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***sköldpaddor*** · 05-02-2025, 01:45 PM

Hello SHL! We’ve been doing a little housekeeping on the rulebook, and as usual when we do a big chunk of these, we wanted to give you a run-down of all the changes we’ve made. These changes have already been made to the rulebook itself and are effective immediately, this is just a summary. Buckle up, this was nearly nine pages in Google Docs at 11pt.

Section I, Subsection C - Regression

We’ve removed the previous Rule 4, which prevented regression circumvention under the old update system. It shouldn’t be possible to circumvent regression with the portal now in place and regression calculations done automatically there. (This is not a challenge.)

We’ve also made changes to the new Rule 4 (previously rule 5, addition in bold):

Quote:Active players are responsible for completing their own regression by the regression (GM Task) deadline (11:59 AM Pacific time the Thursday following the SHL Draft). In the event that an active player does not complete their regression in that time, that player's GM must complete the regression within 24 hours following the regression deadline.

In the pre-portal days, regression had its own thread, its own deadline, and was posted as a public task. Regression now shares the same deadline as GM Tasks, but we realize that the GM task post is posted in the GM office, and not visible to the public, so for league-wide clarity we’ve set a consistent deadline (which should always fall prior to the SMJHL draft, allowing SMJHL GMs to have a clear picture of call-ups and send-downs before they draft).

Section I, Subsection D, Rule 2

Added a direct link to the Same IP thread, for maximum ease of use.

Section I, Subsection E, Rule 2

There was a lot of wording in this section referring to which TPE could or could not be claimed or applied after retirement. While we wish there was a way to apply TPE to a retired player, we have been told it would require a heavy lift from the dev team to make this possible in the portal. Therefore, we’ve removed 2.a,b, and c (all of which contained specifics of which TPE could or couldn’t be claimed post-retirement). Rule 2 now reads:

Quote:You can not earn or apply TPE for a player by any means following their retirement, whether by point tasks, purchasing training, or participating in training camps, unless that player is unretired within the window specified in Section I, Subsection E, Rule 4.

Section I, Subsection E, Rule 4

This rule lays out the timeline for unretirement. The window for unretirement has not changed; we have not altered the existing rule in any way, but we have added sub-point d for clarification of portal capabilities in this regard:

Quote:d. Once a site member has created a new player, they are unable to unretire their previous player, even if within the 7 day window.

Section I, Subsection F, Rule 5

We’ve added some wording here to adjust for the fact that contracts now expire at the start of the signing freeze (not at the beginning of Free Agency as before), and to specify that those contracts must be posted prior to the beginning of the freeze as well:

OLD:

Quote:When a player's contract expires at the start of Free Agency, and another contract has not yet been signed, barring special cases listed in Section 1, Subsection I, that player will become an Unrestricted Free Agent. Unrestricted Free Agents have the freedom to negotiate a new contract with any SHL team once Free Agency has opened.

NEW:

Quote:If a player on an expiring contract has not had a contract extension posted by the start of the signing freeze (see Section II, Subsection E, Rule 3.c) barring special cases listed in Section 1, Subsection I, that player will become an Unrestricted Free Agent. Unrestricted Free Agents have the freedom to negotiate a new contract with any SHL team once Free Agency has opened.

Section I, Subsection F, Rule 6

We’ve altered some wording surrounding the Free Agency timeline to reflect the deadlines that are impacted by the signing freeze (more on this in the signing freeze wording we’ll touch on later in this same post).

OLD:

Quote:Free Agency is a period during which SHL Teams may sign Unrestricted Free Agents. Free Agency for any given season begins at 9:00AM PST the day after the SHL Entry Draft for that season.
Free Agent Discussion Window: SHL teams may contact impending Free Agents for the purpose of discussing contracts with them at 12:00PM EST, the day after the Challenge Cup is awarded.

NEW:

Quote:Free Agency is a period during which SHL Teams may sign Unrestricted Free Agents. Free Agency for any given season begins at 9:00AM PST the day after the SHL Entry Draft for that season.
SHL teams may contact impending Free Agents for the purpose of discussing contracts with them as soon as the signing freeze begins (see Section II, Subsection E, Rule 3.c).

Section I, Subsection I, Rule 3

Adding some minor wording to clarify that players improperly sent-down may play in the SMJHL if signed by their SMJHL team (most of that wording is in the SMJHL rulebook, but we wanted to be absolutely clear that ours doesn’t conflict with that.

