OFFICIAL JMFHL OWNER'S MANUAL

        This is the second release of the rules for JMFHL.  
All rules are subject to change, but all changes will be made public
before being made official.


DEFINITION OF TERMS


Franchise       -- corresponds to a JMFHL team.
Owners          -- consists of the GM, Coach and all others associated
                with a franchise.
GM              -- person responsible for roster changes of a franchise.
                NOTE: only this person's confirmation will be accepted
                for trades and other managerial duties.
Coach           -- person responsible for the construction of team
                lines/goalies. 
Pro Team        -- these are the players with which a coach can use to
                form an active roster.  There is a limit of 25 players
                not including injured players. Injured players from the pro
                team can not be moved to the farm team.
Farm Team       -- these players can not be used by a coach.  
                Players on the farm team have a random chance of increasing 
                or decreasing their abilities Permantly.
Active Roster   -- the 20 players who will play in a game.
Lines           -- there are 18 line combinations that need to be
                Constructed by the franchise coach.  There are 3 sets for
                each of the following categories: 5 on 5, 4 on 4, 5 on 4,
                5 on 3, 4 on 5, 3 on 5.  The format for sending lines to
                the league office is located in a different document.

Player Ratings-Players are rerated based on NHL PERFORMANCE.  Players are rerated at the end
 of each season.  Each team is allowed to challenge up to Five player ratings if they feel 
they were rated incorrectly. To challenge a players rating, you must show just cause as to 
why he should be rerated, not just simply complaining that he should be higher.  For example if 
I rerated a player known for his DF abilities too low you must show proof he should be higher.  
Proof like his +/- rating, or proof that he plays on his NHL teams PK unit.  Or for an offensive 
player, if a player had 30 goals and I only gave him a SC of 50 etc.  You will only get five 
challenges so use them wisely.  These do not include players I forgot to rate, or typing mistakes.  
Let me know about those and I will fix them right away.

Five ratings means five separate ratings, NOT five different players.
If you challenge 2 ratings on one player that is 2 separate challenges.
I will not accept Challenges after the season starts.


Player Ratings
1 PLAYER ROSTER ITEMS

        CD: Condition. Determines the current health of the player in %. OK means 100%.
        IJ: Injury status of player. 
                DD: Day to day injury
                1W: 1-2 week injury
                3W: 2-4 week injury
                1M: 4-6 week injury
                3M: 2-4 month injury
                IN: Injured Indefinitely
                S#: Suspended for # games
        HD: Handedness
        IT: Intensity
        SP: Speed
        ST: Strength
        EN: Endurance
        DU: Durability
        DI: Discipline
        SK: Skating
        PA: Passing
        PC: Puck Control
        DF: Defence
        SC: Scoring
        EX: Experience
        LD: Leadership
        OV: Overall

7.2 TEAM SCORING ITEMS

        GP: Games Played
        G:  Goals
        A:  Assists
        P:  Points
        +/-: Plus Minus
        PIM: Penalty Minutes
        PP: Power Play goals
        SH: Short Hand goals
        GW: Game Winning Goals
        GT: Game Tying Goals
        S:  Shots
        PCTG: Shooting Percentage
        GS: Goal Scoring Streak (in games)
        PS: Point Scoring Streak (in games)


A. CODE OF CONDUCT


1. Each Franchise GM is expected to respond to all trade inquiries  
   as soon as possible.
2. Except where other matters make it simply impossible, each owner is  
   required to respond to certain infrequent official business.
3. Each owner must inform the league of any change of address or of any  
   significant absenses.
4. Every Franchise owner is expected to manage his team professionally and  
   in particular to promote the longterm well-being of his team. 
5. Every GM is to respect the views of others and particpate in the 
   league to the best of his/her ability.
6. Every owner Must vote for the JMFHL awards.
7. Every Owner is responsible for keeping the minium roster requirements
   Roster must have at least 3 LW, 3 RW, 3C, 6D and 2G, with a minium of
   20 players. Players position will depend on there listing in any major
   sport newsletter ( Hockey News, NHL.com, Etc...)

