) right wingers, Four (4) forwards, Four(4) defense, two (2) goalies, Six (6) benched players. All position eligibility is based on pool system league is using (Fantrax).

Farm Team Regulations: Players are considered eligible for your farm team roster if they have played 82 regular season games or less and are under the age of 26 at the time of keeper selection (26 does not count).
For teams who finished out of a playoff spot the year before, their farm team eligibility for the current season is 200 regular season games played or less. Note that this reverts back to 82 games max if they make the playoffs.

We will consider the stats found on the web site www.hockeydb.com to be the final authority on whether a player is eligible or not.

Prospects will appear on the pro team and can be used as they like.

* Last 2 teams from the previous season may keep 1 more prospect than the rest of the league for the next season.

Number of Players per Farm Team: Eight ( 8 ). May only include players who are signed or drafted by an NHL team.

A player MUST be promoted to the Pro Team by the time keepers are selected after reaching 83 games played in the regular season. Eg: James Neal is on Team A, and at the start of the 2009-10 season he has played 81 career regular season NHL games. The GM of team A may choose to keep Neal on his farm team all season if he wishes. But once after he reaches the 83 game mark (once he's played his 83rd). He must be put on the PRO roster for the next season. All the points earned by a player on your farm team are not counted towards your week, they are lost points.

NOTE: In regards to drafting prospects. When a prospect is drafted, for all intents and purposes he counts towards the total of your prospect team until it is full, then it spills onto your pro team.  Meaning you can have more than 8 prospects if you wish, however they count towards the total number of players that you have on your pro team.

Roster Eligibility: At the conclusion of each draft, and each trade a GM makes, their team needs to have enough active players to field a roster that has an active player in each position, +1 extra forward, + 1 extra defenseman. An active player is defined as a player who is on an NHL team not a farm player and/or a player who is getting into games (ie: not being up in the press box, injured, or at home on a holdout, etc...). For most teams this isn't an issue. Note: during the season, without making trades, it is possible that your team falls into a situation where you don't have enough active players to field a lineup. There is no punishment for bad luck. Only in the case where a GM makes a move, or completes a draft without meeting these requirements. As for punishment, the first round pick of that GM will go to the end of the first round, essentially bumping everyone up a spot. If this happens, only the 3 other remaining non-playoff teams will enter the draft lottery as per usual.

Length of season: 23 weeks (can vary depending on the year) of Head-to-head competition (one-week increments), followed by 3 weeks of playoffs (three rounds of one-week increments). This amount leads to the whole duration of the regular season.

Scoring: Hybrid scoring is points-based but in a Head-to-Head format (2 matchups per week for each team - ie: Team A faces Team B and Team C in week 1 in individual matchups). Points are accumulated in the following categories:

For skaters: G (5 points), A (5), PIM (0.3), Shots (0.2), Hit (0.2), Block shot (0.2) +/- (1), FOW (0.1), FOL (-0.1), GWG (+1 over the 5 already awarded for the goal), SHP (+1 to the 5 already awarded)
For goalies: W (7 points), SO (7), Saves (0.2), GA (-1), Goal (10), Assist (5)

Because the league is Head-to-Head, managers compete against one another in week-long, pre-set Head-to-Head competitions for the first twenty-three (23) weeks of the regular season (with the exception for the week of the all-star break/Olympics). Each manager plays. If there is a pre-planned shortened week for whatever event the system will tack on that small week to the following week.

NOTE: The first week of the season includes any games being played overseas/abroad the weekend before the start of the regular season if the NHL deems it as regular season play.

Each week of competition refers to games played from Monday to Sunday, and managers must make roster changes before the first game of the week for the upcoming week’s match-up, which are then locked in for the duration of that week. GMs receive either a win, loss or tie at the end of the week, based on accumulated points in all of the categories combined.

Tiebreakers: Playoff seeding tiebreaker will be based on the Head to Head record and then fantasy point totals are taken into account; if a third tie breaker is needed, most goals for (total).

Playoffs: At the end of the season the top eight teams enter the playoffs. In the first round, the team seeded first faces the team seeded eighth, the team seeded second faces the team seeded seventh, the team seeded third faces the team seeded sixth, and the team seeded fourth faces the team seeded fifth.

The second round features the top surviving seeded team (determined from regular season standings) pitted against the lowest surviving seeded team, and the two teams seeded in the middle play each other.

The third and final round pits the two surviving teams against each other for the last week of the NHL regular season.

How many Players can Managers keep? Managers may keep players depending on their position in the regular season standings the year before. If players are to be dropped, for either the January draft, or August draft, the GM must make their dropped players known to the league one week prior via the league forum, 6 days before is too late. The GM will be unable to drop said players, and may only draft players until his roster (pro team, and farm team) is full.
A GM may keep fewer players than his allotted total. However, dropping healthy (healthy is defined as no concussion syndromes, or surgery done over the last season of play), 35 years and younger players who appeared in the top 15 of our league scoring in the previous year is not possible. Why? This is similar to do not drop lists in other leagues. This is to avoid collusion and/or league bombs

Revised Keeper totals
9th to 12th place keep 15 players
8th and 7th place keep 14 players
6th and 5th place keep 13 players
4th and 3rd place keep 12 players
2nd and 1st place keep 11 players

Trades: Trades can happen at any time during the year before trade deadline and right after the conclusion of the playoffs (once everyone has paid for the next season), and there are no limits on the number of trades a manager can make.

