League Rulebook

The rules of the DetroitHockey.Net Fantasy Hockey League are intended to maintain the integrity of the league and ensure the best possible experience for its members. As the league is continually evolving and new technologies develop, the Commissioner reserves the right to change these rules at any time.

Member Activity

The league as a whole can only be successful if its members are active. Because not all general managers will want make trades or roster moves that are visible signs of activity, general managers are asked to report to the Commissioner when they believe a league member has become inactive. To determine which members are still active, the league will conduct roll calls at various times throughout the season. Unless otherwise announced, those who do not reply to the roll call will be removed from the league. Exceptions may be made for members who announce their absence in advance or are able to provide reason for their lack of response before their team is assigned to a new general manager.

League members are required to treat each other with respect, although "trash-talking" is allowed (and, to an extent, encouraged). League members who are deemed to be disrespectful may be removed from the league.

Teams are expected to actively compete. Any general manager that is found to be "throwing" games will be removed from the league.

Team Rosters

Each team will be made up of no more than fifty (50) players, split between a "Pro" roster, a "Farm" roster and a list of "Scratches." Only players on the Pro roster are eligible to play in league games. Players on the Farm roster will be included in Farm League games where they have the ability to raise or lower their respective ratings. Scratches are not eligible for play in either type of game. Any injured player is required to be on the list of Scratches.

In addition to the combined roster of players, each team has a "Property List" of players who are not eligible to play in games. Players on this list are eligible to be traded. The Property List is intended to contain players who have not yet played at a high enough level to be rated for league play but it may also contain players who were once rated but, for any reason, no longer are. Additionally, at the start of each season any player who is younger than 21 years old and has played fewer than twenty (20) National Hockey League games, or any player who has played fewer than ten (10) NHL games, may be sent to the Property List. Players on the Property List cannot be moved to the active roster until the next rerating occurs and only then if they are a rated player.

At no point will a team be allowed to have more than seventy-five (75) players on its combined rosters and Property List. If a team needs to release a player from its roster or Property List, that player will be placed on waivers.

For each game, a team's dressed pro roster must consist of eighteen (18) skaters and two (2) goaltenders.

Waivers

Any time a team wishes to release a player for any reason, that player will spend a maximum of seventy-two (72) hours on waivers. During that time, all teams may make a claim on that player. In cases where more than one team makes a claim, the team with the highest waiver priority will be awarded the player. Waiver priority will be determined at the start of the season by the reverse order of the previous season's regular season standings. Any team claiming a player will move to the bottom of the waiver priority list.

Trading

Through the Trades Office section of the league website, general managers may complete player trades with one another. Players on the team's roster and Property List are eligible to be dealt, as are a team's draft picks. The Trades Office section of the site is to be used only for confirming trades, negotiations should be conducted beforehand via email or other form of communication. Any trade that is not confirmed by all involved teams will be removed from the Trades Office after forty-eight (48) hours.

There will be a trade deadline each season set for after 80% of the scheduled regular season games have been completed. The restriction on trading will be lifted once the playoffs have completed.

Proper trading etiquette is that all trade offers must be replied to. A simple "No" is an acceptable response. Trade agreements made via email or other form of communication are considered binding.

Should a conflict arise concerning a trade agreement that is not carried out, the concerned parties should contact the Commissioner within forty-eight (48) hours of the conflict. If required, four randomly-selected league members will be asked to form a temporary Trades Commission to review the complaint, with the League Commissioner casting a tiebreaking vote if required. Should it be found that one of the teams involved in the conflict has violated league rules or trading etiquette, the trade in question will be executed. Additional punishments may be handed out, including but not limited to suspension of trading rights.

Trade offers are considered void if they are not responded to within five (5) days or if any of the players involved are traded before a response is sent.

Future Considerations

Future considerations are a formal way of saying that part of a trade may be conducted at a later date. This is specifically applicable in the case of conditional draft picks, where the trading teams agree that if a certain condition (or set of conditions) is met, another trade will take place in the future to change the result of the original trade.

Because future considerations require a gentlemen's agreement between the trading teams, the obligation transfers with a general manager who completes a "Team Swap" (explained below). Similarly, if a general manager who owes future considerations as part of a trade drops out of the league, the new general manager of his team owes nothing.

Drafting

During each offseason, there will be a League Draft. Any person who is listed in the database at HockeyDB.com and not currently on a team's roster or Protection List is available in the draft. If a player who has a rating is drafted, he will be added to the drafting team's roster. Unrated players will be added to the Property List for the drafting team. The draft order will be determined by the previous season's standings, with a Draft Lottery determining the order of the top picks in the draft. Each draft will consist of six (6) rounds. For the Season Seventeen Entry Draft and all following drafts the number of rounds will drop to three (3).

