The Prairie Fantasy Hockey League Rules

(1) OWNER'S DUTIES
(2) THE DATABASE
(3) PLAYERS
(4) ROOKIES AND THE ENTRY DRAFT
(5) WAIVER DRAFT
(6) COACHES
(7) INJURIES
(8) ROSTERS
(9) RELEASING PLAYERS
(10) WAIVERS
(11) TRADES
(12) SUSPENSIONS
(13) FREE AGENCY AND PLAYER ACQUISITION
(14) PLAYER AND PROSPECT CONTRACTS & SALARIES
(15) SALARY CAP
(16) REVENUE
(17) STADIUM EXPANSION
(18) MONETARY RULES
(19) RATING TERMS
(20) LINES

a) Have fun!!!! This league is for fun so please do not take anything that happens to heart. Be friendly to all the other owners, no matter how bad their trade offers might be.

b) Owners are to respond to all e-mails they receive and must notify the Commissioner’s Office if they are going on a vacation or will be busy for a few days because of work/school.

c) Owners must submit lines in a timely fashion, and make substitutions for any injuries that might occur.

d) Owners need to keep their teams out of debt. If a team is in debt for over 1 year, then that owner will be subject to expulsion from the league.

2) If a player misses an entire season for whatever reason when he comes up for re-rates, he will be put on the prospect list with a short clock if he is the property of someone. If it was due to injury that player he will go to your prospects list

3) Players that sign a contract to play in Europe will be put in yout prospects list . Players deemed by the commissioner to be retired will be removed from the database.

1) All player ratings will be based on the player's NHL performance. They will be re-rated at the end of each NHL season. Each team will be allowed to re-rate 2 players of their choice in the off-season's when the entire player database is not re-rated.

2) Players that retire in the NHL will retire from the PFHL during the next off-season. Once a player retires in the PFHL he is removed from the database and no one holds the rights to that player. There are no exceptions to this rule. If a player retires and then later comes back he enters the draft pool the next PFHL off-season and is draftable as a prospect.

3) Any player that becomes successful in the NHL but is not on a PFHL database will be eligible for the next entry draft.

4)Player Position changes: You can do this at anytime in the off-season. During the regular season you can do this as well as following a trade affecting said position. To find out who is eligible to play where, the league will be going by The Sports Forecaster or TSN.ca as it's source. If a player is listed in the sim at a certain position, the GM of that team will have the option of keeping him in that position whether or not he is listed as such in the Forecaster. However, if said player currently occupies a postion not listed in the Forecaster and the GM changes him to one that is, HE MAY NOT BE CHANGED BACK TO A POSITION NOT LISTED IN THE FORECASTER OR ANY UP TO DATE WEBSITE.

1) Each entry draft will be three rounds long and include all players presently in the database 24 years or younger as well as any player on the draft eligible/ratable list for that season.

2) Any Skater who is drafted and has played 1 game the previous NHL season is eligible for an automatic re-rate even if they already exist in the player database. Any goaltender who has appeared in 1 game the previous NHL season is eligible for an automatic re-rate even if they already exist in the player database.
against a team's prospect limit (to what the sim allows).

3) Any player under the age of 25 who has not played 35 PFHL games is considered a rookie and is eligible for the Calder Award.

4) Any player drafted and signed (ie Rated and assigned to the farm or pro team of his drafted organization) will be subject to the Initial Salary Table below:

The Forsberg Rule:Starting with re-rates based on the 2001-2002 NHL Season, any player 25 years or older who reverts to prospect status due to injury and is then re-entered into the league database will face a $1,000,000 addition to his salary for every point of OV above 75

The Draft Lottery: Every entry draft there will be a lottery for the first 8 picks of the first round (IE the non-playoff teams). No team can move up or down more than 3 spots in this lottery. After the first 8 picks, the draft will proceed as each teams finish dictates. The PFHL finalist will pick 15th and 16th in the 1st round no matter where they end up in the final regular standings

1) The draft will be two rounds long. The order will be in reverse order of finish (worst goes first).

2) If you select a player you must immediately expose a player from your protected list and enter him into the pool of eligible players.

