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Agent Guide
CNGHL ROLES
Co-Commish - Chris Keogh
Co-Commish - Bryce Fountain
Head Agent - Andreas Alsén
SIMMING SCHEDULE
Chris Keogh will try to sim one set of games 5-6 days per week. Sunday games are a rarity, and other days may be skipped without warning.
SUBMITTING TEAM LINES
Lines must be submitted to Chris Keogh (angust63@yahoo.ca) with the following subject line:
CNGHL Lines- <Team Name>
SALARY RESTRICTIONS
The CNGHL's salary cap is currently $44 million. There are no plans to raise or lower the cap in the foreseeable future.
The finances page must show that your pro roster salary totals $44 million or less at all times during the regular season and playoffs. Injured or suspended players do not count against the cap but their salary will be counted again when they return to 95% health so it is up to the GM to monitor player movements and salary situations at all times.
Penalties for exceeding the pro roster cap are below.
• If your team is over the cap when game simming is scheduled, your highest paid player will automatically be suspended for three games and a $1,000,000 fine will be levied. If multiple players are tied for most pay, the highest rated of those players will be suspended. You must fix your roster before suspension ends.
• In the rare case in which the highest paid player's suspension does not get the team under the cap, the second highest, third highest, etc. will also be suspended until the team is under the cap.
• If no action is taken following the end of the original suspension, an additional five games will be added to the suspension and a $2,000,000 fine will be levied.
• If the team is still over the cap by the end of that suspension, the team will be forced to buy out at least one player who will get them under the cap, and an additional five games will be added to the suspension(s). If the GM does not choose a player to be bought out, the commissioners will decide for him, and he will likely lose his job as GM due to insufficient participation.
There is no farm roster cap, but players making over $1.5 million cannot be demoted to the minors under any circumstances (this helps prevent hoarding of players good enough to make the pros).
ROSTER SIZE RESTRICTIONS
The CNGHL pro and farm team maximum roster limit is 40 players combined. You may have unlimited prospects, but you may not have over 40 useable players (i.e. players under contract) at any time.
If you make a trade that pushes you over the limit, you will have to submit cuts and/or additional trades to get you under the limit before it can be made official.
The sim software will alert the commish of roster limit violations. It is expected that GMs comply with the rule and deal with violations promptly.
RULES ON LINE CREATION
Even Strength Rules:
• An official POS Centre (note that POS is not referring to Matt Cooke) must play centre on all four lines. Thus, you need to have four true centres dressed with one on each line, or three centres with one of them double shifting on the fourth.
• Forward lines can consist of say, 3 C, 5 LW and 4 RW, or 5 C, 3 LW and 4 RW. As long as four complete forward lines can be filled out, in compliance with the POS centre rule listed above, any combination of forwards can work.
• No double shifting on lines 1, 2 or 3. Only one player can double shift on the fourth line during a game.
• Any two defencemen can "double shift" only on the fourth line d-pair, as not many teams have four separate defensive pairings.
Power Play Rules:
• An official POS centre must play centre.
• No double shifting.
• One forward can be on the point of each pair.
Penalty Kill Rules:
• Wingers can play centre on a PK.
• No double shifting.
Out of Position Rules:
• Centres can play either wing.
• Wingers can play the other wing. Note that that does not mean their official "POS" has to correspond with the position they are playing.
• The only time a forward can play "D" is on the point on the PP.
• Defencemen can only play defence.
Check out position changes below for more line creation information.
Please keep under consideration that injuries will happen to roster players over the course of the season. The sim can automatically call up farm players to make rosters legal. If you do not have enough players on your pro and farm teams to make a legal roster, the sim will grind to a halt and no games will be simmed. In other words, you may have four wicked pro LW players but make sure you have at least one LW on the farm as well in case one of the pro LWs gets injured or suspended.
