cnghl rules

Free Agent Guide


NEW RULES FOR 2009-10 IN GREEN!

Welcome to the CNGHL. This league was established in May of 2000, on the whim of a message posted by Bryce "Gordon" Fountain to alt.sports.hockey.nhl.vanc-canucks. While the league's original GMs were almost entirely Canucks newsgroup regulars, it has since branched out to Canucks fans of all types, and even some fans of other NHL teams - despite their poor taste. The league's first commissioners were Cory McDonall and Bryce Fountain. The original teams were created via a coach draft, dispersal draft, and subsequent entry draft of draft-eligible prospects.

In October of 2002, Cory McDonall stepped down as commissioner in order to devote more time to his tap dancing, and Chris Johannsen took his place as co-commish. In 2006, the Chris quotient was doubled when Chris Keogh took over for the retiring Bryce Fountain. However, Bryce retained his role of GM of the infamous Fraser Valley Epidemic in order to prove he really hasn't been rigging the sim all these years after all. The spring of 2008 saw Chris J leave for pursuits unknown and the league welcomed back Bryce as Co-Commish. Cue the song "Circle of Life" from The Lion King.

CNGHL ROLES

Co-Commish - Chris Keogh
Co-Commish - Bryce Fountain
Web Site Owner - Andy Saunders
Head Agent - Andreas Alsén

SIMMING SCHEDULE

Chris Keogh will try to sim one set of games every day of the week - usually. But don't be surprised/shocked/outraged if he takes some days off without warning.

The deadline for submitting lines and trades is midnight Pacific. Trades will not be processed until after a set of games has been simmed (except in special circumstances like the trade deadline, or if you send Chris chocolates in the mail.)

SUBMITTING TEAM LINES

Lines must be submitted to Chris Keogh (angust63@yahoo.ca) with the following subject line:

CNGHL Lines- <Team Name> 

DUTIES OF OWNERS

This isn't exactly "duties of owners" per say, but more like "the makeup of any particular CNGHL GM." For the most part, there's a reason why you, the GM, is a part of the CNGHL. Foremost is, you're one of the savvier GMs in the FHL world. But another reason is how personable and enthusiastic you are. Basically you have to give a shit about the league and work well with others. And, one last duty: be prompt. That doesn't mean reply to an e-mail the second you get it. It does, however, mean that a reply is warranted with each e-mail, and one that takes longer than a week is too long of a time unless you are out of town or have a computer problem - in which case it is your duty to notify a commish. Also, it helps if you have MSN, and use it (though this is not required).

SALARY RESTRICTIONS

The CNGHL recently revamped the salary structures for re-signing RFAs and UFAs. It is anticipated that salaries will begin to creep up over the next three or four years. The pro roster salary cap is currently set for Season 10 at $43 million. Next year (Season 11) the Cap will increase to $46 million and will top out at $49 million for Season 12. [Amended 10-26-2009: Cap will remain at $46 million indefinitely]

You must stay at $43 million or less on your pro roster (look for number on your finances page) at all times. Injured or suspended players do not count against the cap but these players get added back when they return so it is up to the GM to monitor player movements and salary situations at all times. The STHS software we use will not allow games to be simmed if teams are in violation of the cap limit. There is no workaround, no way to fool the sim into thinking a team is Cap compliant. The sim will simply stop until the offending team is Cap compliant again. As the result, we enforce the Cap extra diligently so simming can progress without interruption,

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

As of the 2006-07 pre-season, 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 (ie players under contract) at any time. 

If you want to sign a new player and you are already at the 40 player limit, you must release or trade a player under contract first. 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 will alert the commish of roster limit violations. This is not something that will prevent simming but, in fairness of the rules and in consideration of other GMs, it is expected that GMs comply with the rule and deal with violations promptly.

RULES ON LINE CREATION

General Rules:

• You need at least four lines of forwards (C/LW/RW) dressed at all times.
• You need at least six D dressed at all times.
• You need at least two G dressed at all times. 

Even Strength Rules:

• An official POS Centre (note that POS is NOT referring to Sean Avery) 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 & 4 RW or 5 C, 3 LW & 4 RW. As long as 4 complete forward lines can legally be filled out, any combination of forwards can work.
• A team cannot dress 3 C, 6 LW & 2 RW for example. This will cause the sim to have a conniption and no games will be simmed.
• 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.
• For PPs, there is no double shifting.
• On PPs, one forward can be on the point of each pair.

Penalty Kill Rules:

• Wingers can play centre on a PK. It's obviously quite common in the NHL to have two wingers out on a PK, with one taking the face off.
• No double shifting. This would lead to a terrible PK anyway as your player(s) would be dead tired.

Out of Position Rules:

• Centres can play either wing.
• Wings can play the other wing. Note that that does not mean their official "POS" has to correspond with the position they are playing. The official POS is simply for roster restriction rules (minimum three of each forward position in a roster).
• Only one "out of listed position" forward per line.
• 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 or two farm LW players 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.  

