Official Constitution Of The Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League
We, The People of the Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League, in
order to form a more perfect League, hereby declare Tie Domi the Keeper Of
Justice, kiss domestic Tranquillity good-bye, promote the general Welfare in
cities like Calgary and Tampa Bay, and secure the Blessings of our lost
puberty, to ourselves and those that have gone before, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for The Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League, and also finish this
run-on sentence.
I.
Object
To assemble a lineup of National Hockey League players whose
cumulative statistics during the regular season, compiled and measured by the
methods described in these rules, exceed those of all other teams in the
league.
·
The Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League
shall consist of from 10-16 teams with each team’s roster being made up of the
required number of active players, and as injuries occur, a reserve list of
injured players, acquired according to the Draft Day rules set forth below and
being drawn from a pool of ALL
current National Hockey League players.
·
A team must have 18 players on its
active roster at all times.
·
The number of players on a team’s
active roster must be at the required level and positional integrity must be
intact after the completion of any transaction.
III.
Roster
A team’s active
roster consists of the following players:
·
9 Forwards (any mix of Left Wings,
Centers and Right Wings)
·
6 Defensemen
·
3 Goalies
Positional integrity
shall be considered met when the allocation of all of a team’s active players
among eligible positions meet the above requirements.
A player may only
appear on one team’s roster (active and reserve) at one time but may appear on
multiple team rosters during the course of the season as a result of trades and
waiver transactions.
IV.
The Draft
·
The order of drafting in the first
round will be determined by random draw to be held on Draft Day once at least
one representative from each team is in attendance.
·
This order will hold for the odd rounds
of the draft (1st, 3rd, 5th, etc.) and will
reverse for the even rounds of the draft (2nd, 4th, 6th,
etc.). That is, the team with the 1st overall pick in the draft will
pick first in the first round but last in the 2nd round and 1st
again in the 3rd round.
Conversely the team picking last in the first round will pick 1st
in the 2nd round and last in the 3rd round. Essentially a “snaking” draft order will
occur, 1 through 10 (or the highest team) in round 1, 10 (or the highest team)
back to 1 in round 2 and so on…
·
Each round a team may select one player
from the pool of available players to fill a position on the team roster that
remains open.
·
Players drafted who end up being
released, sent to the minors or put on the Injured List before Opening Day can
be replaced free of charge before Opening Day.
A $1.00 fee is assessed if the owner wishes to place this released or
injured player on the team’s Reserve List.
·
The Draft shall be considered complete
when every team has 18 players on it’s active roster.
V.
Position Eligibility
· A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 10 or more games in the preceding season. If a player did not appear in 10 games at a single position, he may be drafted only at the position at which he appeared most frequently. If a player has appeared in the same number of games at two or more positions, but not in 10 games at any of them, that player is eligible at ALL positions in which he has played that maximum number of games.
·
The 10 game/most games rule is used
only to determine the position(s) at which a player may be drafted. Once the season is under way, a player
becomes eligible for assignment to any position at which he has appeared at
least once.
VI.
Fees
The entry fee for
entering a team into The Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League shall be $30. That is,
each team will leave the draft with a balance of $30. During the season fees shall be assessed for common transactions. All fees go into the Prize Pool and are paid
out after the season to the top teams in the standings. See Prize Money section
for more details. The fees are as follows:
Entry
Fee: $30.00 per team after drafting
18 active players
Injury
Transactions: $1.00 to place
the injured player on team’s Reserve List and add another player.
$1.00
to drop an injured or released player and replace him with another player
without placing the injured player on
team’s Reserve List
$1.00
to bring a player back to the Active Roster from the Reserve List.
Performance
Transactions:
$1.00 to drop an under
performing player and add a new player
Trades:
$1.00 per team, regardless of how
many players are involved
See the Transaction
sections for more details on each type of transaction.
VII.
Prize Money
All fees shall be
paid promptly at the end of the season to the League Treasurer, who is
empowered by The League to do anything in his power to assure that all fees are
paid in a timely fashion. The money
shall then be divided up among the teams as follows:
Any team leading the
league in a particular category (see Standings section for category list) shall
be awarded $10 extra for each category led.
Additionally, prizes
will be awarded according to Final Standings:
1st Place
- 40% of prize fund (after category prizes)
2nd Place
- 25%
3rd Place
- 15%
4th Place
- 10%
5th Place
- 5%
6th Place
- 3%
7th Place
- 2%
VIII.
Standings
The following
criteria are used to determine team performance:
SKATING
·
Total Goals Scored (G)
·
Total Assists (A)
·
Composite Plus/Minus Rating (+/-)
·
Penalty Minutes (PIM), by the way “more
is better” in this exciting category!