There will be no debating on if a trade was bad, brutal, or an epic failure of mammoth proportions. The only entity who can inquire about trade details is the commissioner.
This league has a fantastic trade record with only 1 revoked trade. I hope to never make it 2.

Trading Draft Picks: Apart from players, draft picks in both the Winter and Summer drafts are eligible to be traded.
Important notice: When trading draft picks it is the responsibility of both parties to ensure that the picks being exchanged have not already been traded. If such a case should arise where the picks that have been already traded, the picks of the most recent trade are considered void and must be restructured.

Multi-player Trades: Trades where two players are traded for one, or three players are traded for two are allowed, as are other combinations. These three positions will remain unfilled after draft day, but will allow managers to make a 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 player swap without having to first drop a player. It is therefore possible at various points throughout the season for a team to have as many as 33 total players on their roster (excluding farm team).

For example, if Team 1 trades Gaborik to Team 2 for Comrie and Turris, Team 2 does not have to drop a player before adding these two players unless his roster is already full.

TBD/TBA trades: Not allowed, “friendly” I’ll get back to you after you’ve won the season trades are not allowed. They generally cause arguments if the player flops or exceeds expectations. At no point is a player allowed to trade for future considerations. This always leads to problems down the road if a player has overproduced, and even more so if the player has under produced.

Trades for cash ($$$): Not allowed. People cannot buy players or add money into a trade. Its simply not fair for the rest of the GMs who might be on a budget. Any GMs involved in this practice will have their season forfeited, including any cash they may have won. Bottom seeded teams will lose their first 3 rounds of picks. Also would like to note that in addition to money not being tradable, neither are goods or services that exist outside of the pool. If this happens a second time with the same individual they will be removed from the league without refund.
Conditional trades: Allowed, but must be outlined in the trade thread. IE: Player X is traded to Team 1. If Player X retires Team 2 gets an additional second round pick for the summer of 20XX). Note that Conditions must not be overly complex and the Commish of the league reserves the right to revoke, or rework the terms to the trade.

Trade Deadline for playoffs: Will vary from year to year. No trades will be accepted until after the end of the playoffs (first week of April). However trades can still happen during this time. Trades completed during this period must be honored when the rosters unlock.

Waiver pick-ups: Starting in 2023/24, each of the bottom six teams will be able to drop 1 player/G and pick up 1 player/G on the 1st of every month from November to February. These drops/claims cannot be given to another team. If you want to trade the player after you can. Time drop order each month is as follows:

12th Place: 12PM EST
11th Place: 1PM EST
10th Place: 2PM EST
9th Place: 3PM EST
8th Place 4PM EST
7th Place: 5PM EST
6th Place 6PM EST

Injured Reserve: None.

League Changes: Every year during the off season, owners can submit proposals for rule adjustments or additions. Commish decides on the implementation but can solicit feedback from others.

Cheating: Any GM(s) found cheating or colluding with another will be removed from the league. One strike and you are out.

Tanking: If a GM is dressing a sub-optimal lineup (only reviewable by the commissioner and at his discretion) he will be warned and his team managed for that week. A number of lottery entries will be deducted (at the commish’s discretion.) If the same GM is warned a second time his draft pick in the first round will be revoked. A third time, he will be removed from the league. For each trade a GM makes, their team needs to have enough active players to field a roster so that an active player is in each position, +1 extra forward, + 1 extra defenseman.
An active player is defined as: a player who is on an NHL team and actively contributing to a point differential. Not a player on an NHL's farm team or a player who is not getting into games (ie: being a regular up in the press box, injured, A KHL player or at home on a holdout, etc...). If a slew of injuries happen, they happen and can be looked at on a case by case basis. However, to actively draft, or dump players from your team without keeping enough to field an active lineup is considered tanking.

What if a team is warned about tanking and then trades his pick away: The # of lottery balls involved in that pick will revert to its original number. But the player selected with that draft pick cannot be traded to that team under any circumstances for 1 year from the draft date.

What if the team is warned but is not part of the lottery: After the warnings their pick is simply removed from the draft.

What if the GM quits the league or is removed: His forfeited pick will be restored to the new GM. However, any position adjustments may still be enforced.

Important to note: I will not make it a habit of questioning lineup selections.

Recording trades:
A trade must appear in the forum within 3 hours of completion (from the timestamp in the recent transaction listing on the league page). Coordinate amongst yourselves you will post. First offense, both teams lose their 10th pick in the draft (not round), 2nd offense it's the 9th. 3rd offense: trading rights are locked for the remainder of the season and reverse the last trade that the GM made. After having trading privileges restored, all trades involving that GM will have to be reviewed by the commissioner and is subject to 1 vote veto from the commissioner. If there is a reason you cannot record the trade on the forum, you must contact me to let me know and state the time in which it will go up and we can make arrangements.


Changes taking effect for 24-25 season:
Total keeper spots are reduced by 1 per team (ie: 1st place team currently get 11, after the conclusion of next season, 1st place will only keep 10, 2nd-12th are also affected).
Possible change: bench shrinks a further 1-2 spots.

