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ACapitalChicago · 07-13-2023, 05:53 PM

Howdy everyone! Welcome to the S72 SMJHL State of the Union. We’ve got a lot of different changes happening and we figured making a unified post would be the easiest way to list them all. Some are small in scope while others might draw some widespread attention. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any other member of J HO! Let’s get right into it.

Post-Draft IFA Claiming formalized
Changes regarding naming regulations & policies
Trading picks with conditions attached
Putting active players in reserve
Weekday SMJHL Entry Draft

1. Post-Draft IFA Claiming is now officially codified in the rulebook.
Blame me for how long this one took, it’s now formalized as Section 5 of the SMJHL Rulebook. We’re happy to answer any questions about this one should anyone have any, it’s a bit confusing. In short, the old system used to be that all IFAs were free game starting at noon the day after the J Draft. This would result in every J GM panicking to spam the post button on a big contract for all the IFAs they want, and us having to see who posted first. We’ve instead opted for a system where we use the existing waivers order from the previous system for teams to claim IFAs of 156+ applied TPE in order, while 155 TPE IFAs are still signed freely at will. Overall, since its inception I’d say this has been a successful change that’s led to fewer disagreements over ownership and is a more fair way to claim IFAs instead of the old “first come first served” process.
For ease of access, the official rules read:

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1. Teams may begin claiming IFAs of 155 applied TPE starting at 12pm PST the day after the SMJHL Entry Draft on a first come first basis.

     a. SMJHL HO will adjudicate any conflicts regarding double claims based on the time of submission

2. Teams have until 5pm PST the day after the SMJHL Entry Draft to submit a list of any IFAs that are of 156 or greater applied TPE that they wish to claim for the upcoming season.

     a. These lists should be in order of most preferred players to least preferred.

     b. Should a team be claiming any amount of players that would put them over the appropriate IFA TPE limits then they must list the players that they will be dropping to be in compliance

3. Claims will be processed by SMJHL HO as soon as possible after the deadline, and will use where the previous season's waivers wire order left off to determine claims.

2. Changes regarding name policies
Firstly, after some discussion, SMJHL HO has agreed upon the following regulation to clarify our stance on names and what is/isn’t allowed for the names or other similar information for players:

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SMJHL HO reserves the right to require changes for players with names or other identifying details that are including but not limited to being offensive towards others, derogatory or belittling to groups of people, dismissive of people's personal identities, or otherwise deemed inappropriate by a vote of J HO.

This is obviously not all-encompassing, there will certainly be gray areas where discussion will be warranted. This is one of those things where we can’t regulate ourselves into a corner, there’s going to need to be some level of interpretation. Our goal is to cut down on the overly explicit stuff like “Mike Hunt” and clarify the mentality we use when determining the appropriateness of a name. We’re more than happy to take suggestions on what should/shouldn’t be allowed, and as always people are encouraged to apply for SMJHL HO should they wish to be a part of these discussions!
And more fun, secondly we're allowing a free rookie name change! It’s annoying for rookies and first gens to make their player, be all excited for them, and then realize their name kinda sucks for whatever reason. Instead of charging a $4M fine which can be crippling for first gens or incentivizing them to retire their brand new player, we’ve decided to allow 1 free name change per player so long as the player is still in their Rookie Season.

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Players in their first SMJHL season, from any point between their creation to their class' first SHL draft, may change their player name for free once.

This change will be in line with the recent decision to allow SMJHL Rookies one free build redistribution at any point during their Rookie season, instead of needing it to solely be in the offseason between their first and second seasons.

