League Rules

The goal of the league…..Everyone just have fun.

ACTIVITY

All GM’s must be active. GM’s are expected to send in regular lines and attend all league functions such as drafts, official polls/rulings and activity checks. If you will not be in mIRC for a draft, just send in your draft list to one of the staff members(more info will be posted on the forum)..

CONTACTS:

1. You must have a MSN messenger. Others are encouraged as well (i.e. AIM, AOL, etc.)
2. You are not required to have mIRC for the PTHL but it is encouraged. Go to www.mirc.com to download it. There is also a link at the bottom of the main page of this site. We are located on Starchat and the room is #PTHL.
3. You must register a username for the forum with the team clearly shown somewhere in the username ( i.e. OttawaGM, OilersGM, HabsGM etc.)
4. If for some reason you are going to be away for a while, you are required to post in the "Attendance" area of the forums.
5. Respect is very important.
We will not tolerate public criticism, insulting other GM’s and spamming. If you have any complaints please e-mail or PM the commissioners.
6. You are only allowed to control one team.
If any of the staff see any hint of a person holding two teams, that person will be fired from the PTHL.
7. We’re one of the longest running leagues in the EHM community and we plan to keep this league running for a long, long time. In order to do this, we will only be looking for dedicated GMs that will stay with the league long enough to achieve this goal.

New GM Rule

Due to the problems we've had with new GM's either going on trading frenzies &/or quitting shortly after joining we're instituting a 2 weeks probation period for new GM's. For the first week any new GM will not be able to trade and for the second week any trades made by that GM will require approval by one of the commissioners before it can be posted on the forums. This new rule will help us to gauge activity as well as keep new owners from dismantling teams within days of them taking a team over.

Re-signings

1. If a team wants to re-sign some of their players, you MUST send them in an e-mail to the league e-mail account. They must include a detailed description of the offer as well as the position and location of the player you're trying to sign.
2. In the case of a team not sending any re-signings in, the Commissioner will decide on an appropriate punishment that could include in extreme cases, removal from the league. If the offending GM cannot be reached in time the commissioners will choose (fairly) the players who will be resigned. If they are RFAs we will probably resign all of them. UFAs will be chosen by the commissioners, other UFAs may just be put out onto the market. This is mainly for situations in the off-season because of the UFA period approaching.
3. You are not able to give a player a no trade clause. All other options are available to be added to a contract offer (TW, TO, PO) but NT clauses are no longer allowed.

Trades

The 5 members of the TC are Adam (CAR), Ryan (NYI), Dean (PHI), David (TOR) and Pete (EDM). All 5 have proven themselves to be savvy (I never get to use that word) GM's in this league as well as some of our longest standing GM's.
This is an outline of how this works:
1. These 5 members have all the say when it comes to approving/rejecting trades.
2. All trades will require 3 approvals for it to be processed. The fact that 3 out of 5 GM's need to approve a trade means if it gets rejected there's obviously something wrong with the trade and as such the trade deserves to be rejected.

3. If by some chance one or more of these GM's are away we will still require 3 approvals for a trade to be processed. In the unlikely event that the remaining GM's split on the vote one or more of the commissioners will cast the deciding vote.

4. The decision made by these GM's will be considered final. If a trade is rejected by these 5 GM's it will stay as a rejected trade. Any PM's sent to any of the commissioners or TC members complaining about the decision will be deleted......NO EXCEPTIONS!!

5. We want these 5 GM's to be able to focus on nothing else except reviewing trades. Any posts made in a trade by any GM's who feel the need to complain about the decision will be deleted and an appropriate action will be taken. ANY PM'S SENT TO ANY OF THE 5 MEMBERS OF THE TC COMPLAINING ABOUT A DECISION WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE REMOVAL FROM THE LEAGUE!!! This may seem harsh but these GM's are doing the league a favor by taking on these duties and it's not fair for them to take any abuse, hence the reasons for taking such a hard line

Con Jump Trades

1. A con jump trade is defined as a trade involving a player with a CON of 50 or lower, regardless of whether that player was meant to be traded strictly to try and get a jump or not.
2. There is a limit of 3 con-jump eligible players allowed to be traded per team per season and only 1 trade per player. If a team attempts to make a 4th con jump trade, any traded player receiving a con jump will be changed back to the previous con he had before the trade was made.
3. A singular trade involving 2 con-jump eligible players will count as 2 of the 3 allowed per season.
4. There will be a list of teams posted on the boards. Each time a con jump trade takes place we will post that players name next to the name of the team making the trade. That player cannot be part of a con jump trade again until after that seasons trade deadline. This only applies if the traded player still has a con of 50 or below. If it is higher, the trading of that player is NOT considered a con jump trade.
5. GM's can decide who they want to be a con jumper by posting in the trade if they want the player involved to be one of their con jump trades or not. If nothing is posted it will be assumed they do not want to try for a con jump and any jumps will be returned to old con.

