Post by lockedge (FLA) on Apr 8, 2010 14:42:08 GMT -5
I. GENERAL
Golden Rule - This league is for entertainment and not for Profit of any kind. Be civil, be fair, have fun.
Activity - A fantasy league is only as good as the GMs who are in it and their activity in the league. That being said, life does sometimes get in the way of fantasy leagues and must be given preference. GMs should post publicly or advise admins of absences or expected periods of inactivity. Prolonged inactivity may be grounds for removal from the league at the admins' discretion. At the very least, try to log in to the weekly line changes thread once a week to announce your presence (even if it's just a 'no changes this week' post).
II. ROSTERS
League teams will consist of a pro roster and a prospect roster.
Pro roster
1A. Pro rosters will consist of an active roster, a bench roster, and players on IR.
1B. Any player who has been drafted in an NHL Entry draft or has been signed to a professional NHL contract (AHL/ECHL contracts and tryout contracts do not count) at any point in their career is eligible for the pro roster.
2A. Active rosters will consist of 12 forwards, 6 defencemen, and 1 goaltender. Only players on the active roster will accumulate points for your team.
2B. Position eligibility for players who have played both F and D will be determined by Fantrax. Forecaster, which can be accessed through the Hockey News and others may be used to provide proof should a player qualify for positions not noted in Fantrax
2C. Every team in the league must field their most competitive roster possible. Inactive players on your active roster while you have Bench players accumulating points will be considered tanking and grounds for loss of draft picks, loss of players or removal from the league. See 3A.
3A. No tanking rule - GMs must keep the most productive players within their pro roster on the active roster. Also, teams must seek to replace inactive players on their active rosters with active players, to ensure their active roster is as productive as possible. A minimum games played rule is in place to ensure that all teams are taking steps to be competitive. It is currently set at 1000 games.
3B. GMs expecting to be absent from the league for a while due to life stuff should arrange with another GM to make line changes for them so as to avoid unintentional tanking and other roster violations (e.g., players losing prospect or IR eligibility). If a GM has to be absent due to an unexpected situation and cannot arrange for another GM to take care of their linechanges and rosters, an admin will take care of that.
4A. In addition to the mandatory active roster, every team will be allowed to keep up to 11 additional players in reserve on a bench roster. These players can be used to replace players on the active roster once a week in the weekly line changes (see below).
4B. Players playing in Europe can be kept on your bench roster, but are not eligible for the active roster
5A. Injured players placed on IR by their NHL teams are eligible to be placed on IR in the ZFHL. While on IR such players do not count towards the team's cap or 30-player pro-roster limit. However, once removed from IR by their NHL team, such players must be returned to the pro-roster and count towards the cap, or they will be considered waived (see Roster Movements below).
5B. A team is not allowed more than 3 IR spots at any given time.
5C. We will use the Forecaster (via the Toronto Star, The Hockey News, or others) to determine IR eligibility should their be a discrepancy with Fantrax.
6A. Signed prospect-eligible players may be moved freely between the pro and prospect rosters, providing the move does not put the GM in a roster or cap violation.
6B. Unsigned prospects may only be moved to the pro roster if they are first signed in the appropriate ZFHL Prospect Entry Draft signing thread.
Salary Cap
1. Pro rosters (active + bench) must fall within the league's salary cap ceiling and floor.
2. The salary cap ceiling will be the NHL salary cap + $1 Million.
3. The salary cap floor will be the same as the NHL's
4. The salaries of all players on a team's pro roster must count against the cap, except for players who are on IR or playing in Europe.
5. This league counts NHL salaries, not NHL cap hits.
6. This league counts base salaries + signing bonuses for non-ELC players. For ELC players, only base salaries, without bonuses, are counted.
Salary Cap Calculation
1. Players salaries will be calculated by Fantrax. For conflicts we will use CapFriendly.com as well as GeneralFanger.com to corroborate a players salary for the current NHL season.
2. For players in Europe or who are UFAs, the league will disregard these salaries.
Salary Cap Violations
1A. From the beginning of the regular season and until end of the regular season, teams must be within cap limits.
1B. Teams may go over the cap ceiling or under the cap floor during the play-offs and off-season as NHL contracts end at the end of the regular season. After the play-offs, trading resumes and both salary cap and roster limits do not apply. Once the next season begins each team submits their complete roster and all teams must comply with both Salary Cap and Roster size limitations.
2A. If your team is in cap violation (over or under the salary cap/floor) when the season begins or at any point during the season, it will be dealt with as follows:
1st offense= You will be given a 1 line change grace period in which to get your team under the salary cap via trade or waivers.
2nd offense= You lose your highest scoring player for a 1 line change period AND loss of a 3rd round pick at the Admins discretion.