****Strike Rule*******
The JMFHL enforces a strike rule to ensure owners participate in league functions, 
a strike will be given to owners for not participating in the follow league functions

-Draft lists
-Award voting
-Roster requirements
-Answering league mail
-Maintaning a positive budget
-And any other function the Commish deeems important




B. LEAGUE PLAY 


1.  The league uses Fantasy Hockey League software to run it's games. 

2.  The franchise GM is responsible for conducting the roster movement  
    business of the franchise.  This involves negotiating trades, moving  
    players between the pro team and the farm team, and conducting drafts.
  * They are also responsible for the finaces of the team.

3.  The franchise Coach is responsible for determining a team's active  
    roster and for sending in lines and goalie rotations to the Commisioner.
    ( this will be optional)

4.. The waiver rule will be implemented.  Please refer to Section G
 regarding the constraints involved.

7. Injuries will appear on the Teams roster page, teams are responsible for
   summiting lines chnages for injuries.
   If no update is submitted before game time, the commissioner will
   use his knowledge to add the best player(s) to the line-up of the
   injured team.



C. TRADING

                   
1.  Trades may  involve players, draft picks, money and Future          
    considerations.  
    The League offices will not rule on any external factors unless 
    sufficient proof of wrong doing is provided.  Teams have a duty to 
    provide all information necessary to a GM to analyze a trade.  This 
    includes the injury status of all players involved.  However, once a 
    trade is finalized, it is assumed that all GMs have full knowledge of  
    the status of the traded players.

2.  Trades are made by submitting e-mail to the League offices.  Once a GM  
    submits a trade confirmation.  Line changes will be required.

3.  Both Owners must confirm the trade.

4.  The League Commissioner reserves the right to veto any trade if, in  
    the belief of the commissioner, the trades violates the spirit of  
    competition and goodwill of the league.

5.  A player can not be traded to a team that he was traded from in any 
    single season.
    This rule is not to hurt any team, it is to stop any abuse of the             
    trading.

6.  Trading deadline is set at the 80% mark of the season.
    No trades will be allowed until after free agents are announced.
    THE LEAGUE WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY TRADE
    UNTIL THIS


D: LINE CHANGES
You can change your teams lines anytime you feel it necessary.
this is the format and you MUST use it.
You must also get it just right. 
I will so you an example below 

The first five lines should list the players who will be in your roster. 
There cannot be more than twenty altogether, with only 2 players 
designated as goalies. List jersey numbers for players as follows, 
separating each with a comma:

Centres
Left Wingers
Right Wingers
Defencemen
Goalies

Type "***" on a separate line

Then, still using jersey numbers, assign players to lines in the 
following order:

4 even strength lines (5 players).
2 5 on 4 power play lines (5 players).
2 4 on 3 power play lines (4 players).
2 4 on 5 penalty kill lines (4 players).
2 3 on 5 penalty kill lines (3 players).
2 Extra Skaters.
1 Starting goalie.


All said and done your lines should look something like this:

26,20,25,54
29,44,37,16
39,13,32,57
45,4,10,24,3,6
56,33
***
26,29,57,45,3
20,16,13,4,24
25,37,32,10,6
54,44,39,10,6
20,16,13,45,3
26,29,57,4,24
20,13,45,3
26,16,4,24
26,16,4,3
13,29,24,45
26,4,3
13,24,45
57,16

E. PLAYOFFS


1. The playoffs will be the top 8 teams from each Conference with the Division 
winners seated 1st and 2nd.

F. PROTECTION/DRAFT
EXPANSION DRAFT

-Each team can protect 10 skaters and 22 goalies OR 13 Skaters and 1 goalie
-No team can lose more then 2 player.
*NOTE: There will be a trading freeze 48 hrs before the expansion draft.


