Main Changes: contents trading streaks, slumps, and random farm rerates retirement rerating special free agent draft entry draft free agents trophies ****************************** OFFICIAL WHL OWNER'S MANUAL ****************************** This is the fifth release of the rules for WHL. All rules are subject to change, but all changes will be made public before being made official. *********** CONTENTS *********** Definition of terms A. Code of Conduct B. League Play C. Expansion D. Trading E. Line Changes F. Streaks, Slumps and Random Farm Rerates G. Playoffs H. Retirement I. Rerating players J. Entry Draft K. Special Free Agent Draft L. Waivers M. Free agents N. Reserve Team O. Dispute resolution/arbitrator P. Awards ********************** DEFINITION OF TERMS ********************** -Franchise -- corresponds to a WHL team. -Owners -- consists of the GM, Coach and all others associated with a franchise. -GM -- person responsible for roster changes of a franchise. NOTE: only this person's confirmation will be accepted for trades and other managerial duties. -Coach -- person responsible for the construction of team lines/goalies. -Pro Team -- these are the players which a coach can use to form an active roster. There is a limit of 25 players including injured players. Injured players from the pro team can not be moved to the farm team. -Farm Team -- these players can not be used by a coach. Players on the farm team have a random chance of increasing or decreasing their abilities. -Reserve Team -- these are players who are owned by a team but aren't active. The number of players on the Reserve Team can never exceed 5. -Active Roster -- the 20 players who will play in a game. -Lines -- there are 18 line combinations that need to be constructed by the franchise coach. There are 3 sets for each of the following categories: 5 on 5, 4 on 4, 5 on 4, 5 on 3, 4 on 5, 3 on 5. The format for sending lines to the league office is available in the WHL Stuff Homepage. -Rookie -- A player/goaltender who has less than 15/5 regular season games played in his career in the WHL. -Prospect - Status of a player in the first 2 years after he has been drafted with a potential number -Day -- A day when a set of 12 games are played ********************* A. CODE OF CONDUCT ********************* 1. Each Franchise GM is expected to respond to all trade inquiries as soon as possible. 2. Except where other matters make it simply impossible, each owner is required to respond to certain infrequent official business such as All-Star balloting/award voting. 3. Each owner must inform the league of any change of address or of any significant absences. 4. Every Franchise owner is expected to manage his team professionally and in particular to promote the longterm well-being of his team. 5. When sending mail concerning the WHL, please start subject line with the header WHL:. ***************** B. LEAGUE PLAY ***************** 1. The league uses Hockey League Simulator 2 from Bethesda Software to run its games. A thorough knowledge of HLS2 is not necessary to participate in the WHL, however, it is helpful. It also uses Timothy Chan's League Manager for complementary functions and features. 2. There are currently 24 teams who play an interlocked unbalanced schedule. Games will be played every 2 days by the Commissioner. "Boxscores" of all games played will be sent to all franchise owners. There will be a 74 game schedule. 3. The franchise's GM is responsible for conducting the roster movement business of the franchise. This involves negotiating trades, moving players between the pro team, the farm team and the reserve team, and conducting drafts. 4. The franchise's Coach is responsible for determining a team's active roster and for sending in lines and goalie rotations to the Commissioner. 5. An All-Star Game will occur around Day 37. B.1 Injuries and Suspensions 1. An Injuries and Suspensions report will be sent to all franchise owners after each Day. A player can get injured for between 1 and 12 games. NOTE: Starting in WHL3, the goaltenders will have the possibility of being injured too. 2. If a player gets 15 or more PIM during one game, he will automatically receive a 2 game suspension. Every additional suspension to a same player gives him 2 more games (2nd suspension = 4 games...) 3. The team's Coach will be responsible for sending in new line-ups to accommodate the injury or suspension. If no update is submitted before game time, the commissioner will use his knowledge to add the "best" player(s) to the line-up of the injured or suspended player's team. *************** C. EXPANSION *************** 1. The number of teams in the league will never surpass the number of 24. 