New General Managers Team Relocation	Player Contracts Re-Signing Players	Team Rosters Lines Player Challenging Trading Voiding of Trades Transactions/Waivers	Compensation Draft Free Agency Retired Players

The constitution was last updated August 17, 2009, parts in red are new as of this date.

New General Managers - A Message from the League

    As a new member of the Big Time Hockey League it is your responsibility to read the rules and review the history of your team.  It is important that you read the Constitution, most Fantasy Hockey Leagues use different rules, for example the BTHL does not have players go up in ratings for sitting in your farm team, nor does it use the FHL simulator's finance system.  Other key differences of the BTHL are that we have a player challenging system, base ratings on the NHL, and have a finance/profit system that can be used to your benefit.  Using the Seasonal Statistics link under the Information section of the website will bring you to past season stats.  Take time to view the past couple of seasons worth of trades that your team has made, this can give you an indication of what the previous GM had in mind for the team.  Make sure to search the transactions page for your team by name, that way you will find out if your team has changed it's name, previous trades can be listed under the old team name. 

    Feel free to post questions on the league message board if there is something you don't understand.  We also suggest that you publicize any avialable players you have on the BTHL message board.  If you do not advertise your players, it is more than likely that you will not get the most for your players.  As a new GM it is your responsibility to write a press-release for your team, this press release should be at least 150 words (give or take a few words).  Your press release is a good place to let the league know what your short and long term plan will be for your team and what players may be available, submit your press release using the Submit News link under the Interactive section of the website.  Keep in mind that due to past experiences with new GMs, we will review every trade made by your team, see the section about voiding trades in the constitution for details.  To avoid having your trades voided by the league, make sure you have a good understanding of the rules and follow the suggestions made above.  It is not uncommon for new GMs to have their trades voided due to misunderstandings of the rules or how the league runs.  Be aware that there are General Managers that will try to take advantage of you, especially if you do not advertise your available players to the league. 

Good luck with your new team!
- The BTHL Commissioner Group.

Renaming/Relocating Teams:

    If you are new to the BTHL you may rename and relocate your team, however you must be the GM of the team for at least two weeks prior to doing so.  General Managers that are not new to the league must pay $500,000 to rename or relocate their team. 

The Finance Page:

The Salary Cap:

      The “salary cap” should actually be called a “payroll budget” as that would better describe it’s function.  The 11 million dollar “cap” serves as a pre-set amount of money that your team has to spend on players.  In other words, every team automatically gets 11 million dollars worth of payroll money.  If you spend more than your 11 million dollars, you have to pay the amount over out of your team bank account, so make sure you can afford that before doing it!  If you look around at teams in the league and find that some have negative amounts in their bank, they went over budget and didn’t make enough profits to pay it.

The Bank:

      On the finance page, each team has their bank account listed, this is money that is made from profits each year and is reduced by any amount over payroll budgets.  It is important to know that if you are under your salary budget, you get to keep 20% of that amount per season (if the cost of all your players is 9 million dollars, you are 2 million under the 11 million dollar budget, you will get 200,000 deposited into your bank that season).  You can also trade money that is in your bank, this can be useful in sealing a deal or when trading with a team that is negative in their bank.  If a team loses money and can not pay the loss out of their bank account before Free agency begins they will be put on probation for the next season. Probation means you cap becomes a hard cap and you will be forced to run your team within it.. Going into probation for more than one year can result in the removal of the GM.

Team Profits / Payroll:

      Half way through every season every team’s payroll is called in.  This means that you have to pay your players for the first half of the season.  If your team is over the payroll budget, half of that amount will be taken out of your bank, the second half will be taken out at the end of the season.  If your team is under the payroll budget, they will get 10% of that added to their bank account, the second 10% will be added at the end of the season.  This is to prevent teams from trading away all of their costly players before the end of the season to avoid having to pay for them.  At the end of the season, teams will make additional profits aside from money that can be made from being under your budget.  This money comes from players performing well, winning trophies, from GMs writing news articles, from playoff home games played and from a cup win.  Here is an example of what the season end profits looked like for the Aces in Season 8:

Other Profit that can be made:

The Team that wins the BTHL cup, is awarded $500,000
The Team that wins the BTML cup, is awarded $250,000

Player Contracts:

1)      All players will be signed to a contract including players on your minor team.  The max contract length is 5 years.  You can sign players to restricted and unrestricted contracts.