[Jason]

The league layout has been altered to reflect 12 teams as opposed to the original 10 that were planned.

Main changes:

-28 rounds changed to 25 rounds, taking out 1 position from defense, forward and bench. This is to reduce the chance of dilution.

-End of season keepers, added teams 11 and 12.

- Changed 2 month log in registration period to 60 days. This is to avoid any argument that could happen in the future with a month that has 28 days, or even 31 days. Its now a hard line 60 days. The point of this league is to have people who are interested and active. If this is not you, then we will find someone who fits the mold, no offense.

[Jason]

Added KHL protection rule. This was something that was in the outline I sent out, but for some reason it wasn't posted.

Note that if a player scores under 45 points the previous season and leaves for Russia, you get nothing. If you drop a player during the Jan draft, and he leaves for the KHL in the summer, you get nothing even if he scores a trillion points.

[Kirk]

Number of Players per Pro Team: Twenty Eight [25]: Three (3) centers, Three (3) left wingers, Three (3) right wingers, Four (4) forwards, Four(4) defense, two (2) goalies, Six (6) benched players. PLUS Three (3) open spots to facilitate 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 (etc..) trades. Giving us a total of 28 slots per PRO team. All position eligibility is based on pool system league is using (ESPN).

sooo just to clarify this.. (i have never done a draft on ESPN, always use yahoo, so sorry if this is a dumb question) we set a line up of 3 centers, 3 LW, 3 RW, 4 forwards, 4 d and 2 goalies each week; leaving 6 "bench players" who are NOT accumulating you points for that week?!?!

[Kirk]

One more question, this one regarding the 2-3 empty pro roster spots....

They are only used in the case of a 2 for 1; 3 for 2 trade?? Orrrrrr can they be used to bring a farm team player up, instead of dropping a pro player?? im assuming they are only used in t he case of a lopsided trade but just wanna clarify!!

[Blake]

yeah I wondered the same thing as Kirk about the extra roster spaces

[Jason]

Kirk, you are bang on with regards to dressing your players.

As for the empty roster spots, yep, they can be used for that as well. Give GMs some leeway.

[Jason]

I added goalies into the KHL protection, hadn't even thought of them when I made the rule.

[Jason]

Modified the draft date.

Re-worded the way a manager must promote his farm players once they reach the 82 game mark to reduce confusion (the way it could have been read is that you could keep a player on the farm for an additional season after he reached his 82 game mark, which was not the case. A Prospect may be kept on the farm the rest of the season where he reached his 82nd NHL regular season game, at the start of next season (before the draft) the GM must decide to cut said player, or use a keeper slot on him.

Final change was I removed the clause in which if a prospect eligible player was traded to a new team and he was on the starting roster that the new team would have to keep him on the Pro team. No sense in punishing a team for another GM's actions. HOWEVER; if team A trades a promoted prospect over the 50 game mark, he cannot re-acquire him and place him on the farm. He must be promoted right away.

[Jason]

Draft Date: Up coming season draft TBD
Cost: 60 dollars to be collected before draft day.
Winning payout: To be discussed with the league.
Our first season’s draft will be a slow draft; meaning that it will take a large portion of the summer to complete. It will not be held in person but done over the internet on a forum that will be set up for the league, the pace is expected to be one round every other day. The time allotted for each pick is 10 hours. If a GM stalls on a pick he will be emailed after 6 hours as a reminder. If for some reason an emergency comes up due to family/medical/alien invasion the draft can be put on hold for a few days so that the person can sort things out.

NOTE: No picks from the first draft can be traded away

Order of Draft: The order will be determined by June 21st 2009. The draft order will follow the standard snake drafting format: 1 to 10, then 10 to 1, and then 1 to 10 again, etc. This will be based on the previous regular season standings (First season will be drawn randomly).

However, we’ll first divide the draft into two rounds. The first draft round will be a prospects draft for our farm teams, which lasts ten rounds. Draft order will go in reverse sequence to the draft order we just determined for the main draft. For example, the prospects draft will start with position 10 and fall to position 1, then in snake format go from 1 to 10, etc. This should help to keep things on a bit more level playing field from the start.

The second draft will fill out for the rest of each GMs roster of the regular player draft in the order determined above. Which should last 25 rounds. Forwards, defensemen and goalies are eligible to be drafted in any position or sequence.

For each January draft, managers must let the commissioner know which players they wish to drop (up to five players) no later than seven days before the draft. If they do not, they will not be allowed to participate in the supplemental draft.

This means the initial draft is going to last 38 rounds (including both prospect and main draft).
January drafts will last 5 rounds.
Future August drafts will last up to 15 rounds. In all future drafts in both September and January, the regular players and prospects will not be separated into separate segments as they will be this year. In all future drafts, prospects will be available amongst already active forwards, defense, and goalies.

Drafting Limitations: Players are eligible to be drafted in our league only if they are drafted or signed by an NHL team. Or they are of UFA/RFA status, and have played in the NHL in the past.


Salary Cap: None. Salary caps are murder for trades and they can really ruin a league unless 100% of the people are on the up and up of contract statuses, promotions/demotions.