3. Trading picks with conditions attached
We discussed this one a lot, without exaggeration this was probably our most divisive and close vote we’ve had in months. Tl;Dr: a team traded a set of picks that could’ve led to a double trade pending conditions. Had the conditions resolved favorably, no harm no foul. Had they not, we’d be looking at a punishment. We voted to not punish immediately and instead wait out to see what happened to the picks. After we voted no punishment but before we formalized & announced due to the rulebook strings attached, under the TDL wire the team made another set of trades to absolve any potential situation where the picks would be double-traded.
That left us in a difficult circumstance at the moment. While explicitly the team did not alter the original trade to avoid punishment, a regulation we have since removed from the rulebook (Ironically, given the concerns raised regarding the regulation originally), effectively this is implicitly GMs trading to resolve a double trade issue. Obviously this needs addressing in the rulebook, but our own system of trades needs examination as well. We’re broadly discussing moving to a system akin to the SHL trading process where SMJHL HO would need to approve/deny trades. Such a systemic change would add another step to prevent these problems arising from double traded picks in the first place. While that discussion is taking place, we’re introducing the following regulation to the rulebook in the meanwhile:

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Teams cannot trade picks that already have a preexisting unresolved condition attached.

For example, now under the regulations Team A can trade pick X to Team B if Y conditions are met. But, Team B then cannot trade pick X to Team C under any circumstances until the conditions regarding pick X are resolved.

4. Benching active players
Given that the SMJHL is a developmental league, it doesn’t make sense for teams to be able to play inactive players over their active ones. Starting with S72, we will be officially codifying that teams cannot bench active players through the following regulation:

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Starting in S72 SMJHL Teams may not bench non-goalie & non-UDFA active players for any reason other than official league punishment related reasons. Teams may ask SMJHL HO for an exception should internal conduct circumstances require it.

To address the elephant in the room, this has been the source of more than a small amount of drama and conflict. Multiple different people reached out in various capacities to discuss their dissatisfaction with the rules as they stand, with varying suggestions and requests. SMJHL HO discussed at length different variations of this rule, such as role regulations where players out of position don’t count, whether teams should be allowed a certain amount of actives on the bench maximum, game played requirements, as well as other exceptions. But in the end, we reached a consensus that the simplified version would be easiest for all involved. It should be noted that players suspended by the league will still be required to be benched during their punishment. While teams may ask SMJHL HO for exceptions regarding internal conduct reasons we do not foresee this occurring frequently, but regardless we wanted to make sure that GMs still had leeway to handle internal problems internally while keeping us informed. In the past few seasons we've also had teams with multiple active goalies that they swap out in tandem or even in trios, so we explicitly will allow those to continue as an exemption. UDFAs are explicitly Unrostered Draftable Free Agents and should not be on the roster, their already inherent exemption is repeated for clarity's sake.

Our overall goals for the SMJHL have always been to retain and develop players. Sometimes we need to reexamine what exactly do those goals mean, how we wish to achieve them, and how do we make sure others understand and share our vision. Sometimes this means clarifying different interpretations of what really counts as developing players, as well as who do we really count as retained for the good of the League. Speaking plainly, I'd like to personally apologize for the lack of immediate clarification from SMJHL HO. Had we more decisively intervened early on then we could've avoided this entire debacle and prevented it from boiling over in various different areas. Ideally this new regulation will prevent future similar cases, and we'll keep an eye on it to ensure it's achieving the desired result. I know I say this a lot, but I really do mean it. If at any point people have concerns regarding the SMJHL I ask that you approach myself or anyone in SMJHL HO, or anyone who you trust to tell us. Thank you.

5. Weekday SMJHL Entry Draft
We said we’d try it, we gotta try it. So, yeah, the S72 SMJHL Entry Draft is on a weekday this season. In the past we’ve run into numerous issues with our weekend drafts resulting in constrained timeframes that leave our file workers with deadlines they can’t meet for the start of the SMJHL Preseason. Add in difficulties with the Events Team’s schedule to make things even more difficult and we usually have to scramble at best to get the file out in a reasonable time. We’re going to try for more weekday SMJHL Entry Drafts to see if this results in more favorable timeframes for all involved. Should this not be the case then we’ll look into alternative solutions such as expanding our available file workers or further reducing our time for J GM Tasks. Our GMs have been doing a bang up job of making sure the past few SMJHL Entry Drafts have gone smoothly and quickly, and hopefully we can keep that pattern up this coming Tuesday.