Consistency drops

Con drops are not allowed in the PTHL. If you receive a con drop in a trade please post it in the Con Drops section of the forum. Make sure to include the players old con rating as well as what he dropped to and we'll fix it before the next sim takes place.

No-Trade Clauses

No trade clauses are no longer allowed in the PTHL. If by some chance you’re taking over a team and that team has a player on their team that had a NT clause from before the rule change was brought in you can remove it provided it’s done within the first 2 real time weeks of taking over the team but the players salary will be increased by 25%.

Free Agency

The rules are as follows:
1. We will be going with a closed bidding system. All offers must be received via the league e-mail before the stated deadline. No team will know what another team has offered until the UFA has been awarded. This should help to keep salaries down and avoid the inevitable bidding wars.
NOTE: the closed bidding system is for the UFA period only. After the UFA period ends all UFA offers must be posted on the forums as per usual.
2. All UFA offers must be for at least 2 years not including any options & have the exact numbers that can be entered in the game, if they don't, the offer will be voided. This is in place to avoid the cheap re-signing glitch (a player signed to a 1 year contract can be re-signed after the UFA period to a reduced salary). Players that are retiring at the end of the year or will only entertain 1 year offers are the only exception to this rule.
3. Make sure you specify the offer in great detail to avoid any problems.
4. The UFA player will go to the highest bid received as of the UFA deadline. Highest contract offer will be determined by using the total contract value. The total contract value is determined with the following formula:
Yearly Salary X # of Years + Signing Bonus
An example of what this means is: Previously Fedorov was signed to a 12 mil, 6 year contract with max signing bonus. This would translate into an offer of $76,666,600. If he were offered a 5 year deal then it would be $64,666,600 so he would be awarded to the team that made the first offer.
5. Any option years are not included as they may or may not be exercised.
Clauses of any type (PO, TO, TW) have no bearing on who gets who so only include them if it’s something you want that player to have.
6. You may not offer contracts that would bring your team’s funds below negative 5 mil. Signing bonuses come directly out of your team’s funds so make sure that when you make your offers you can afford to do so.
7. Remember that during all periods except the UFA period all contracts must be offers that can be entered into the game, this includes the weak team rule.
8. Trading UFA's - Any player signed as a UFA during the UFA signing period in the offseason may not be traded until after that current seasons trade deadline. This includes any UFA's signed to contracts or picked up by any other means (i.e. waivers).
9. During the UFA period the weak team rule will be waived, this means that even if a player says he won’t sign with your team you can still make an offer on him and he will be forced to sign with your team if you make the winning bid. After the UFA period ends the weak team rule comes back into effect and if he won’t sign with you then you can’t make him an offer.
10. Teams will be able to sign players that will take them over the cap within reason but they must be under the cap by the time the regular season starts. If any team signs players during the UFA period that takes them over the cap and they aren’t under the cap by the start of the regular season ALL players signed by that team during the UFA period will be released back into the free agent pool at the expense of the team that signed them.
11. If you plan to make an offer to a UFA but during test sims he’ll only accept a 3 yr deal do not make a 3 yr offer!! If you plan on getting a top UFA then chances are you’re going to have to make a 6 yr offer since the highest contract value will be the winning bid. Once the winning bid has been decided then the player will be given an offer he’ll accept in the game. This means that even though you made a 6 yr offer you may only get the player signed for 3 or 4 yrs depending on what he’ll accept. The highest contract value is only in place to decide the winning bid and may not reflect the actual contract the player receives but this is in place not only to make it easier to decide winning bids but also to gauge the commitment of the team making the bid to that player.

Staff Signings

From now on, here are the staff rules:

Staff is now static as the UFA staff engine in the game is flawed.
1. Teams will carry 2 head coaches, 4 assistant coaches, 1 GM and 4 physios. Of this staff, at least 1 head coach, 2 assistants, 2 physios and 1 GM will be on the farm.
1.a Since not everybody uses their scouts, teams will have the possibility to have from 3 to 11 scouts. Don't forget, however, that it'll cost you more to have a higher number of scouts.
2. All staff members were given 99 ratings across the board, and 20 year contracts starting in the 2013-14 season.
3. Teams are required to let the league know that their staff member's contracts are running out. Once made aware, the simmer will return the contract to 20 years.
4. If the GM doesn't remind the league office of the staff member and he goes UFA, the GM may not pick up another staff member to replace the lost one
5. For teams that this happens to, if the GM leaves, a new GM may add the lost member(s) back to his roster.
6. GMs are also responsible to notify the league of retiring staff members after each season. These players will be replaced with the length contract left on the team's other staff members.