Number of Players per Pro Team: Twenty Five [25]: Three (3) centers, Three (3) left wingers, Three (3) right wingers, Four (4) forwards, Four(4) defense, two (2) goalies, Six (6) benched players. PLUS Three (3) open spots to facilitate 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 (etc..) trades. Giving us a total of 28 slots per PRO team. All position eligibility is based on pool system league is using (ESPN).

Farm Team Regulations: Players are considered eligible for your farm team roster if they have played less than 82 regular season games. We will consider the stats found on the web site www.hockeydb.com to be the final authority on whether a player is eligible or not.

Managers may NOT use prospects on their starting lineup unless called up to your pro team. Such an announcement must be made on the forums which will be titled “call ups”. At that time, the player will be added to the roster by the league commissioner, but it is up to the GM to slot him on the starting lineup if he wishes to play him for the following week.

Managers can trade for as many farm team prospects as they like, but they should remember that they can only carry 10 prospects on the team at the start of the next season. After which either a prospect needs to be moved up, or prospects dropped.

Number of Players per Farm Team: Ten (10). May only include players who are signed or drafted by an NHL team.

Once a player is called up to the pro team, he may not be sent back down if he has more than 50 NHL games experience. If the roster is full during a call up, the GM must select one player to drop who will then be eligible during the NEXT draft. (Example: Team A activates TJ Oshie from his farm team. He drops Jiri Novtny to the free agent pool due to an already full roster. Jiri Novtny may be picked up during the next possible draft by any team, Team A may re-drafted him if desired.)

If a player is sent back down at the (or before) 50 game NHL mark, a GM may place him back on the farm team. However, the player dropped for the slot opening may NOT be picked back up (Eg: Jiri Novtny cannot be picked back up).


A player MUST be promoted to the Pro Team by the start of the next season after reaching 82 games played in the regular season. Eg: James Neal is on Team A, and at the start of the 2009-10 season he has played 81 career regular season NHL games. The GM of team A may choose to keep Neal on his farm team all season if he wishes. But once he reaches the 82 game mark. He must be put on the PRO roster for the next season. All the points earned by a player on your farm team are not counted towards your week, they are lost points.

Exception: If a player is traded who has under 82 NHL regular season games played and was on the original team's starting roster, the new owner of that player can elect to place him on his farm team until he reaches the threshold where he must be cut or promoted.


Length of season: 23 weeks of Head-to-head competition (one-week increments), followed by 3 weeks of playoffs (three rounds of one-week increments). This amount leads to the whole duration of the regular season.

Scoring: Hybrid scoring is points-based but in a Head-to-Head format. Points are accumulated in the following categories:

For skaters: G (5 points), A (5), PIM (0.3), Shots (0.2), Hit (0.2), Block shot (0.2) +/- (1)
For goalies: W (7 points), SO (7), Saves (0.2), GA (-1)

Because the league is Head-to-Head, managers compete against one another in week-long, pre-set Head-to-Head competitions for the first twenty-three (23) weeks of the regular season (with the exception for the week of the all-star break/Olympics). Each manager plays. If there is a pre-planned shortened week for whatever event the system will tack on that small week to the following week.

NOTE: The first week of the season includes any games being played in Europe or Asia the weekend before the start of the regular season.

Each week of competition refers to games played from Monday to Sunday, and managers must make roster changes before the first game of the week for the upcoming week’s match-up, which are then locked in for the duration of that week. GMs receive either a win, loss or tie at the end of the week, based on accumulated points in all of the categories combined.

Tiebreakers: Playoff seeding tiebreaker will be based on the Head to Head record for most goals.

Playoffs: At the end of the season the top eight teams enter the playoffs. In the first round, the team seeded first faces the team seeded eighth, the team seeded second faces the team seeded seventh, the team seeded third faces the team seeded sixth, and the team seeded fourth faces the team seeded fifth.

The second round features the top surviving seeded team (determined from regular season standings) pitted against the lowest surviving seeded team, and the two teams seeded in the middle play each other.

The third and final round pits the two surviving teams against each other for the last week of the NHL regular season.

How many Players can Managers keep? Managers may keep players depending on their position in the regular season standings the year before. If players are to be dropped, for either the January draft, or August draft, the GM must make their dropped players (a max of 15 player drops per August draft and 5 for the January draft) known to the league one week prior via the league forum, 6 days before is too late. The GM will be unable to drop said players, and may only draft players until his roster (pro team, and farm team) is full.

11th and 12th place keep 16 players, plus one additional prospect
10th and 9th place keep 15 players
8th and 7th place keep 14 players
6th and 5th place keep 13 players
4th and 3rd place keep 12 players
2nd and 1st place keep 11 players




Trades: Trades can happen at any time during the year before trade deadline and right after the conclusion of the playoffs, and there are no limits on the number of trades a manager can make. (Except for the inital draft starting on July 1st where there will be no trading until the draft has reached its completion)

If a trade seems unfairly lopsided, a majority of managers voting against the trade within Two (2) days will veto the trade. during the off-season (April 13th until the draft in August), managers have two weeks to veto any trade.

NOTE: this veto rule is only to be used in extreme situations to prevent managers from “stacking” a single roster. No one is here to manage everyone else’s team. If a bad trade happen. So be it, the GM has his own way of managing his/her team. It is not up to the rest of the league to step in and manage a team collectively. We will only explore this avenue if it is very apparent that a team is stacking for the playoffs or diving for a better draft slot.

