Good day SMJHL community,

To quote one of our GMs last night, “expansion? :pikashock:”

    As it stands, despite expanding with two teams back in Season 55 we are already near bursting with active players again. Outside of maybe two or three teams that have two or three IFAs at most each, just about every J team is at or near capped on Active Players. We can’t achieve one of our goals of providing the best possible experience to new members should there not be any room for them. As such, with our next draft extremely likely to be a Reddit draft on top of the fantastic work done by the Recruitment Team, SMJHL HO has voted to expand by two teams. We also will have plans set up in reserve should we need an emergency extra two more teams on top of the two additional slots we have already green-lit.

Applications and their guidelines for this can be found *HERE*

The important dates for this timeline are as follows:

• Expansion GM Applications Open: June 23rd, at the time of this announcement
  
• Expansion GM Applications Close: July 9th, 11:59 PM ET
  
• Expansion GMs Announced: July 12th at the latest July 16th at 11:59 PM ET
  
• Protection Lists Due: July 23rd, 11:59 PM ET
  
• Expansion Draft: TBD
  
• SMJHL Draft: TBD
  

Here are the rules for this expansion:

SMJHL GMs are allowed to protect either:
6 Forwards, 4 Defensemen, & 1 Goaltender
  OR
10 Players regardless of position

These lists will be based off of next season’s roster, S61, for call-up purposes.

The Expansion Draft will be done in a snake draft format, until 12 players total have been selected

Each existing team will lose no more than 1 player in the Expansion Draft, all current SMJHL teams will lose 1 player to the Expansion Draft no matter what.

Should an Expansion GM currently be on an SMJHL team’s roster, they will count as the 1 player lost to the Expansion Draft. If by the unlikely scenario a team has multiple GMs/Co-GMs, the team will be granted an equal amount of picks to players lost beyond the first at the end of the second round, outside the normal order.

Expansion GMs may select Co-GMs that currently do not have a player in the SMJHL freely. However, should a desired Co-GM have a player in the SMJHL they must first acquire permission to speak with that user from their SMJHL GM first.

Expansion GMs currently on a SMJHL team will select themselves with their last pick of the Expansion Draft, and if any Expansion Co-GMs are currently on a SMJHL team the Co-GM will be selected with that Expansion Team’s second pick in the Expansion Draft.

Expansion Teams will receive the average amount of lottery balls comparable to the rest of the teams in the Draft Lottery. Expansion Teams will draft #3 and #4 OA in the First Round unless they win the lottery. From that point onwards the Expansion Teams will draft at the 13th and 14th positions at the bottom of the draft.


Should you wish to apply to be one of our newest Expansion GMs, please head to *THIS POST* for more rules and guidelines on how to apply. Applications will close on July 9th at 11:59 PM ET.

Thank you all for your time,
SMJHL HO


Congratulations to @overdoo & @Geekusoid for becoming our newest J GMs!