PREMIER SIM HOCKEY LEAGUE PSHL PREMIER SIM HOCKEY LEAGUE CBA JUNE 2018 PREMIER SIM HOCKEY LEAGUE - POWERED BY - STHS

Transcription

1 PREMIER SIM HOCKEY LEAGUE CBA JUNE 2018 PREMIER SIM HOCKEY LEAGUE - POWERED BY - STHS EST. 2018

2 Table of Contents Chapter 1 - LEAGUE OVERVIEW...Page 3 Chapter 2 - GM DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES...Page 4 Chapter 3 - LEAGUE SETTINGS AND WEBSITE CONFIGURATION...Page 6 Chapter 4 - TRADING...Page 8 Chapter 5 - ROSTERS AND LINES RULES...Page 10 Chapter 6 - LEAGUE FINANCES AND SALARY CAP...Page 13 Chapter 7 - CONTRACT EXTENSIONS...Page 14 Chapter 8 - COACHES...Page 16 Chapter 9 - ENTRY DRAFT...Page 16 Chapter 10 - OFF-SEASON RE-RATES...Page 17 Chapter 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL LEAGUE/JUNIOR LEAGUE...Page 18 Chapter 12 - ACTIVITY POINTS...Page 19 Chapter 13 - WAIVERS...Page 20 Chapter 14 - FREE AGENCY...Page 21 Chapter 15 - DRAFT LOTTERY...Page 22 Chapter 16 - AWARDS VOTING...Page 23 Chapter 17 - OFF-SEASON SCHEDULE/TASKS...Page 24 Chapter 18 - CONCLUSION/LEAGUE INTEGRITY STATEMENT...Page 25 Page 2

3 CHAPTER 1 - LEAGUE OVERVIEW HISTORY OF COMMISSIONER SCOTT SHAFER- SCL Commissioner Scott Shafer began his career as Commissioner of the Superior Fantasy Hockey League (SFHL) in February 1999 using NHL 99 as a simulation engine. The league then advanced to the PC version of NHL 2000, FHL and then advanced to STHS. The league became the well known franchise of BDHLP in Shafer Champions League legacy began in March of 2015 and ran into 2018 where the Premier Sim Hockey League was formed with a completely new custom roster set created to run with the 2.0 sim engine. CREATION OF PREMIER SIM HOCKEY LEAGUE- Commissioner Scott Shafer began creation of new up to date rosters for the STHS Simulator for the simple fact that there was a lack of quality accurate rosters available. The results was a roster package that Shafer was overly thrilled with calling it at the time by far the most accurate and in-depth roster set in the world. Shafer was now on a mission, now that he had created the best roster set he wanted to try to re-create the best sim league experience. There is no doubt at one time BDHLP was the clear leader in the sim league world, but as some of the core of the GM base left for differing reasons, the league started lacking that elite quality. There has been a core group of GMs in the league with some GMs being part of the league back in its original form in early 2000 s. These GMs have grown up with the league and are considered family. Shafer is a true believer that your league can only be as good as the GM base it has, which is where the Champions League idea was born. The intent was to have the best GMs battle to prove they are the best in the sim world. Shafer spent countless hours and money to put together a better experience for all participating and thus the legacy was born. Over the years and extensive simulations alot has been learned to improve the sim league experience and the time was right to implement those new features into a new league which brought the building of the. CURRENT - The current league setup began in June 2018 with up to date custom created rosters and prospects for all teams using the STHS simulator and SIMHL web portal found at Every player on an NHL reserve list was created and rated something that no other roster set in the world has featured. The rosters are custom made to the rules and settings used in to accurately re-create and predict the current NHL. After several seasons of simming and the changes to the current day NHL the league has implemented many new rules to try to stay accurate with real life NHL. The simulation takes place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, lines are due in by 8pm EST on sim days unless noted differently. The sims will consist of 5 in game days in most cases. First sim of the regular season is a 10 day super sim. Playoff sims will take place with 2 games simmed every day moving to 1 game per day for games FUTURE OF THE - The is committed to running a league that is competitive and exciting for all owners involved. We are constantly looking for ways to enhance your playing pleasure. We require owners to be active participants. The rules of the CBA are subject to change at any time in an attempt to improve the integrity of the league or the excitement of those involved. The is always accepting GM applications from those prospective GMs who are interested in joining the league. The reserves the right to remove any current GM for lack of activity or performance based reasons. DEVELOPMENTAL LEAGUE- The hosts its own developmental league that will consist of players ages or 2 years before/after draft year. Most of these players are fictional created players with exception of the inagural season draft class of 2018 being real NHL prospects. These players are the future of the league and should be treated as such going forward. Page 3

