Login

ACapitalChicago · 02-28-2022, 03:29 PM

I should really stop commenting on the thread titles, because every time I do the next one gets longer.

First, a massive thank you to J HO for their patience with this issue. It felt like every time we were almost finished with the issue, something else would come up. I’d then like to thank our J GMs, despite being about to punish them, for their understanding with our fact finding and constant questioning in regards to these issues. So with that, buckle up, this is going to be a long one.

With the recent retirement of the player Mars Stanton by @CD12, SMJHL HO was made aware that the user had not been offered a contract for the current season (S63) or the prior season (S62), and subsequently was not paid for either season despite playing in the J during that time. This led the HO team to investigate all player contract and pay statuses for the current season, as well as checking prior seasons in the cases of players who weren’t correctly contracted or paid in S63. We are going to break each of these situations down by team and case by case to explain them.

Anchorage:
On January 4th, 2022, Anchorage signed the user @rory, player Jalal ad-Din Afinogenov, to a 1 season contract for S63 (https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=121087). Then, on January 7th, 2022, Anchorage traded the player to St. Louis (https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=121336) prior to the S63 SMJHL Entry Draft. All SMJHL GM Tasks are due post-entry draft, and these tasks include depositing contract payments for all signed players. Anchorage explained to SMJHL HO that the player was understandably long gone, and they assumed that the team who had the player in their budget would be responsible for the deposit since contract deposits happen post-draft and the trade was pre-draft. While SMJHL HO feels that the teams responsible for signing the contract are the ones responsible for depositing payment, we understand that both in this specific situation there is ambiguity and that the SMJHL Rulebook requires more elaboration on this part. Now aware of all of these, HO voted for a warning and to update the rulebook.

Carolina:
On January 8th, 2022, Carolina signed the user @Toxlc (with an L), player Ka Chow, to a 1 season contract for S63 (https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=121373). However, Carolina paid the user @Toxic (with an I), when depositing their contracts this season on accident. (Deposit: https://simulationhockey.com/bankrequest.php?id=9740, user toxlc with no payment: https://simulationhockey.com/bankaccount.php?uid=5798). This situation, while comical, does still constitute a failure to pay the correct player. However, considering in the very message asking Carolina for more information on the situation I myself asked Carolina “(ToxIc? Idk if it's an I or an l or an |)”, such a mishap is understandable, and HO voted for a warning.

Colorado:
When investigating these situations it became clear that Colorado had user @Philliesphan96, player Vin Bangsa-Wamy, play for them the entire S63 season (https://index.simulationhockey.com/smjhl/players). However, upon investigation, Colorado explained they did not have a contract for the player. Colorado then elaborated that they were informed by both JayWhy and Philliesphan96 that Manhattan would be signing the contract, depositing the money, and sending the user down. Colorado was understanding that they should have double checked beyond the first confirmation, and was willing to rectify the situation as needed. While SMJHL HO understands that it is the responsibility of GMs to confirm the entire status of their players, given the evidence provided of conversations where Manhattan explicitly stated they would take care of the contract & payment, HO voted to give a warning.

Kelowna:
This situation is slightly different from the others, more so than all are from each other. The player page for user @dirigiblejones, player Ellis Lee, was in Kelowna’s Roster subforum for the entirety of S63. However, the player did not actually play any games for Kelowna this season (https://index.simulationhockey.com/smjhl/players). Upon investigation, Kelowna explained that they simply failed to move the player’s page to the Free Agents subforum. Normally this would constitute a failure to complete the GM Task of Roster/Forums Update, SMJHL HO felt that no actual harm was done since the player did not play any games, many near equivalent FA were still available for other teams, and the technical literal punishment for a Late GM Task would be full dismissal of the GMs & forfeiture of pay is too harsh, so HO voted for a warning.

Quebec City:
On January 17th, 2022, Quebec City brought back user @LucasArnold, player Lucas Arnold, on an emergency basis approved by SMJHL HO because of a sudden call-up (https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=121584). The player was properly contracted, and then cut on January 19th after the call-up was sent back down to the J (https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=121630). However, no bank deposit was actually made for the user. Given the emergency and messy situation surrounding the context of the signing of the player, HO voted for a warning.

