2017 Preseason

[Kevin]

I have tentatively planned for preseason games to begin on Friday, October 27, depending on how the remainder of free agency goes. All players will start with their NHL clubs "in training camp" after Tuesday night's free agency is run. Each team will have a preseason schedule of 5 NHL games and 2 AHL games, with the exception of the Florida Panthers, who will have 6 NHL preseason games.

GMs are encouraged to goof around with their lineups and experiment with different combinations, just as a real team would during the preseason. All injuries and suspensions incurred during the preseason do carry over into the regular season.

You may reassign players to the AHL as you wish, but you MUST be able to dress a full 20-man farm lineup by the time AHL games tentatively begin. That would tentatively be Wednesday, November 1. If you have players that you plan to send down for the AHL preseason that must clear through waivers first, please do this at least two days early so that they will be eligible to play these games if they are not claimed!!

Lineup warnings and notifications will be issued but will not go against your record during the preseason (except for the AHL deadline stated above).

The preseason schedule will end Sunday, November 5, with the regular season beginning some time later that week. I will probably need a couple of days to fully set up the beginning of the regular season (As you know, setting the season schedule is a pain!) and will let you know closer to that time.
*******Test note for 2018 preseason******* (Test full regular season sim output BEFORE preseason begins to ensure sliders are properly set and ratings are stable)

[Svenaheim]

All injuries and suspensions incurred during the preseason do carry over into the regular season.

Mental note: dress the goons.

[BlackhawksGM]

Thank you for your hard work sir.

Question on waiver 'days'. If I submit a new file after a pre-season game, does the 2-day waiver claim eligibility begin on the next night's sim, or from when I upload the file?

Example: I have a Monday night pro game (I know the schedule will be changing). If I send players to the AHL after that game, assuming those who need to pass through waivers go unclaimed, would they be ready to play Wednesday night or Thursday night?

[Kevin]

Question on waiver 'days'. If I submit a new file after a pre-season game, does the 2-day waiver claim eligibility begin on the next night's sim, or from when I upload the file?

Example: I have a Monday night pro game (I know the schedule will be changing). If I send players to the AHL after that game, assuming those who need to pass through waivers go unclaimed, would they be ready to play Wednesday night or Thursday night?

The player on waivers will be completely blocked from any action on the day after you put them on waivers. Then on the day they are slated to clear waivers, you will be able to put him in your lineup, although if he is claimed, that would leave a hole in your lineup if you do not replace him in time.

Ex.: Greg McKegg is put on waivers on Wednesday. After Wednesday's games/Thursday, he'll be shown as "suspended." On Friday, I can insert him into the lineup for my game that night, assuming he hasn't been claimed.

[Kevin]

"Training Camp" has now begun! (Yeah yeah, some teams are being run by scab coaches for now ) All eligible players are now included on your NHL roster, so please make sure that you have you the most recent league file and note the file name change for when you open it in your sim client! Preseason dates have been updated in the main post to reflect our current status.

[Jay]

This offseason, two new rules were added to the CBA:

Starting in the 2017-18 season, all players on an NHL roster during the regular season and playoffs must
have a 57 OV rating or higher, unless granted an exemption by the EHE commissioner.

and:

[All players claimed off waivers] starting in the 2017-18 season must dress in a minimum of three regular season games before being placed back on waivers for purpose of assignment.

When you combine these two rules with the fact that all players start at the NHL level during training camp, all players with a 56 OV or lower are effectively waiver-exempt because their OV renders them ineligible to be on an NHL roster during the regular season. By extension, they can't play the regular season games required to be placed back on waivers, so if they're not waiver-exempt, then they're in limbo.

Am I interpreting these new rules correctly?

[IslesGM]

This offseason, two new rules were added to the CBA:

Starting in the 2017-18 season, all players on an NHL roster during the regular season and playoffs must
have a 57 OV rating or higher, unless granted an exemption by the EHE commissioner.

and:

[All players claimed off waivers] starting in
the 2017-18 season must dress in a minimum of three regular season games before being placed back on
waivers for purpose of assignment.

When you combine these two rules with the fact that all players start at the NHL level during training camp, all players with a 56 OV or lower are effectively waiver-exempt because their OV renders them ineligible to be on an NHL roster or to play regular season games without commissioner intervention.

Am I interpreting these new rules correctly?

ha Good point. I have a guy in exactly that situation.

[blues_shaun]

I would say this...chances of anyone claiming anyone under the 57OV is essentially nil. I believe that was the point of putting that rule in place to prevent players from playing on 32 AHL teams a year and being put on waivers 75 times a year.

So I take it that any player that is under the 57OV rating "technically" can't be claimed off waivers because we already know he is being claimed to be sent back down. If you have built your team correctly you should not have to be claiming any more dead weight anyways.

[Kevin]

Jay, that is untrue. Sven actually had the same question when he first joined us. Players who qualify for waivers still have to go through waivers, regardless of their OV. There is some leeway that in some situations, players under 57 would still be allowed to play and this would probably qualify as one of those. However, as Shaun astutely said:

I would say this...chances of anyone claiming anyone under the 57OV is essentially nil.

...

If you have built your team correctly you should not have to be claiming any more dead weight anyways.

Seriously, there are only very rare situations where claiming a player under 57 would be beneficial for a team. This rule will probably eventually be tweaked because I do agree it could be made better. For instance, while writing that last sentence, I just considered that the '3 NHL games' rule should not apply for unconditional waivers. But overall, these are the steps that had to be made because of teams abusing the waiver system and abusing their roster rights by having full lines of ECHL players on their NHL squads.

[Jay]

Ah, so it's on a case-by-case basis. Got it. Thanks!