4 CHAPTER 2 - GM DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OVERVIEW OF GM RESPONSIBILITIES- All GM s in are required to be active participants in the league. You are required to build your team to the best of your ability whether it be going for the Shafer Cup or rebuilding with youth for the future. If you do not feel like you can be active in the league or cannot run your organization with league integrity in mind, please do not join. We would love to have a group of 31 GM s who are actively a part of the league and its history, however we understand if your lack of available time is causing you to not be able to run your team to the best of your ability. Please, rather than not be an active member of the league, please submit a resignation to the Commissioner s office so that we can quickly find a replacement GM for your team. Many GMs decide to leave the league but are not respectful enough to let the league know, the league will not criticize you for wanting to leave and giving notice is the respectful and professional way to handle it as it allows us to immediately begin a search for replacement. WEB PORTAL RESPONSIBILITIES- Once you have been chosen to become a GM in you have several duties you need to take care of within the website portal. The list below is REQUIRED once you have been given your website login information. 1. Login to the website using the given user name and password, make sure you change your password once logging in. DO NOT EVER CHANGE YOUR USER NAME. 2. You can then click on Home from your team page and edit profile this is where you change your password as well as change your avatar. Make sure Message Forwarding is clicked on True so that you receive all messages and notifications sent through the website. 3. Never under any circumstances, change the website logos or images for your teams. There is site specific images and styles the league wants to maintain, the only time you can insert your own images is when you submit a team article. 4. Feel free to introduce yourself to the league by writing a team article or posting on the front page. WEBSITE DUTIES- Most GM duties and activities are all run through the website and portal. You can sign players to contracts, draft, write team articles, message other owners, submit lines, etc. Our league chat is run through the DISCORD app and can be used in your standard internet browser or smart phone app with notifications of messages. We also have several pages set up through google apps and you may need to create a gmail account to access these pages. GM ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITIES- 1. Contract Extensions - Each GM must make an effort to resign a portion of their players who have expiring contracts. If the league determines that the GM made no effort to re-sign any of their players the league has the right to remove that GM to maintain integrity of the league. Page 4

5 CHAPTER 2 - GM DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES (continued) 2. Trade Conversation - Every GM is required to politely respond to all trade offers in a timely manner. Even if you are not interested in the proposed trade please respond so that the GM that is inquiring about the player can move on to another option. 3. Entry Draft - Each GM is required to draft in a timely manner. Most of the time the draft is run through the website portal and you need to be aware when your pick is getting close. If you know you will not be available to make your selection you should send in a draft list to the Commissioner. 4. Award Voting - Each GM is responsible for submitting their team awards through the website by the deadline date and are required to vote on the league awards in a timely manner. League Award voting is MANDATORY from all GMs and is done via a multiple choice form on google forms. 5. Respect all other GM s - There is no rule that says GM s cannot be competitive and talk trash however please respect each other as people and adults. The bottom line is this league is for fun and entertainment, we don t want people quitting because of problems they have with another GM. 6. Pre-Season Waivers - Each GM is required to submit their FULL PRO AND FARM ROSTERS during the waiver period. This will set your projected lineups for the coming season as well as make waiver eligible players exposed to the waiver process. 7. It is the sole responsibility of the GM to keep his team compliant to all league rules including having full rosters at all positions for pro and farm team and being below the league mandated salary cap for that season. It is also the responsibility of the GM to make sure they have updated and compliant rosters/lines uploaded to the website. If they have incomplete rosters a warning will come from league office and they will be requested to fix their rosters to comply by the next sim. 8. It is a league requirement that you are connected to the discord chat. You must keep your settings on for league announcements. You can mute other GM s from notifications if needed but not from the league. Most league announcements will be made in the discord chat using notification. League activities and league tasks will take place in the discord chat as well as in google apps and you may need to create a Gmail account to be able to view them. ACTIVITY POINTS- The league has a structured point system to keep track of GM activity. You can receive points for uploading lines, writing articles for the website, submitting league required tasks in a timely manner as well as random activity checks. These points will go to bonus cap space for the next season as well as the new feature of being able to purchase a talent boost on a developmental league player. Activity points can also be removed as a penalty the league can levy on you. Activity points also is a direct sign of how much work you are putting into the league and is taken into account for GM removal as well as GM awards. See the Activity Points section in this CBA for more information. Page 5

6 CHAPTER 3 - LEAGUE SETTINGS AND WEBSITE CONFIGURATION STHS SETTINGS- The league is run using STHS simulator program version We did extensive testing to get the settings in the most realistic outcome as possible, however with rating changes from season to season those settings may need to be changed to reflect realistic scoring outcome. Our #1 goal is to produce as realistic statistical outcome as possible. uses a full farm system, make sure you not only keep your pro roster balanced with having the correct number of players per position, but also your farm team. does not use the normal STHS waivers system. We have a preseason waiver period where players over 23 years old or over 72 OV must be exposed to waivers if they have the potential of playing in the minors that season. If a player who is waivers eligible does not pass through waivers during this period he must play PRO for the season. More information in the Waivers section of this manual. uses our own custom re-rate formula for off-season re-rates we do not use the standard STHS re-rate program or do rerates based on real life NHL due to the fact we go through about 3 seasons in the amount of time it takes 1 nhl season. This will more realistically develop the younger players skills and talents at the proper age. STHS PRO SIMULATION SETTINGS: STHS FARM SIMULATION SETTINGS: Coaches= 1 (coaches are disabled) Coaches= 1 (coaches are disabled) Fights= 45 Fights= 50 Finance= 100 Finance= 100 Goals= 55 Goals= 47 Injuries= 30 (injuries are disabled) Injuries= 30 (injuries are disabled) Morale= 1 Morale= 1 Penalties= 47 Penalties= 47 Shots= 35 Shots= 30 Hits= 58 Hits= 55 Power Play= 15 Power Play= 15 Player Ratings Change=Low Player Ratings Change=Low Goalie Ratings Change=Low Goalie Ratings Change=Low Player Ratings Change Maximum=1 Player Ratings Change Maximum=1 Goalie Ratings Change Maximum=1 Goalie Ratings Change Maximum=1 Page 6