MAXIMUM GOALTENDER MINUTES
No goaltender on your team may play more than 4320 minutes, or roughly 72 games. It is your responsibility to play a back-up goaltender occasionally. Don’t forget to factor in potential overtime minutes, and the possibility of your starter having to relieve your struggling/injured back-up mid-game. If you trade for a goalie mid-season, it is still your responsibility to make sure your new goaltender does not exceed the 4320 minute maximum.
The commissioner will automatically start your back-up goalie for every one of your team's remaining games if your starter has exceeded the maximum minutes. This will likely have a negative impact on your team's performance as most back-ups have low endurance (EN) ratings.
POSITION CHANGES
A player can be moved to another position at any time for free by e-mailing Chris Keogh a link to a legitimate, professional web site that proves the player plays his new position. You must pay $500,000 to move a winger to the opposite side without a site link. Wingers cannot become centres unless they are confirmed at that position by a site link. Forwards cannot play defence or vice versa, with two exceptions: during a power play, or if they are of the few players who have played both forward and defence in the previous NHL season.
TRADES
As in the NHL, commodities such as players, draft picks, and money can be traded. The commissioners reserve the right to veto a trade if it is judged so lopsided that it hurts the long-term competitiveness of a franchise. Vetoes will only happen in the most extreme circumstances. To confirm a deal, both parties must send an e-mail containing all the necessary information to both Chris K at angust63@yahoo.ca and Bryce F at bryce.fountain@gmail.com . And, remember, use the proper subject line: CNGHL Trade - <team names>.
If you sign an unrestricted free agent during the off season, you may not cut or trade him until after the regular season has started and your pro roster is already under the $44 million limit. This rule applies when re-signing your own impending unrestricted free agents as well. Hopefully this will discourage the practice of signing/re-signing UFAs with the sole intent of trading them as soon as possible for other assets.
RELEASED PLAYERS (BUY-OUTS)
Teams who want no part of a particular player's services can buy them out by paying 50% of the total contract value. The player then goes to the Available Players list and may be picked up by any other franchise.
If you buy out a player, thus returning him to the Available Players List as a free agent, you may not make a first bid for this services. Translation:
-If your bought out player is 62 OV or lower, you can not sign him from the Available Players list.
-If your bought out player is 63 OV or greater, you are not allowed to make an opening bid for his services. You can, however, bid in the subsequent 24 hour auction if you so wish.
This is done to prevent GMs from simply buying out their players and signing them to a cheaper, one year deal.
DETERMINING PLAYER AGE
Many of the following sections take into account player age. To calculate age, you take the year the season will end and subtract the player's birth year from that (e.g. 2012-1981=31 years old). The exact date the player is born in is irrelevant, and the ages on the Player Vitals page may be wrong so don't rely exclusively on that.
AVAILABLE PLAYERS LIST
Any player who is 26 years or older in CNGHL years (in other words, born in 1986 or earlier for the 2011-12 season) may be claimed from the Available Player (Unassigned) List, but only between the start of the CNGHL regular season and the trade deadline. Each team may claim up to four players from the APL per season. Players 25 years old and younger are ineligible for APL signings and must be added to teams via our Entry Draft. In other words, those 21 and 22-year old players you see on the APL will cost you a draft pick, so they better be worth it.
From the start of the CNGHL regular season until the end of the trade deadline, unclaimed players with an OV of 62 or lower are available first come, first serve, assuming you have space. They will sign a mandatory 3-year contract based on the following scale:
OV - SALARY
0-59 - $425,000
60 - $500,000
61 - $575,000
62 - $650,000
If the player's OV rating is 63 or higher, you make an opening bid on the message board, and other GMs have a chance to outbid you for 24 hours. The minimum opening bid for any 63+ OV free agent is $425,000. All subsequent bids must follow minimum bid requirements. The minimum bid numbers are as follows:
500,001-1,000,000: 100,000
1,000,001-2,000,000: 150,000
2,000,001-3,000,000: 200,000
3,000,001+: 250,000
Basically, if you want a 63 OV+ player, and you're willing to drop one of your current players, you'll post a message on the board saying something like this:
"Hyacks bid $2,400,000 on Mike Hawk. ($2,600,000 minimum bid.) Bidding closes on October 31st at 12:01 PM."