Consequences of breaking this rule could include monetary fines and/or player suspension during the post-season or next regular season, depending on severity of rule neglect, as determined by league commissioners.

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 (unless they're Mathieu Dandenault or Ian Moran), with one exception: forwards may play on the points during a powerplay. If you're not sure how to change a player's position, just ask Ken Hogan, 'cause he does it about 14 times a week.

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. This is done to prevent a GM from stripping a team and then quitting the league, which people have done in the past. 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 $43 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 (which can get very expensive on a four year deal). This is to prevent teams from offering free agents four year contracts without ever having to honour them. So, be warned! 

The buy-out number is the amount you'd need to deduct from your finances in order to get yourself free of your respective overpaid bums. 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. 2010-1978=32 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, he was born in 1984 or earlier for the 09-10 season) may be claimed from the Available Player (Unassigned) List, but only between the start of the CNGHL regular season and the trade deadline. See below for more information on this. 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 juicy APL 21 and 22-year old players you see will cost you a draft pick so they better be worth it.

Teams must drop a player from your current roster for every player you sign off the APL during the season. You may drop pro players, farm players, or prospects (IE anyone you have the rights to.) This is to prevent one or two teams from bogarting every available player who happens to be on the verge of a break-out season.

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 some 63 OV+ player, and you're willing to drop one of your current players, you'll post a message on the board saying this (well, not exactly this, but something like it, with your name instead of that team name, and the player instead of the other.... oh, never mind, you'll figure it out)

"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 a single NHL season will be created in the database (they're usually included in the ratings packages we use anyways) 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. Most players typically get "default" minimum Sim ratings though so it would probably be wise to keep low NHL game players as prospects since their ratings will suck (i.e. 50 SC/PA) and they'll take a spot in your 40 player max roster.

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 your agent group.

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 or CBA lock-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, you will have the option of either moving him to your prospects list or paying the usual fee to cut him from your roster. 

PLAYER RATINGS

Player ratings are the result of third parties typically from other Sim leagues who use NHL Stats and real life data to create fantasy ratings for hockey players. 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. 

COACH RATINGS

Coach ratings were put together every off-season by a third party. Any coach that has been active in recent years is available to be hired, but coaches who have been out of an NHL job for a while will get depreciating ratings every year.

As for the ratings of active coaches, most ratings are based on how their NHL club did. If the club was first in goals for, they will get a good offensive rating. If they overachieved, the coach will get a good leadership rating, and so on. We are a little lenient with coaches who have poor talent to work with, though. Please keep in mind that coaches ratings have a mild affect on how well your team plays throughout the course of the season so choose your coaches wisely.

Hiring/firing coaches is done via e-mail to both Chris K and Bryce. During preseason, if more than one team wishes to change coaches, a draw will be held to determine who gets to select available coaches first.

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. The following are the requirements exclusive to the CNGHL:

• 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: born 1985 or younger, and cheap contract = good; born 1984 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 Jazz 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

http://www.cnghl.net/FAguide.html

Players in their last year of their contract have two possible roads to traverse:

One: get a contract extension with their current team. 
Two: 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 contract offer that matches the player's previous annual salary. A qualifying offer that is made to a player who is under 31 (30 or younger) may not necessarily be signed by that player (agent's judgment). The qualifying offer is the difference between RFA and UFA status. If a player is not qualified, that player becomes a UFA - even if they were under 31. 

UFAs (those who are unqualified or over 30) 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 Chris J 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 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 GMs to research who is eligible and who is not. Please note that players on the APL (Unassigned list) is 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. Overall standings determine the draft order. In some cases, teams might finish higher in the overall standings than teams who actually make the playoffs. The season ending overall standings get readjusted to determine draft order with the teams missing the playoffs taking the bottom six draft positions. The draft is conducted in reverse order of the final standings therefore the six teams that miss the playoffs are the first teams to pick in the draft (one exception: the Griffiths Cup winning team moves to 20th overall). The CNGHL uses a lottery method to determine who picks first overall so tanking your season may not guarantee you the first overall pick.

Teams can only move up 4 spots maximum (ie. only the top 5 teams have a shot at winning the lottery) and drop no more than 1 spot. So whoever finishes last has a 48.2% off winning the draft lottery.

Odds of Winning the First Overall Pick Based on Reverse Order Of Final Standings (Non-Playoff Teams)
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

The 17 remaining playoff bound teams will retain their drafting positions based on reverse regular season standings

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 thanks to the hard work of the DVHL commissioner. 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%.
• Re-rate appeals - We allow ratings appeals for three players on your team every time the ratings database is updated, in addition to six DF-only appeals (three for forwards, three for defencemen).
• Entry draft - to be conducted live in the CNGHL IRC chat room (#canucksngchat). There are five rounds in all. (see Entry draft section)
 

Happy GMing!


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