3rd offense= You lose two of your highest scoring player for a 1 line change period and the loss of a 2nd round pick at the Admins discretion.
4th offense= Loss of a 1st round pick at the Admins discretion
5th offense= Loss of applicable player
2B. If your team is in cap violation and is within the bottom ten teams at the point of the cap violation, tanking rules will apply instead.
3. No trades which involve taking on salary while you are over the cap or dropping salary while you are under the cap will be allowed unless a transaction is made to keep your team compliant for that week. Eg. If you make a trade that puts you over or under the cap it will be reversed unless another transaction for that week will make you compliant.
4. Free agent signings of any kind are absolutely not allowed if you are over the cap, again unless a transaction from that line change period corrects the infraction.
Prospect roster
1. Prospect rosters will consist of no more than 30 signed prospects, and an unlimited number of unsigned prospects.
2. Prospect eligibility - To be eligible as a prospect in this league, a player must have played less than 65 regular season NHL games for Forwards/Defencemen (40 such games for Goaltenders).
3. Age is not a factor in a prospects eligibility.
4A. Unsigned prospect status - The rights to players drafted in a ZFHL entry draft may be held for 2 seasons without such players being signed and counting towards the 30-player signed prospects limit.
4B. A GM who wishes to put an unsigned prospect on their pro roster (active or bench) must first announce their signing on the signing thread appropriate to that entry draft.
4C. An unsigned prospect who loses his prospect eligibility must be signed and placed on the pro roster within a week of their 65th NHL game (40th for goalies) or the GM will be held to be in roster violation (see below) and the player will be placed on waivers.
4D. An unsigned prospect's rights may be traded without the prospect losing their unsigned status.
4E. If an unsigned prospect is waived, they are no longer eligible for unsigned status.
4F. The deadline for signing unsigned prospects is the end-of-summer roster submission deadline.
Roster Movements
1A. GMs cannot add players (via trade, waiver, free agent signing, or unsigned prospect signing) when such addition will put them over the roster limits (30 pro roster + 30 signed prospects). To add players while at the roster limit, a GM must make room for them by moving players off their rosters.
1B. Once a prospect on a GM's prospect roster loses prospect eligibility, the GMs will have 7 days to promote or release that prospect, and to release another player should that be necessary to make room for the prospect on the pro roster.
1C. Once a player on IR is activated by their NHL team, a GM will have until the second line changes deadline after the player's NHL activation to reactivate the player on their ZFHL team.
2. GMs will have 7 days to update roster movements (trades, waiver movements, free agent pickups, signing of unsigned prospects, moving prospects to the pro roster including prospects who lose their prospect eligibility) on their own team thread.
3. Roster limits (30 players on the pro roster, 30 signed prospects, prospect eligibility) apply both during the season and in the off-season.
4. During the regular season, all roster movements (trades, waiver drops and pickups, FA signings, prospect promotions, placement on IR, activation from IR) affecting the pro roster must be recorded both on the team pages and on the weekly line changes thread. Movements that only affect the prospect roster need not be recorded on the weekly line changes thread.
Roster Violations
1. Failure to sign/release an unsigned prospect by the signing deadline, failure promote a prospect who has lost their prospect eligibility or to reactivate a player placed on IR within the above time limits, and failure to record player pickups and other roster movements within 7 days, shall all constitute roster violations.
2A. When a roster violation is discovered by another GM, the player creating the violation (i.e., the player who was picked up via trade/waiver/FA but not recorded on the roster, the prospect who was supposed to be signed/released or promoted upon losing eligibility, the player on IR) will be considered waived and placed on the waiver wire.
2B. A GM discovering a roster violation on the part of another GM cannot use this fact to negotiate a cheap trade for the player creating the roster violation; this will be considered collusion and will be grounds for vetoing the trade.
2C. When a player creating a roster violation is placed on the waiver wire, the GM who owned that player may attempt to reclaim the player off waivers. Regular waiver priority will apply in such cases.
2D. GMs will be given a single notice regarding their first infringement of this rule as warning upon discovery the player is overage/ineligible for IR/Unsigned/etc. In this case, the GM will have 48 hours to react and mend the situation.
Roster Submission Deadline
1. The roster submission deadline will be determined and announced by admins every year, but will usually be the weekend before the first NHL games. Note that as long as the NHL has early games in Europe, the roster submission deadline will be before training camps for many teams end.
2A. At the roster submission deadline every GM must submit their active roster, bench roster, list of players on IR (if applicable), and prospect roster, including a list of all their unsigned prospects.
2B. Players not submitted by the GM at the roster submission deadline will be considered free agents, even if they are otherwise supposed to be owned by the GM.. If a team's GM does not post their submission prior to the deadline, they will be investigated and punished based on the roster violations rules, or kicked at the Admins' discretion.