SIGNING PROSPECTS
All prospects that play at least 35 games in the previous NHL season will be created in the database and must be signed in the off-season to be eligible to play in the following CNGHL season. This is done during our annual Free Agency period.
Prospects who have never played 35 or more NHL games in a single season can still be signed at your discretion if you have holes to fill on your roster. In other words, if you need a third-string goalie and you have a prospect with limited NHL experience, he can be created on your roster. Players with under 35 NHL games will get terrible ratings, though, so it would be wise to keep them as prospects for as long as possible.
Much like available players, you do not have to negotiate a deal if you wish to sign someone from your prospects list -- as long as they are under 63OV. All prospects under 63OV will sign a one-year deal only using the same signing scale as available players above.
If your prospect is 63OV or better, his negotiations will be conducted by an agent group. Ask a commissioner for instructions.
You may not sign prospects who have had zero NHL game experience in the previous NHL season.
Also note that once a prospect has signed a contract, he cannot go back to your prospect list unless he goes an entire NHL season without playing an NHL game - just like any other kind of player.
If you wish to release a prospect, it will cost you $500,000.
PLAYER DATABASE
The CNGHL database tries to reflect the NHL "database" as closely as possible. Players who are drafted by NHL teams are drafted by CNGHL teams during the closest off-season (i.e. Sidney Crosby was drafted in summer 2005 in both the CNGHL and NHL). Players who retired from the NHL are deleted from the CNGHL database immediately as long as the season is not underway. If you are lucky enough that no one can confirm your player has retired from the NHL during the off-season (returning to Europe due to contract hold-out does not count as retirement), you get to keep him until the next off-season.
However, if a player hasn't played a game during one full NHL regular season (due to NHL contract hold-out, major injury, etc.), his current contract will be nullified, and you will lose his services for the entire upcoming season, so he must be signed to a new deal if he returns for another NHL season in the future. In the meantime, he will be moved to your prospects list.
PLAYER RATINGS
Player ratings are created by a third party using real life data from the previous NHL season. STHS has an excellent explanation of their rating structure on their online manual: http://sths.simont.info/Manual_En.php
CNGHL modifies SC and PA to help smooth huge swings in production from year to year. The result is a collection of players who perform in a simulation as close as possible to their real world counterparts.
WAIVERS
Every time a player is sent down to the minors, they must meet certain requirements in order to not be placed on the waiver wire:
• Any player under the age of 25 in CNGHL years and making $1,500,000 or less may be sent up and down freely without fear of waivers (translation: for season 13, players born 1988 or younger, and cheap contract = good; born 1987 or older, or overpaid = BAD)
• Players 25 or older and making $1,500,000 or less can also avoid waivers if they have played fewer than 10 games during the regular season. 10 games is a total of games played for their season, not just the time they've spent on your team. (ex. if Mike Hawk were to play nine games for the Epidemic and be traded to the Ice Dogs, he could not play any more games with his new team and then be demoted to the minors without having to clear waivers.
• Under no circumstances can your player be sent to the farm if they make over $1,500,000. If he makes $1,500,001+ and you can't keep him on your pro roster, you'll have to cut or trade him.
FREE AGENCY
The FA Guide is a must-read for anyone participating in the free agent re-signing process: http://www.cnghl.net/FAguide.html
Players in their last year of their contract have two possible roads to traverse:
1. get a contract extension with their current team.
2. await restricted free agent status (RFA) or unrestricted free agent status (UFA).
RFAs are players who are 30 or younger (current year minus age of birth) and have received a qualifying offer. A qualifying offer is a one year contract offer that matches the player's previous annual salary. A qualifying offer will be signed after free agent auctions if the player does not receive a more lucrative offer sheet from another other team. If a player is not qualified, that player becomes a UFA - even if they are under 31.