St. Louis:
And now we arrive where it all started. In S62, St. Louis failed to contract or pay user @CD12, player Mars Stanton, but played them for the entire season (https://index.simulationhockey.com/smjhl...?season=62). In S63, St. Louis failed to contract or pay CD12/Mars Stanton again, before trading them to Regina alongside a pick and a player in return for a different pick and player (https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=121676).
In addition, St. Louis also failed to sign a contract for and pay the user @TML99, player Sam Stone, for the entirety of S63 (https://index.simulationhockey.com/smjhl...?season=63). When we reached out for more information, St. Louis confirmed that each player played for them but that St. Louis did not have a contract post or deposit for either. All other situations found by SMJHL HO had some sort of understandable variable that complicated matters, be it a miscommunication between Leagues, a sudden callup, or so on. In St. Louis’ case however, HO found nothing besides a failure to contract & pay two separate players, one of which for two consecutive seasons. The SMJHL rulebook does not specifically specify punishments for failure to contract or pay players, although it could be viewed as either a failure to complete GM tasks or a Budget Error where a team did not assume the necessary player salary obligations. However, in either case, this would call for the firing of the GMs. SMJHL HO felt this was too severe of a punishment. In regards to the trade made with Mars Stanton, HO reached a consensus that attempting to get involved in that aspect was unnecessary. There was much deliberation in regards to these specific infractions, but to summarize, HO voted for full loss of STL GM pay for S63, and two season probation for STL. The terms of the probation are that any contract or payment related infraction in either of S64 or S65 will result in immediate GM termination.

Other issues:
During our investigation, we also found other users/players who did not receive payment for S63. However, we found that their respective SHL clubs were responsible for paying these players. Thus we turned over our findings to the SHL HO, and they will handle any necessary punishments.

To summarize the above paragraphs, based on our findings and the unique situations around each infraction, the SMJHL Head Office has determined the following punishments:

Warnings:
ANC (@Ragnar, @bluesfan55)
CAR (@sve7en, @Canadice)
COL (@Jumbobone19, @Ruggsy)
KEL (@trashae, @artermis)
QCC (@Evok, “@Faelax)

Full S63 GM Pay Fine and 2 Season Probation:
STL (@TheSparkyDee, @JaytheGreat)

All GMs listed above are able to appeal their respective punishments to any member of the Appeals Committee.

Rulebook Updates:
1. As mentioned in the Anchorage section, there is potential ambiguity as to who is responsible for depositing a contract. As such, we are updating 1.c. Player Contracts to include clause ix. “All contract deposits are the responsibility of the team that has signed the player to the most recent contract”. We will be including it as a preventative redundancy in the following update as well.

2. We are updating 9.E. Budget Errors from:
a. If a club puts a player on the active roster and a sim goes live without assuming the player’s salary obligations, they face the following penalties, applied the season after the infraction.
i. 1-25 regular-season games: 4% salary cap penalty (rounded up to the nearest 1M)
ii. 25-50 regular-season games: 8% salary cap penalty (rounded up to the nearest 1M)
iii. Any playoff games: $5% salary cap penalty per series affected (rounded up to the nearest 1M)
iv. Repeated offenses in consecutive seasons will result in GM termination.
To:
a. If a club puts a player on the active roster and a sim goes live without assuming the player’s salary obligations, including a failure to sign to a contract and/or deposit said contract, they face the following penalties, applied the season the infraction is found:
i. 1-32 regular-season games: 2M fine
ii. 32-66 regular-season games: 4M fine
iii. Any playoff games: Full GM pay fine and loss of CW pass for the season
iv. Repeated offenses in consecutive seasons will result in the GM forfeiting pay for the most recent season and being put on a 2-season probation in regards to contract and pay infractions
v. All contract deposits are the responsibility of the team that has signed the player to the most recent contract

SMJHL HO agreed that, while effective in the SHL, salary cap punishments are ineffective in the SMJHL and inhibit the ability of SMJHL teams to bring on active players to their teams. Thus we have updated the section to be more proportionally accurate to our 66 game schedule instead of the long since passed 50 game schedule. In addition, we hope this is more in line with punishing GMs directly instead of potentially crippling the team and players.

Contract Deposits:
So obviously all of these affected people need to be paid, SMJHL HO will handle all deposits to the affected members to hopefully make things easy on everyone after this.

As always, HO is available to answer any questions anyone may have