3. Rosters submitted at the roster submission deadline must be within roster and cap restrictions, as explained above.
III. PLAYER TRANSACTIONS
Trades
1A. A GM may trade any player or pick that belongs to them.
1B. Trade deadline will occur at 12am EST on the last day of the NHL regular season. Trading will then be frozen during the playoff and resume as soon as the playoff is over.
1C. If you are in the process of making a trade with another team and fear you will not make the deadline, both GMs may PM an admin not involved in the trade no later than 5 minutes prior to the deadline to be granted an extra hour to finalize the trade. If the trade is not up within the extra hour or if the admin does not receive a PM from both teams, the trade will not be counted.
1D. Trades may be announced during the playoff trade freeze, but will only take effect after the playoff is over.
2A. Unbalanced trades are the quickest way to kill a FHL so though there is no Trade Commitee, it is strongly encouraged to voice your opinion on trades in the Trade Announcement thread.
2B. If you believe a trade is too lopsided to be allowed to stand or that it involves collusion, feel free to state so. If enough people feel a trade should be looked at, the Admins may recommend that the teams involved in the trade rework the deal or nullify it themselves. Should this fail, admins may decide to veto the trade or to put the trade to a league-wide veto vote. However, as a general guideline, vetoing trades on grounds of lopsidedness should be restricted only to the most egregious cases, or to cases where a pattern of lopsided trades raises suspicion of sabotage.
2C. New GMs will be subject to a 1-month apprenticeship period during which that GMs' trades will be subject to league/admin review (this is to avoid new GMs who are not used to this league's unique format agreeing to lopsided trades that greatly harm their teams while they learn the ropes, as has happened on more than a few occasions in the past, with rather acrimonious results). If the new GM is not active on the trade front during the probation period, this period will be extended to the first few major trades the GM makes.
Waivers
1A. Teams may drop any of their players, including unsigned prospects, by placing them on waivers.
1B. During the regular season, a waiver drop period (week) starts every Wednesday at 11 PM EST and ends the following Wednesday 11 PM EST. Players can be dropped at any hour of any day of this period.
1C. Players dropped within a given regular season drop period may be claimed by other teams until Saturday at 11 AM EST following the end of that waiver drop period. A player who goes unclaimed by the Saturday deadline thereby clears waivers and is immediately eligible to be signed as a free agent.
1D. Should a player be claimed by more than one team, the player will be awarded to the claiming team ranked lowest in the ZFHL standings at that point (in other words, waiver priority is the reverse order of the standings on the Saturday the claim is being decided on). The exception of the above statement is that the first waiver period of a new season will be determined by reverse order of the previous season standings.
1E. If a waiver claim or claims you are making would put you in cap or roster violation, you will have until the next weekly line changes deadline (the day after the claim is approved) to make the necessary roster moves, or you will be held in roster or cap violation, as appropriate.
2A. There will be no waiver claims after the trade deadline (the last day of the regular season) and until the regular season waiver period reopens.
2B. All players waived after the trade deadline and before the regular season waiver period reopens will immediately become free agents.
Signing Free Agents
1A. Any player who is eligible to be on a ZFHL pro or prospect roster (i.e., has been drafted in an NHL Entry draft or has been signed to a professional NHL contract [AHL/ECHL contracts and tryout contracts do not count] at any point in their career) but isn't currently owned by any ZFHL team is eligible to be signed as a free agent at any time during the free agency period. This includes players who have cleared waivers.
1B. The free agency period will begin on August 1st, and will end at the trade deadline (last day of the regular NHL season).
1C. The eligibility of an undrafted player to be signed as a ZFHL free agent (in other words, proof that they have been signed to an NHL contract) will be determined according to a link provided to an announcement on the NHL team's official website with the specific news of the players signing, as proof of NHL signing. NO OTHER SOURCES WILL BE ACCEPTED. Elite Prospects is a good resource to get information about foreign players, specifically their birth dates but it is not acceptable as proof of a players signing a contract if the prospect still falls under the categories as player signing his first NHL contract who is still eligible for an NHL draft.
The unsigned/undrafted eligibility is as follows:
(i). Any North American born player who will be turning 21 or older in the year of the upcoming draft. For the 2018-2019 season this means players born in 1998 or earlier.
(ii). Any player born outside North America who has played at least one season in North America at the age of 18, 19, or 20, and who will be turning 21 or older in the year of the upcoming draft. For the 2014-2015 season this means players born in 1994 or earlier
(iii). Please note that under the new CBA, players born outside North America who have NOT played a season in North America at the age of 18, 19, or 20, remain eligible for the NHL draft regardless of age, and are therefore not eligible to be signed as FAs in the ZFHL. This is a change from the previous CBA
2A. Each team is subject to the following limits to free agent signings:
- No more than 10 free agent signings per month
- No more than 3 free agent signings in a week
- No more than 1 free agent signing in a day
2B. The free agency week starts Sunday at 11 AM EST, and runs until 10:59 AM the following Sunday.