GOALTENDING
·
Total wins (W)
·
Composite Goals Against Average (GAA)
·
Composite Save Percentage (SV %)
Teams are ranked from
first (best) to last (worst) in each of the seven categories and given points
for each place. For example, in a ten
team league, the first place team in a category receives ten points, the second
place team nine, and so on down to one point for last place. The team with the most points at the end of
the season wins the league. Point
totals do not accumulate from week to week but rather are recalculated each
week based on each team’s cumulative totals. For example, a team that has 49
points in one week and 47 the next has a point total of 47 (the latest recalculation, NOT 96 (the total of the two weeks).
·
Goaltender’s offensive statistics (G,
A, PIM) are not counted in a team’s offensive totals.
·
In cases of ties in an individual
category, the tied teams are assigned points by totaling points for the
rankings at issue and dividing the total by the number of teams tied. For
example if two teams in a ten team league tie for 1st and 2nd
in Assists, the point values for those two spots (10 and 9 points) would be
totaled (19) and then divided by the number of tied teams (2) with each team
getting in this case, 9 ½ points.
·
In cases of ties in total points at the
end of the season, prize money will be split accordingly.
·
From time to time it may become
necessary to determine who is the “lower team in the standings” when a tie
occurs, usually for player allocation when two teams request the same player in
a given week. All ties for places in
the standings are determined by comparing placements of teams in individual
categories. Respective performances are
calculated and a point given to each team for bettering the other. Should one team total more points than the
other, that team is given the higher
position.
IX.
Statistics
The weekly player
performance summaries (a.k.a statistics) compiled by Fantasy Sports Stats (they're in Canada, eh!) and
sent to me via e-mail every Thursday morning shall be considered
the Official Statistics for computation of standings in The Slap Shot Fantasy
Hockey League.
·
The effective date of any transaction
for the purposes of statistical calculation is the next Thursday on or
following the day of the transaction.
Weekly statistics shall consist of a player’s statistics for games
played from Thursday to Wednesday. For
example, if you pick up a player on Friday, you don’t get his statistics (or
lose the dropped players statistics) until the next Thursday. The absolute deadline for acquiring players
is Noon on Thursday. Any players taken
on Thursday morning will be eligible for statistics starting that night.
·
Transactions recorded on Draft Day and
before Opening Day, including trades and call-ups to replace injured or farmed
out players, are effective Opening Day.
Transactions occurring during the week after Opening Day will be
effective the first Thursday after Opening Day.
·
Any player on a fantasy team roster cut
from an NHL roster between Draft Day and Opening Day may be replaced at no
charge on a first come, first served basis with a player from the Free Agent
Pool.
·
Performance statistics of a player
shall be assigned to a team only when that player is on the active 18 man
roster of that team. It is common for a
player to appear on the roster of more than one fantasy team during the season
because of trades and waiver moves.
Even a player who is not traded may spend time on a team’s reserve list,
during which period any numbers he might compile for his major league team do
not count for his fantasy team.
·
Once a player is dropped from the
active roster, any statistics accumulated while on the active roster stay with
that fantasy team’s cumulative totals.
Likewise, any player added to a roster does not bring his previous
totals with him.
·
League statistics will be calculated on
a weekly basis, usually Thursday night, and consist of all statistics from the
previous week’s (Thursday through Wednesday) games.
·
The league stats will be made available
for viewing and download on the league’s web site at HTTP://WWW.COMMISH.COM, usually by Thursday or Friday the latest of
the week. Owners needing other delivery
arrangements need to make The Commissioner aware of such on Draft Day and you
will be accommodated to the best of our abilities.
X.
Transactions
In general there are three types of player transactions that
can be made:
1. an
injury transaction,
2. a
performance transaction,
3. or
a trade.
XI.
Injury Transactions
An injury transaction is one that involves a player who has
been:
1. placed
on the Injured List by his NHL team,
2. released
from the NHL (a.k.a. unconditionally released),
3. sent
down to the minors,
4. listed
as “day-to-day” or “out indefinitely”,
5. or
retires.
·
To replace such a player, a team must
either a)release this player outright from it’s roster or b) place the player
on it’s reserve list. In either case,
the team is now free to choose any player from the Free Agent Pool to replace
the injured (or farmed out) player, so long as the effect of placing the free
agent on the active roster does not result in a loss of positional
integrity. For example, if a team’s
forward gets injured, that team can replace him with another forward from the
Free Agent Pool, OR if an defenseman
on the active roster is also eligible as a forward then that defenseman can be
shifted into the injured player’s forward position and a defenseman from the
Free Agent Pool can be added to the active roster.