ENTRY DRAFT
     
- This draft will include all  teaams.
- Draft Order will be as follows:
        1 - Lottery system for teams that did not make the playoffs
        3 - Reverse Overall Standings Order

-Lottery system
 -The FHL does the Lottery randomly, nonplayoff teams can move up 4 postions

- Number of rounds in draft will dependd on the amount of players
  available in the draft.
-Each team is required to sumit a list to the Commish before each 
 round of the draft. Failure to do so results in a strike.



G. WAIVERS


1.  When a player is moved from the pro team to the farm team, he must  
first pass waivers.  The waiver priority list consists of the overall 
standings in reverse order.

2.Any player for any reason sent from the pro team to the farm team
  that is over 23 and has played more then 4 games will be exposed to waivers"

3. The team claiming the player will pay the team losing the player a 100,000
transfer fee.
      

G. RELEASED PLAYERS

1.  A Player released will become a free agent and can be sign by any
    team on a first come first serve bases.

H. DISPUTE RESOLUTION/ABRITRATOR

Where two or more teams are in dispute over some matter, like a trade, 
and these rules do not cover the matter in dispute, the league will
 use the following procedure for resolution of the 
problem:

1. The Commissioner will ask an anonymous owner to act as Arbitrator 
with the teams in dispute .  
2. Each team makes its case to the Commissioner.
3. The Commissioner communicates the relevant facts to the Arbitrator 
and gives the Arbitrator a list of possible decisions.
4. The Arbitrator makes a decision and communicates it to The 
Commissioner without having to offer any justification for the 
decision.
5. The Commissioner communicates the decision, which is final and not 
subject to further negotiation, to the owners. 


I. AWARDS

The following trophies will be awarded based on voting by each JMFHL 
participant: 
        - Norris Trophy (Top Defenseman)
        - Vezina Trophy (Top Goaltender)
        - Hart Trophy (League M.V.P.)
        - Calder Trophy (Top Rookie)
        - Lady Byng Trophy (Sportmanship)
        - Selke trophy (Best Defensive Forward)
        - Executive Trophy (Top GM)
        
The following Trophies are awarded based on season stats:
        - Art Ross Trophy (Most Points in Season)
        - William Jennings Trophy (Lowest Goals Against Average)
        - Alka Seltzer Trophy (Best Plus/Minus)
        - Rocket Richard Award (Most Goals in Season)
        - Presidents Trophy (Top Team in Regular Season)

The following Trophy is awarded based on voting by JMFHL Board Of Governors:
        - Lester Pearson Trophy (Outstanding Player) 

The following Trophies are awarded based on JMFHL Commissioner Vote:
        - Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff M.V.P.)

The Voting process is the same as the NHL owners will pick 1st,2nd,and 3rd 
place for each award. 
5 points is awarded for 1st place votes,
3 points for 2nd place votes an
1 point for 3rd place votes
 the 3 top point getter's will be the nominees with the top
point getter the winner.

There will be money awarded to the team whose player or G.M. is 
nominated or wins any awards.  

The money break down will be 250,000 for nominees and 500,000 for winners.
   




J.  Budgets

1. Each player has a salary, the league minium salary is $250,000


Since the league is now established there is no need
to buy new arena's, therefore I'm gonna start to charging
an upkeep fee on Arena's starting Season 6, it will be
1% of the Arena's cost and it will accumulate til the
the owners buys or upgrades his Arena
For Example

Habs have a 30,000 seater-Cost is 15 million

Season 6-Charge is 1%=150,000
Season 7-Would be 2%=300,000
You get the idea, 

I will keep the age of the Arena on the team page
so owners can figure out their upkeep cost.

There will be 6 different stadiums a team can buy.

          STADIUM PRICES
1. 30,000 capacity = $15,000,000.00 (To buy)
2. 25,000 capacity = $12,000,000.00
3. 20,000 capacity = $10,000,000.00 
4. 15,000 capacity = $8,000,000.00
5. 10,000 capacity = $5,000,000.00 
6.  7,000 capacity = $3,000,000.00 
7.  A Pond = $0.00 (joking)


Arena Upgrades
Any owner can upgrade the facility he now has at a cost of one half of the
price of the next biggest size arena with only one upgrade to the next
biggest size allowed per season.