3. Free agent signings must comply with the Roster Movement rules delineated above (i.e., have room for the signed FA under roster and cap limits at the time of the signing, and update the signing on their team page within 7 days) or be subject to the Cap or Roster Violation penalties (as appropriate) described above.
Entry Draft
1. The entry draft will take place every summer shortly after the end of the NHL entry draft, and will consist of 5 rounds, in a traditional 1-30, 1-30 format (that is, not a snake draft).
2. Draft order will be reverse of the final standings, with one possible exception: should an NHL team change its draft position due to the lottery, the ZFHL team at the same draft position will change its draft position in the same way (in other words, if the 4th seed in the NHL wins the lottery and moves to #1, the 4th seed in the ZFHL will also move to #1, bumping the three teams it jumps over one spot down accordingly; see example below).
3A. The draft will be a timed draft, meaning each slot has a time frame for when the GM can make their selection. If the GM immediately before you has already gone, you are free to make your pick (see example below). Time slots will be as follows:
1st round - 3 hours
2nd and 3rd rounds - 2 hours
4th and 5th round - 1 hour
3B. Missed entry draft picks will be autoasigned on the basis of the NHL draft order. This will occur as follows:
1st round - at the end of the day on which the pick was missed
2nd round - at the end of the day after the day on which the pick was missed
3rd round - at the end of the round
4th and 5th round - at the end of the draft
4A. Any player who was drafted in the NHL draft of that season is eligible to be drafted in the ZFHL entry draft.
4B. Only players drafted in the NHL draft of that season is eligible to be drafted in the ZFHL entry draft.
4C. Players drafted in a ZFHL entry draft may be held unsigned (i.e., not counting towards the pro and prospect roster limits) until the next roster submission deadline two years after they have been drafted. However, to be placed on a pro roster, drafted players must first be signed.
4D. The signing of a drafted prospect is to be announced in a special thread created for that purpose in every draft's forum.
4E. Eligible players who go undrafted in the ZFHL entry draft automatically become free agents.
LEAGUE PLAY
General
1. Our league will use fantrax.com to keep track of points.
2. Regular season play will commence on the first day of official NHL action (currently the day of the first game in Europe every season), and will end on the day the NHL regular season ends.
3. Playoff play will commence at the beginning of the NHL playoff, and will end at the end of the final NHL playoff game.
Awards
President Cup - Best team in the regular season: an extra draft pick between the 1st and 2nd round(before the Stanley Cup winner) and an extra pick between the 2nd and 3rd round of the entry draft.(after the SC winner)
Stanley Cup - best team in the playoffs: an extra draft pick between the 1st and 2nd round(after the PC winner) and an extra draft pick between the 2nd and 3rd round of the entry draft.(before the PC winner)
Division Champs (regular season): The top team in each division: an extra draft pick between the 3rd and 4th round of the entry draft (seeded by points totals).
Scoring
Forwards
G: 25
A: 25
PIMs: 4
PPP: 10
SHP: 20
OTG: 15
GWG: 25
Shootout GWG: 25
HTRK: 50
+/-: +/- 10
GP: 2
Hit: 2
Blocked Shot: 2
Defense
Same as Forward except: 50 pts for goal.
Goalies
W: 50
OTL: 10
SOL: 10
SO: 100
PIMs: 3
G: 200
A: 50
GP: 3
SAVES: 2
GA: -15
Playoffs
1. The Playoffs will take place during the NHL playoffs.
2A. The playoff will consist of 16 teams, 8 from each conference (Conference and Divisions follow the NHLs).
2B. In each conference, the participating teams will be the 3 division winners (ranked 1 through 3 based on the higher point totals at the end of the regular season) and the 5 remaining teams with the highest end-of-season points totals (ranked 4 through 8 based on the higher point totals at the end of the regular season).
3A. Playoff active rosters will consist of no more than 6 forwards, 4 defenders, and one goalie.
3B. Scoring will be the same as in the regular season.
3C. Line changes will only be allowed between playoff rounds.
4A. In each round, teams will be paired on the basis of their ranking, with the highest ranked team playing the lowest ranked team, the second highest v. the second lowest, 3rd v 6th, and 4th v. 5th. The team with the higher ranking in each pairing will be considered the home team (see example below).
4B. Whichever team accumulates the most points during that round advances to the next round (see example below).
4C. Points will only be accumulated during a given round, so that every new round starts with all teams at zero points (see example below).
4D. In the event of a tie, the tiebreaker will be given to the home team. There is no other way to break down the points accumulated, we'll call it the home team advantage to teams that finished with higher standings in the Regular Season.