2. The waiting list will not be on a first come first serve basis. All prospective GMs will be asked a handful of questions by the Board of Directors and the most appropriate GM will receive the expansion club. ************* D. TRADING ************* 1. Trades may only involve players/draft picks, and future considerations. However they may consist of any number of players in any combinations. Rerates CANNOT be traded. If it is known that a trade is made with the purpose of getting players rerated by another team and traded back, the trade will be nullified. The League Offices will not rule on any external factors unless sufficient proof of wrong doing is provided. Teams have a duty to provide all information necessary to a GM to analyze a trade. This includes the injury status of all players involved. However, once a trade is finalized, it is assumed that all GMs have full knowledge of the status of the traded players. 2. Trades are made by submitting e-mail to the League Offices. Both GM's must submit a trade confirmation to the commissioner. When the second confirmation is received the players proceed to their new team. Also, line changes will be required whenever a trade confirmation is submitted. 3. After a trade new players are sent to the farm team. If you wish them to be on your pro team you must send a request to the commissioner. 4. The League Commissioner reserves the right to veto any trade if, in the belief of the commissioner, the trades violates the spirit of competition and goodwill of the league. 5. Trading deadline is Day 64 and no trades will be confirmed by the Commissioner after midnight on that day. ****************** E. LINE CHANGES ****************** 1. Changes must be in by the time the game is to be played. You may want to send them early, due to network lag and possible confusion due to time zone differences.) Note: The League Commissioner is located in the CST time zone. Here is a chart of time zone differences from CST: PST MST CST EST AST NST -2.0 -1.0 +0.0 +1.0 +2.0 +2.5 2. To make a line change, you can either send new lines in League Manager format (jersey numbers) using Linemaker or Line-Maker Pro ar any other program, or send the changes ONLY (in point form if possible) to the league Commissioner. If changes are great, or you wish to send many line changes, please use the format defined in the Line Template. Example of line change in point form: Put M. Recchi on RW 5 on 5 Line 2 Put P. Housley on RD 5 on 5 Line 3 Make S. Burke starting goaltender for game against Detroit then put Vernon back in for the game against Montreal. 3. If changes are to be made they must be sent in following every game. ********************************************* F. STREAKS, SLUMPS AND RANDOM FARM RERATES ********************************************* F.1 Streaks and Slumps The Streaks and Slumps option will be used at all times but with the following restrictions: 1. After the Preseason they will be reset. However, they will carry from the regular season to the playoffs. 2. Any player who is +2 or -2 for 10 consecutive games will have his streak/slump reset to 0 F.2 Random Farm Rerates 1. Random Farm Rerates that happen during the Preseason will be reset before the beginning of the regular season. However, rerates during the playoffs will remain. 2. Players with the Prospect status are not allowed to keep a Farm Team Rerate. When it happens they are immediately reset to their original rating, except during Preseason, where they will be reset only after the Preseason is over. 3. All Random Farm Rerates that happened during a season will be reset prior to the Rerating Procedures in the off-season. ************** G. PLAYOFFS ************** 1. The top eight teams in each conference will qualify for the playoffs. The top two teams in each conference will be granted the top two seeds and the following six will be granted their position on total points. Every playoff series is a best of seven game series. The first place team in the conference will play the eighth place team, the second will play the seventh, the third will play the sixth , and the fourth will play the fifth. The team with the highest point total will have home ice advantage. **************** H. RETIREMENT **************** 1. Here is the retiring table. When comes time to run the Retirement procedure, the age on December 31st of the current year will be used. For example, for the next retirement, a player born any day in 1973 will be considered 25. Age Chance of retiring ---------------------------------------- 30 5% 31 10% 32 15% 33 20% 34 30% 35 40% 36 50% 37 55% 38 60% 39 70% 40 85% 41 100% 2. The decision for retirement will be decided upon by a random number selection by the Commissioner and/or the Director of Drafting and Player Rerating. The random number will be between 1 and 100 and will be decided upon by a computer program. If the random number is higher than the player's chance of returning to the league then the player will retire (see 3. for exceptions). 