·
There is no limit on the number of
players a team may have on its reserved list at one time.
·
Once the injured or farmed out player
becomes available again (he comes off the Injured List or gets called back to
the NHL), provided he has been put on his team’s reserve list, he can then be
placed back onto the active roster in place of any player on the active roster
who plays the same position. The player whose roster spot the uninjured player
assumes must be dropped back into the Free Agent Pool, unless an injury to that
player allows him to be put on the team’s reserve list.
·
A team has two weeks from the time that
a player retains active status (comes off Injured List, gets called up, etc.)
to reinstate him to the active roster.
Failure to do so in the two week time period will result in the player
being dropped back into the Free Agent Pool. The two week period is not an
absolute “14 day” period. The perhaps
inappropriately named “two week period” shall begin the day the player appears
in a box score after having been out for some period of time and shall end on
the first Thursday (the transaction deadline day) on or following the 14th
day after the “two week” period begins. Should
conflicting transaction dates appear, The Commissioner reserves the right to
decide when the “two week” period should begin by using the box scores that
appear on ESPN.COM to determine the
“official” transaction date.
·
Should two teams wish to claim the same
player from the Free Agent Pool in the same week, the team with the lowest
current position in the overall standings shall be awarded the player. This
rule will be in effect for the entire season.
·
A team need not replace an injured or
farmed out player immediately, an injury transaction can be made at any time so
long as the player is on the Injured List or in the minors (or both!) at the
time of the transaction.
·
A suspended player or a player who has
been “holding out” in contract negotiations, is not eligible for any
transactions and is “frozen in place” (on either the active roster or the
reserve list) until he comes off of suspension or signs a contract. A player suspended or holding out for a full
season will result in a frozen roster spot for the remainder of the season. A
team may choose to drop the suspended or holding out player from its active
roster. If a team chooses to do so,
they must drop the player, they
cannot reserve him.
·
The fee for making an injury
transaction is $1.00 regardless of whether or not you choose to place the
injured player on your Reserve List.
After the reserved player comes off the Injured List or gets recalled
back to the NHL, there is an additional $1 fee to re-instate him onto your
active roster. There is no fee if you
decide to drop the player from your team’s Reserve List.
·
There is no limit to the number of
injury transactions a team may make in a season.
·
Statistics for the newly acquired
player begin accruing on the games of the first Thursday on or following the
transaction date. The statistics (if any) for the dropped/reserved player will
keep accruing until such a time as the newly acquired player’s statistics kick
in.
·
Once a player has been dropped back
into the Free Agent Pool, that player must remain there until the next
transaction period so that every owner has the opportunity to acquire the dropped
player if they so desire. For example,
a team drops Jaromir Jagr (!?) on Thursday of a given week. No team may pick up Jagr until after the
next Thursday so that the drop may show up in the weekly stats and everyone
has knowledge that Jagr is now a free agent. Of course in this case, a feeding
frenzy will ensue, but we’ll let The Commissioner handle those!
·
You may only make one move per player per week.
A player cannot be put on the Reserve List and brought back off the
Reserve List in the same week. A player
may also not be acquired in a trade and then immediately dropped to make room
for another player. Nor may a player be
traded to more than one team in the same week.
An example of this rule prevents owners from reserving an injured player
on Thursday, adding a new guy on Thursday, reactivating the now uninjured
player on Saturday and dropping a player other than the one added on
Thursday. You also cannot pick up an
injured player, immediately reserve him and then add another player in the
vacated spot. If a player is hurt and returns in the same week, or comes off
the Injured List and goes back on in the same week, you can only make on move
with that player for that week. The
only exception to this rule will be injured players drafted on Draft Day, who
may be reserved and replaced immediately after the Draft or before Opening Day.
·
A player may be brought back to the
Active Roster from the Reserve List at any time in anticipation of that player
returning from injury in the middle of the next statistics week. For example, the deadline for transactions
is Thursday and you read that your star goalie is coming off the Injured List
on the next Sunday. You may elect to
bring your injured player back to the Active Roster early, before he comes off
the Injured List (the usual $1.00 fee applies, of course) so that you won’t
“miss” a half week’s worth of statistics for that player. Of course, the player
you decide to drop from the roster to make room for the injured player may do
more in a full week than the injured player could do in a half week, or it can
happen the other way. You make the
call.
XII.
Performance Transactions
A performance
transaction occurs when a team decides to make a change to the active roster
for reasons other than those described in the Injury Transaction section
above. A skater who isn’t playing well
or a defenseman who’s had more “healthy scratchs” than starts as of late are
just two examples of performance transactions.