Golden Rule - This league is for entertainment and not for Profit of any kind. Be civil, be fair, have fun.
Activity - A fantasy league is only as good as the GMs who are in it and their activity in the league. That being said, life does sometimes get in the way of fantasy leagues and must be given preference. GMs should post publicly or advise admins of absences or expected periods of inactivity. Prolonged inactivity may be grounds for removal from the league at the admins' discretion. At the very least, try to log in to the weekly line changes thread once a week to announce your presence (even if it's just a 'no changes this week' post).
II. ROSTERS
League teams will consist of a pro roster and a prospect roster.
Pro roster
1A. Pro rosters will consist of an active roster, a bench roster, and players on IR.
1B. Any player who has been drafted in an NHL Entry draft or has been signed to a professional NHL contract (AHL/ECHL contracts and tryout contracts do not count) at any point in their career is eligible for the pro roster.
2A. Active rosters will consist of 12 forwards, 6 defencemen, and 1 goaltender. Only players on the active roster will accumulate points for your team.
2B. Position eligibility for players who have played both F and D will be determined by Fantrax. Forecaster, which can be accessed through the Hockey News and others may be used to provide proof should a player qualify for positions not noted in Fantrax
2C. Every team in the league must field their most competitive roster possible. Inactive players on your active roster while you have Bench players accumulating points will be considered tanking and grounds for loss of draft picks, loss of players or removal from the league. See 3A.
3A. No tanking rule - GMs must keep the most productive players within their pro roster on the active roster. Also, teams must seek to replace inactive players on their active rosters with active players, to ensure their active roster is as productive as possible. A minimum games played rule is in place to ensure that all teams are taking steps to be competitive. It is currently set at 1000 games.
3B. GMs expecting to be absent from the league for a while due to life stuff should arrange with another GM to make line changes for them so as to avoid unintentional tanking and other roster violations (e.g., players losing prospect or IR eligibility). If a GM has to be absent due to an unexpected situation and cannot arrange for another GM to take care of their linechanges and rosters, an admin will take care of that.
4A. In addition to the mandatory active roster, every team will be allowed to keep up to 11 additional players in reserve on a bench roster. These players can be used to replace players on the active roster once a week in the weekly line changes (see below).
4B. Players playing in Europe can be kept on your bench roster, but are not eligible for the active roster
5A. Injured players placed on IR by their NHL teams are eligible to be placed on IR in the ZFHL. While on IR such players do not count towards the team's cap or 30-player pro-roster limit. However, once removed from IR by their NHL team, such players must be returned to the pro-roster and count towards the cap, or they will be considered waived (see Roster Movements below).
5B. A team is not allowed more than 3 IR spots at any given time.
5C. We will use the Forecaster (via the Toronto Star, The Hockey News, or others) to determine IR eligibility should their be a discrepancy with Fantrax.
6A. Signed prospect-eligible players may be moved freely between the pro and prospect rosters, providing the move does not put the GM in a roster or cap violation.
6B. Unsigned prospects may only be moved to the pro roster if they are first signed in the appropriate ZFHL Prospect Entry Draft signing thread.
Salary Cap
1. Pro rosters (active + bench) must fall within the league's salary cap ceiling and floor.
2. The salary cap ceiling will be the NHL salary cap + $1 Million.
3. The salary cap floor will be the same as the NHL's
4. The salaries of all players on a team's pro roster must count against the cap, except for players who are on IR or playing in Europe.
5. This league counts NHL salaries, not NHL cap hits.
6. This league counts base salaries + signing bonuses for non-ELC players. For ELC players, only base salaries, without bonuses, are counted.
Salary Cap Calculation
1. Players salaries will be calculated by Fantrax. For conflicts we will use CapFriendly.com as well as GeneralFanger.com to corroborate a players salary for the current NHL season.
2. For players in Europe or who are UFAs, the league will disregard these salaries.
Salary Cap Violations
1A. From the beginning of the regular season and until end of the regular season, teams must be within cap limits.
1B. Teams may go over the cap ceiling or under the cap floor during the play-offs and off-season as NHL contracts end at the end of the regular season. After the play-offs, trading resumes and both salary cap and roster limits do not apply. Once the next season begins each team submits their complete roster and all teams must comply with both Salary Cap and Roster size limitations.
2A. If your team is in cap violation (over or under the salary cap/floor) when the season begins or at any point during the season, it will be dealt with as follows:
1st offense= You will be given a 1 line change grace period in which to get your team under the salary cap via trade or waivers.
2nd offense= You lose your highest scoring player for a 1 line change period AND loss of a 3rd round pick at the Admins discretion.
3rd offense= You lose two of your highest scoring player for a 1 line change period and the loss of a 2nd round pick at the Admins discretion.