UFAs (those who are unqualified or at least 31 years old) become free game for any GM if they do not re-sign with their current team. A deadline for re-signing all your free agents will be announced near the end of every season, but you should try to start the re-signing process as soon as Andreas announces it is possible to do so during the season.
Chris K will post a bidding thread for each unsigned player on a separate message board to allow UFA/RFA auctions to start. Teams will attempt to out-bid each other until the highest bid goes 48 hours without being beaten. At that time, the free agent signs his contract and immediately becomes property of his new team if he is a UFA. If he is an RFA, the team which owns the rights of the player in question will be given the opportunity to match the signed offer sheet in order to retain the rights of said player. If matched, the player stays with the team he had been playing for with his new contract terms. If not, it is up to the two teams to work out an acceptable trade. If the two parties disagree strongly on the value of the player, three commish-appointed GMs will serve as arbitrators.
Alternately, the owning team may decline to match the offer on their RFA, therefore forfeiting rights to that player and agreeing to accept compensation in exchange. Details concerning appropriate compensation in such instances are outlined in the FREE AGENCY COMPENSATION.
Note: Teams participating at any stage in the bidding process may not retract or lower the amount of their bids once submitted, or cut or trade the player before the season starts should they sign them, so do your math before you spend.
FREE AGENCY COMPENSATION
A la the early 1990s NHL, both teams will try to work out player or draft pick compensation between each other. If the two teams cannot come to an agreement, they will both submit a compensation proposal to a commish-appointed arbitration board. Three agents will be randomly chosen to serve on each board (GMs involved in the affair cannot serve on the board.) The three agents will then vote on which compensation proposal best matches the value of the signed player, and that proposal will become the compensation to the team losing the restricted free agent.
Please note: the arbitration board will not necessarily favour the compensation package proposed by the GM who has lost a player, so it is in your best interest to suggest as fair compensation as possible.
ENTRY DRAFT
Any player that isn't already property of another CNGHL team and has been drafted or signed by an NHL team may be drafted in the CNGHL Entry Draft. Conversely, those players who haven't been drafted by an NHL team cannot be drafted by a team in the CNGHL. There will also be no "available list" for those players eligible for the entry draft. The onus is upon you to research who is eligible and who is not. Please note that players on the APL (Unassigned list) are fair game during the entry draft, so if you'd had your eye on that 23-year old NHL rookie all season, now's your chance to grab him.
There is a draft order lottery before every CNGHL Entry Draft for teams that did not qualify for the post-season:
Teams can only move up 4 spots maximum (ie. only the five worst-performing non-playoff teams have a shot at winning the lottery) and drop no more than one spot.
Odds of winning the first overall pick based on reverse order of final standings:
48.1% - Draft Position #1
18.8% - Draft Position #2
14.2% - Draft Position #3
10.7% - Draft Position #4
8.1% - Draft Position #5
REVENUE AND CASH PRIZES
See Finances and Awards pages.
OFF SEASON EVENTS
• Free agent re-signing deadline - Commishes give the GMs a kick in the bum to make sure they have re-signed everyone they want to/can re-sign and set a deadline near the end of the season. Then, shortly after the playoffs, everyone becomes available to the highest bidder (the time when this happens will be announced, don't worry).
• Free agent auctions - Anyone thrown to the wolves goes to the highest bidder (see free agency section)
• Re-rates - Player ratings are updated every year by a third party. As well, we used the offensive re-rater for all PA/SC ratings. PA and SC ratings are calculated with a formula that takes into consideration the players last three offensive seasons, with the last season accounting for 70% of the rating, the second last season counting for 20%, and the third season counting for 10%.
• Entry draft - to be conducted live in the CNGHL IRC chat room (#canucksngchat). There are five rounds in all. (see Entry draft section)
• Re-rate appeals - Three player ratings per team may be appealed every time the ratings database is updated. The appeals must address obvious statistical errors, as the ratings are based on statistics. Your personal feelings on a player's talent level are not applicable.
