This is a rule book designed to answer your questions, the Great White Hockey League (GWHL) commissioners reserve the right to change, alter or completely revise rules at their discretion, and their interpretation of any questions with respect to a rule are final.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

(1) OWNER'S DUTIES:

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) THE DATABASE:

1) The 15/20/35 Rule: In order to be added to the players database as a new player a goalie must player 15 games and a skater must play 35/. In order to maintain a spot in the database, a goalie must play 15 games and a skater must player 20.

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 over 25 and the property of someone. If it was due to injury that player must have played games to qualify for an injury exemption.

(3) PLAYERS:

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 datas-base is not re-rated.

2) Players that retire in the NHL will retire from the GWHL during the next off-season.

3) Any player that becomes successful in the NHL but is not on a GWHL 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, signing, waiving, or player release affecting said position. To find out who is eligible to play where, the league will be going by The Sports Forecaster as it's source. There is a link at the bottom of the front page to this site.

(4) ROOKIES AND THE ENTRY DRAFT:

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 35 games 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 15 games the previous NHL season is eligible for an automatic re-rate even if they already exist in the player database.

3) Any player under the age of 25 who has not played 35 GWHL games is considered a rookie and is eligible for the Gilbert Perreault 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:

Initial Salary Table (the salary factor is determined by adding a player's OV and his age)
 
 

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 500,000$ addition to his salary for every point of OV above 79.

(5) COACHES:

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. 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)

3) Coach hiring will follow the free agent procedures.

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:

Playoff Spot: 5%
Division Title: 10%
Conference Title: 15%
GWHL Title: 25%

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.
 

(6) INJURIES:

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
 

(7) ROSTERS:

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 no more than 10 can be prospects. 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).

(8) RELEASING PLAYERS:

1) GM’S may release players by E-mailing the Transactions Committee with the appropriate information.
-to release a player outright you must buy 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) Players that sign a contract to play in Europe will be removed from the database. Players deemed by the commissioner to be retired will be removed from the database.

3) 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 (examples...V Konstantinov, possibly Bryan Berard)

4) You must also be able to meet minimum farm team personnel requirements.

5) 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.
 

(9) WAIVERS:

i) Any player who is 23 years old or older, and has played at least 12 games in the GWHL will be placed on waivers if a team sends him
down to the farm team.

ii) Players who are 18-22 years old can be freely sent to the farm club.

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.

vi) If a player is not claimed in 48 hours, he will go to the farm team.

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.

NOTE:  Many GM's are putting people on farm who are injured or not in use.  This WILL put player on waivers if above conditions are met.  You have been warned!!!!
 

(10) TRADES:

Transactions Guidelines

1) All transactions must have the following in the subject line: GWHL 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:

Team/Particulars

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 TRADES link on the Season's Transactions Page
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 WAIVERS link on the Seasons Transactions Page

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.

EXAMPLE:

To Melville:

Joe Schmuck-LW

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.
 

(11) SUSPENSIONS:

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

2) Free Agents who have not signed will be listed as suspended for the season to simulate a holdout etc
 

(12) FREE AGENCY AND PLAYER ACQUISITION

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 3 (UFA 3) 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 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 4 (UFA 4) as long as the team which last held the players rights qualifies him that team has an opportunity to match but there is no compensation if they don't. 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.

Who Wins

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. This sum will then be divided by the number of years. 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.

FRANCHISE PLAYER STATUS

After each GWHL season each team may select one player from their team who's contract has expired and designate that player that team's FRANCHISE PLAYER. This allows that team to re-sign that player at double the percentage raise indictated by the salary calculator and avoid having him enter the Free Agent Market. Designating a player your Franchise Player also affords the GM two separate bonuses. First a Franchise Player may be signed for 5 years as opposed to merely 4. Secondly, Franchise Players may have up to 45% of their contract paid in a Signing Bonus as opposed to 35%.