3. Maximum number of players retiring per team is 3. If more than 3 players have to retire, only the 3 with the less NHL games played the previous season will retire. 4. Players who retire but are still in the NHL are eligible for a revocation of retirement, see Section K. Special Free Agent Draft 5. GMs have the power to retire players over 25 in their team during the off-season, but this will not have any effect on the Retirement procedure. ********************** I. RERATING PLAYERS ********************** 1. General Rerating After the end of the Playoffs and before the next season's entry draft, the following rerating scheme will be used: Criteria Factors #pla. effect Pro/Fa Method Range ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Young Player NHL, age 4 up both Tim Chan's rat. +15 (special) NHL Superstar NHL 1 up both Tim Chan's rat. +15 (special) NHL Counter. NHL, luck 2 up/down both Tim Chan's rat. unlimited Performance WHL, luck 2 up/down Pro HLS2 rerating unlimited Random luck, age 2 up/down both Rerating Table +3/-3 Notes: 1.Players can't be rerated twice: if a player gets rerated, he isn't eligible for the next Criteria. 2.The age on December 31st of the current year will be used. For example, for the next rerating, a player born any day in 1973 will be considered 25. 3.Players with the Prospect status arent't eligible for General rerating, see Prospect Rerating. First Criteria - Young Player -Factors: player's NHL counterpart, age -Number of Players: 4 -Effect: up -Description: players are chosen by the GM, and must be 25 or younger. A maximum of 2 players/goaltenders who have played at least 15/5 games in the previous season (2 Pro players) are eligible. Any player with a current rating of 50 or under is unlimited in his ratings increase. A player rerated under this criteria will take the Tim Chan's ratings of his NHL counterpart. If a player's improvement would be greater than 15, the rating points that aren't allowed will be randomly selected. Only players who have a new rating to take can be chosen. Second Criteria - NHL Superstar -Factors: player's NHL counterpart -Number of Players: 1 -Effect: up -Description: one player is chosen by the GM. Any player with a current rating of 50 or under is unlimited in his ratings increase. A player rerated under this criteria will take the Tim Chan's ratings of his NHL counterpart. If a player's improvement would be greater than 15, the rating points that aren't allowed will be randomly selected. Only a player who has a new rating to take can be chosen. Third Criteria - NHL Counterpart -Factors: player's NHL counterpart, randomly chosen -Number of Players: 2 -Effect: up or down -Description: All the players except the 4 rerated as Young Players, NHL Superstar, or with Prospect status are eligible. A player rerated under this criteria will take the Tim Chan's ratings of his NHL counterpart. If a selected player doesn't have new Chan ratings, his ratings will remain unchanged. Fourth Criteria - WHL Performance -Factors: player's previous season WHL performance, randomly chosen -Number of Players: 2 -Effect: up or down -Description: Only players/goaltenders with 15/5 or more games played the previous season are eligible. Fifth Criteria - Random Age Improvement -Factors: age, randomly chosen -Number of Players: 2 -Effect: up or down -Description: Using a random number and the rerating table, each selected player will be allowed between +3 and -3 rating points. Then a random number will decide where every rating point is added/substracted. RERATING TABLE: Age Number Bonus Comments -------------------------------------------------------------------------- less than 21 10% +3 -A player enters the league. He is not a 20% +2 tried and true player yet - he can go 20% +1 both ways 20% +0 10% -1 (50% better, 20% same, 30% worse) 10% -2 10% -3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 to 25 20% +3 -By now a player has passed the rookie 20% +2 stage - lot's of room to improve 20% +1 30% +0 5% -1 (60% better, 30% same, 10% worse) 3% -2 2% -3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 to 28 5% +3 -A player is in his peak - not much 5% +2 movement either way 10% +1 60% +0 10% -1 (20% better, 60% same, 20% worse) 5% -2 5% -3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 to 32 5% +3 -Coming off peak, still not a lot of 5% +2 movement. More chance of retirement than 10% +1 of becoming a bad player 50% +0 10% -1 (20% better, 50% same, 30% worse) 10% -2 10% -3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 33 and more 5% +3 -Now a player is getting old, but he still 5% +2 has a lot of lasting power. 70% chance he 5% +1 won't change by more than 1 point. 