Trading Draft Picks: Apart from players, draft picks in both the January and September drafts are eligible to be traded.

Multi-player Trades: Trades where two players are traded for one, or three players are traded for two are allowed, as are other combinations. These three positions will remain unfilled after draft day, but will allow managers to make a 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 player swap without having to first drop a player. It is therefore possible at various points throughout the season for a team to have as many as 33 total players on their roster (excluding farm team).

For example, if Team 1 trades Gaborik to Team 2 for Comrie and Turris, Team 2 does not have to drop a player before adding these two players.

TBD/TBA trades: Not allowed, “friendly” I’ll get back to you after you’ve won the season trades are not allowed. They generally cause arguments if the player flops or exceeds expectations. At no point is a player allowed to trade for future considerations. This always leads to problems down the road if a player has overproduced, and even more so if the player has under produced.

Trades for cash ($$$): Not allowed. People cannot buy players or add money into a trade. Its simply not fair for the rest of the GMs who might be on a budget. Any GMs involved in this practice will have their season forfeited, including any cash they may have won. Bottom seeded teams will lose their first 3 rounds of picks.

Trade Deadline for playoffs: Usually the first week of February. After this date, no trades will be allowed until after the end of the playoffs (first week of April).

Waiver pick-ups: Not allowed. The only way to change players
between drafts is by way of trade.

Injured Reserve: None, seeing as how there is no waiver pickups.

KHL Protection: In situations where a manager loses a player to the KHL, they will be reimbursed as follows:
If that player scored more than 75 points during the previous season, the affected manager will be allotted one extra third round draft pick in the next September draft (at the end of the draft round).
If the player scored between 74and 60 points, the affected manager will be allotted one extra fourth round draft pick in the next September draft (at the end of the draft round).
If the player scored between 59 and 45 points, the affected manager will be allotted one extra fifth round draft pick in the next September draft (at the end of the draft round).

For Goalies: 40+ wins one extra third round pick at the end of that round in September.
30+ wins one extra fourth round pick at the end of that round in September.
25+ wins one extra fifth round pick at the end of that round in September.

League Changes: Every year during the off season, owners can submit proposals for rule adjustments or additions. Majority vote of six to four ACCEPTS proposed changes.

Cheating: Any GM(s) found cheating will have their season forfeit (if in contention of potential money prize, will also lose their winnings and entry fee.) If in the bottom 4 of the league first three rounds of the summer draft will be forfeit. Any GM caught cheating a second time will be kicked out of the league. NO warnings on the first infractions, and no third chances.

Unexpected end of communication: If a GM does not log onto the forum for 60 days  (without prior notification). The league will look for a replacement GM. Once a replacement is found, the AWOL GM may not reclaim his team, or the entry fee. A simple log-In to the forums is not hard to do. Note: Logging in to change your roster on the league website is not enough. A log in to the forum is key to keeping yourself active. We want active GMs in this league.

Changes will be reflected on first post. The rules that effected the first season (such as split drafts) are being re-worded so that they reflect our league on a year to year basis.

Quoted to preserve a record of our first season's rulebook

[Jason]

-Updated wording to remove explanations concerning the 1st season draft

-removed veto clause

-removed 60 day log in rule

-Added winning amounts

-Added extra stipulation that goods and services cannot be traded for players

-Gave a clearer (I hope) explanation of drafting prospects and not being able to slot them on your pro team before the draft is finished

[Jason]

-Realized I actually hadn't removed the 60 day clause. Now its gone.

[Jason]

Corrected my error in which the James Neal example contradicted the ruling. It now reads once the 83rd game is played the prospect is no longer eligible.

[Jason]

Updated the league rules to reflect 14 teams.

Draft Date: Up coming season draft TBD
Cost: 60 dollars to be collected 7 days after the end of the regular season.
Winning payout:
1st regular season gets 50%
2nd regular season gets 20%
1st playoff gets 30%

Order of Draft: Draft order will follow the standard snake drafting format: 1 to 10, then 10 to 1, and then 1 to 10 again, etc. This will be based on the previous regular season standings.

For each January draft, managers must let the commissioner know which players they wish to drop (up to five players) no later than seven days before the draft. If they do not, they will not be allowed to participate in the supplemental draft.

Winter drafts will last 5 rounds.
Summer drafts will last up to 15 rounds. In all future drafts in both September and January, the regular players and prospects will not be separated into separate segments as they will be this year. In all future drafts, prospects will be available amongst already active forwards, defense, and goalies.

Drafting Limitations: Players are eligible to be drafted in our league only if they are drafted or signed by an NHL team. Or they are of UFA/RFA status, and have played in the NHL in the past. Players must not be retired (not allowed to pick Gretzky you bums)


Salary Cap: None. Salary caps are murder for trades and they can really ruin a league unless 100% of the people are on the up and up of contract statuses, promotions/demotions.



Number of Players per Pro Team: Twenty Five [25]: Three (3) centers, Three (3) left wingers, Three (3) right wingers, Four (4) forwards, Four(4) defense, two (2) goalies, Six (6) benched players. PLUS Three (3) open spots to facilitate 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 (etc..) trades. Giving us a total of 28 slots per PRO team. All position eligibility is based on pool system league is using (ESPN).