*************************************************
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 been drafted, or who has not had a professional contract for one season.
-Between seasons, at the new entry draft
-Draft them
-N/A
-N/A

Restricted Free Agent
-Any player between 25 and 30 whose contract has expired and has received a qualifying offer from his team (calculated via the salary calculator).
-Off-season
-The bidding process
-Reasonable compensation as defined by the Transactions Committee
-Matching rights

Unrestricted Free Agent Class 1
-Any player 24 or under who has been drafted to a professional team or who has had a professional contract within the past season whose team has let his contract expire or who has been released from his contract.
-Any time
-The bidding process
-N/A
-Offer them a contract

Unrestricted Free Agent Class 2
-Any player 25 or over who has not been drafted 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 3
-Any player between 25 or older whose contract 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 4
-Any player over 31 who has received a qualifying offer from his team.
-Off-season
-The bidding process
-None
-Matching rights
*************************************************

Class 1 Restricted Free Agents 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.

Senior Citizens Loyalty Clause:
Starting in the 2003 FA Season teams with UFAs 34 years or older match to within 90% of an offer sheet to one of those UFAs by another team in order to retain the rights of that particular UFA.

NEW CONTRACT VALUE: COMPENSATION:

$200,000 TO $500,000 2ND ROUND DRAFT PICK

$500,001 TO $1,000,000 1ST ROUND DRAFT PICK

$1,000,001 TO $2,500,000 2 1ST ROUND DRAFT PICKS

$2,500,001 TO $5,000,000 3 1ST ROUND DRAFT PICKS

$5,000,001 AND ABOVE 4 1ST ROUND DRAFT PICKS

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

UFA Compensation and Sandwich Picks:
Starting in the 2004 Entry Draft (2003 FA Season) there will be compensation awarded by the league for the loss of Unresticted Free Agents of OVs 74 and higher in the form of draft picks. These picks will be slotted between the first and second, the second and third, and after the third round of the Entry Draft. The team that lost the player will receive one pick for each player lost that qualifies. Below is a table specifying the different groups sorted by the lost player's OV.
 
 

In the case of there being more than one Compensatory Pick in the same Sandwich Pick Group the order will be established by awarding the most favourable position to the GM that lost the player with the highest OV and on downwards. In case of a tie, the first tiebreak will go to the team with the lower regular season record. If there is still a tie, then the team whose lost player signed the bigger contract will be awarded the most favourable position in the queue.

(13) PLAYER AND PROSPECT CONTRACTS & SALARIES

CONTRACT BASICS

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

CONTRACT TERM

The maximum length of a contract is 4 years for all players in the GWHL

MINIMUM SALARY

The minimum pro salary is $200,000.

PRO & FARM PAY

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.

PROSPECT EXPENSES

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

Reisgning of players will take place in the off-season using the salary calculator below to determine the minimum offer a player will accept from his club.

Here is the guts of the Salary Calculator that will be used in finding a players new salary. When this figure has been reached a team can accept it and re-sign the player or decline in which case the player will play out his option and become an RFA/UFA if able. Obviously players 24 and younger if they haven't been released by their drafting club do not have the option to go the free agfent route. They will either sign with the team that has their rights or hold out.

Player age base salary expectation
(a player will never accept a salary below his BSE)

18-22: 112%
23-25: 116%
26-28: 120%
29-30: 124%
31-33: 128%
34+:    *

Variables
(NOTE: Variables will never drive a player's asking price below his BSE-see above except in the case of *. * denotes that a players BSE is his present salary and variables when this is the case can drive his new BSE below his present salary. IE in some cases a team can sign an player 34 years or older for less money than they are paying him now.)

Coach effect

For every 2 points of LD above 60 subtract 1% (note: this bonus tops out at 10%)

Team Success effect

For every place in the overall standings below 8th position add 1%

Hoser Cup effect
If the team the player played for won the Hoser Cup the previous year the following variables will be used if that team attempts to re-sign him
18-25: No effect
26-30: add 3%
31-33: add 6%
34+:  subtract 5%

Hoser Cup Champions -3% (only applicable to players who did not play for the team in the previous year)

Contract Length effect

18-28: No effect
29-33: Contract 3+ years in length +2%
34+: Contract 3+ years in length -2%

The following should only be used if a player plays out his option

*Player’s Role effect

For every player playing the same position that has an OV at least 2 higher than the player in question add 2%. If no player has a higher OV at the same position
subtract 6%

Holdouts

Should a team find itself with a player that is holding out that player will be suspended indefinitely. For every 13 points a team gains over a period of 10 games (ie 13 out of a possible 20 points), that player's salary demands will decrease by 5%. Each teams 10 game record will be kept track of manually by the Player Agents for each conference. Make sure that this gets done.