CNGHL ROLES
Co-Commish - Chris Keogh
Co-Commish - Bryce Fountain
Head Agent - Andreas Alsén
SIMMING SCHEDULE
Chris Keogh will try to sim one set of games 5-6 days per week. Sunday games are a rarity, and other days may be skipped without warning.
SUBMITTING TEAM LINES
Lines must be submitted to Chris Keogh (angust63@yahoo.ca) with the following subject line:
CNGHL Lines- <Team Name>
SALARY RESTRICTIONS
The CNGHL's salary cap is currently $44 million. There are no plans to raise or lower the cap in the foreseeable future.
The finances page must show that your pro roster salary totals $44 million or less at all times during the regular season and playoffs. Injured or suspended players do not count against the cap but their salary will be counted again when they return to 95% health so it is up to the GM to monitor player movements and salary situations at all times.
Penalties for exceeding the pro roster cap are below.
• If your team is over the cap when game simming is scheduled, your highest paid player will automatically be suspended for three games and a $1,000,000 fine will be levied. If multiple players are tied for most pay, the highest rated of those players will be suspended. You must fix your roster before suspension ends.
• In the rare case in which the highest paid player's suspension does not get the team under the cap, the second highest, third highest, etc. will also be suspended until the team is under the cap.
• If no action is taken following the end of the original suspension, an additional five games will be added to the suspension and a $2,000,000 fine will be levied.
• If the team is still over the cap by the end of that suspension, the team will be forced to buy out at least one player who will get them under the cap, and an additional five games will be added to the suspension(s). If the GM does not choose a player to be bought out, the commissioners will decide for him, and he will likely lose his job as GM due to insufficient participation.
There is no farm roster cap, but players making over $1.5 million cannot be demoted to the minors under any circumstances (this helps prevent hoarding of players good enough to make the pros).
ROSTER SIZE RESTRICTIONS
The CNGHL pro and farm team maximum roster limit is 40 players combined. You may have unlimited prospects, but you may not have over 40 useable players (i.e. players under contract) at any time.
If you make a trade that pushes you over the limit, you will have to submit cuts and/or additional trades to get you under the limit before it can be made official.
The sim software will alert the commish of roster limit violations. It is expected that GMs comply with the rule and deal with violations promptly.
RULES ON LINE CREATION
Even Strength Rules:
• An official POS Centre (note that POS is not referring to Matt Cooke) must play centre on all four lines. Thus, you need to have four true centres dressed with one on each line, or three centres with one of them double shifting on the fourth.
• Forward lines can consist of say, 3 C, 5 LW and 4 RW, or 5 C, 3 LW and 4 RW. As long as four complete forward lines can be filled out, in compliance with the POS centre rule listed above, any combination of forwards can work.
• No double shifting on lines 1, 2 or 3. Only one player can double shift on the fourth line during a game.
• Any two defencemen can "double shift" only on the fourth line d-pair, as not many teams have four separate defensive pairings.
Power Play Rules:
• An official POS centre must play centre.
• No double shifting.
• One forward can be on the point of each pair.
Penalty Kill Rules:
• Wingers can play centre on a PK.
• No double shifting.
Out of Position Rules:
• Centres can play either wing.
• Wingers can play the other wing. Note that that does not mean their official "POS" has to correspond with the position they are playing.
• The only time a forward can play "D" is on the point on the PP.
• Defencemen can only play defence.
Check out position changes below for more line creation information.
Please keep under consideration that injuries will happen to roster players over the course of the season. The sim can automatically call up farm players to make rosters legal. If you do not have enough players on your pro and farm teams to make a legal roster, the sim will grind to a halt and no games will be simmed. In other words, you may have four wicked pro LW players but make sure you have at least one LW on the farm as well in case one of the pro LWs gets injured or suspended.
