All player ratings will be based on the player's IWHL performance. Players age, contracts and re-rates will only take place after the playoffs are done. Players can play other positions than they are listed at, but they will not play to their full potential when they play out of position.  Players will retire from the IWHL during the next off-season. This means that the  IWHL  is always one year behind the actual NHL when it comes to retiring players. Any player that becomes successful in the NHL but is not on an IWHL roster will be placed in the next re-rates.

PLAYER POSITIONS:

Players positions may be affected when the simulator is database updated with new stats. (Usually at the end of regular NHL season). Players positions will be based on what ever the updated sim player database says when it comes out. For a referral as to what the player position will likely be go to  http://www.nhl.com/

If your player has changed his position when new re-rates come out and you feel it necessary to have it changed because it affects your team make up. You can ask to have that players position changed back to what it was the prior season, or change it to a position that is supported by one of the following sources http://www.nhl.com/ ,, and http://www.forecaster.ca/demo/hockey/playerindex.cgi.

Players entering the league via an entry draft who have not had a rating in the previous SIM database can have their position changed to what the GM wants provided it is supported by one of the resources mentioned above. There will be a period of time before a IWHL season starts to apply for changes. The application for change must be emailed to the commissioner.

ELIGIBLE PLAYERS, NHL HOLDOUTS:

Players who have stats provided for in the seasons database at the time of the entry draft are eligible to play on a team. If you have a player who did not receive ratings for the new stats when they come out, they will be removed from your roster and placed on your prospect list. NOTE: These players will always remain the property of the original team they belonged to unless otherwise traded to another team or if the owning team (IWHL) wishes to release them or trades them. Any players you may have in this situation will not count toward your max roster size until they are an active player again. If the player is released from their IWHL team then the player will (if ratings are available) go into the next player draft pool)

PROSPECTS:

Prospects are players whose rights are owned by a team, but are not signed to a contract. Prospects cost the team $1,500 per player to be kept on the prospect list. Contracts will be 3 years in length and the amount will be $250,000.

A coach can be fired at any time during the season. If a team wants to hire a new coach, that team must first fire the old coach and then make an offer to the new coach. The minimum a coach will accept is listed on the coach ratings page. Coach hiring will follow the free agent procedures. As well coaches will retire based on IWHL  sim, meaning that coach will remain one extra compared to NHL.

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. Players that are injured will have to be replaced in the lineup. This will have to occur before the next game played or the FHL automatically auto's your line unless you send your lines in.

Owners are responsible for player management. Moving players between the pro and farm rosters are critical due to injuries and player improvement. Owners are permitted to change the position of either defensemen or forwards, but not goalies. Changing a player's position may result in a negative effect on his ability. Each team must have a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 25 players on their pro roster. The remainder of the team's players must reside on the farm roster. There is a limit of 20 players on the farm roster. The pro roster is broken up into two sub rosters, the game roster and the scratched roster. Players who do not play but are on the pro roster are assigned to the scratched roster. Those that do play are on the game roster. The game roster consists of 20 players, which is made up of 2 goalies, 3 centers, 3 left wingers, 3 right wingers, and 6 defensemen. Then you may select 3 more players of any type except for goalies. All lines must be sent using the GMEditor which is provided on the web page.

SUSPENSIONS:

Any player who has played at least 10 league games (in the current season) will be placed on the waiver list if sent down to the farm roster. Any player under the age of 25 sent to the farm roster will not be placed on the waiver list. Once a player is placed on the waiver list, any team may claim him within 48 hours. If two or more teams claim a player, the team with the worst record will get the player. Until next season when we have a priority listing. If a team claims a player, he must be put on the pro roster; otherwise, he will be placed on waivers again. If a player is not claimed in 48 hours, he will go to the farm team. After the regular season is over, a team may send any player to the farm roster without having to go through the waiver process.

You may wish to release a player in order to free up money and/or playing time for younger players. You may do this at any time and must pay some compensation for the player. The compensation is set at 15% of the players remaining salary. After a player is released he will be placed in the unrestricted or unassigned free agent pool. Therefore the team that picks the player, will be able to offer him a new contract.

For trades to go through GM's must send trade to the trade link provided on main page under the Head Office.. An owner can trade players, draft picks, and money. Both teams must confirm all trades. A trade will not occur until this happens. If the commissioner feels that certain trades could be out balanced it could be brought to the board to review.  Although both owners must confirm trades to myself, we 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.

Free agents will be allowed to talk to other teams during the off-season. The players will have updated ratings by this time. There are two types of free agents in the IWHL, restricted and unrestricted. Restricted free agents are players whose contract expires and are under the age of 31. The teams they are on have the right to match any offer given to them, or they have the right to compensation. Unrestricted free agents are players over 31 whose contracts expire. The team they are on has no right to compensation. In the case of both restricted and unrestricted free agents, the original team may elect to pre-sign the player and avoid the free agent process. The amount a player gets will be determined by the players agent. Compensation can either be negotiated between the two teams or if no agreement can be reached the compensation will be as described in the following table: There are 2 player agents who will take care of players signings for teams.