1) A coach can be fired at any time during the season. A coach who retires or is fired and doesn't get another position by the time the next NHL season starts will be removed from the database until he returns to the game in a COACHING capacity.

2) If a team wants to hire a new coach, that team must first fire the old coach and then offer a contract to a new coach. If you wish to fire your coach you must buy him out at full value of his contract in the first year and half for the remaining years. The minimum a coach will accept is listed on the coach ratings page. While in transition between coaches a team will function with one of the 'dummy' coaches behind the bench (IE 50's across the board)

4) Teams will be expected to reward successful coaches with a raise at the end of the season. The following raises are applicable for the following achievements:

YOU ONLY NEED PAY THE LARGEST OF THE FOUR RAISES EACH SEASON BUT FAILURE TO PAY ANY OF THESE RAISES AT ANY TIME DURING THE CONTRACT WILL MEAN THAT THE COACH WILL AUTOMATICALLY LEAVE HIS PRESENT TEAM AT THE END OF HIS CURRENT DEAL.

1) All players are subject to injury, including goaltenders. The injury report will show the type of injury and the expected amount of time the player will miss.

2) Players that are injured must to be replaced in the lineup. This will have to occur before the next game played. Failure to do so without adequate reason will result in *SIMULATED* lineups being used in the next game

1) Each team has to have a minimum of 20 players on their pro roster, including at least 2 goaltenders, 6 defensemen, and 3 of each forward position. Teams can have a maximum of 25 players on the pro roster.

2) No team can have hold the rights to more than 45 players in total. Within this number, at least 20 players must be on the PRO ROSTER and 25 on your Farm roster.Prospects do not count in this total. Farm minimums 1 of each position. The league strongly encourages that each team have at least 5 of each forward position and 10 defensemen in their system somewhere (not including unrated players).

1) GM’S may release players by E-mailing the COMMISH [email protected] with the appropriate information.
-to release a player outright you must buyy out his contract. This amount is equal to 1/2 the value of his remaining contract times the amount of years remaining. This is based off CURRENT salary. For example, a player making 100,000 on farm with 2 years left on contract will cost you 50,000X2years= 100,000 to release. If this same player were on Pro roster it would cost you 500,000X2 years= 1 million.

2) EXCEPTIONS: It does NOT cost you anything to release a player who has in reality retired (ex Al Iafrate, Jim Johnson) You can also release players who will not for sure play in NHL again (example...V Konstantinov)

4) You can renounce the rights of any prospect at any time. The prospect goes back into the draft pool, NOT on the Free Agent list.

KEEP IN MIND: Waiver system is still the waiver system. Sending a guy to the farm is not the same as releasing him.

i) Any player who is 23 years old or older, and has played at least 10 games in thePFHL will be placed on waivers if a team sends him
down to the farm team.

iii) Any player that is waived can be claimed within 48 hours of appearing on waivers

iv) If two or more teams claim a player, the team with the poorest record will get the player.

v) If a team claims a player, he must be put on the pro roster; otherwise, he will be placed on waivers again.

vii) A Player claimed off waivers cost 250,000. This money goes as compensation to losing team.

viii) After the regular season is over, a team may send any player to the minor leagues without having to go through the waiver process.

1) All transactions must have the following in the subject line: PFHL Transaction/Your team name/Other team[s] name[s] (if any)/Date

2) All Transactions should be listed in the following way in the body of the e-mail:

In the case of a trade, team refers to the team receiving whatever is listed in the particulars and should *always* be prefaced with 'To'. With the exception of WAIVERS (see below) ALL Transactions should be sent to the COMMISH [email protected]
In the case of a transaction involving only one team, team refers to the sole team involved in that transaction and should be followed by
'signs', 'releases', 'waives', 'claims', 'promotes' or 'assigns' depending on the transaction made. ANY Transaction involving the waiving or claiming on waivers of a player on waivers should be sent to the the COMMISH [email protected]

Particulars can be players, picks, money, or coaches, and are listed in any transaction *in that order*.

Any players or coaches involved must be listed with their first name or initial and their position.