7 CHAPTER 3 - LEAGUE SETTINGS AND WEBSITE CONFIGURATION (Continued) WEB PORTAL SETTINGS- The following configuration is through the SIMHL web portal. These settings are subject to change to keep the integrity of the league. CONTRACT EXTENSIONS Average Player Salary=$3,200,000 UFA percentage of re-signing=30% (Default 50%) RFA percentage of re-signing=90% (Default 70%) FREE AGENCY Free Agent selects highest offer=70% Free Agent selects 2nd highest offer=20% Free Agent selects 3rd highest offer=10% NO TRADE CLAUSES GM s cannot give out NTC s when offering contracts, if that option is selected it will default to no NTC added to contract. Only players that are recent free agent signings will have a NTC attached to their contract. See more information regarding this in the free agents section of this CBA. Page 7

8 CHAPTER 4 - TRADING RULES AND STANDARDS REGARDING TRADING- The following rules and guidelines will be followed by all GM s when agreeing on a trade with another team. Any trade by a team who is operating over the cap can be revoked by the Commissioner s office. A trade by a team who shows no regard for the salary cap can also be revoked, for instance if a team is within 4 mil of the cap and knowingly acquires 10 mil of salary, even though before the trade they were cap compliant, the trade can still be revoked. When a deal is approved by both GM s the exact trade must be sent via the website to the other team. The other team will need to respond accepting the trade. The trade will be processed once both teams have agreed to the deal. To submit a trade offer to another team you need to go to your team page and click on the Transactions link at the top. You then add a team to Team 2 and click submit trade. That will take you to a screen that has all the players, draft picks and prospects listed for both teams. Add the players from each team you wish to offer, then when the deal is what you want to offer check off the check box to agree to your part of the trade. You will receive notification one the other team responds either way to the offer. The league has a trade committee that will review all trades if one s validity needs to be discussed it will be in a private channel in the discord chat and the committee will debate whether it should be processed or revoked. Any trade involving a 1st round pick will be automatically reviewed by the commissioners office and also the trade committee if needed. The league has the authority to ask your reasoning behind a trade to be discussed with the trade committee. You can trade any player on your roster as well as prospects or draft picks from the current year and next year. Recent free agent signings with a NTC added cannot be moved until NTC is removed. You cannot ask a player to waive their NTC. The league does not expect GM s to trade all the time, however you need to respond to other owners who message you about trades politely and respectfully. We have alot of owners who like to talk trade to improve their teams, however if you have built your team the way you like it and are not looking to deal anyone at the current time, that is acceptable. Trades will be processed following each sim so that proper league files can be posted after the transaction. If a trade is under the review of the trade committee it may not be processed at the current sim. It is the responsibility of the acquiring GM that you know the contracts you are getting, sometimes players are signed to contract extensions that are not processed yet or are pending free agents. Make sure you check the teams finances page to see any potential contract issues. Sometimes a pending free agent has had all 3 contract extension negotiations exhausted and has decided he will test the free agent marked, trading to a new team does not always renew the contract negotiations count. Page 8

9 CHAPTER 4 - TRADING (Continued) TRADING GUIDELINES- Every trade made will be analyzed by the commissioners office and/or trade committee and must fall into at least 1 of the following groups to be considered a valid trade. 1. If taking a downgraded player in return there must be upside, whether it in A.) significant salary cap relief B.) younger player in return C.) better stability in contract (Commissioner and/or trade committee will weigh whether enough upside was achieved in the deal. 2. Team trading away draft picks/prospects need to be in a win now mode. The league will not tell a GM they cannot mortgage the future in an attempt to be more competitive in the current season, it is within the right of the GM to do what it takes to be competitive, however all trades that include a 1st round pick will be under automatic review to make sure enough value was acquired. 3. Draft picks and young prospects are considered the future of the league and have untapped potential and growth however in most cases may take 2-5 seasons to develop. 4. A trade cannot be completed if it will A.) put a team over the salary cap by more than $1 mil B.) not put a team that is currently over the cap, under the cap once completed or at least significantly lower the amount they are over the cap and be deemed a transaction in an attempt to be cap compliant. FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS- GMs cannot make a deal that has a player to be named later involved. The only future consideration deals that can be made are involving a specific outcome. For instance you can make the following types of deals... *Kings will acquire Rangers 1st round pick in 2019 if the Rangers make the Conference Finals. *Kings will get a NYR 2nd round pick if Rangers sign Drew Doughty to a contract extension. *If Drew Doughty scores over 50 points this season Rangers will give Kings the NYR 2nd round pick in 2019 draft. Those are some examples if you have questions about what kind of future consideration deals will be accepted please contract the Commissioner s Office. If a player involved in a future consideration is traded by its new team, the future considerations are subject to cancellation. If adding future considerations to the trade page make sure to be as clear and in depth as possible, if the Commissioner has to try to figure out whats involved its more than likely going to be rejected. It is the responsibility of the GM to remember and make note of any future considerations they are involved in. The commissioner will process them once the goal is achieved. Page 9