MAXIMUM GOALTENDER MINUTES
No goaltender on your team may play more than 4320 minutes, or roughly 72 games. It is your responsibility to play a back-up goaltender occasionally. Don’t forget to factor in potential overtime minutes, and the possibility of your starter having to relieve your struggling/injured back-up mid-game. If you trade for a goalie mid-season, it is still your responsibility to make sure your new goaltender does not exceed the 4320 minute maximum.
The commissioner will automatically start your back-up goalie for every one of your team's remaining games if your starter has exceeded the maximum minutes. This will likely have a negative impact on your team's performance as most back-ups have low endurance (EN) ratings.
POSITION CHANGES
A player can be moved to another position at any time for free by e-mailing Chris Keogh a link to a legitimate, professional web site that proves the player plays his new position. You must pay $500,000 to move a winger to the opposite side without a site link. Wingers cannot become centres unless they are confirmed at that position by a site link. Forwards cannot play defence or vice versa, with two exceptions: during a power play, or if they are of the few players who have played both forward and defence in the previous NHL season.
TRADES
As in the NHL, commodities such as players, draft picks, and money can be traded. The commissioners reserve the right to veto a trade if it is judged so lopsided that it hurts the long-term competitiveness of a franchise. Vetoes will only happen in the most extreme circumstances. To confirm a deal, both parties must send an e-mail containing all the necessary information to both Chris K at angust63@yahoo.ca and Bryce F at bryce.fountain@gmail.com . And, remember, use the proper subject line: CNGHL Trade - <team names>.
If you sign an unrestricted free agent during the off season, you may not cut or trade him until after the regular season has started and your pro roster is already under the $44 million limit. This rule applies when re-signing your own impending unrestricted free agents as well. Hopefully this will discourage the practice of signing/re-signing UFAs with the sole intent of trading them as soon as possible for other assets.
RELEASED PLAYERS (BUY-OUTS)
Teams who want no part of a particular player's services can buy them out by paying 50% of the total contract value. The player then goes to the Available Players list and may be picked up by any other franchise.
If you buy out a player, thus returning him to the Available Players List as a free agent, you may not make a first bid for this services. Translation:
-If your bought out player is 62 OV or lower, you can not sign him from the Available Players list.
-If your bought out player is 63 OV or greater, you are not allowed to make an opening bid for his services. You can, however, bid in the subsequent 24 hour auction if you so wish.
This is done to prevent GMs from simply buying out their players and signing them to a cheaper, one year deal.
DETERMINING PLAYER AGE
Many of the following sections take into account player age. To calculate age, you take the year the season will end and subtract the player's birth year from that (e.g. 2012-1981=31 years old). The exact date the player is born in is irrelevant, and the ages on the Player Vitals page may be wrong so don't rely exclusively on that.
AVAILABLE PLAYERS LIST
Any player who is 26 years or older in CNGHL years (in other words, born in 1986 or earlier for the 2011-12 season) may be claimed from the Available Player (Unassigned) List, but only between the start of the CNGHL regular season and the trade deadline. Each team may claim up to four players from the APL per season. Players 25 years old and younger are ineligible for APL signings and must be added to teams via our Entry Draft. In other words, those 21 and 22-year old players you see on the APL will cost you a draft pick, so they better be worth it.
From the start of the CNGHL regular season until the end of the trade deadline, unclaimed players with an OV of 62 or lower are available first come, first serve, assuming you have space. They will sign a mandatory 3-year contract based on the following scale:
OV - SALARY
0-59 - $425,000
60 - $500,000
61 - $575,000
62 - $650,000
If the player's OV rating is 63 or higher, you make an opening bid on the message board, and other GMs have a chance to outbid you for 24 hours. The minimum opening bid for any 63+ OV free agent is $425,000. All subsequent bids must follow minimum bid requirements. The minimum bid numbers are as follows:
500,001-1,000,000: 100,000
1,000,001-2,000,000: 150,000
2,000,001-3,000,000: 200,000
3,000,001+: 250,000
Basically, if you want a 63 OV+ player, and you're willing to drop one of your current players, you'll post a message on the board saying something like this:
"Hyacks bid $2,400,000 on Mike Hawk. ($2,600,000 minimum bid.) Bidding closes on October 31st at 12:01 PM."