OLD:

Quote:A player is only considered to be officially sent down once one of their SHL General Managers lists them as a Send-Down in that season’s “Send-Down Thread”. If this task is incomplete or not done properly, the player is not eligible for an SMJHL Roster.

NEW:

Quote:A player is only considered to be officially sent down once one of their SHL General Managers lists them as a Send-Down in that season’s “Send-Down Thread”. If this task is incomplete or not done properly, the player is not eligible for an SMJHL Roster until the task is completed or until they are signed to an SMJHL contract by their SMJHL GM.

Section I, Subsection K, Rule 1

You know and love or hate it as the Crasher rule or the Enforceable Agreements rule, but whatever you want to call it, we’ve reworked it. We realized throughout some discussions early this season that this rule was at very least poorly defined, and depending on how that definition was improved, could be contradicted in other places in the rulebook.

OLD:

Quote:Enforceable Agreements: A contract agreed to by a player and GM is enforceable even if it was made through DMs or on Discord. Players and GMs may not back out of a negotiated deal once it has been agreed to. The contract is considered complete at the time of agreement, not the time of posting on the site. Attempts to later dispute or back out of that signing, will result in the following punishments:
Player offender: 3 game suspension
GM offender: $2,000,000 cap fine, loss of next available (own) 2nd round pick

NEW:

Quote:Enforceable Agreements: A contract (including both salary and term) agreed to by a player and GM is considered binding even if it was made through DMs or on Discord.
a. Players and GMs may not back out of a negotiated deal once it has been agreed to, unless both parties agree to nullify it prior to the contract being posted.
b. Once agreed upon, contracts must still be posted to the site in order for the player to be eligible for play (Section II, Subsection B, Rule 6.b).
c. If a contract is agreed upon but not posted prior to the beginning of the signing freeze (Section II, Subsection E, Rule 3.c.) the agreement will no longer be considered binding. d. Attempts to later dispute or back out of an agreed signing without agreement from both the GM and player, will result in the following punishments for the transgressing party:
Player offender: 3 game suspension
GM offender: $2,000,000 cap fine, loss of next available (own) 2nd round pick

Section II, Subsection B, Rule 3

Added some clarifying wording regarding offseason GM tasks, and codified the standard seasonal deadline for these. We have also removed the separate punishments for late regressions (regression previously had separate penalties due to having a separate deadline, but the penalties were identical aside from a requirement for automatic dismissal of a GM, which we’ve taken efforts to remove from the rulebook entirely)

OLD:

Quote:General Managers must meet all deadlines for Offseason Tasks, including but not limited to regression, budget, roster and lines. Failure to meet these deadlines will result in the following punishments:

NEW:

Quote:General Managers must meet the deadline for Offseason Tasks, including but not limited to regression, budget, completing any required player movement in the portal, roster and lines. The deadline for offseason GM tasks is 11:59 AM Pacific time the Thursday following the SHL Draft (SHL Head Office reserves the right to push this deadline to a later time if necessary) Failure to meet this deadline will result in the following punishments:

Section II, Subsection B, Rule 6.b.

Added wording to the playing eligibility rule here to specify that a contract must be posted in order for a player to be eligible to play. The punishment for this rule has not changed.

OLD:

Quote:Players must have a contract in order to be eligible for play. If a player is found to have played for a team in regular season games without a contract, the GMs of that team will be fined half of their GM pay for that season, and will forfeit their next available 2nd round pick.

NEW:

Quote:Players must have a contract for the current season publicly posted and accepted if active, or posted if an IFA, in order to be eligible for play. If a player is found to have played for a team in regular season games without a contract, the GMs of that team will be fined half of their GM pay for that season, and will forfeit their next available 2nd round pick.

Section II, Subsection D, Rule 3.d.

We’ve changed some wording to ensure clarify a minimum length for IFA bidding:

OLD:

Quote:The bidding session ends 24 hours after the initial bidding post, or 12 hours after the most recent counter bid, whichever comes first.

NEW:

Quote:All bids will remain open for a minimum of 24 hours. Bidding will end 24 hours after the initial bid, or 12 hours following any counter bids made 12+ hours after the initial bid was posted. I.e. a counter bid made 10 hours after the initial bid would end in 14 hours, at the 24 hour mark. A counter bid made at the 14th hour, would end at the 26th hour.