35% +0 30% -1 (15% better, 35% same, 50% worse) 10% -2 10% -3 2. Prospect Rerating This procedure will apply to players with the Prospect status. Prospects are not eligible for General Rerating until after the end of their second season after being drafted, when they lose their Prospect status. Prospects available for the draft will be given a "potential score". It will be out of 50 and it will express what we feel will be the players future potential. It will be based on the players Junior stats and/or Minor League stats. The players list and their original "ratings" will be made by the Director of Drafting and Player Rerating, with the help of the Commissioner. All new players will be given ratings over the 11 categories of a minimum of 25 and no maximum. You can expect the best players to be rated around 65. Goaltenders will have no maximum and minimum of 12 (but don't expect to draft a goalie rated higher than 60). Players with the highest ratings won't necessarily have the best potential. There will be all kinds of players available: higher ratings with lower potential (players who are most likely to step up in the NHL the next season), and lower ratings with higher potential (most likely still junior players). At the mid point of season, end of season and at mid point of following season, the Prospects will be rerated by rolling a six sided dice 10 times. You multiply that number by their "potential score" and compare it to the chart below: Goalies points added on will be the chart points minus 2. 3000-2800=15 points 2799-2600=14 2599-2400=13 2399-2200=12 2199-2000=11 1999-1800=10 1799-1600=9 1599-1400=8 1399-1200=7 1199-1000=6 999-800=5 799-600=4 599-400=3 399-200=2 under 199=1 Their points will be added on randomly but in a way that preserves the type of player the rerated player is. If the players is awarded: -less than 11 points: the rating categories where one point is added will be randomly selected -exactly 11 points : one point will be added to every rating category -12 to 15 points : one point will be added to every rating category, then the rating categories where the remaining 1 to 4 points are to be added will be randomly selected For example, let's assume that a Prospect in the draft is given a "potential score" of 50. His ratings may be as follows: 4 6 4 5 5 5 6 6 5 4 5 =55 A roll of 30 comes up at the mid point of first year. That would result in a 1500 on the chart. He would receive 8 points for this. His new ratings could be: 4 7 4 6 6 6 6 7 6 5 6 =63 Then at the next rerating let's say that he gets 12 points. He would now be: 5 8 5 7 7 7 8 8 7 6 7 =75 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This procedure will ensure that a newly drafted player can't be a superstar in his first year (he probably won't even be able to make the team), but gets a chance to improve gradually, which is realistic. If anyone has any questions about this please direct them to the Director of Drafting and Player Rerating Darren Kinnaird at kinnaird@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca ***************** J. ENTRY DRAFT ***************** - This draft will include all 24 teams. - Draft Order will be the: 1 - Reverse Regular Season Overall Standings Order - Number of rounds in draft is dependent on number of players in draft. GMs will be notified in advance of the number of rounds. In the eventuality that there isn't enough players for 6 rounds of drafting, a way to handle the traded picks will be figured out by the BOD. - Players involved in the Entry Draft will be divided in 2 groups: 1. The players who made their NHL debut in the previous season and are not in the WHL. These players will take the Chan ratings if they have one, or ratings that reflect their abilities will be made by the Director of Drafting and Player Rerating 2. The Prospects: players who have just been drafted in the NHL and will likely make it to the NHL. These players will have lower ratings and a potential score of development. Original ratings that reflect their abilities will be made by the Director of Drafting and Player Rerating ****************************** K. SPECIAL FREE AGENT DRAFT ****************************** 1. Every player who has been selected for retirement from the WHL but has played at least one game in the NHL in the previous season is eligible for the Special Free Agent Draft. However, if a player has publicly announced his retirement from hockey he won't be eligible. 2. Every eligible player is rerated using the "Chan ratings". 3. The Special Free Agent Draft consist of one round. 4. In the case that less than 24 players are eligible, the 8 teams which didn't make the playoffs are assured of a pick, the remaining teams to take part in the draft are randomly selected. 5. All teams have one NON TRADEABLE pick. 6. The order is a weighted lottery: The 5 teams with the worst record in the last season get the 5 first spots randomly, the 5 teams with the best record get the last 5 spots randomly, and the others get the middle spots randomly. 7. The players who aren't selected retire. 