If it is determined that one is required to protect the competitiveness of the league, the commissioner may declare a "Special Draft." A Special Draft can be declared at any time of the season or offseason and will follow the guidelines determined at that time.

Rerating

At the close of each season's playoffs, the players in the league will be rerated to reflect the status of their NHL counterparts. The ratings set used will be the most-recently pubished set from the DVHL. The ratings will be edited to reflect any player retirements that occur between the creation of the ratings and their implementation by the league, as well as to include player vitals as recorded on TSN.ca.

After rerating, a period of roster cleaning will take place to further refine team rosters. If roster cleaning takes place before the midway point of the NHL season, any player who has played in or committed to a European team or has not played in any North American league during the current and previous NHL seasons will be deemed ineligible. If roster cleaning takes place after the midway point of the NHL season, only the current season will be counted.

Any skater who has appeared in fewer than twenty (20) games on a Pro roster and fewer than four (4) seasons overall as of rerating will be considered a rookie for the following season. Any goaltender who has started fewer than ten (10) games or appeared in fewer than twenty (20) games and fewer than four (4) seasons overall will also be granted "rookie" status.

Should no DVHL ratings be released during a DFHL season, the ratings from the end of that season will carry over to the next one. Roster cleaning will take place as usual.

Game Scheduling

The regular season game schedule will be generated by our own custom scheduler. Playoff game schedules will be generated by the simulator software. For the regular season, each team will play six (6) games against divisional opponents, two (2) games against inter-conference teams, and two (2) games against inter-conference teams. This results in a fifty-six (56) game schedule. At the end of the season, the top four (4) teams in each conference (regardless of division) will advance to the playoffs. Three (3) best-of-seven playoff rounds will be played to determine a champion from the eight (8) playoff teams.

Prior to the start of the regular season, an exhibition schedule and exhibition tournament will be held. The exhibition schedule will have seven (7) days of games, to be scheduled by the league's members. If a team does not wish to play any exhibition games they are not required to schedule any.

The tournament that follows the exhbition schedule is the Challenge Tournament and is a "one-and-done" tourney featuring all of the league's teams. The opening "Challenge Round" will be scheduled by the general managers. Each team can either be challenged to a game or challenge another team to a game. No team may refuse a challenge. The challenging team will be the visitor. The winners of the Challenge Round games will be seeded into a bracket (based on margin of victory, total goals scored, margin of shots, total shots taken, power-play goals and short-handed goals) for the remaining games of the tournamant. A "Wild-Card Round" will be played by the lowest-seeded teams to reduce the field to an even number for the remaining tournament rounds. Re-seeding will take place after each round based on the Challenge Round results, such that the top remaining seed will always play the lowest remaining seed.

Game Simulation

Games will be simulated using the FHLSim hockey simulator program. This program outputs game boxscores and statistics which are then read into the league website. The program is not infallible and any errors found should be reported to the Commissioner.

League Standings

Teams will be awarded two points for each win, one point for each tie, and zero points for each loss accumulated throughout a season. The teams will be ordered in the season standings by total points accumulated. Should two or more teams be tied in points, the following tiebreakers will be used:

1. Games played, with fewer games taking priority
2. Wins
3. Points earned in games against the tied team(s). This tiebreaker is not reflected on the standings page of the league site.
4. Goal differential

At the end of each regular season, the top four teams in each conference will be seeded into a playoff.

Team Naming

The Commissioner reserves the right to change and/or relocate teams, and to rename and realign the divisions, at any time. Members may name their team's affiliate in the Farm League with the limitation that no two teams may play in the same location and no two teams may share a nickname. Any Farm League team named prior to Season Nine is exempt from this rule.

Team Swapping

During the period between the end of the Entry Draft and the first game of the exhibition season, "team swapping" will be allowed. Because team names are controlled by the commissioner, this mechanism allows GMs to take on a different team name without losing the players that they have worked to acquire. When two teams agree to a swap, the following happens:

• All players belonging to each team are switched to the other team
• All draft picks belonging to each team are switched to the other team
• All draft picks originally belonging to each team are switched to the other team
• The farm affiliates of each team become affiliated with the other team
• The GM of each team becomes the GM of the other team

Team histories are not transferred through a team swap. Team swapping is not a franchise relocation, it is essentially a trade.

Championship Recognition

Teams may add graphics representing championship banners to their team pages for any team awards as well as regular season playoff and conference championships and retired or honored numbers. These graphics will be created by the commissioner with input from the GM unless the GM wishes to create the images him/herself. Banners can be only redesigned by the GM who earned them and may not exceed 125 pixels wide by 200 pixels tall.