10 CHAPTER 5 - ROSTERS AND LINES RULES ROSTER RULES- The following rules are pertaining to your roster, both pro and minor league affiliate. These rules must be followed at all times! The STHS simulator will not let a simulation take place if rosters are invalid. It is the responsibility of the GM to make sure you are within roster limitations. At all times, every team must have AT LEAST the following on BOTH PRO and FARM rosters. 4 Centers 4 Left Wingers 4 Right Wingers 12 Total Forwards 6 Defensemen 2 Goaltenders 20 Players total If at any time you are short players at a certain position in your organization you will be forced to either, make a trade, sign a free agent, or the league will manually add a filler player to your roster, AKA Unknown Player. If the league has to step in and assign a player to your roster the unknown player will carry a $1 salary (counting 100% against the cap whether in pros or farms) and you will be fined 10 activity points (which will also penalize your cap space) If you have invalid rosters during the off-season you will have until the pre-season sim to fix your rosters and get them compliant with league rules. GOALTENDERS PLAY RULE- All goaltenders will be suspended from league activity once they hit 65 games STARTED. They will not be availlable for backup roles if they hit 65 GS. Make sure once they hit 64 GS you replace them in your lines into a backup role to make sure they do not hit that 65th game. This will force backup goalies to start games during the season. GM s should spot start their backup goalies throughout the season to avoid having to play their backup goalies down the stretch when the games matter most. This rule is enforced in both the PRO and FARM. It is the responsibility of the GM to have knowledge of how many games started a particular goalie has when acquiring one. Its possible you acquire a goalie that will not be able to play for your team because he is already at the maximum games started. Goaltenders are allowed to play every game in the playoffs. Page 10

11 CHAPTER 5 - ROSTERS AND LINES RULES (Continued) PLAYER RETIREMENT- uses STHS rules for player retirement. The retirement is based on the percentages below. Retirement can happen to any player at any year of their contract. Once a player retires the team is no longer responsible for that players contract. Players 36+ years old=5% chance of retirement Players 37+ years old=20% chance of retirement Players 39+ years old=50% chance of retirement Players 42+ years old=90% chance of retirement ROSTER MOVEMENT- Players are free to move from farm team to pro team or vice versa as much as a GM wishes as long as they have cleared off-season waivers and are now deemed eligible for farm team or are under 72 OV or below (76 OV for goalies) Prospects can only be added to your roster during the off-season. LINES RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS- All lines will be created by GM s using the STHS client program and uploaded to the website. You can submit a previous lines file for activity points even if you did not make changes to your lines. Please make sure when editing lines that you are always clicking Copy all Rosters and Copy all Lines so that you are submitting lines for all days of the particular sim. Pre-season lines are deleted after pre-season sim and are not used for the first regular season sim. Each GM is responsible for doing their own lines with the STHS client program. You can download the program on the link found on the main page of the league website by clicking on the League link and selecting STHS Client. You will want to download the most up to date version. You will then need to download the league files by clicking the white down arrow at the top right of the league website. PLAYER RELEASING/CONTRACT BUYOUTS- No players may be released from your roster. If you have a player you wish to get rid of look to give him away to another team that may be able to use him. The league will allow 1 compliance buy-out per season and must be done during the buy-out window that will open in the off-season before free agency. Once window is opened you must post on the appropriate channel in the discord chat who you are buying out. You will be responsible for 1/3 of the total remaining contract of that player and the 1/3 amount will count immediately towards your salary cap for the upcoming season. For instance, if a player has 3 years left at 6 mil per year for a total of $18 mil due, you will get a cap hit for $6 for the upcoming season. Once a player is bought out his contract is terminated and he becomes an Un-Restricted Free Agent. Page 11