Farm Team Regulations: Players are considered eligible for your farm team roster if they have played less than 82 regular season games. We will consider the stats found on the web site www.hockeydb.com to be the final authority on whether a player is eligible or not.

Managers may NOT use prospects on their starting lineup unless called up to your pro team. Such an announcement must be made on the forums which will be titled “call ups”. At that time, the player will be added to the roster by the league commissioner, but it is up to the GM to slot him on the starting lineup if he wishes to play him for the following week.

Managers can trade for as many farm team prospects as they like, but they should remember that they can only carry 10 prospects on the team at the start of the next season. After which either a prospect needs to be moved up, or prospects dropped.

* Last 2 teams from the previous season may keep 1 more prospect than the rest of the league for the next season. EG: I sucked the bag our first season and came in last, I get to keep one more prospect on my farm team over the draft period than the teams slotted 10-1.

Number of Players per Farm Team: Ten (10). May only include players who are signed or drafted by an NHL team.

Once a player is called up to the pro team, he may not be sent back down if he has more than 50 NHL games experience. If the roster is full during a call up, the GM must select one player to drop who will then be eligible during the NEXT draft. (Example: Team A activates TJ Oshie from his farm team. He drops Jiri Novtny to the free agent pool due to an already full roster. Jiri Novtny may be picked up during the next possible draft by any team, Team A may re-drafted him if desired.)

If a player is sent back down at the (or before) 50 game NHL mark, a GM may place him back on the farm team. However, the player dropped for the slot opening may NOT be picked back up (Eg: Jiri Novtny cannot be picked back up).


A player MUST be promoted to the Pro Team by the start of the next season after reaching 82 games played in the regular season. Eg: James Neal is on Team A, and at the start of the 2009-10 season he has played 81 career regular season NHL games. The GM of team A may choose to keep Neal on his farm team all season if he wishes. But once after he reaches the 82 game mark (once he's played his 83rd). He must be put on the PRO roster for the next season. All the points earned by a player on your farm team are not counted towards your week, they are lost points.

Exception: If a player is traded who has under 82 NHL regular season games played and was on the original team's starting roster, the new owner of that player can elect to place him on his farm team until he reaches the threshold where he must be cut or promoted.

NOTE: In regards to drafting prospects. When a prospect is drafted, for all intents and purposes he counts towards the total of your pro team. Prospects may only be sent down once a draft is completed. So if you have a full roster but 4 extra draft picks, then you can't just draft 4 prospects and slot them on the farm team right away.

Length of season: 23 weeks of Head-to-head competition (one-week increments), followed by 3 weeks of playoffs (three rounds of one-week increments). This amount leads to the whole duration of the regular season.

Scoring: Hybrid scoring is points-based but in a Head-to-Head format. Points are accumulated in the following categories:

For skaters: G (5 points), A (5), PIM (0.3), Shots (0.2), Hit (0.2), Block shot (0.2) +/- (1)
For goalies: W (7 points), SO (7), Saves (0.2), GA (-1)

Because the league is Head-to-Head, managers compete against one another in week-long, pre-set Head-to-Head competitions for the first twenty-three (23) weeks of the regular season (with the exception for the week of the all-star break/Olympics). Each manager plays. If there is a pre-planned shortened week for whatever event the system will tack on that small week to the following week.

NOTE: The first week of the season includes any games being played in Europe or Asia the weekend before the start of the regular season.

Each week of competition refers to games played from Monday to Sunday, and managers must make roster changes before the first game of the week for the upcoming week’s match-up, which are then locked in for the duration of that week. GMs receive either a win, loss or tie at the end of the week, based on accumulated points in all of the categories combined.

Tiebreakers: Playoff seeding tiebreaker will be based on the Head to Head record for most goals.

Playoffs: At the end of the season the top eight teams enter the playoffs. In the first round, the team seeded first faces the team seeded eighth, the team seeded second faces the team seeded seventh, the team seeded third faces the team seeded sixth, and the team seeded fourth faces the team seeded fifth.

The second round features the top surviving seeded team (determined from regular season standings) pitted against the lowest surviving seeded team, and the two teams seeded in the middle play each other.

The third and final round pits the two surviving teams against each other for the last week of the NHL regular season.

How many Players can Managers keep? Managers may keep players depending on their position in the regular season standings the year before. If players are to be dropped, for either the January draft, or August draft, the GM must make their dropped players (a max of 15 player drops per August draft and 5 for the January draft) known to the league one week prior via the league forum, 6 days before is too late. The GM will be unable to drop said players, and may only draft players until his roster (pro team, and farm team) is full.

11th and 12th place keep 16 players, plus one additional prospect
10th and 9th place keep 15 players
8th and 7th place keep 14 players
6th and 5th place keep 13 players
4th and 3rd place keep 12 players
2nd and 1st place keep 11 players




Trades: Trades can happen at any time during the year before trade deadline and right after the conclusion of the playoffs (once everyone has paid for the next season), and there are no limits on the number of trades a manager can make.

There will be no debating on if a trade was bad, brutal, or an epic failure of mammoth proportions. The only entity who can inquire about trade details is the commisioner.

Trading Draft Picks: Apart from players, draft picks in both the Winter and Summer drafts are eligible to be traded.