Section II, Subsection E, Rule 3.a.

Updated the wording regarding contract tier adjustments to reflect the portal season switch date (previously the deadline was the regression post, and since regression is calculated automatically in the portal with the season switch, that is the new date/total on which contract tiers adjustments are calculated). Additionally, it is no longer possible to artificially maintain lower TPE without forgoing earning that TPE at all, so that sub-point has been removed.

OLD:

Quote:Players may only extend with their team following the start of the final season of their contract’s term.
If a player crosses into a higher minimum contract tier prior to the beginning of any season of their contract, all future seasons of the contract will be adjusted up to the new minimum tier they have reached based on their TPE. For information on TPE/Contract tiers, see Section 1, Subsection F, rules 1 and 2.
A player’s TPE for a new contract or tier adjustment of an existing contract will include all TPE required to be claimed in that season’s regression post (regardless of whether that player is regressing).
TPE earned after the cutoff date listed in the regression post will not be included in the total determining that season’s contract tier.
HO reserves the right to review cases of players artificially maintaining a lower TPE prior to the new season.

NEW:

Quote:Players may only extend with their team following the start of the final season of their contract’s term.
If a player crosses into a higher minimum contract tier prior to the beginning of any season of their contract, all future seasons of the contract will be adjusted up to the new minimum tier they have reached based on their TPE. For information on TPE/Contract tiers, see Section 1, Subsection F, rules 1 and 2.
A player’s TPE for a new contract or tier adjustment of an existing contract will include all TPE awarded prior to the season switch in the new portal..
TPE awarded after the season switch in the portal will not be included in the total determining that season’s contract tier.

Section II, Subsection E, Rule 3.a.

Updated the wording to clarify that contracts negotiated but not posted prior to the freeze will no longer be considered binding.

OLD:

Quote:UFAs and unqualified RFAs who have not had contracts posted prior to the signing freeze must be moved to the free agent section of the portal.

NEW:

Quote:UFAs and unqualified RFAs who have not had contracts posted prior to the signing freeze must be moved to the free agent section of the portal. Contracts negotiated but not posted will no longer be considered binding once the signing freeze has begun.

Section II, Subsection E, Rule 3.c.iv.2

I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone who’s been keeping up with the site this season that we’ve been revisiting this rule. There were a lot of (completely valid, in our opinion) criticisms of the existing punishment to this rule, particularly that it unfairly punished players who were not responsible for GMs failing to complete tasks. We have revisited the penalty for this rule, and will be adjusting it going forward in a way that we hope will more fairly place the burden of the violation on the offending GM instead of the player(s) involved:

OLD:

Quote:If a free agent is not moved more than 24 hours following the beginning of the freeze, the team that failed to move the player will not be able to sign (or roster through other means, including trades) that player for one full season.

NEW:

Quote:If a free agent is not moved more than 24 hours following the beginning of the freeze, the offending GMs will forfeit half of their GM pay and off-season pass for the coming season, and the team will receive a cap fine for the following season equal to one half the minimum salary for that player's free agent contract tier.

Section II, Subsection E, Rule F.1

Added wording to clarify the means by which co-gms must receive permission to approve or post trades. This has always been the standard operating procedure, but with four new teams being added to the SHL this coming off-season (bringing us to a total of 48 GMs to keep track of), we wanted to specify a process for this that is clearly communicated with HO in order to ensure we can approve trades quickly.

OLD:

Quote:All trades must be agreed upon by the Head General Managers of the participating teams. Co-General Managers may negotiate trades, but can not accept them without being given explicit permission by their Head General Manager.

NEW:

Quote:All trades must be agreed upon by the Head General Managers of the participating teams. Co-General Managers may negotiate trades, but can not accept or post them without being given explicit permission by their Head General Manager. If a Head GM wishes to authorize their Co-GM to accept/post trades, they must notify SHL Head Office in their team discord channel. Authorization to accept and post trades, once granted, is considered valid until specifically revoked or until the Head GM who granted it has left the role by any means.

WHEW okay that's all for now. Some of the lists/formatting here on the forum don't like to format the way they're formatted in the rulebook, so if the organization/sub-organization of any of these is confusing, I recommend taking a look at the actual rulebook where it's all formatted correctly.