12 CHAPTER 5 - ROSTERS AND LINES RULES (Continued) When making your lines you MUST follow the following rules... You must have at least 4 LW, 4 Centers, 4 RW, 12 Forwards, 6 Defensemen and 2 Goaltenders dressed and in your lines for both pro and farm teams. You cannot double shift players on the main 4 lines. You cannot play a certain player on BOTH PP units. You cannot play a certain player on BOTH PK units. You cannot play a defenseman at a forward position and you cannot play a forward at a defenseman position. The only time a forward can play a defense position is on the PP unit to play the point. You can only use 1 forward on the point per PP unit. If you have any questions about the lines rules feel free to contact the Commissioner or post in the #rules-questions channel in the discord chat. We enforce these rules because we want to reward the teams that have great depth and not just having 1 line that they double shift and to best replicate NHL statistical output. Once you have completed your lines for game 1 you can then edit your lines for the next day, make sure you cover your lines for all games in the current sim schedule. You can copy and paste your lines to all the other days if that is the way you wish, or you can make changes for specific games/matchups, ie. Having a backup goalie play a certain game. You can upload your lines to the league on the website on your team page by clicking the up arrow in the right hand corner of the website. has very strict enforcement of lines rules. Anyone not following these rules will receive a warning to fix the issue. Any subsequent violation will result in 5 Activity points penalty for invalid lines and possible lines autoed. If a GM has invalid lines he will be notified with a warning and will need to update lines for next sim to avoid activity points penalties. If you do not have the required number of players at any time the league will add an unknown player to your roster who will carry a cap hit of $1,000,000 no matter if farms or pros. This player will have all 25 ratings in each category. This player will remain on your roster until you notify the league that your roster is now complete and he can be removed. INJURIES- does not use injuries. In the past we have done extensive testing on injuries and we have found that what injuries/fatigue do to players and teams lines outweighs the realistic feature of having injuries on. We also want to make sure teams are rewarded for building great rosters and not being lucky with injuries or having your season ruined due to 1 key major injury. Over the 20 years of simming this is something we have been adamant about and have never implemented an injury option for a league. Page 12

13 CHAPTER 6 - LEAGUE FINANCES AND SALARY CAP SALARY CAP- The league will start and maintain a salary cap of $80,000,000 for each team with a salary floor of $30,000,000. Included in the salary cap is the pro team salaries, farm team salaries (10% of pro salary), signing bonuses, compliance buyouts. Farm players that have played over 10 games in PRO will count 100% towards the salary cap instead of the normal 10% even if they are back in the farms. The salary cap will remain at $80 mil each season and will not inflate. The cap # will increase each year based on activity points rewards, but if you do not receive activity points rewards it will count towards your expenses and you will still only have $80 mil to spend. Teams that receive the rewards will be able to spend up to and above the $80 mil cap based on how much they earn per season in rewards. Signing bonuses given to players who sign contract extensions will count against the cap the next season only and the team who the player signed the extension with will be responsible for the signing bonus even if the player is traded away before the new contract goes into effect. OPERATING OVER THE SALARY CAP- Teams that are operating over the salary cap will receive a warning by the league. Teams will then need to fix their cap issue by the next sim. If teams do not fix their cap issue before the next sim the Commissioner will place their BEST OV rated player on Suspension and he will be unavailable to play. Teams will also receive a 5 Activity Points penalty for being over the cap. The player will remain suspended until the GM has made enough moves to get under the salary cap with the player activiated. The GM will need to notify the Commissioner to activate the player, it will not be done automatically. If a team does not make a conscious effort to get under the cap, the team could face additional penalties and removal from the league. Teams operating over the cap cannot make any trade that would INCREASE salary to their team or would not be able to participate in the Free Agent bidding process. The web portal may also put restrictions on your ability to resign your own free agents to extensions. FINANCES IN THE WEB PORTAL- During free agency the portal will allow you to go over the cap and over budget to a certain extent. The league will not let GMS edit their rosters to increase their cap space and ability to spend on free agents. The same waiver and roster rules will apply in the offseason to players farm availability. The financial numbers are not always accurate on the web portal, it does not account for farm players that have played over 10 pro games. If you need accurate cap numbers ask the Commissioner to check the STHS program for accurate numbers. Page 13

14 CHAPTER 7 - CONTRACT EXTENSIONS CONTRACT EXTENSION RULES- Contract extensions are done through the web portal AI. You can offer a new contract to any player in the final year of their contract. Players must be signed to a contract extension by the END OF THE REGULAR SEASON or you will lose them to free agency (unless arbitration eligible, see page 15). Even if a player is a RFA based on age, if they are not signed to a contract extension by the end of the regular season that player will become a UFA. Teams will not receive compensation for players lost to free agency. Teams can offer players contract extensions at a maximum of a 4 year deal. The highest yearly salary is $11,000,000. Teams have 3 chances to get a player to sign an extension. If they decline all 3 contract offers then they will become a free agent (unless arbitration eligible). Any contract extension signed by a player will not go into effect until the next season. SIGNING BONUSES- Teams can offer players a signing bonus which will increase the percentage of them signing the contract. The signing bonus will not go into effect until the contract becomes active in the next offseason. The signing bonus is 10% of the TOTAL amount of the contract. The signing bonus will count against the salary cap in full in the first year of the new contract. The team that signs the player to the contract will still be responsible for the signing bonus counting towards the cap in the next year even if the player is traded before the contract goes into effect. If you are bidding on a free agent and select one of the highest % of the offer, sometimes if that salary is over the $11,000,000 maximum it will be added to the signing bonus. You need to be aware in these cases. We have seen in the past where someone has selected the max % and though they were offering an $11 mil contract and did not notice that the additional money was added to the signing bonus even though they were not offering a bonus. We have seen where teams were responsible for up to $30 mil in salary for that player in the 1st year of the contract. NO TRADE CLAUSE- Teams cannot offer players NTC when offering new contracts. This option may still be in the website portal, but it will not be applied to the contract or increase the odds of the player signing the contract. The only time a player will have a NTC is to newly signed Free Agents during the offseason free agent bidding process. See the free agent section for more rules on this. Page 14