Multi-player Trades: Trades where two players are traded for one, or three players are traded for two are allowed, as are other combinations. These three positions will remain unfilled after draft day, but will allow managers to make a 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 player swap without having to first drop a player. It is therefore possible at various points throughout the season for a team to have as many as 33 total players on their roster (excluding farm team).

For example, if Team 1 trades Gaborik to Team 2 for Comrie and Turris, Team 2 does not have to drop a player before adding these two players.

TBD/TBA trades: Not allowed, “friendly” I’ll get back to you after you’ve won the season trades are not allowed. They generally cause arguments if the player flops or exceeds expectations. At no point is a player allowed to trade for future considerations. This always leads to problems down the road if a player has overproduced, and even more so if the player has under produced.

Trades for cash ($$$): Not allowed. People cannot buy players or add money into a trade. Its simply not fair for the rest of the GMs who might be on a budget. Any GMs involved in this practice will have their season forfeited, including any cash they may have won. Bottom seeded teams will lose their first 3 rounds of picks. Also would like to note that in addition to money not being tradeable, neither are goods or services.

Trade Deadline for playoffs: Usually the first week of February. After this date, no trades will be allowed until after the end of the playoffs (first week of April).

Waiver pick-ups: Not allowed. The only way to change players
between drafts is by way of trade.

Injured Reserve: None, seeing as how there is no waiver pickups.

KHL Protection: In situations where a manager loses a player to the KHL, they will be reimbursed as follows:
If that player scored more than 75 points during the previous season, the affected manager will be allotted one extra third round draft pick in the next September draft (at the end of the draft round).
If the player scored between 74and 60 points, the affected manager will be allotted one extra fourth round draft pick in the next September draft (at the end of the draft round).
If the player scored between 59 and 45 points, the affected manager will be allotted one extra fifth round draft pick in the next September draft (at the end of the draft round).

For Goalies: 40+ wins one extra third round pick at the end of that round in September.
30+ wins one extra fourth round pick at the end of that round in September.
25+ wins one extra fifth round pick at the end of that round in September.

League Changes: Every year during the off season, owners can submit proposals for rule adjustments or additions. Majority vote of six to four ACCEPTS proposed changes.

Cheating: Any GM(s) found cheating will have their season forfeit (if in contention of potential money prize, will also lose their winnings and entry fee.) If in the bottom 4 of the league first three rounds of the summer draft will be forfeit. Any GM caught cheating a second time will be kicked out of the league. NO warnings on the first infractions, and no third chances.

[Jason]

Old Rules:

Draft Date: Up coming season draft TBD
Cost: 60 dollars to be collected 7 days after the end of the regular season.
Winning payout:
1st regular season gets 50%
2nd regular season gets 20%
1st playoff gets 30%

Order of Draft: Draft order will follow the standard snake drafting format: 1 to 10, then 10 to 1, and then 1 to 10 again, etc. This will be based on the previous regular season standings.

For each January draft, managers must let the commissioner know which players they wish to drop no later than seven days before the draft. If they do not, they will not be allowed to participate in the supplemental draft.

Winter drafts will last 5 rounds.
Summer drafts will last until teams are finished drafting. In all future drafts in both September and January, the regular players and prospects will not be separated into separate segments as they will be this year. In all future drafts, prospects will be available amongst already active forwards, defense, and goalies.

Drafting Limitations: Players are eligible to be drafted in our league only if they are drafted or signed by an NHL team. Or they are of UFA/RFA status, and have played in the NHL in the past. Players must not be retired (not allowed to pick Gretzky you bums).


Salary Cap: None. Salary caps are murder for trades and they can really ruin a league unless 100% of the people are on the up and up of contract statuses, promotions/demotions.



Number of Players per Pro Team: Twenty Five [25]: Three (3) centers, Three (3) left wingers, Three (3) right wingers, Four (4) forwards, Four(4) defense, two (2) goalies, Six (6) benched players. PLUS Three (3) open spots to facilitate 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 (etc..) trades. Giving us a total of 28 slots per PRO team. All position eligibility is based on pool system league is using (ESPN).

Farm Team Regulations: Players are considered eligible for your farm team roster if they have played 82 regular season games or less. We will consider the stats found on the web site www.hockeydb.com to be the final authority on whether a player is eligible or not.

Prospects will appear on the pro team and can be used as they like.

* Last 2 teams from the previous season may keep 1 more prospect than the rest of the league for the next season. EG: I sucked the bag our first season and came in last, I get to keep one more prospect on my farm team over the draft period than the teams slotted 12-1.

Number of Players per Farm Team: Eight (Cool. May only include players who are signed or drafted by an NHL team.

A player MUST be promoted to the Pro Team by the start of the next season after reaching 83 games played in the regular season. Eg: James Neal is on Team A, and at the start of the 2009-10 season he has played 81 career regular season NHL games. The GM of team A may choose to keep Neal on his farm team all season if he wishes. But once after he reaches the 83 game mark (once he's played his 83rd). He must be put on the PRO roster for the next season. All the points earned by a player on your farm team are not counted towards your week, they are lost points.