SIGNING PROSPECTS
All prospects that play at least 35 games in the previous NHL season will be created in the database and must be signed in the off-season to be eligible to play in the following CNGHL season. This is done during our annual Free Agency period.
Prospects who have never played 35 or more NHL games in a single season can still be signed at your discretion if you have holes to fill on your roster. In other words, if you need a third-string goalie and you have a prospect with limited NHL experience, he can be created on your roster. Players with under 35 NHL games will get terrible ratings, though, so it would be wise to keep them as prospects for as long as possible.
Much like available players, you do not have to negotiate a deal if you wish to sign someone from your prospects list -- as long as they are under 63OV. All prospects under 63OV will sign a one-year deal only using the same signing scale as available players above.
If your prospect is 63OV or better, his negotiations will be conducted by an agent group. Ask a commissioner for instructions.
You may not sign prospects who have had zero NHL game experience in the previous NHL season.
Also note that once a prospect has signed a contract, he cannot go back to your prospect list unless he goes an entire NHL season without playing an NHL game - just like any other kind of player.
If you wish to release a prospect, it will cost you $500,000.
PLAYER DATABASE
The CNGHL database tries to reflect the NHL "database" as closely as possible. Players who are drafted by NHL teams are drafted by CNGHL teams during the closest off-season (i.e. Sidney Crosby was drafted in summer 2005 in both the CNGHL and NHL). Players who retired from the NHL are deleted from the CNGHL database immediately as long as the season is not underway. If you are lucky enough that no one can confirm your player has retired from the NHL during the off-season (returning to Europe due to contract hold-out does not count as retirement), you get to keep him until the next off-season.
However, if a player hasn't played a game during one full NHL regular season (due to NHL contract hold-out, major injury, etc.), his current contract will be nullified, and you will lose his services for the entire upcoming season, so he must be signed to a new deal if he returns for another NHL season in the future. In the meantime, he will be moved to your prospects list.
PLAYER RATINGS
Player ratings are created by a third party using real life data from the previous NHL season. STHS has an excellent explanation of their rating structure on their online manual: http://sths.simont.info/Manual_En.php
CNGHL modifies SC and PA to help smooth huge swings in production from year to year. The result is a collection of players who perform in a simulation as close as possible to their real world counterparts.
WAIVERS
Every time a player is sent down to the minors, they must meet certain requirements in order to not be placed on the waiver wire:
• Any player under the age of 25 in CNGHL years and making $1,500,000 or less may be sent up and down freely without fear of waivers (translation: for season 13, players born 1988 or younger, and cheap contract = good; born 1987 or older, or overpaid = BAD)
• Players 25 or older and making $1,500,000 or less can also avoid waivers if they have played fewer than 10 games during the regular season. 10 games is a total of games played for their season, not just the time they've spent on your team. (ex. if Mike Hawk were to play nine games for the Epidemic and be traded to the Ice Dogs, he could not play any more games with his new team and then be demoted to the minors without having to clear waivers.
• Under no circumstances can your player be sent to the farm if they make over $1,500,000. If he makes $1,500,001+ and you can't keep him on your pro roster, you'll have to cut or trade him.
FREE AGENCY
The FA Guide is a must-read for anyone participating in the free agent re-signing process: http://www.cnghl.net/FAguide.html
Players in their last year of their contract have two possible roads to traverse:
1. get a contract extension with their current team.
2. await restricted free agent status (RFA) or unrestricted free agent status (UFA).
RFAs are players who are 30 or younger (current year minus age of birth) and have received a qualifying offer. A qualifying offer is a one year contract offer that matches the player's previous annual salary. A qualifying offer will be signed after free agent auctions if the player does not receive a more lucrative offer sheet from another other team. If a player is not qualified, that player becomes a UFA - even if they are under 31.