15 CHAPTER 7 - CONTRACT EXTENSIONS (continued) ARBITRATION- Players UNDER the age of 27 as of July 1 of the current year and are in the last year of their contract are considered Restricted Free Agents. If you are not able to come to terms with the player in the 3 contract extension chances you have to sign them, then you still have an option to keep their rights by offering the player arbitration. To initiate arbitration on the player you must the Commissioner by the end of the regular season with the subject line Arbitration. You must have already exhausted all 3 contract offers to that player. The Commissioner s office will take many different factors into account when deciding an arbitration award for the player including, current contract, salary of comparable players, OV rating, potential, player statistics in pro or farm, and even take into account GM activity. Once the salary awards are announced, the team will have to decide whether to accept or decline the given salary for that player. If they elect to accept the salary awarded then that player will sign that contract salary for a 1 year contract. If they choose to deny the awarded salary, they player will then become a UFA and no compensation will be given for the team losing the player. Decisions on accepting or declining the arbitration award need to be made by the end of the Playoffs. UFA OR RFA?- Players are unrestricted free agents if they are 27 years old or older at the time their contract expires on July 1. The web portal does not always display ages correctly, you will need to use the players birthdate to calculate their correct age. The portal finance page also does not display UFA or RFA status correctly. The STHS program does know the correct age of the player and the players free agent status. If you need help figuring a players age or RFA/UFA status contact the Commissioner. The web portal settings are in place to make it much easier to re-sign your own RFA s and is set to make it difficult to re-sign your own UFA s. These settings are in place to make the offseason free agent crop better and gives teams more chances to acquire players they may not be able to acquire otherwise. Teams may have to vastly over pay to keep their UFA s from going to free agency. AVERAGE PLAYER SALARY- The web portal uses average player salary to calculate what a player may be requesting in salary. This number is set to $2,800,000. This may cause lower end players and minor leaguers to sign for a higher base salary. Keep this in mind when extending player contracts. A player may be asking for $1mil+ salary even though they are not rated as impact players or even pro caliber. In some cases letting fringe players become free agents then attempting to sign them in the offseason as a free agent may be a better scenario for cost certainty. INITIAL CONTRACT SIGNINGS FOR PLAYERS WITH 0 CONTRACT- The initial start of the league several players on teams have 0 contracts and salaries, these players must be signed to contracts through the portal to be able to be added to your roster before the 1st season begins. All players still unsigned at this time will be made Un-Restricted free agents to be signed by anyone immediately. Page 15

16 CHAPTER 8 - COACHES does not use the coaching option. We feel we want teams to play how they are created by the GM and have more GM influence than coaches influence. CHAPTER 9 - ENTRY DRAFT Each year will consist of 5 rounds for each team. Teams will be able to trade draft picks for the current season and the next season only. You cannot add draft picks from further seasons to the future considerations box. Teams will be selecting from the 18 year old draft eligible prospects from the Developmental League. All draft eligible players for season 1 are real 2018 NHL draft prospects, All subsequent drafts are fictional players. The draft is run using the website utility and once the draft is enabled teams will have a maximum of 24 hours per pick. If the draft is running at too slow of a pace, the league can change the draft timer to a 1 hour time limit. Please be prepared and know the players you are interested in drafting. It is always a great idea to compile a draft list, not just to help you out in your selection process, but if you become unavailable for a pick you can send your draft list into the league to be used for automatic selection. DO NOT use the draft list option on the website for auto selection it will not make the selection for you and you risk holding up the draft and/or getting a player you did not want to select. Once a player is selected he will be added to your prospect list You will have the option to sign the player during the offseason or elect to wait until the next off season or the season after. A player must be signed within 2 seasons of being drafted or he will become an Unrestricted Free Agent. To sign a prospect you need to post in the #prospect-signings channel in discord chat. It will be processed in the off-season only and the player will be signed to an Entry Level Contract of 3 years with his current listed salary on the website. Trading will be enabled before the draft begins so that teams can trade draft picks for the current draft. If you trade a draft pick in the current draft make sure to tell the Commissioner so that they trade and draft picks can be updated on the website. If you trade a draft pick and that particular pick comes up in the draft do not select a player, wait until the Commissioner can update the trade on the website and change the draft pick. Each draft eligible player will have a ranking number on the draft page. This is for use of the auto draft feature only to best randomize players in the auto drafting process. If you use the auto draft by position option on the draft page it may not work properly as positions are not entered into the process. Do not use this feature for best results. If teams need to be autoed because they do not select in the time frame provided they will receive a 5 Activity Points penalty. If you elect to send in a draft list you will receive a 1 point bonus for every pick a list is used. There will be a handful of random potential grade boosts given out to draft eligible players. These will be selected prior to the draft and kept secret. Once a player with a bonus is selected it will be announced. The amount of players given random boost will be selected based on how much the league feels the draft class needs to be improved. In most cases these random boosts will be given to later round picks to help more of the later round guys have more potential. Page 16