NOTE: In regards to drafting prospects. When a prospect is drafted, for all intents and purposes he counts towards the total of your prospect team until it is full, then it spills onto your pro team.
Length of season: 23 weeks of Head-to-head competition (one-week increments), followed by 3 weeks of playoffs (three rounds of one-week increments). This amount leads to the whole duration of the regular season.

Scoring: Hybrid scoring is points-based but in a Head-to-Head format. Points are accumulated in the following categories:

For skaters: G (5 points), A (5), PIM (0.3), Shots (0.2), Hit (0.2), Block shot (0.2) +/- (1)
For goalies: W (7 points), SO (7), Saves (0.2), GA (-1)

Because the league is Head-to-Head, managers compete against one another in week-long, pre-set Head-to-Head competitions for the first twenty-three (23) weeks of the regular season (with the exception for the week of the all-star break/Olympics). Each manager plays. If there is a pre-planned shortened week for whatever event the system will tack on that small week to the following week.

NOTE: The first week of the season includes any games being played overseas/abroad the weekend before the start of the regular season if the NHL deems it as regular season play.

Each week of competition refers to games played from Monday to Sunday, and managers must make roster changes before the first game of the week for the upcoming week’s match-up, which are then locked in for the duration of that week. GMs receive either a win, loss or tie at the end of the week, based on accumulated points in all of the categories combined.

Tiebreakers: Playoff seeding tiebreaker will be based on the Head to Head record and then most goals for (total).

Playoffs: At the end of the season the top eight teams enter the playoffs. In the first round, the team seeded first faces the team seeded eighth, the team seeded second faces the team seeded seventh, the team seeded third faces the team seeded sixth, and the team seeded fourth faces the team seeded fifth.

The second round features the top surviving seeded team (determined from regular season standings) pitted against the lowest surviving seeded team, and the two teams seeded in the middle play each other.

The third and final round pits the two surviving teams against each other for the last week of the NHL regular season.

How many Players can Managers keep? Managers may keep players depending on their position in the regular season standings the year before. If players are to be dropped, for either the January draft, or August draft, the GM must make their dropped players known to the league one week prior via the league forum, 6 days before is too late. The GM will be unable to drop said players, and may only draft players until his roster (pro team, and farm team) is full.
A GM may keep fewer players than his allotted total. However, dropping healthy (healthy is defined as no concussion syndromes, or surgery done over the last season of play), 35 years and younger players who appeared in the top 15 of our league scoring in the previous year is not possible. Why? This is similar to do not drop lists in other leagues. This is to avoid collusion and/or league bombs
Revised Keeper totals
9th to 14th place keep 15 players
8th and 7th place keep 14 players
6th and 5th place keep 13 players
4th and 3rd place keep 12 players
2nd and 1st place keep 11 players

Trades: Trades can happen at any time during the year before trade deadline and right after the conclusion of the playoffs (once everyone has paid for the next season), and there are no limits on the number of trades a manager can make.

There will be no debating on if a trade was bad, brutal, or an epic failure of mammoth proportions. The only entity who can inquire about trade details is the commissioner.
This league has a fantastic trade record with only 1 revoked trade. I hope to never make it 2.

Trading Draft Picks: Apart from players, draft picks in both the Winter and Summer drafts are eligible to be traded.
Important notice: When trading draft picks it is the responsibility of both parties to ensure that the picks being exchanged have not already been traded. If such a case should arise where the picks that have been already traded, the picks of the most recent trade are considered void and must be restructured.

Multi-player Trades: Trades where two players are traded for one, or three players are traded for two are allowed, as are other combinations. These three positions will remain unfilled after draft day, but will allow managers to make a 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 player swap without having to first drop a player. It is therefore possible at various points throughout the season for a team to have as many as 33 total players on their roster (excluding farm team).

For example, if Team 1 trades Gaborik to Team 2 for Comrie and Turris, Team 2 does not have to drop a player before adding these two players.

TBD/TBA trades: Not allowed, “friendly” I’ll get back to you after you’ve won the season trades are not allowed. They generally cause arguments if the player flops or exceeds expectations. At no point is a player allowed to trade for future considerations. This always leads to problems down the road if a player has overproduced, and even more so if the player has under produced.

Trades for cash ($$$): Not allowed. People cannot buy players or add money into a trade. Its simply not fair for the rest of the GMs who might be on a budget. Any GMs involved in this practice will have their season forfeited, including any cash they may have won. Bottom seeded teams will lose their first 3 rounds of picks. Also would like to note that in addition to money not being tradable, neither are goods or services that exist outside of the pool. If this happens a second time with the same individual they will be removed from the league without refund.

Trade Deadline for playoffs: Usually the first week of February, however be sure to consult the espn league site. After this date, no trades will be allowed until after the end of the playoffs (first week of April).

Waiver pick-ups: Not allowed. The only way to change players
between drafts is by way of trade.

Injured Reserve: None, seeing as how there is no waiver pickups.

League Changes: Every year during the off season, owners can submit proposals for rule adjustments or additions. Majority vote of six to four ACCEPTS proposed changes.

Cheating: Any GM(s) found cheating will have their season forfeit (if in contention of potential money prize, will also lose their winnings and entry fee.) If in the bottom 4 of the league first three rounds of the summer draft will be forfeit. Any GM caught cheating a second time will be kicked out of the league. NO warnings on the first infractions, and no third chances.