4th offense= Loss of a 1st round pick at the Admins discretion
5th offense= Loss of applicable player
2B. If your team is in cap violation and is within the bottom ten teams at the point of the cap violation, tanking rules will apply instead.
3. No trades which involve taking on salary while you are over the cap or dropping salary while you are under the cap will be allowed unless a transaction is made to keep your team compliant for that week. Eg. If you make a trade that puts you over or under the cap it will be reversed unless another transaction for that week will make you compliant.
4. Free agent signings of any kind are absolutely not allowed if you are over the cap, again unless a transaction from that line change period corrects the infraction.
Prospect roster
1. Prospect rosters will consist of no more than 30 signed prospects, and an unlimited number of unsigned prospects.
2. Prospect eligibility - To be eligible as a prospect in this league, a player must have played less than 65 regular season NHL games for Forwards/Defencemen (40 such games for Goaltenders).
3. Age is not a factor in a prospects eligibility.
4A. Unsigned prospect status - The rights to players drafted in a ZFHL entry draft may be held for 2 seasons without such players being signed and counting towards the 30-player signed prospects limit.
4B. A GM who wishes to put an unsigned prospect on their pro roster (active or bench) must first announce their signing on the signing thread appropriate to that entry draft.
4C. An unsigned prospect who loses his prospect eligibility must be signed and placed on the pro roster within a week of their 65th NHL game (40th for goalies) or the GM will be held to be in roster violation (see below) and the player will be placed on waivers.
4D. An unsigned prospect's rights may be traded without the prospect losing their unsigned status.
4E. If an unsigned prospect is waived, they are no longer eligible for unsigned status.
4F. The deadline for signing unsigned prospects is the end-of-summer roster submission deadline.
Roster Movements
1A. GMs cannot add players (via trade, waiver, free agent signing, or unsigned prospect signing) when such addition will put them over the roster limits (30 pro roster + 30 signed prospects). To add players while at the roster limit, a GM must make room for them by moving players off their rosters.
1B. Once a prospect on a GM's prospect roster loses prospect eligibility, the GMs will have 7 days to promote or release that prospect, and to release another player should that be necessary to make room for the prospect on the pro roster.
1C. Once a player on IR is activated by their NHL team, a GM will have until the second line changes deadline after the player's NHL activation to reactivate the player on their ZFHL team.
2. GMs will have 7 days to update roster movements (trades, waiver movements, free agent pickups, signing of unsigned prospects, moving prospects to the pro roster including prospects who lose their prospect eligibility) on their own team thread.
3. Roster limits (30 players on the pro roster, 30 signed prospects, prospect eligibility) apply both during the season and in the off-season.
4. During the regular season, all roster movements (trades, waiver drops and pickups, FA signings, prospect promotions, placement on IR, activation from IR) affecting the pro roster must be recorded both on the team pages and on the weekly line changes thread. Movements that only affect the prospect roster need not be recorded on the weekly line changes thread.
Roster Violations
1. Failure to sign/release an unsigned prospect by the signing deadline, failure promote a prospect who has lost their prospect eligibility or to reactivate a player placed on IR within the above time limits, and failure to record player pickups and other roster movements within 7 days, shall all constitute roster violations.
2A. When a roster violation is discovered by another GM, the player creating the violation (i.e., the player who was picked up via trade/waiver/FA but not recorded on the roster, the prospect who was supposed to be signed/released or promoted upon losing eligibility, the player on IR) will be considered waived and placed on the waiver wire.
2B. A GM discovering a roster violation on the part of another GM cannot use this fact to negotiate a cheap trade for the player creating the roster violation; this will be considered collusion and will be grounds for vetoing the trade.
2C. When a player creating a roster violation is placed on the waiver wire, the GM who owned that player may attempt to reclaim the player off waivers. Regular waiver priority will apply in such cases.
2D. GMs will be given a single notice regarding their first infringement of this rule as warning upon discovery the player is overage/ineligible for IR/Unsigned/etc. In this case, the GM will have 48 hours to react and mend the situation.
Roster Submission Deadline
1. The roster submission deadline will be determined and announced by admins every year, but will usually be the weekend before the first NHL games. Note that as long as the NHL has early games in Europe, the roster submission deadline will be before training camps for many teams end.
2A. At the roster submission deadline every GM must submit their active roster, bench roster, list of players on IR (if applicable), and prospect roster, including a list of all their unsigned prospects.
2B. Players not submitted by the GM at the roster submission deadline will be considered free agents, even if they are otherwise supposed to be owned by the GM.. If a team's GM does not post their submission prior to the deadline, they will be investigated and punished based on the roster violations rules, or kicked at the Admins' discretion.
