EHE CBA (League Rules)

[FLPanthers]

While I know we're supposed to be "on top of things" I don't believe it's our responsibility as GMs to re-read the entire CBA from start to finish on any kind of regular basis to spot rule changes...

Disagree on this point. I re-read the CBA often if ever I have a question. I'm all about debating certain things, but GMs have to have a measure of responsibility as well regarding knowing and staying up to date with the CBA.

I defy you to find me another time when a serious organization or government agency in Canada or the United States issued a punishment retroactively based on rules that were published at a date which was in the future to the infraction..

It turns out Martins was warned in private by Kevin, but Martins said there was no mention of a fine structure in those private convos.

[Dream Walker]

Will you leave it alone? I just wanted to know about my bankroll. No fines were mentioned but I was warned. Didn’t take it seriously then and now dealing with consequences. I don’t mind it. I got my answer. I re-read my messages and know that I jumped the gun.

[Kevin]

The New York Rangers have claimed on the Slack channel that they were fined $15,000,000 for the July 28 Parise trade.. assuming that is true:

Martins did not ask me to do this, but the Florida Panthers (well, me I guess) are strenuously objecting to this fine as the GMs were not alerted to the major rule change regarding re-acquiring players you've dealt within the last year until August 1..

This was posted on the front page on April 3. I'd say that all GMs were alerted. Believe it or not, this shit doesn't just get made up on the fly. Like Thomas said, I thought quite a bit about whether or not to levy the trade penalty because it wasn't written in the rulebook, despite it most-definitely being a league rule. Ultimately, I decided to uphold the rule and Martins accepted that.

The funny thing to me is that if accommodations were made to reduce the penalty, I'd be receiving complaints from the same certain people about rules "not being enforced."

[Kevin]

v1.17a - On November 11, the yearly adjustments were made to the FMV salary tiers and farm OV levels. Aside from that, there are still updates to be done for this season's CBA. The rule change you approved about burying one-way contracts needs to be added but is indeed in effect in the simulator.

A link to the 2021 Seattle expansion bulletin has been added to the top of the CBA. Additionally, the Entry Draft will expand once again to 7 rounds and an addendum to the rules for trading draft picks has been included. These are both the same as what we had in place for the 2017 Vegas expansion.

Many language corrections have been made in the past 12 months in the CBA. This will continue to be a work-in-progress.

The draft lottery rules were also found to be outdated by several years (sorry!) and updated.

The next CBA update should be pretty substantial, though again, no other rules have actually been changed.

[Kevin]

v1.20 - Lots of new little things in this year's CBA, posted on December 20! I've made a few minor tweaks and corrections in the past couple of days. The FMV chart saw very minimal changes this year. The minimum average salaries required for 1st and 2nd round players signed to ELCs did change.

The league minimum salary, the maximum entry-level salary, and the cap relief for burying a player on your AHL team both increased by $25,000. To my understanding, all of these will remain as they now are through the 25-26 season.

Actual Rule Change: The AHL requirement of games played for skaters is now 7 instead of 5.

Also made official: Should a first-year player on your prospects list fail to meet the AHL playing requirement but does spend the season in the ECHL, they will not be rated unless the GM asks them to be. If the player does it again a second season, they will be activated and rated. This will basically help flush a few low-end players out of the prospects lists. It's something I've done in the past year or two but I decided to give it some real criteria.


Here are all the other changes that have been made since last year:

Some info about league ratings was moved to the Simulation section. A paragraph about correcting roster issues was moved to the Participation section. Some other language about communication was updated.

Reworded the language about franchises needing a minimum number of players under contract at all times. Also added a line that teams may not claim players from waivers if they are at the max player limit. The intent of these rules has not changed.

Added a paragraph about deploying forwards in your lineup. Also moved the Position Eligibility subsection to Roster Management..

Added a paragraph about rosters being in violation if a team plays more than 10 games without setting them.

Reworded the language about teams who do not play their backup goalies the minimum requirement of games and minutes. The intent of this rule has not changed. The penalty for violating this rule was split into a separate paragraph. An additional line that time "owed" for not played will also carry into the next season. This has always been true but was never written previously.

The paragraph about "Fringe Players" and fluctuating OV ratings has been removed since it is no longer an issue in the STHS.

Clarified that the retirement penalty for players signed age 35 and over only applies to UFAs signed from the open market. (Remember that "Day 0" is considered the open market!)

Re-worded language to clarify the potential buyout penalty on a 35+ signed player who ends retirement, opposed to no buyout penalty for someone who ends retirement and signed before turning 35. I may actually review this again down the road.

Added a line that Franchise Tagged players who are 35+ will not be subject to salary penalties if they retire.

I have now added language of certain instances where a player's salary could go beyond the maximum of $10.5M if their mandatory 10% pay increase must breach this limit or if multiple teams are tied for a max contract offer for a UFA.

Added a line that players on farm contract can actually be traded for other players on farm contract, though we've never seen that happen here. Also added a line that players under farm contract may not receive an NHL contract after the trade deadline.

A portion of the Waivers section has been re-written to make it clearer. The intent of the rules have not changed. Added a line previously not given that games in which a player is inserted into the lineup by the simulator to fix a roster issue do not count towards the minimum games played requirement.

Removed a line from Franchise Tagged UFAs that they are exempt from hitting the open market. This caused some people to think these players are automatically re-signed. You still need to re-sign the players if you want to keep them.

Removed an outdated line in the Playoff Qualification Rules that AHL teams do not play the same number of games. Added a new third tiebreaker for Total Wins.