Restricted Free Agents

1. Offers to your own RFA's (and UFA's) are to be sent via e-mail to the league e-mail at pthllines@hotmail.com
2. Offers to OTHER TEAM'S RFA's must be posted in the FA forum.
3. Compensation for signing other team's RFA are listed below, only the yearly salary will be taken into account when deciding compensation.

OFFER	COMPENSATION
$600,000 or below	Third-round choice
$600.001 - $1,000,000	Second-round choice
$1,000,001 - $1,200,000	Second and third round choices
$1,200,001 - $1,400,000	First-round choice
$1,400,001 - $1,700,000	First and third-round choices
$1,700,001 - $2,200,000	First and second-round choices
$2,200,001 - $2,500,000	Two first-round choices
$2,500,001 - $3,000,000	Two first-round and one second-round choice
Over $3,000,000	Three first-round choices
Each additional $1,000,000	One additional first-round choice to a maximum of five

Note for all UFAs, RFAs, and Staff Signings: The offer is the salary X years + signing bonus, which is considered the Total Contract Value(TCV)

Waivers

When a player is placed on waivers, his name will be posted in the waiver forum. GM’s should do this themselves but simmers will post them if a GM forgets……don’t forget!!
1. Only applies if the GM has voluntarily placed the player on waivers or a waiver eligible player gets sent down to the farm. Also applies if a simmer is forced to send a player down due to a lack of moves sent in by the GM. In most cases we’ll try to send down a player exempt from waivers but that’s not always possible.
2. Teams have 24 hours to place a claim on the player.
3. Once the time has passed, the thread will be closed.
4. If teams claim 2 players, they lose highest priority status.
5. If more then one team makes a claim, the team with the worse record from the previous season will be awarded the player.
8. If no one places a claim within 24 hours, then the player has cleared waivers successfully.

LINES:

1. Lines must be sent to the league e-mail (pthllines@hotmail.com) before the cut off time for transactions (which is 12 pm EST unless posted otherwise).
2. They must be sent as a zipped file using either winzip or winrar, if this isn’t done they won’t be used.
3. If lines aren’t sent in by a team and changes are required the simmer will use computer lines.
4. Any player listed as having a day to day injury during the course of a sim will be activated unless otherwise specified with detailed instructions by the teams GM.

LINE TACTICS:

The line tactics rules are as follows, only 1 H&G tactic will be allowed at any time. Only 2 NZT lines will be allowed at any time. The rest of the line tactics will not have a limit. Passing plays, R&G, & D&C can be used as much as you want. Any team found to have invalid line tactics will have all lines changed to Run & Gun and be given a warning, repeated infractions will result in removal from the league.

Simming

There will be 2 sim days per week. Sims will be held on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s unless posted otherwise on the forums. Lines will be due by 12 noon EST the day of the sim unless posted otherwise on the forums.

Game Settings

These will be the default game settings.
1. Scoring Frequency: 145
2. Penalty Frequency: 130
3. Fighting Frequency: 125
4. Injury Frequency: 100

Goalie Game Cap

The cap will be 65 games played by any goalie on your team this includes both Pro and Farm. This will be 65 games played period. It will not be decided by minutes played meaning that once one of your goalies has reached 65 games played in the stats listed in the game you must play your other goalie for the remainder of the games. Obviously you can pick and choose when to play what goalie. Any team that goes over this cap will have their backup play the same number of games during the playoffs as they went over the 65 game cap by. If the offending team is not a playoff team they will have their cap reduced by the number of games they went over for the following season.

Underage players on the farm

Teams finishing in 1st-5th place overall - 1 underager
Teams finishing 6th-25th overall - 2 underagers
Teams finishing 26th-30th overall - 3 underagers
Each GM is able to pick 1-3 underage players (younger than 20) to play for their farm team based on their standing from the previous season. This should speed up the development of some of the young prospects each team has. These players must be picked before the beginning of the regular season and once picked only those players will be allowed on your farm team during the course of the season. As soon as any of these players is called up from the farm team they cannot be sent back down. You will also not be able to bring another prospect to your farm team at any time during the course of the season. If at the end of the season your player hasn't reached the age of farm eligibilty (20) you won't be able to bring in another unless these players are not on your farm team anymore. We will be putting up a post allowing everyone to name their players sometime after the draft each year.
1. These are the rules for bringing in prospects that are underage to your farm team. Remember this is optional, if you don't want to take part in this that is your prerogative but be aware that players do develop faster outside of juniors with playing time.