Rating

RESTRICTED FREE AGENT COMPENSATION:

$150,000 - $449,999 3rd Round Pick coming within the next 2 years. 
$450,000 - $649,999 2nd Round Pick coming within the next 2 years. 
$650,000 - $799,999 2 2nd Round Picks with both coming within the next 4 years and at least one of the two picks coming within the next 2 years. 
$800,000 - $999,999 1st Round Pick with the pick coming within the next 2 years. 
$1,000,000 TO $1,499,999 1st Round Pick + 2nd Round Pick with both of those picks coming within the next two years. 
$1,500,000 TO $2,499,999 2 1st Round Picks where 1 of the 2 picks must come within the next 2 years. 
$2,500,000 TO $4,999,999 3 1st Round Picks where 2 of the 3 picks must come within the next 4 years AND at least one of them being within the next 2 years.
$5,000,00 TO $7,499,999 4 1st Round Picks where 2 of the 4 picks must come within the next 3 years AND at least one of them being in the upcoming Entry Draft. 
$7,500,000 - Up 5 1st Round Picks where 3 of the 5 picks must come within the next 4 years AND at least one of them being in the upcoming Entry Draft. 

In each of the cases above, if a team has more than one applicable draft pick that meets that criteria, the team who loses the player will choose which one he wants. 

If the new team (team giving up compensation) cannot come up with the appropriate draft picks as stated above, the two teams involved can work out their own compensation which may involve players, picks and/or cash. Therefore, teams aren't limited to just the above compensation. They can work out their own terms of compensation with the new team. 

If the new team cannot come up with the appropriate draft pick compensation as stated above AND the teams cannot come to terms on compensation, new offer sheet is voided and the player remains a Free Agent. 

Salaries are shown on the player vitals page, as well as the length of their contracts. A player on the pro team will receive his full contract amount. A player on the farm team will receive 10% of his salary. When a player is called up to the pro league, you must pay him his full salary. Prospects do not have salaries, but do cost the team $1500 per person. This is for the junior club to take care of your player. The league minimum is $150,000 per year. Players signing their 1st contracts will always sign for 3 years.

The entry draft will be held after each off-season. All players that are eligible for the NHL entry draft will be included in the IWHL entry draft. Draft order will be determined by final IWHL regular season standings. The team which finished last will get the first round pick. A list of player names will be provided each year, and will be ranked according to the Hockey Futures site. Owners are encouraged to research the players eligible for the entry draft, as there will not be any ratings to assist the owners in this process.

EXPANSION DRAFT:

The following will explain who you must protect and who is automatically exempted from the draft. You will have 2 alternate choices in making your protection list, and will have one restriction. That restriction is that in making your list you must leave one player of each position available, except goalies. All 23 year old players or under as of this year in IWHL are automatically protected and therefore do not count in the position ruling. Which means that if for example you have a 32 yr old Right Wing, a 23 yr old Right Wing, a 25 yr old Right Wing and a 24 yr old Right Wing, you must leave one Right Wing available without counting the 23 yr old because he is excepted.

Here are your alternate choices:

1st alternate: 1 goalie, 5 defensemen and 9 forwards
2nd alternate: 2 goalies, 3 defensemen and 7 forwards

If you have any questions regarding this rule, please email me and we will gladly attempt to answer it.

FINANCES

LUXURY TAX:

The luxury tax is based on the average payroll in the league for example if the average payroll is 34 million dollars
all teams under this will inherit the total of the 25% of the most wealthy teams. It will be divided in the amount of teams that are under the average payroll. Any team who is over  million will pay for this.

Colorado Avalanche 56 million 
Philadelphia Flyers 54 million 
New York Rangers 53 million 
Toronto Maple Leafs 50 million 
Detroit Redwings 49 million 
Chicago Blackhawks 43 million 
Montreal Canadiens 34 million 

339 million *6%=20340000 
Let's say there is 5 teams that are under the 34 million so 20340000/5=4068000 to each team.

Each off-season I will award a yet undecided amount of money to each club.
This represents TV revenue the league earns.
Teams will earn revenue by selling tickets to their games. The amount a team earns depends on the arena size, attendance, and ticket prices.
Ticket prices can be changed at any time. Except during Playoffs.
Attendance will be based on whether a team is playing well and if the team has any star players for the fans to watch play.

Awards will be given out at the conclusion of the season's playoffs. Award nominees will be selected by the commissioners and then voted on by the owner's of each team. The winner of the award is the player with the most votes. Owners cannot vote for their own players. The team receives money for each award based on the following table:

Season Result Winnings Division

Champion = 2 million
2nd Place = $800,000
3rd Place = $600,000
4th Place = $400,000
5th Place = $200,000
6th Place = $100,000
7th Place = $ 50,000
8th Place = $ 25,000

Conference Champion = 5 million
League Champion = 10 million
Season Points = $1000 per season point

TROPHIES:

Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP for his Team) = 10000
James Norris Trophy (Best All-around Def.) = 10000
Lady Byng (Sportsmanship) = 10000
Vezina Trophy (Best Goalie) = 10000
Art Ross Trophy (Most Points) = 10000
Calder Memorial Trophy (Rookie of the Year) = 10000
Frank J. Selke Trophy (Best Defensive Forward) = 10000
William Jennings Trophy (Best Goals Against) = 10000
Jack Adams Award (Best Coach) = 1000
Lester B. Pearson (Outstanding Player) = 10000
Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy (Most Goals) = 10000
President's Trophy (Most Team Points) = 350000
Conn Smythe Trophy (MVP Playoffs) = 10000
Bud Ice Plus/Minus Award = 6000
Duracell Power play Award (Best PP%) = 10000
NAFHL Award (Most Active GM) = 50000

Weekly and Monthly Award

A weekly and monthly player of the week will be given out. Also handed out will be a rookie of the week and of the month. It will be determined by an owner who will be assigned to do it.