2)      The minimum amount a player on your pro roster can sign to is $250,000

3)      The minimum amount a player on your minor team can sign to is 150,000 based on the league minimum contract scale:

Below 70 = 150,000
70-73 = 250,000
74-77 = 350,000
78+ = 450,000

The player can not have played more than 25 games in a season on your pro roster, once a player plays 25 games they automatically are raised to a 250,000 contract (basically you are allowed cheaper rookies/replacement players)

4)      All teams have an 11 million dollar salary cap, if your payroll exceeds your cap, your team will have to pay the amount above out of your teams’ season earnings.  If your team doesn’t earn enough profits to cover the amount over the salary cap, your team will have to make up the difference from your bank account.  Your team bank account may not be in the negative for two seasons in a row.  In some circumstances the league may extend this by a season if the team has shown considerable efforts to reduce debt.

There are 2 types of contracts, 1) Restricted 2) Unrestricted

Following are the Differences/Benefits:

1) Restricted:  First off, to be signed to a restricted contract, a player must be under 32.  When a player is signed to a restricted contract he will want to be paid more, the reason is, is because when he becomes a free agent, he may be re-signed by the team that owns him, so he may not even go to bidding, if he goes to bidding,  the team that owns him is allowed to match the highest bidder and keep the player. If the team that owns the player decides not to match the highest bidder then the team that gets him must compensate for the original team's loss (in the form of draft picks or players) the matching offer works like this: all the teams place bids, after the teams are done bidding and a highest bidder is found (a week is given for bidding) you are giving the option to a) match the offer and keep the player (the other team can not bid again) b) let the highest bidder take your player, and receive compensation.

2) Unrestricted: When a player is signed to an unrestricted contract, he will accept being paid less, the reason is, is because when he comes to free agency the team that owns him does NOT have the option of matching the highest bidder or re-signing him, the highest bidder gets the player. Also, another bad thing about Unrestricted contracts is that the original team receives NO compensation. Basically when a U1 player hits free agency he is gone... So players that you sign to Unrestricted contracts should be players you want to be rid of at the end of their contract. If you end up wanting to keep an unrestricted player when he's on the Free agent market, you might have a hard time, because you have to keep bidding more than the other teams.

Every contract goes by BTHL seasons, not real life years. an R3 contract can expire within 1 real life year. Also, an Unrestricted contract gives you NO compensation when you lose a player. all you people signing guys to U1 contracts could lose them at the end of THIS bthl season2.

Rosters:

Major Roster limit is a maximum of 25 players and a minimum of 20 players playable players. You must have 20 playable players at all times it is recommended to have 4 of each forward position and you are required to have 3 goalies. If you only have 20 players on your major roster and one is injured you must call a player up to fill his spot, this may require signing them to a league minimum contract. If you do not replace injured players and your team does not have enough players to fill a position, your team will be fined.  It is recommended that you have a few players in reserve to avoid calling players up. You can not go over the Maximum amount of player allowed on you majors.  If you trade for someone who is on another team's major roster you may have to waive a player to make room for him. See transactions/waivers for more details. Being over the max or under the min may result in a fine to your team.  The following applies to goalies:

1) No Goalie can play more than 70 games in the regular season.
2) Goalies who are played more will be suspended and the team will be fined $250,000 for every game he plays over the limit. The goalie will also be suspended for the amount of games he was over in the playoffs.

****In addition the goalie will not be eligible for any goalie awards!***

Teams have a 25 player prospect cap (See Draft)
Teams have to pay $75,000 per player over the prospect cap. (Starting Season 18)
Prospects drafted who are released will go through a 48 hour waiver period, if not signed then they will be released to the free market.