SIGNING BONUSES

These can be up to 35% of the total amount of the contract, and must be paid immediately out of a teams cash on hand. The exception to this is when a team is matching an offer on a player they've qualified who is 34 years or older. In that case they can extend the signing bonus up to 45%. When calculating the worth of a contract or offer sheet they are included in the total amount and are the third tiebreak (behind amount, and years) when
determining a winning bid.

PROSPECT CONTRACTS

Any player drafted in the GWHL Entry Draft who is not activated via a signed contract within 4 GWHL years from the original draft by the team in question GOES BACK INTO THE DRAFT POOL. Only RATABLE PLAYERS ARE ELIGIBLE TO BE SIGNED TO A PRO CONTRACT. The deadline for signing this deal will be the end of the playoffs in the 2nd year after the player was drafted (i.e.: Player is drafted in 2000 - therefore, GM has until the NIGHT OF THE ENTRY DRAFT of the 2005 Season to sign the player)

The prospects list for each team will reflect the year the player was drafted by having a "- YR" after each prospect's name (i.e.: Joe Schmuck-05). That way the GM knows he has until the Entry Draft of 2005 to activate and sign this player; otherwise that player goes back into the draft pool or becomes a free agent or is removed from the database depending on his status in the NHL..

NHL PLAYER HOLDOUTS

NHL Player holdouts will only have an impact on our league if the said player misses an entire season in the NHL. If a player misses the entire season, he will be slightly downgraded across the board to demonstrate a year away from hockey.
 

(14) TEAM SALARY CAP

1) Team Salary Cap will be fixed at $51,900,000 per year. Future caps will be determined at future dates by the Transactions Committee. The Salary Cap will be adjusted each season by totalling all of the teams CURRENT FUNDS at the end of the regular season dividing it by 64 and adding it to the present cap.

2) Teams may freely exceed the cap during the off-season so long as they are under it by the end of the preseason schedule,  the stipulated league opening night, (which ever comes first). This gives teams ample time to make the adjustments necessary.

RESTRICTION ON SIGNING FREE AGENTS (CAP RULE)

3) A team can sign players even if it causes their team payroll to exceed the League Salary Cap. However, they must immediately release a player(s) off their pro roster in order to make room. The Releasing of Players rules applies as well. Failure to release a pro player(s) to free up cap room makes the signing null and void.

4) If a team makes a trade that causes their payroll to exceed the salary cap, they will be fined an increasing amount of money starting at $100,000 per day that they are over the cap.
 

(15) REVENUE:

1) Teams will also earn revenue in the following ways:

2) Each team will receive an amount equivalent to 33% of the Salary Cap Modification at the end of each year (after playoffs). This represents TV revenue.

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

4) 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

5) 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.

6) Teams can also earn extra revenue for the following things:

$500,000 for finishing first in your conference over the regular season.

$250,000 for winning your division.

$150,000 for making the playoffs.

$1,000,000 for winning the Hoser Cup (the GWHL Championship Trophy) and $500,000 for the runner up.

$500,000 for each award won by a member of team in question with the exception of the SAM POLLACK TROPHY and the HOWIE MEEKER TROPHY. These awards carry a monetary prize of 1,000,000$

(16) STADIUM EXPANSION

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 GWHL 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.

(17) MONETARY RULES

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.

1. No team should EXPECT or be ambivilant about losing money at years end.

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.

NOTE: All teams are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

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 the casual observer as an step towards accomplishing that which is needed
 

(18) RATING TERMS:

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.

IJ= Injury.

IT= Intensity.

SP= Speed.

ST= Strength.

EN= Endurance.

DU= Durability.

DI= Discipline.

SK= Skating.

PA= Passing.

PC= Puck control.

DF= Defense.

SC= Goal scoring.

EX= Experience.

LD= Leadership.

OV= Overall.

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.

(19) LINES:

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" Simple? Lines will be rejected if NOT in this format!!!!!!

NO TEXT LINES WILL BE ACCEPTED.