3) All Transactions must be confirmed by *all* parties involved before the Transactions Secretary will confirm them. If a trade remains unconfirmed by all parties involved for 24 hours, that trade will be null and void. Transaction confirmation *must* be by e-mail. Confirmation by ICQ will be deemed invalid.

The Commissioner’s Office reserves the right to veto any or all trades with explanation. I will always explain my reasoning. You might not agree but I will explain it.

Although both owners must confirm trades to the Transactions Committee, the league will not stand for owners making deals and then backing out of them. If an owner practices this behavior, it will be grounds for immediate dismissal.

1) Suspensions will occur randomly throughout the season. The simulator randomly determines these.

At the end of any given season all players 25 years of age or above who at that time are not under contract are free agents (with the exception of those assigned Franchise Player status-see below). In the case of Restricted Free Agents (RFA) (see below), the team that last held a players rights can maintain compensatory rights by qualifying him at the minimum offer as dictated by the salary calculator. Those RFA who are not qualified by the team last holding their rights become Unrestricted Free Agents Class 2 (UFA 2) with no compensation. Remember, players 24 years or younger presently the property of any GWHL team who's contracts are up can be renewed via the salary calculator as they have no free agency rights. Once an RFA has been qualified, other teams may bid on his services as long as those bids (including the signing bonus) are AT LEAST the equal to what would have been indicated by the salary calculator for the bidding team. The team which last held that players rights then has the opportunity to match the highest bid (IN TOTAL AMOUNT) or take the compensation. With Unrestricted Free Agents Class 3 (UFA 3) as long as the team which last held the players rights qualifies him that team has an opportunity to match however if they don't qualify they are entitled to compensation in the form of a sandwich pick (see below). There is NO LIMIT to how many free agents a team may sign but the signing team MUST be able to pay the draft pick compensation IMMEDIATELY from the picks that are on the futures page.

In the case of a free agent bidding war the winner will be discerned as follows:

The salary will be multiplied by the years of the offered deal and signing bonus added in. The highest total wins. If there is still a tie, the highest signing bonus wins. If there is still a tie, the highest amount of years wins.

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The order of information is title, definition, when they can be picked up as free agents, how they can be picked up as free agents, compensation to be paid to the former team, and finally, if applicable, how to re-sign them.

Draft Eligible
-Any player 24 or under who has not yet beeen drafted, or who has not had a professional contract for one season, or who has had a contraqct with a professional team and has had his contract expire or has had it bought out..
-Between seasons, at the new entry draft <
-Draft them
-N/A
-N/A

Restricted Free Agent
-Any player between 25 and 30 whose contraact has expired and has received a qualifying offer from his team
-Off-season
-The bidding process
-Reasonable compensation as defined by thee Transactions Committee
-Matching rights

Unrestricted Free Agent Class 1
-Any player 25 or over who has not been drrafted and has never had a contract with a GWHL team, or any player who is over 25 and presently not under contract to any GWHL team.
-Any time
-The bidding process
-N/A
-N/A

Unrestricted Free Agent Class 2
-Any player between 25 or older whose conttract has expired and who has not received a qualifying offer from his current team
-Off-season
-The bidding process
-None
-N/A

Unrestricted Free Agent Class 3
-Any player 31 or older who's contract hass expired.
-Off-season
-The bidding process
-Compensatory pick (in some cases, see bellow)
-Matching rights
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Class 1 Restricted Free Agents and Unrestricted Free Agents Class 3 will be handled in the following manner. Once the qualifying offer is made, that offer will be made public. All other interested teams may then bid on that player with the caveat that their offer must cover their teams minimum offer as determined by the salary calculator. At that point, the team who last held that players rights has a chance to match the total dollar value of the highest offer. IE: THEY MAY OPT TO PAY PART OF THE CONTRACT OUT AS A SIGNING BONUS IF THE AMOUNT THREATENS THEIR SALARY CAP AND IF THEY HAVE THE FUNDS. LIKEWISE, ON A FRONT LOADED OFFER SHEET, THE TEAM HOLDING A PLAYERS RIGHTS MAY CHOOSE TO MATCH BY SPREADING THE MONEY OUT IF THEY DON'T HAVE THE CASH ON HAND TO PAY A HUGE SIGNING BONUS. The GM of the player's current team has 24 hours from the posting of the offer sheet to decide whether to match or accept compensation from the signing team. If the player's current team opts for compensation, the two teams in question have 24 hours to come to an agreement for compensation. If no agreement is reached within the allotted time, the table below will be used to determine compensation.