17 CHAPTER 10 - OFF-SEASON RE-RATES does not use the automatic STHS re-rate option and does not use re-rates based on NHL statistics. has its own re-rate structure to make sure top young players and prospects develop as one would in real life and older players ratings will decrease as they get older as they would in real life NHL. The re-rate structure is based on ages of the particular players and the ratings will chance according to the formula on the page below. The re-rate formula can be found at Players ratings will have a chance to move during the season based on performance. They are set to move +/- 1 rating in each category during the season. These increases are separate from any off-season re-rate possible. The formula is created to have players hit a peak at around the age of 26 with most development happening prior to age 21. Players will start to decline in their 30 s. Players ages 16, 17, 18 and 19 will be re-rated based on being graded in 6 different categories. Players will be graded A-F in the following categories, Skating, Goal Scoring, Defense, Skill, Physical, and Playmaking. Players will increase 4 points for an A grade, 3 points for B, 2 points for C, 1 point for D and 0 for F. The categories will affect the individual ratings as follows... Skaters: Skating (SK rating) Goal Scoring (SC rating) Defense (DF, FO ratings)fo for forwards only and +2 for A and B grades and +1 for C and D grades Skill (PH, PS ratings) PS ratings +2 for A and B grades and +1 for C and D grades Physical (CK ratings) Playmaking (PA ratings) Goalies: Reflexes (RT, HS ratings) PS ratings +2 for A and B grades and +1 for C and D grades Composure (SC rating) RB and PS ratings +2 for A and B grades and +1 for C and D grades Stability DU and EN + 2 for A and B grades and +1 for C and D grades Starter Ability EN and RB + 2 for A and B grades and +1 for C and D grades Skating (SK, AG ratings) EN, EX, LD all get +2 increase for all players each season. Goalies get +2 increase in EX in LD. In season 1, 19 year old players will use the standard age 20 re-rates of the re-rate formula. This new grading scale should make it more difficult to scout players for the draft and their potential going forward and may lead to more Sleepers being drafted in later rounds. Page 17

18 CHAPTER 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL LEAGUE/JUNIOR LEAGUE hosts our own junior league for the future players of the. The junior league is for purposes of youth development. Players ages 16,17,18 and 19 will be developmental league eligible with the 18 year olds being the current draft class for the entry draft. Once a player is drafted in the entry draft he will be developmental league eligible for his 18 and 19 year old seasons at which point he will have to be signed to an Entry Level Contract in the #prospect-signings discord channel. If a drafted players is not signed to ELC within 2 seasons of being drafted he becomes a UFA and his rights are lost. If a player is signed to an ELC before his developmental league eligibility is up he will immediately be placed on a teams roster. He will no longer be able to play in the developmental league, even if he is old enough to, he cannot go up or down to developmental league. ELC contracts will only be processed in the offseason, you can sign a player during the season but the contract will not go through until the offseason so the player will be able to finish that season in developmental league. Players will participate in the developmental league for 2 years prior to their draft eligibility season so GM s will have plenty of chances to scout particular players prior to draft eligibility and know what kind of talent is coming for particular drafts. Besides the special off-season rerates these aged players are eligible for they can also move +/- 1 point during the season based on their play. Rosters and lines are autoed each season so it is a good idea when drafting to check who the players linemates are and you can better predict what kind of production he will have. Players in this age group have the grades in the 6 categories associated to their potential. These lists and potential ratings are posted on the google sheets page for reference when needed. You can find the prospect grades sheet here Prospect Grades List Page 18