3. Rosters submitted at the roster submission deadline must be within roster and cap restrictions, as explained above.
III. PLAYER TRANSACTIONS
Trades
1A. A GM may trade any player or pick that belongs to them.
1B. Trade deadline will occur at 12am EST on the last day of the NHL regular season. Trading will then be frozen during the playoff and resume as soon as the playoff is over.
1C. If you are in the process of making a trade with another team and fear you will not make the deadline, both GMs may PM an admin not involved in the trade no later than 5 minutes prior to the deadline to be granted an extra hour to finalize the trade. If the trade is not up within the extra hour or if the admin does not receive a PM from both teams, the trade will not be counted.
1D. Trades may be announced during the playoff trade freeze, but will only take effect after the playoff is over.
2A. Unbalanced trades are the quickest way to kill a FHL so though there is no Trade Commitee, it is strongly encouraged to voice your opinion on trades in the Trade Announcement thread.
2B. If you believe a trade is too lopsided to be allowed to stand or that it involves collusion, feel free to state so. If enough people feel a trade should be looked at, the Admins may recommend that the teams involved in the trade rework the deal or nullify it themselves. Should this fail, admins may decide to veto the trade or to put the trade to a league-wide veto vote. However, as a general guideline, vetoing trades on grounds of lopsidedness should be restricted only to the most egregious cases, or to cases where a pattern of lopsided trades raises suspicion of sabotage.
2C. New GMs will be subject to a 1-month apprenticeship period during which that GMs' trades will be subject to league/admin review (this is to avoid new GMs who are not used to this league's unique format agreeing to lopsided trades that greatly harm their teams while they learn the ropes, as has happened on more than a few occasions in the past, with rather acrimonious results). If the new GM is not active on the trade front during the probation period, this period will be extended to the first few major trades the GM makes.
Waivers
1A. Teams may drop any of their players, including unsigned prospects, by placing them on waivers.
1B. During the regular season, a waiver drop period (week) starts every Wednesday at 11 PM EST and ends the following Wednesday 11 PM EST. Players can be dropped at any hour of any day of this period.
1C. Players dropped within a given regular season drop period may be claimed by other teams until Saturday at 11 AM EST following the end of that waiver drop period. A player who goes unclaimed by the Saturday deadline thereby clears waivers and is immediately eligible to be signed as a free agent.
1D. Should a player be claimed by more than one team, the player will be awarded to the claiming team ranked lowest in the ZFHL standings at that point (in other words, waiver priority is the reverse order of the standings on the Saturday the claim is being decided on). The exception of the above statement is that the first waiver period of a new season will be determined by reverse order of the previous season standings.
1E. If a waiver claim or claims you are making would put you in cap or roster violation, you will have until the next weekly line changes deadline (the day after the claim is approved) to make the necessary roster moves, or you will be held in roster or cap violation, as appropriate.
2A. There will be no waiver claims after the trade deadline (the last day of the regular season) and until the regular season waiver period reopens.
2B. All players waived after the trade deadline and before the regular season waiver period reopens will immediately become free agents.
Signing Free Agents
1A. Any player who is eligible to be on a ZFHL pro or prospect roster (i.e., has been drafted in an NHL Entry draft or has been signed to a professional NHL contract [AHL/ECHL contracts and tryout contracts do not count] at any point in their career) but isn't currently owned by any ZFHL team is eligible to be signed as a free agent at any time during the free agency period. This includes players who have cleared waivers.
1B. The free agency period will begin on August 1st, and will end at the trade deadline (last day of the regular NHL season).
1C. The eligibility of an undrafted player to be signed as a ZFHL free agent (in other words, proof that they have been signed to an NHL contract) will be determined according to a link provided to an announcement on the NHL team's official website with the specific news of the players signing, as proof of NHL signing. NO OTHER SOURCES WILL BE ACCEPTED. Elite Prospects is a good resource to get information about foreign players, specifically their birth dates but it is not acceptable as proof of a players signing a contract if the prospect still falls under the categories as player signing his first NHL contract who is still eligible for an NHL draft.
The unsigned/undrafted eligibility is as follows:
(i). Any North American born player who will be turning 21 or older in the year of the upcoming draft. For the 2018-2019 season this means players born in 1998 or earlier.
(ii). Any player born outside North America who has played at least one season in North America at the age of 18, 19, or 20, and who will be turning 21 or older in the year of the upcoming draft. For the 2014-2015 season this means players born in 1994 or earlier
(iii). Please note that under the new CBA, players born outside North America who have NOT played a season in North America at the age of 18, 19, or 20, remain eligible for the NHL draft regardless of age, and are therefore not eligible to be signed as FAs in the ZFHL. This is a change from the previous CBA
2A. Each team is subject to the following limits to free agent signings:
- No more than 10 free agent signings per month
- No more than 3 free agent signings in a week
- No more than 1 free agent signing in a day
2B. The free agency week starts Sunday at 11 AM EST, and runs until 10:59 AM the following Sunday.