Total Overall	Draft Pick Compensation
0-50	3rd round pick
51-59	2nd round pick
60-64	1st round pick
65-69	1st round pick, 2nd round pick
70-72	2 1st round picks
73-75	2 1st round picks, 2nd round pick
76-78	3 1st round picks
79-80	3 1st round picks, 2nd round pick
81-82	4 1st round picks
83-84	4 1st round picks, 2nd round pick
85 or more	5 1st round picks

The draft picks will be the highest in the draft order the compensating team possesses based on the last PFHL season's standings and the picks will be the earliest in draft years the team possesses.

Each year with regards to a player contract is considered one season in the PFHL

A player on the pro team will receive his full salary amount while players that are sent down to the farm will receive 10% of their pro pay.

Prospects do not have salaries but do cost the team $1,500 for each prospect. This is for the junior club to take care of your player.

Re-signing of players will take place in the off-season using the OWNERS OFFER'S emailed to the COMMISH who will then calculate if player agrees/counters or refuses and goes to free agency.

2) Teams will earn revenue buy selling tickets to their games. The amount a team earns depends on the arena size, attendance, and ticket prices.

3) Ticket prices can only be changed at start of season, all-star break, and between the regular season and the playoffs. They MAY however be lowered during regular season on appeal to Transactions Committee

4) Attendance will be based on whether a team is playing well and if the team has any star players, (80 plus in ratings), for the fans to watch play.

$5,000,000 for winning the FLATLANDERS Cup (the PFHL Championship Trophy) and $2,500,000 for the runner up.

There are two methods in which a Owner/GM can expand the seating capacity of his stadium. The first is simply by adding extra seats to the existing stadium. It is assumed that the stadium's as they exist now have the capacity to hold 2000 extra seats. The cost of each 100 extra seats is 1,000,000$. Construction must be paid for up front and can only be done in the off-season. The maximum amount of seats that can be purchased in any one off-season is 500. If after expanding by 2000 seats an Owner/GM wishes to expand even more, they must undertake to build a new stadium. This costs 20,000,000$ and again must be paid for up front. The completion of a new stadium will take three PFHL seasons and until it is complete further expansion is impossible. Once a new stadium is built, additional seats can be purchased following the first season a team occupies the new stadium.

While no-one wants to removed from a league because of financial concerns that are extreme, some rules to use as a guideline are needed.

2. All teams must make a discernable effort to bring their salary structure within the realm of their income, a "Balanced Budget" must be sought.

3. Any team found to NOT be taking any measure to bring their team into the "Black" while owing Money can be reviewed for league expulsion at ANY time should the commissioner deem it prudent.

4. Monetary Guidelines
a. Any team owing money at seasons end will be reviewed and warned.
b. Any team owing money for two consecutive seasons will automatically be reviewed, and possibly removed from the league.
c. Any team owing money for 3 consecutive seasons (having been reviewed and warned) will automatically be removed from the league.

Definition of "Discernable effort"
-Any action, that can be constrewed to thee casual observer as an step towards accomplishing that which is needed

CD= Condition. The condition your player is in. If this is around 90, then he can play at around 90% of his potential. The lower his condition is, the better chance of injury.

Overall is based on the following: D-men are rated higher if they have a higher DF and ST, forwards if they have a high SC and PA and goalies if they have high SP and PC.

All lines will be sent to me in via the GM Editor. A TEAMNAME.LNS file is created when you save your lines. Simply send this file to the Technical Committee as a file attachment with subject line reading "LINES-Team Name-Date" Simple? Lines will be rejected if NOT in this format!!!!!!