·
To replace such a player, a team must release this player outright from
it’s roster. The team is now free to choose any player from the Free Agent Pool
to replace the ineffective player, so long as the effect of placing the free
agent on the active roster does not result in a loss of positional integrity. For example, if a team’s forward gets
injured, that team can replace him with another forward from the Free Agent
Pool, OR if an defenseman on the
active roster is also eligible as a forward then that defenseman can be shifted
into the injured player’s forward position and a defenseman from the Free Agent
Pool can be added to the active roster.
·
There is no limit to the number of
performance transactions a team may make in a season.
·
Should two teams wish to claim the same
player from the Free Agent Pool in the same week, the team with the lowest
current position in the overall standings shall be awarded the player. This
rule will be in effect for the entire season.
·
A suspended player or a player who has
been “holding out” in contract negotiations, is not eligible for any
transactions and is “frozen in place” (on either the active roster or the
reserve list) until he comes off of suspension or signs a contact. A player suspended or holding out for a full
season will result in a frozen roster spot for the remainder of the season. A
team may choose to drop the suspended or holding out player from its active
roster. If a team chooses to do so,
they must drop the player, they
cannot reserve him.
·
There is a $1.00 fee assessed for
making a performance transaction.
·
Statistics for the newly acquired
player begin accruing on the games of the first Thursday on or following the
transaction date. The statistics (if any) for the dropped player will keep
accruing until such a time as the newly acquired player’s statistics kick in.
·
Once a player has been dropped back
into the Free Agent Pool, that player must remain there until the next
transaction period so that every owner has the opportunity to acquire the
dropped player if they so desire. For
example, a team drops Jaromir Jagr (!?) on Thursday of a given week. No team may pick up Jagr until after the
next Thursday so that the drop may show up in the weekly stats and everyone
has knowledge that Jagr is now a free agent. Of course in this case, a feeding
frenzy will ensue, but we’ll let The Commissioner handle those!
·
Again, just like with Injury
Transactions, you may only make one move
per player per week. See the Injury
Transactions section above for more clarification of this rule.
XIII.
The “Lower Team In The Standings Rule”
Should
two teams wish to claim the same player from the Free Agent Pool in the same
week, the team with the lowest current position in the overall standings shall
be awarded the player. This rule will be in effect for the entire
season.
·
Under this rule each team will be
allowed to acquire only one player at a time.
By that I mean the last place team in the standings can not claim five
players in a week and expect to get them all by virtue of this rule. That would make it virtually impossible for
the higher teams to get anyone at all.
·
Whenever a team sends in a transaction
involving a player from the Free Agent Pool be sure to include a couple of
alternate selections as well in case you get “bumped” by teams lower than you
in the standings. When making multiple
transactions in a given week be sure to state the “priority” of each as well as
this will also determine who you get should another team, or teams, claim the
same player.
·
All players claimed during a particular
week will be allocated one at a time starting with the lowest claiming team
getting it’s first choice, then the second lowest team getting their highest
available choice and so on until each team requesting a new player has
one. If extra “rounds” become necessary
to fill teams’ multiple claims, the lowest team still needing a player will get
it’s next highest available claim and so on until everyone’s roster is complete
once again.
·
Injury and performance transactions
carry the same weight. A team needing
to replace an injured player will be given no preference, other than standings
rank, over a team wishing to replace an ineffective player.
·
If due to “bumping” or a lack of
alternates a team does not have another choice available The Commissioner will
do everything in his power to attempt to contact that team and obtain another
choice. Should the inability to contact
the team (owner is currently on Safari in The Congo) cause an inadequate delay
in the distribution of the remaining players, or “spill over” into the start of
a new transaction period (Thursday), that team will be forced to keep that
player until the next transaction period begins (the following Thursday).
·
If two teams that are tied in the
standings request the same player in a given week the tie shall be broken by
comparing placements of teams in each of the individual categories. Respective performances are calculated and a
point given to each team for bettering the other. Should one team total more points than the other, that team is
given the higher position.
·
The previous week’s standings will
always be used to determine standings placement as all transactions are
allocated prior to the calculating of the current week’s stats.
XIV. Free Agent Pool
The Free Agent Pool
is defined as any players currently on an NHL roster, holding out in contract
negotiations or the Injured List that are not a part of any fantasy team’s
active roster or reserve list. Minor
leaguers are not considered free agents (unless they are deemed “contract
holdouts”) although a minor leaguer may reside on an active roster or reserve
list if he was on a major league roster at one time and through owner neglect,
or should I say strategy, he is still on a fantasy team.