3. Free agent signings must comply with the Roster Movement rules delineated above (i.e., have room for the signed FA under roster and cap limits at the time of the signing, and update the signing on their team page within 7 days) or be subject to the Cap or Roster Violation penalties (as appropriate) described above.
Entry Draft
1. The entry draft will take place every summer shortly after the end of the NHL entry draft, and will consist of 5 rounds, in a traditional 1-30, 1-30 format (that is, not a snake draft).
2. Draft order will be reverse of the final standings, with one possible exception: should an NHL team change its draft position due to the lottery, the ZFHL team at the same draft position will change its draft position in the same way (in other words, if the 4th seed in the NHL wins the lottery and moves to #1, the 4th seed in the ZFHL will also move to #1, bumping the three teams it jumps over one spot down accordingly; see example below).
3A. The draft will be a timed draft, meaning each slot has a time frame for when the GM can make their selection. If the GM immediately before you has already gone, you are free to make your pick (see example below). Time slots will be as follows:
1st round - 3 hours
2nd and 3rd rounds - 2 hours
4th and 5th round - 1 hour
3B. Missed entry draft picks will be autoasigned on the basis of the NHL draft order. This will occur as follows:
1st round - at the end of the day on which the pick was missed
2nd round - at the end of the day after the day on which the pick was missed
3rd round - at the end of the round
4th and 5th round - at the end of the draft
4A. Any player who was drafted in the NHL draft of that season is eligible to be drafted in the ZFHL entry draft.
4B. Only players drafted in the NHL draft of that season is eligible to be drafted in the ZFHL entry draft.
4C. Players drafted in a ZFHL entry draft may be held unsigned (i.e., not counting towards the pro and prospect roster limits) until the next roster submission deadline two years after they have been drafted. However, to be placed on a pro roster, drafted players must first be signed.
4D. The signing of a drafted prospect is to be announced in a special thread created for that purpose in every draft's forum.
4E. Eligible players who go undrafted in the ZFHL entry draft automatically become free agents.
LEAGUE PLAY
General
1. Our league will use fantrax.com to keep track of points.
2. Regular season play will commence on the first day of official NHL action (currently the day of the first game in Europe every season), and will end on the day the NHL regular season ends.
3. Playoff play will commence at the beginning of the NHL playoff, and will end at the end of the final NHL playoff game.
Awards
President Cup - Best team in the regular season: an extra draft pick between the 1st and 2nd round(before the Stanley Cup winner) and an extra pick between the 2nd and 3rd round of the entry draft.(after the SC winner)
Stanley Cup - best team in the playoffs: an extra draft pick between the 1st and 2nd round(after the PC winner) and an extra draft pick between the 2nd and 3rd round of the entry draft.(before the PC winner)
Division Champs (regular season): The top team in each division: an extra draft pick between the 3rd and 4th round of the entry draft (seeded by points totals).
Scoring
Forwards
G: 25
A: 25
PIMs: 4
PPP: 10
SHP: 20
OTG: 15
GWG: 25
Shootout GWG: 25
HTRK: 50
+/-: +/- 10
GP: 2
Hit: 2
Blocked Shot: 2
Defense
Same as Forward except: 50 pts for goal.
Goalies
W: 50
OTL: 10
SOL: 10
SO: 100
PIMs: 3
G: 200
A: 50
GP: 3
SAVES: 2
GA: -15
Playoffs
1. The Playoffs will take place during the NHL playoffs.
2A. The playoff will consist of 16 teams, 8 from each conference (Conference and Divisions follow the NHLs).
2B. In each conference, the participating teams will be the 3 division winners (ranked 1 through 3 based on the higher point totals at the end of the regular season) and the 5 remaining teams with the highest end-of-season points totals (ranked 4 through 8 based on the higher point totals at the end of the regular season).
3A. Playoff active rosters will consist of no more than 6 forwards, 4 defenders, and one goalie.
3B. Scoring will be the same as in the regular season.
3C. Line changes will only be allowed between playoff rounds.
4A. In each round, teams will be paired on the basis of their ranking, with the highest ranked team playing the lowest ranked team, the second highest v. the second lowest, 3rd v 6th, and 4th v. 5th. The team with the higher ranking in each pairing will be considered the home team (see example below).
4B. Whichever team accumulates the most points during that round advances to the next round (see example below).
4C. Points will only be accumulated during a given round, so that every new round starts with all teams at zero points (see example below).
4D. In the event of a tie, the tiebreaker will be given to the home team. There is no other way to break down the points accumulated, we'll call it the home team advantage to teams that finished with higher standings in the Regular Season.