8. This is where players making a comeback after retiring from the WHL in a previous season will go as well, instead of going in the Entry Draft. ************* L. WAIVERS ************* 1. Any player sent from the Pro to Farm roster must first pass waivers (see 5. for exception). The waiver draft list consists of the current overall standings (pct.) in reverse order. A team must decide to acquire a player from waivers before the next Day's games are played. A player acquired on waivers will proceed to a franchise's Pro Team. 2. To claim a player from waivers, a team must have at least 1 free spot in its Pro Team (i.e. 24 or less players). If not, then another current Pro player must be sent to the Farm for the claimed player to be allowed to report to the Pro Team. If a team's GM claims a player off waivers with a full Pro Team and fails to satisfy this condition before the next Day's games, the claimed player will be put back in waivers. 3. If the player sent to the farm team goes unclaimed , then he reports to the Farm team of the team that sent him down to the Farm roster. 4. A team can claim more than one player off waivers on a particular day, but they will be in the last position of the draft list after a first player has been claimed. 5. A player/goaltender who played 20%/10% or less of the games in the current season can be sent to a team's Farm Team without going through waivers. (example:the team has 35 games played, so a player with 7 games or less or a goalie with 3 games or less can be sent down...) 6. During Playoffs, no player can be sent down to the farm team through waivers. Players can only go up to the Pro team during playoffs. ***************** M. FREE AGENTS ***************** 1. At any time a GM can release players from his team. Released players become Free Agents and join the Free Agents list. 2. The Free Agents list is composed of released players and undrafted players from the last Entry Draft. At the end of the season all the players on the Free Agents List automatically retire. 3. Free Agents can be signed anytime from preseason to the end of the regular season. No Free Agent may be signed after the beginning of the playoffs. 4. If two or more teams happen to want to sign a Free Agent on a particular day, the team with the less players in its Farm Team will sign him. In case of an equal number of players in the teams' Farm Teams, the team which signed a Free Agent last will let the other have the player. ****************** N. RESERVE TEAM ****************** The players who are owned by a team but aren't active. The number of players on the Reserve Team can never exceed 5. Once the season is started, players can't be added to the farm team in any way. The only moves permitted with the Reserve Team are: 1. release a player from Reserve: he becomes a Free Agent 2. sign a player to a farm team contract Hence, the Reserve Roster is a place to put new draftees or extra Farm Team players that the team could need during the season. The players' stats can't go either up or down, since they are not controlled by the program. *********************************** O. DISPUTE RESOLUTION/ARBITRATOR *********************************** Where two or more teams are in dispute over some matter, like a trade, and these rules do not cover the matter in dispute, the league has successfully used the following procedure for resolution of the problem: 1. The Commissioner will ask an anonymous owner to act as Arbitrator with the teams in dispute having the right to request that certain owners not function as Arbitrator. 2. Each team makes its case to the Commissioner. 3. The Commissioner communicates the relevant facts to the Arbitrator and gives the Arbitrator a list of possible decisions. 4. The Arbitrator makes a decision and communicates it to The Commissioner without having to offer any justification for the decision. 5. The Commissioner communicates the decision, which is final and not subject to further negotiation, to the owners. ************ P. AWARDS ************ The following trophies will be awarded based on voting by each WHL team (either the GM or the Coach votes): - James Norris Trophy (Top Defenseman) - Vezina Trophy (Top Goaltender) - Hart Trophy (League M.V.P.) - Calder Trophy (Top Rookie) - Lady Byng Trophy (Sportmanship) - Frank J. Selke Trophy (Best Defensive Forward) - Bill Masterton Trophy (Dedication to the Game by a GM: League Involvement) - Jack Adams Trophy (Top Coach) - Executive Trophy (Top GM) - 1st & 2nd Team All-Stars - All-Star Rookie Team The following trophies will be awarded based on season stats by the Commissioner: - Alka Seltzer Trophy (Best Plus/Minus) - Art Ross Trophy (Most Points in the Season) - Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoffs M.V.P.) - Presidents Trophy (Best Record in Season) - William Jennings Trophy (Fewest Goals Against) Michael Hebert Web Hockey League Commissioner September 1997