Example.
 If an owner had a Arena of 15,000 capacity and wanted to upgrade. 
He could only upgrade to 20,000 that year and it would cost him
--5 million ( half the cost of a 20,0000 seat arena)
 The same owner could upgrade the following year 20,000 to 25,000 
at a cost of 6 million.
 And so on.
 For the purpose of upkeep charges, the league will consider 
the upgrade to be new as far as the upkeep charges are concerned


       Budgets
The FHL program track your budget automatically, it will show you 
what kind of attendance you had at each game and how much revenue
was made.
 Ticket Prices
Prices must be set before the first regular season game.
Each GM may set their prices at whatever they desire up to a max of $30.
There will be absolutely NO CHANGES of ticket prices during
the regular season or playoffs.
  When a team runs out of money he/she will be forced to claim bankruptcy.
The league will then step in removing that owner and replacing him/her 
with a owner on the waiting list.  
This rule gives team the incentive to be competitive or lose their team.
 The will award one team in each division with 2 million at random for tv
profits.
 Teams that make the playoffs will be awarded the following sums

1st round-$250,000
2nd-$500,000
3rd-$1.0 million
finals loser-1.5 million
finals winner-2.0 million



L. Free Agents

To make my life easier, I will ignore birthdays of players, 
if the player is 30 at the beginning of the season he is 30 going
into the free agent market, there will NOT be a set day for ages, 
if a players age is 29 at the beginning of the year he will 
be 29 at the end of the year. The software ages players at the beginning
of each season and that is his age for the entire season. 

If a team does not have a player signed by the end of the 
regular season the player will ignore all attemps to sign and
will test the free agent market..



A player will become a restricted free agent when
his contract expires ( unrestricted if he is 
30 or over when it expires)


SIGNING PERIOD:

Teams have til the end of the playoffs to place your bids on players.
 Once the signing period is over, all posted bids are final and the 
highest bidding team gets the player according to the rules below.

*** In the case a player is not bid on by another team during the free
agent period. The owning team has 2 weeks after the bid announcement to
sign the player at a 10% increase, if the team does not the player becomes 
an unrestricted free agent, and any team can sign him on a first come 
first bases to the league minium salary of 250,000.


NOTE: Once a player is signed to a contract, he will have that contract
until the contract expires or he is signed to another. If a player retires
in the NHL he will also retire in the JMFHL, but you will be forced to buyout
his contract at 50%

Note
Extending a contract adds to current years, not replaces them.
          Ex.  Brett Hull has currently has a 2 year contract, then is 
               offered an extension of 4 additional years. It is accepted,
               so he is now signed for 6 years total or 5 plus the current
               season.


RE-SIGNING

****I will allow owners to break the contracts at any 
time in order to extend them, but in doing so must use the probability
chart, each owner gets 3 tries at resigning a player before he will opt 
out for free agent market.


                           Contract Length
                          1    2    3    4    5
               25%       60%  40%  20%   0%   0%
                
Pay Increase   50%       70%  50%  30%   10%  0%

               100%      80%  70%  60%   50%  40%
 
               150%      90%  80%  70%   60%  50%

Variant % for re-signing players:
         
        Signing Bonus:  For each 200 K bonus an there is an extra 1%
                        chance of signing the player.
         
        Age Factor:   Under 30                  Over 30
                     +(30-age)%                -(age-29)%

You may buy out a players contract but at 50% of it's remaining
worth.
If a player Retires you will be forced to by out the remainder of his contract at 50%

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS:

A player that is under the age of 30 when his contract expires
becomes a restricted free agent. Signing a restricted free agent
means the signing team is required to compensate the pervious owner
with draft picks.

The current owner of the player has the right to match the offer
and keep the player. 

Compensation in the form of draft picks will be given to teams who
choose not to match a restricted free agency contract. Compensation
is decided by the amount the free agent is signed for. Draft pick
compensation terms are as follows.

