2023 OSH Rules
Part 1.
1. The pool is a “keeper league” in which each team’s core players are retained from year to year. An annual draft of available players is held before each NHL season. The draft is held on the website Yahoo! Fantasy Hockey. The order of draft shall be in reverse order of the previous season’s standings, ie. the team finishing last drafting first, etc. In the event of a tie in the standings, the order shall be determined by a coin flip conducted by the Commissioner or a Co-Commissioner. A “snake” order will be followed for the draft, with the last team selecting in each round picking first in the next round and the order reversing every round. The draft shall continue until all of the following 18 positions have been filled.
2 C, 2 LW, 2 RW, 1 Util, 4 D, 2 G, 4 BN, 1 NA

2. In addition, each team shall have 3 spots available on their roster on which to place players on Injured Reserve+(3IR+). Players may only be placed on IR+ after they have been designated as such by Yahoo! A player may be dropped from IR to make room for another injured player if all of a team’s IR slots are filled.

3. After the draft, all undrafted players are placed on 48-hour waivers by Yahoo! before being designated as Free Agents, during which time any team may place a claim on such players. In order to place a claim on a waived player, a team must have an open roster spot (e.g. a player has been dropped or placed on IR) or must designate a player to be dropped in the event that the waiver claim is successful. If more than one team claims a player off waivers, the player shall be awarded to the team with the highest waiver priority as determined by Yahoo! under the waiver rules. After the initial 48-hour waiver period, any player listed as a Free Agent may be added by any team, but if the team does not have an open position on its roster, a player must be dropped to make room. Any dropped player is then placed on 48-hour waivers by Yahoo! and may be claimed by any team. A maximum of 70 waiver or free agent acquisitions may be made by any team during a season.

4. Only players who have been drafted and signed by an NHL team are available to be selected to a team’s roster. Players who have been drafted by an NHL team but remain unsigned to an NHL contract because they are playing college hockey or are signed to another professional league are not available to be selected. In the case of uncertainty, a player’s eligibility for selection will be determined by whether the player appears on the Yahoo! list of more than 1,000 eligible players. Players not listed in the Yahoo! system may not be drafted until they are signed by an NHL team and appear on the Yahoo! list of players.

5. Only players listed by Yahoo! as playing C, LW, RW, D, or G may fill those positions. Some players are designated as eligible at two or even three positions and may thus be used at any of those positions. The Util position may be filled by any player except Goalies. The BN position may also be filled by any player, but points scored by players in this bench position do not count in the standings but instead serve as backups. The NA position is reserved for players holding rookie status who are signed to an NHL contract and thus available to be drafted from the Yahoo! list, but who are designated Not Active. That may be because they are playing in the minor leagues, overseas, or in junior hockey. In the event that a player filling the NA position is called up to the NHL and becomes active, that player is no longer eligible to fill the NA position and must be either dropped or moved to the team’s active roster or a BN position. If no such positions are open, a player may be dropped to make room for the newly activated player.

6. Rookie status shall be determined by the NHL definition, as follows: “To be considered a rookie, a player must not have played in more than 25 NHL games in any preceding seasons, nor in six or more NHL games in each of any two preceding seasons. Any player at least 26 years of age (by September 15th of that season) is not considered a rookie."
Part 2
7. In the event of uncertainty over whether a player holds rookie status, a ruling shall be made by the Commissioner and/or a Co-Commissioner with recourse to the website hockeydb.com. Managers are responsible for determining a player’s rookie status before drafting him and may not change their selection upon discovering they have made a mistake in determining rookie status. The player mistakenly drafted may, however, be dropped and replaced with an undrafted player who does hold rookie status. Such a replacement shall count among a team’s maximum of 70 acquisitions during a season.

8. At least one active player who holds rookie status must be listed on each team’s 17-man counting roster, ie. as either a C, LW, RW, Util, D, or G. More than one rookie may be selected to a team’s active roster or to a bench position. This will be closely monitored.
Failure to