RULES PART 1

- All players stay active until the very end of our season. Managers who’re not active anymore won’t be invited for the next season(s).

- For the new managers: Before every season I make a doodle to decide the best draft time to get as many managers as possible live at the draft. Everybody needs to fill in this doodle or respond on my emails/reminders. No answer = no invitation next season.

- Another part of staying active is to answer the trade proposals. Of course you can take some time to consider, but that indicates that a trade is possible and needs acceptation or a counter proposal. Some of the proposals are beneficing both teams very well. So nevertheless, it’s always wise to look but certainly answer to every proposal. Even if a proposal looks ridiculous (at a certain point that’s logic as every team wants to make as much benefit as possible and you can always try), then just reject or counter it. Everybody can vote against a trade, so please use it when a trade is unfair.

- Stay polite. If you're against a trade for instance, you can say that you don't agree, but you don't need to offend other managers...

- Read the messages. If there is a vote for something, everybody that doesn't vote will be considered to go agree with whatever outcome.

- There won’t be big rule changes during the season. Any change needs to happen or be discussed before the draft.

- Our trade deadline will be some days to roughly one week after the real NHL trade deadline.

- Please don't edit your teamname too much. That's very confusing.

- Don’t drop elite players in the playoffs (except for injured players).
- Accepted trades won't be vetoed by the commish. Only the league can veto a trade. Trades by mistake can always happen, but it depends on the other party if he/she wants to make a reverse trade afterwards. Be aware that you're a manager, and it's you that accepts or proposes a trade.

- If a trade is accepted, then look after your players on IR, IR+ or NA positions. Your roster may not be over the maximum rostersize at the moment the trade processes. That means that your team is not allowed to have more than the max active and healthy players on your roster at that moment. Sometimes, especially in covid times with players going on and off the covid list, player statuses change very quickly and it can happen that a player on NA, IR or IR+ is already active of healthy again. At that moment, your team can have more than the max active and healthy players. So be aware of that.
This is not a way (smart workaround) to cancel a trade. An accepted trade is an accepted trade. If a trade isn't processed because of this, then you've to solve the problem by redo the trade. Otherwise the commish will push the trade through.

- To keep the league exciting and competitive for every team during the season, there is a promoting and demoting system. So at the end of every season:
League A: the last 3 teams will demote to league B;
League B: the best 3 teams will promote to league A, the last 3 will demote to league C;
League C: the best 3 teams will promote to league B. To keep some excitement and a reason to stay active for the bottom teams, there is a special draftorder for the next season, see below.

To define the 3 best teams; we use a combination of both the regular season and playoff successes. Specifically:
- The top two teams based on final regular season record (not seed) are automatically promoted. This ensures that teams who are consistently the strongest all season should be rewarded.
- The other promotion place goes to who finishes highest in the playoffs, excluding those automatically promoted. This ensures that teams who have set themselves up well for a playoff run are also rewarded.

RULES PART 2
- For the last 4 teams in league C:
To keep some excitement and a reason to stay active for the bottom teams, there is a special draftorder for the next season:
The last 4 teams at the end of our season will get the best draftpicks next season. So that the team that ends 13th will get the first pick, the 14th team the 2nd, 15th team will get 3th pick and the 16th team will get the 4th pick. Teams that end 12th to 1st will get picks 5 to 16, so that the 12th team gets the 5th pick, the 8th team will get the 9th pick and the 1st team will get the last pick.

To summarize the draft picks (based on standings after the playoffs):
1st (=16th team league B): 16th pick
2nd (=15th team league B): 15th pick
3th (=14th team league B): 14th pick
4th: 13th pick
5th: 12th pick
6th: 11th pick
7th: 10th pick
8th: 9th pick
9th: 8th pick
10th: 7th pick
11th: 6th pick
12th: 5th pick
13th: 1st pick
14th: 2nd pick
15th: 3th pick
16th: 4th pick

Some Rules on:
- The 3 demoting teams will always get the 3 last picks;
- If a team doesn't continue next season the draftpick goes to the new team. The free team slots will be assigned so that the first joining team will get highest available free team slot and the last joining team will get the lowest available team slot in the draft order.
- Stay active until the end.
- Don't bench players (except goalies as a tactic if you've good numbers after 2 appearances) in the last weeks to get a lower ranking to get a better pick. I'll watch over that. If that is the case, then you won't get an invitation for next season.
- Make balanced trades, we won't accept silly trades.
- The draft order in league A and B remains random.
- Please accept the fact that you can demote and don’t quit because of that. It’s part of the game and excitement.