TERMS: This chart shows the annual salary ( which is different from 
last season which showed it as total)

   5,500,001 and above      - 5 first round picks
   4,000,001 to 5,500,000   - 4 first round picks
   3,500,001 to 4,000,000   - 3 first round picks
   2,000,001 to 3,500,000   - 2 first round picks
   1,500,001 to 2,000,000   - 1st round pick
   1,000,001 to 1,500,000   - 2nd round pick
     500,001 to 1,000,000   - 3rd round pick
     250,001 to   500,000   - 4th round pick
                  250,000   - 5th round pick


NOTE:
You may not sign a free agent requiring compensation of a pick
you don't have, this means in the upcomming draft!!!
You can not attempt to sign a player and use picks from future drafts
the picks must come from the most current draft.
For multiply 1st round picks the owner must have those picks in
miltiply years concurrent years. If the owner has multiply 1st round
picks in any given year he can choose to use one or more of those picks to
pay his debt on compensation. The owner that owes the compensation is also the
one who gets to pick which pick will be given as compensation in those cases.


UN-RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS:

A player that is 30 or older when his contract expires will considered
a unrestricted free agent and no compensation will be given to sign.

BIDDING FORMAT:

EVERY BID MUST BE SUBMITTED IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT
    
Starting with THIS season bidding for free agents, 
the bids will be in a #years X Annual salary format=Total bid.

Please make sure you tell what team you are and what team the player is on, 
I will not accept bids that are not in this format. 

Example  "Caps bid  $5,000,000 a season for 5 year(s) on Mats Sundin (Preds) =
$25,000,000"


*** In the case of ty bids the team that offered the higher annual salary 
will be the winner, if this does not resolvee the winner the commish will
roll a dice to determine the winner.

IMPORTANT NOTE
****************Starting with the 2000-01 season, an UFA who signs with 
                a team for a salary over 600K per season will not play 
                on their farm roster without full salary benefit.  
                These are players signed in the first free agent round.
                Those signed for 600K and less per year and anytime 
                thereafter the first FA period may be paid the 10% 
                farm salary wage, while on the farm.

Signing Rookies

Rookies MUST be signed within 2 years of being drafted,
any player not signed can go back into the draft.

Rookie contract length will decide how much the player
will be PAID per year..for there first ever contract.

***Players that are on the prospect list should be 
considered rookies when signing them

The money amount is what you pay that player per year.

If you sign the rookie to a 1 year deal 250,000
     "              "       2     "     300,000/year
                            3           350,000/year
                            4           400,000/year
                            5           500,000/year


M. Injuries
Injury status of player. 
                DD: Day to day injury
                1W: 1-2 week injury
                3W: 2-4 week injury
                1M: 4-6 week injury
                3M: 2-4 month injury
                IN: Injured Indefinitely
                S#: Suspended for # games


N. Player Eligibility.

   Players Must play in the NHL, AHL to remain on a teams roster for
following year. Any player that is a hold out for a full year ( Restricted free agent )will not
be removed. A player that plays in Euroupe, ECHL or any other hockey league will be retired 
from the league. The owner will be forced to buyout the contract as per buyout rules in 
section L

O.      POSITION ELIGIBILITY
Purpose:  To make league members more aware of where their players qualify position-wise.  
The purpose is two-fold.  
1) Eliminates work for the commissioner by placing the responsibility on the individual
    owner to know the position eligibility of their players. 
2) Promotes player movement by giving owners flexibility
        Rule:  Players are eligible to play a position if one of 2 conditions is met.  
        1) Player is listed in the Slam sports Hockey Forecaster.  
        2) During the season, the player is listed at a position in the Hockey News.  
           It is the owners' responsibility to request a position switch.  
           Strikes will still be accumulated if the owner does not change a player to cover 
           a position shortage.  It is not the commissioner's duty to follow individual 
           team needs. 

This will be regulated by the owner of the Flames John Bauman Superb3@aol.com
all postion changes must be sent to him for approval, before the league will
accept them.

***  No Rules may be changed throughout the regular season, unless voted 
    on by the Rules committee and commisioner and approved by a majority vote.




Joey Wilson
JMFHL Commissioner