So, there’s quite a few changes here, all for various reasons with a variety of origins. Overall, we do hope that these result in better and more clarified systems across the board. Our goal for the SMJHL is to focus on our missions to retain and develop players, and that involves discussing what exactly that means and how we best envision the league with those lenses. We've talked a lot internally regarding these and other changes, and we want to make sure that others see them beyond our announcements to just our J GMs. I hope everyone's having a wonderful Thursday, and that next season is even better than the last. Thank you!

S66 Damian Littleton

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***Patty*** · 07-13-2023, 05:58 PM

ACap bad

***Aephino*** · 07-13-2023, 05:59 PM

I feel ______ about this!!!

Evok · 07-13-2023, 06:07 PM

This decision is sure ____

***Sburbine*** · 07-13-2023, 06:11 PM

Restrictions to conditions from an HO with Fuzz as a member? Has hell frozen over?

***sve7en*** · 07-13-2023, 06:16 PM

07-13-2023, 06:11 PMSburbine Wrote: Restrictions to conditions from an HO with Fuzz as a member? Has hell frozen over?

Where do you think I learned it from?

***boom*** · 07-13-2023, 06:25 PM

Excellent changes.

***Reno*** · 07-13-2023, 06:34 PM

now i gotta draft while driving home from vacation wts

wumaduce · 07-13-2023, 06:36 PM

Great changes to see!

Spartan · 07-13-2023, 07:13 PM

Damn I made a rule

***PapaSorin*** · 07-13-2023, 07:57 PM

The Heghog rule. We all knew it was coming...

*CementHands* · 07-13-2023, 08:16 PM

In regards to rule number 4, I have a question that will hopefully clarify one glaring issue I see with this: if the goal of the smjhl is player retention and development, and the only team willing to take a chance on players is full of technically active players, should that team just pass on these players that everyone else has passed on, therefore ensuring no chance that these players who just might need a little extra help ever come back, let alone play a shift in the SHL.

My perspective is this is a nothingburger (atleast assuming this is all from the very vocal outcry that’s happened recently), and is in fact detrimental to the league by punishing players who get dropped or passed over from teams for whatever reason and telling the GMs who give a shit about trying to help out these players to essentially fuck off.

This is going to lead to 2 things : good GMs leaving, and players who all they might need is a little extra attention falling to the side.

Don’t say that a goal of the SMJHL is developing players and retention, while at the same time saying you don’t care about developing all players.

***sve7en*** · 07-13-2023, 08:49 PM

07-13-2023, 08:16 PMCementHands Wrote: the only team willing to take a chance on players is full of technically active players

That wasn't the case for any of the players this happened to this season, and I'm kinda tired of seeing this implication. One was a draft pick made with other teams still picking, the other two were waiver claims and not some floating life preserver tossed out.

On a loosely related note, can we run back the playoffs with Carolina having players I didn't keep because we were full? I'm sure a few other teams would appreciate that too.

*Fluw* · 07-13-2023, 09:08 PM

07-13-2023, 08:49 PMsve7en Wrote: That wasn't the case for any of the players this happened to this season, and I'm kinda tired of seeing this implication. One was a draft pick made with other teams still picking, the other two were waiver claims and not some floating life preserver tossed out.

On a loosely related note, can we run back the playoffs with Carolina having players I didn't keep because we were full? I'm sure a few other teams would appreciate that too.

I too should have kept the 2 players, one which I moved, and 1 which I backed out on a trade for because I didn't have the space just so they could get ice time.

***Sburbine*** · 07-13-2023, 09:29 PM

A ninth waiver spot is someone that was passed over by eight out of 14 teams, not some social outcast. They would have played somewhere over an inactive easily. I didn't really mind the benching all that much and didn't make a stink about it even though we were swept in the final, but the discourse that Maine did some selfless act and is getting punished for it is simply wrong. I'm glad the rule is now in place because it not only helps level out teams but it makes it so everyone can play without feeling pressured to sit on the bench.

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