19 CHAPTER 12 - ACTIVITY POINTS has adopted an activity points chart to monitor GM activity and to reward those who are most active and put the most effort into the league. The points list is posted for view on a google sheets page for people to view. You are able to accumulate enough points to reward your team a possibility of a $2.8 mil increase in cap space spending. You can earn points from the following tasks... Submitting lines for each sim (You do not have to Edit new lines, you can submit the same line file as long as its uploaded for sim you will receive credit. Team or league articles posted to the front page of the website. You can get credit for 1 article per week with week ending Sunday. Bonus points possible Random activity checks Bonus for submitting lines for every sim Bonus for writing articles each week Submitting team and league articles Submitting playoff prediction form Activity points is the main penalty given for disciplinary reasons. The Commissioner reserves the right to levy a fine of however many activity points he feels is necessary at the time and can give further penalties for repeat offenders. Activity points penalties can result in negative cap space moving forward if you are below the earnings threshold. Activity points are heavily considered when nominating GM of the year/month awards or removing a GM from the league. New to activity points is the possibility to increase a prospects potential grade in a category. If you earn at least $1.75 mil in salary cap bonus during a given season you can use $1.75 mil towards boosting a prospects grade in a particular category. In order to do this the player must be within draft+2 season and still be eligible for the category driven re-rates. You can raise a player 1 letter grade in any category you wish however you cannot move a player to A grade. To initiate this potential grade boost you must send the Commissioner your request and it must be done prior to off-season re-rates. The $1.75 you used for this boost will come off of your potential cap space earnings and will not be applied. All salary cap increase earned will carry over from season to season and after time will be a real advantage for the active teams compared to non active teams. If a GM is fired from the league, the league has the power to remove any points penalties the old GM had in place for the new GM. Page 19

20 CHAPTER 13 - WAIVERS does not use the standard STHS in season waivers system. We have a waiver period before the start of pre-season where players who are waiver eligible will have to pass through waivers to be able to be sent to the AHL. ELIGIBILITY- Any player that falls under any of the categories below must pass through waivers to be eligible to play in the AHL at any point during the season. If a player that is waiver eligible does not pass through waivers during the offseason waiver process he must stay on pro roster for the entire season. Players age 23 and above and players with an OV rating of 74 and above must pass through waivers to be AHL eligible. Goalies age 23 and above and goalies with an OV rating of 76 and above must pass through waivers to be AHL eligible. Players and goalies with a salary of $4 mil and above cannot be placed on waivers and must remain on pro team roster. Players age 22 and below can play in pro or farms and do not need to be exposed to waivers unless OV rating falls in the group above. SELECTION PROCESS- All players will be put onto pro rosters and files updated prior to the waiver period. At this point GM s will edit their rosters placing eligible players in farms or on waivers in an attempt to place them into farms. GM s will upload their edited rosters and the waiver list will be announced. Teams can place a claim on an available player by posting in the #waiver-claims channel on discord chat. If multiple teams place claim on a certain player the tie breaker will be based on reverse order of the previous season standings. Once a team claims a player they will move to the bottom of the draft order list. Selections will be processed in the order of which they are posted in the #waiver-claims channel. If a team claims a player and then makes multiple other claims on other players they can still be awarded those players if they are above any other team claiming on the draft order. Once a player is claimed in the waiver process he MUST remain on a PRO roster the entire season. Make sure if you are trying to trade for someone who was claimed in the waiver process that you understand he does not have AHL eligibility. It is always a good idea to know which players have AHL eligibility, just because a players ratings may look like hes AHL eligible its possible his rating was higher during the waiver period and he was not waived and does not have AHL eligibility. If you are unsure of a players eligibility you can always ask the Commissioner to check for you prior to trading for. Once a player passes unclaimed through waivers, he is free to go up or down to the AHL as needed throughout the season. Page 20

21 CHAPTER 14 - FREE AGENCY The off-season free agency bidding period will take place once re-rates are completed and new rosters are posted. The bidding process will be done through the web portal AI. It will be done similar to the July 1st opening of free agency in the NHL. Once the bidding process is opened, teams will be able to bid on players. Players will then take 24 hours to decide on their final 3 offers. The player will then select 1 of those offers to accept 1 hour later. The player will not necessarily select the best offer. Players will be made available in groups based on alphabetical order for their last names. Group A could consist of players whose last name begin with the letters A-C and only those players are eligible to be bid on during the first group. Day 1 will be bidding with day 2 becoming the players signing the contracts. Day 3 will be the next group of players as well as any players left over from the previous group(s). Teams need to keep in mind their salary cap space available. The AI will not let teams bid on players over a certain budge and will say owner will not approve this offer. If allowed by the AI, teams will be allowed to go over the salary cap but must be below the cap by the start of the Pre-Season sim. There is not a maximum amount of players that a team can sign during the free agent process. All players signed to contracts more than 1 year will have an automatic NTC and will not be able to be traded during the 1st season of the new contract. Players who sign a 1 year contract can be moved after playing in 41 games. You may have to alert the Commissioner to remove the NTC from the player in this case. Players that are left over unsigned from the free agent period can still sign free agent contracts after the period and during the season by the same process. The maximum amount of years a contract can be offered is 4 years and the maximum yearly salary offer is $11,000,000, however a signing bonus can be added that is paid up front and counts towards the salary cap in the first year making the first year salary for a player could be over $11 mil. The league Commissioner must make all contract offers before any other GM s are allowed to bid. The player and his agent will state his Market Value and you will then have the options to offer the following percentages of the market value: 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% or 100% of asking salary Or you can offer more than market value at these percentages: 110%, 120%, 130%, 140%, 150%, 175% or 200% of asking salary. Page 21