2. All teams are allowed to have underage players on their farm teams once the regular season begins. This must be done BEFORE the beginning of the regular season or you lose out.

3. Throughout the regular season these are the only underage players that can play on your farm team. Once a player has been called up from the farm team to the pro roster they MAY NOT be sent back down until he reaches the age of farm eligibility (20). You also may not send down another underage player to replace them.

4. If any of these underage players is traded to another team they MUST play on the pro team of the receiving team or they must be sent back to juniors if the game still allows it.

5. You are limited to only your posted underage players on your farm team at any point during any season. This means that you cannot have these players on your farm and then be joined by more in the following season unless the original players have reached the age of farm eligibility (20).

6. All players that are being sent to the farm must be signed to a contract before the beginning of the regular season. All contract offers must be made in the usual way (league e-mail). Don't forget, if you expect them to be sent back down once they are eligible to do so make sure to include a two way option in the offer.

7. An e-mail will NOT be sent out regarding this as everyone has ample time to read the post before the regular season starts. There will be no exceptions to this rule.....period. Contracts are accepted and it's done before the regular season starts or it's not done at all.

8. As with any new rule some loopholes are bound to be found. No loopholes will be entertained in any way. We reserve the right to make an executive decision regarding any perceived abuse of the stated rules and implement any changes immediately.
All players that are to be sent down must be posted in the thread. Make sure to include all pertinent info (team name, player name, position, age, & OA) in your reply. If you have any questions please refer them to any staff member via PM and not in the thread. Absolutely no posts other than your list of underage players will permitted, all others will be deleted. 30 teams need to post in the thread and we don't need to be going through a bunch of clutter to figure them out.

SALARY CAP:

1. Effective as of the start of the 2012-13 season a salary cap has been put in place starting at $75 million for each team. The cap will be reduced $5 mil per season until we reach a level of $60 million at which point we will review the current setup and decide if a further cap reduction is required.
2. All teams must be under this cap by the start of the season or the player closest to the amount they’re over will be released into the free agent market. Only 1 player will be released at a time so if you are over the cap by 4 mil and the closet player you have to that amount is making 7 mil that player will be released. Also if you’re over by 12 mil and your highest paid player is making 10 mil that player will be released as well as the player on the team closest to the other 2 mil you’re over the cap by.
3. In the new salary cap era there are no limits to the length or amount of contract you can offer your players. The only limit to any contracts is there are no no trade clauses allowed.

Retiring Players

This is the chart for un-retiring players
33 and younger - Automatically unretired.
34 yrs of age - 80% chance of being unretired.
35 yrs of age - 60 % chance.
36 yrs of age - 40% chance.
37 yrs of age - 20% chance.
38 and older - Retires.
A thread will be opened once we reach the start of the UFA period where any player you want to have un-retired can be posted and over the course of the preseason we will post the results. Any players not posted on the forums before the start of the regular season will retire.

Draft and Lottery

1. Due to the majority of the league voting for the change the league will now be following the NHL rules when it comes to the draft and the draft lottery. It breaks down like this, the bottom 14 teams (those that miss the playoffs) will be given the first 14 picks in the draft for all rounds. The 16 teams that made the playoffs will be given the remaining 16 picks. All picks will still be awarded by points, if any teams are tied in the standings the games draft order will be used to decide positioning.
2. The lottery will now only include the 14 teams that miss the playoffs rather than the 14 lowest teams by point total as was the case in the past.
3. At the end of the season some picks will be exchanged to make the new system work within the game. All teams that own those picks will still retain them they may just have a different team name attached to them.
4. The draft lottery will be determined using an online random number generator. The draft lottery chart is as follows:
1-250 - 30th place team wins, retains # 1 overall selection. (25.0 %)
251-438 - 29th place team wins, moves to #1. (18.8 %)
439-580 - 28th place team wins, moves to #1. (14.2 %)
581-687 - 27th place team wins, moves to #1. (10.7 %)
688-768 - 26th place team wins, moves to #1. (8.1 %)
769-830 - 25th place team wins, moves to #2. (6.2 %)
831-877 - 24th place team wins, moves to #3. (4.7 %)
878-913 - 23rd place team wins, moves to #4. (3.6 %)
914-940 - 22nd place team wins, moves to #5. (2.7 %)
941-961 - 21st place team wins, moves to #6. (2.1 %)
962-976 - 20th place team wins, moves to #7. (1.5 %)
977-987 - 19th place team wins, moves to #8. (1.1 %)
988-995 - 18th place team wins, moves to #9. (0.8 %)
997-1000 - 17th place team wins, moves to #10. (0.5 %)