UFAs (those who are unqualified or at least 31 years old) become free game for any GM if they do not re-sign with their current team. A deadline for re-signing all your free agents will be announced near the end of every season, but you should try to start the re-signing process as soon as Andreas announces it is possible to do so during the season.
Chris K will post a bidding thread for each unsigned player on a separate message board to allow UFA/RFA auctions to start. Teams will attempt to out-bid each other until the highest bid goes 48 hours without being beaten. At that time, the free agent signs his contract and immediately becomes property of his new team if he is a UFA. If he is an RFA, the team which owns the rights of the player in question will be given the opportunity to match the signed offer sheet in order to retain the rights of said player. If matched, the player stays with the team he had been playing for with his new contract terms. If not, it is up to the two teams to work out an acceptable trade. If the two parties disagree strongly on the value of the player, three commish-appointed GMs will serve as arbitrators.
Alternately, the owning team may decline to match the offer on their RFA, therefore forfeiting rights to that player and agreeing to accept compensation in exchange. Details concerning appropriate compensation in such instances are outlined in the FREE AGENCY COMPENSATION.
Note: Teams participating at any stage in the bidding process may not retract or lower the amount of their bids once submitted, or cut or trade the player before the season starts should they sign them, so do your math before you spend.
FREE AGENCY COMPENSATION
A la the early 1990s NHL, both teams will try to work out player or draft pick compensation between each other. If the two teams cannot come to an agreement, they will both submit a compensation proposal to a commish-appointed arbitration board. Three agents will be randomly chosen to serve on each board (GMs involved in the affair cannot serve on the board.) The three agents will then vote on which compensation proposal best matches the value of the signed player, and that proposal will become the compensation to the team losing the restricted free agent.
Please note: the arbitration board will not necessarily favour the compensation package proposed by the GM who has lost a player, so it is in your best interest to suggest as fair compensation as possible.
ENTRY DRAFT
Any player that isn't already property of another CNGHL team and has been drafted or signed by an NHL team may be drafted in the CNGHL Entry Draft. Conversely, those players who haven't been drafted by an NHL team cannot be drafted by a team in the CNGHL. There will also be no "available list" for those players eligible for the entry draft. The onus is upon you to research who is eligible and who is not. Please note that players on the APL (Unassigned list) are fair game during the entry draft, so if you'd had your eye on that 23-year old NHL rookie all season, now's your chance to grab him.
There is a draft order lottery before every CNGHL Entry Draft for teams that did not qualify for the post-season:
Teams can only move up 4 spots maximum (ie. only the five worst-performing non-playoff teams have a shot at winning the lottery) and drop no more than one spot.
Odds of winning the first overall pick based on reverse order of final standings:
48.1% - Draft Position #1
18.8% - Draft Position #2
14.2% - Draft Position #3
10.7% - Draft Position #4
8.1% - Draft Position #5
REVENUE AND CASH PRIZES
See Finances and Awards pages.
OFF SEASON EVENTS
• Free agent re-signing deadline - Commishes give the GMs a kick in the bum to make sure they have re-signed everyone they want to/can re-sign and set a deadline near the end of the season. Then, shortly after the playoffs, everyone becomes available to the highest bidder (the time when this happens will be announced, don't worry).
• Free agent auctions - Anyone thrown to the wolves goes to the highest bidder (see free agency section)
• Re-rates - Player ratings are updated every year by a third party. As well, we used the offensive re-rater for all PA/SC ratings. PA and SC ratings are calculated with a formula that takes into consideration the players last three offensive seasons, with the last season accounting for 70% of the rating, the second last season counting for 20%, and the third season counting for 10%.
• Entry draft - to be conducted live in the CNGHL IRC chat room (#canucksngchat). There are five rounds in all. (see Entry draft section)
• Re-rate appeals - Three player ratings per team may be appealed every time the ratings database is updated. The appeals must address obvious statistical errors, as the ratings are based on statistics. Your personal feelings on a player's talent level are not applicable.
Happy GMing!