XV.
Trades
·
From the completion of the Draft until
February 15th (about one month prior to the NHL trading deadline),
fantasy league teams are free to make trades of any kind without limit except
as follows: so long as the active
rosters of both teams involved in a trade reflect the required position
distribution upon completion of the transaction and the number of active
players changing sides on each team is equal, the trade is considered a valid
trade. For example, if Team A wants to swap Eric Lindros to Team B for Martin
Brodeur then Team A will have to throw in a goalie and Team B a forward to make
the deal valid.
·
THE
ANTI-FIRE SALE RULE: From February 15th to the NHL trading
deadline, trades may take place ONLY between teams that are within three
positions of each other in the standings.
That is, a 5th place team may trade with any team from 2nd
through 8th, the last place team only with the three teams above
his, etc.
·
THE
ANTI-FIRE SALE EXCEPTION: From February 15th to the NHL
Trading Deadline, teams that are “out of the money” (8th through
last places) may trade freely without restrictions amongst themselves without
worrying about the “three places in the standings” rule.
·
No trades will be allowed after the NHL
Trading Deadline.
·
There is no limit to the number of
trades a team may make in a season.
·
Trades involving players from a team’s
reserve list need not meet positional requirements or numerical
equivalencies. That is, Team A can
trade two reserve defensemen for Team B’s reserved forward and goalie, or just
the goalie.
·
There is a $1.00 fee assessed to each
team for the trade regardless of the number of players involved. A one-for-one swap costs just as much as a
four-for-four swap.
·
Trading of cash or other “future
considerations” is not allowed. All
trades must be strictly player(s) for player(s).
·
Again, just like with Injury
Transactions, you may only make one move
per player per week. A player may
not be traded to more than one team in a given week. See the Injury Transactions section above for
more clarification of this rule.
Trades
involving players on both the active roster and the reserve list are subject to
the following rules:
·
After a trade is completed, the players
changing teams may reside on either the acquiring team’s active roster OR reserve list, provided that all
positional requirements are met after the dust clears. Moves from the reserve list to the active
roster (or vice versa) as result of a trade WILL NOT count against the “one move per player per week” rule. All
trades of this variety must involve an equal number of active players on both sides and maintain positional integrity.
·
If a player does remain on the
acquiring team’s reserve list after a trade, the “two week” rule still applies
to that player. All the “uninjured”
time accumulated while the player was on his former team carries over. The
acquiring team doesn’t get an extra two weeks to reactivate him to their active
roster.
·
If a “frozen” player (that is, a player
who has been suspended, or a player who has been holding out all season in
contract negotiations) is traded he remains “frozen” on his new team as well
until he meet such requirements that he may become “unfrozen”.
XVI.
Governance
At such times that it becomes necessary to make a rules
interpretation The Commissioner’s word will be FINAL. Of course, after
rendering such finality, The Commissioner is open to all impeachment
proceedings and other acts of subjugation that may undercut his authority. So in the interest of fairness (not to
mention keeping my body intact), The Commissioner reserves the right to form a
Committee to handle any disputes that may arise. The Committee will then take a vote, with the majority ruling
becoming law. The Committee shall
consist of The Commissioner, and all other league owners who are not currently
involved in the dispute at hand and would care to vote on it. In the event of a tie vote, The Commissioner
will have the final say.
XVII.
A Few Draft Day Guidelines and The Official League Burger
Until further notice, the official sight of the Slap Shot
Fantasy Hockey League Draft shall be Oddfellow’s Rest, a restaurant/pub located
in Hoboken, New Jersey, and home of the now infamous Big Easy Burger, the
official hamburger of the Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League. The Draft will be
held no later than the first Saturday following the start of the NHL
season. All efforts will be made to
choose a day prior to the opening of the season that is amenable to all league
owners but if no date can be agreed upon than the Saturday following the start
of the season shall be deemed Draft Day.
It is not necessary to be present to draft your team although it is
highly advisable. You may deem anyone you choose to draft your team for you in
your absence. Just be careful who you
choose!
XVIII.
Season to Season
The Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League shall not be a “keeper”
league. That is all players will be
thrown back into the free agent pool at the end of the season and be available
for drafting by all teams the following season.
XIX. Amendments To The Constitution
Any changes to these rules must be made by a majority vote
of all active members of The Slap Shot Fantasy Hockey League at the time the
amendment is proposed, preferably in the off season or immediately preceding
the Draft. In no way, shape or form
shall The Commissioner have any weight in this vote. One more than half will make it a rule. So sayeth the Shepherd…