Rookies are players who:

1) Have played less than 25 games in a single season.
2) Have played in three seasons with more than 25 games played combined.
3) Are goalies with 25 games played combined in a single season or combined all time.

Trading:

Teams are allowed to trade Players, Money, Draft Picks, and future considerations. After making a trade both teams have to send confirmation of the trade to the Transaction Manager (See Transactions) stating which team receives what.  When trading Future considerations, you will need to decide with the team you are trading with, what that future consideration will be, (IE: players, money or draft picks) and state that when confirming the trade. Here's an Example:

To Meteors:
Alexei Yashin
Brian Marchment

To Renegades:
400,000
Joe Nieuwendyk
Igor Korolev
Future Considerations: We will come to an agreement after the Playoffs whether or not the Renegades will give some money back (because they might win the cup)

Teams may not trade money if their bank is in the negative

If a player is dealt to a team he can not be dealt back to the original team for that season, but they will have the option to apply for an exception to the rule if the reason is accepted by the Commissioner board.

This rule has been implemented to prevent teams from loaning or renting each other players. The receiving team will be responsible for the contract unless he keeps, waives, buys him out or trades him to another team.

Voiding of Trades

Every once in a while there is a need to void trades. A trade can be voided if it is deemed to be both one sided and extremely damaging to one team, this rarely happens. A trade may be voided if a) the GM of the team getting the bad side of the trade is inexperienced b) the team getting the bad side of the trade can't absorb the impact of the trade (IE: the team is already a pretty weak team). The trade is analyzed before the commissioner group before a decision is made.  GMs will not be made aware that their trade is under review as in most cases the trade is allowed through.  If the trade is voided, both GMs will be notified, they may submit a modified version of the deal which will be subject to review.

When a GM quits the BTHL, the commissioners reserve the right to void any trade made by the resigning GM in the past week or, if seen fit by the commissioners, even longer.

Transactions/Waivers/Releasing: (Send all your team transactions to commish@bthlhockey.com)

If you want to send a player to your minors and he has a) a player who has played 25 games in one BTHL season or b) a goalie who has a combined 25gp in the BTHL, he must be put on waivers <also: see off-season demoting players>. The player will stay on waivers for 48 hours then be assigned to your team's minor league. If a player passes through waivers, you still have to pay his salary. You have a max&min of 25 players on your pro team, and they ALL must be signed to contracts. Same goes for your minor team. If you trade for 2 players, and give away 1, you could have 26 pro players signed to contracts, that means you must:

1) trade away 2 for 1 to another team
2) demote a player who does not have to clear waivers
3) put a player on waivers and if he clears then assign him to your minors thus evening out your pro roster.

If you trade 2 players for 1 player you will have 24 players on your pro roster (unless you already had an extra player) if you only have 24 men on your pro roster, you must bring a player up from your minors. Then find another player who isn't on any BTHL team to replace the empty spot on your minor league team.  You can also sign a player that isn't signed directly to your pro team, you'll have to give him a contract like anyone else.  Any promotions or demotions to and from the farm roster must be done by emailing commish@bthlhockey.com

When a player goes on waivers, you can try to claim them, the team with the lowest standing the prior season gets precedence.

If you release a player, you have to pay their contract, alternatively you can buy out their contract at 1/2 it's price out of your team's bank account.  If another team picks up your released player, you will be relieved of their contract.

Offseason Demoting Players: During the offseason you can move a player down to the minors if he has played 25 games or less in the previous BTHL season. That means he doesn't have to pass through waivers. However you still have to pay this players contract.

Lines:

Try to send your lines a day before the games are played, because I can't make my schedule around games. I can tell you the day I'll play them, but not the exact time. So if you send them in the day I play the games, I may have already played them. If you do not know how to use the GM program read below.

Using the GM Program / Line Editor

1)       Download and install the Line Editor (Under Archives and Files)

2)       Download the League Files (also under Archives and Files) You will need winzip from www.winzip.com to open the league files (unless you have XP it has unzipping is built in).  The league files are updated daily at 6:00pm , you will want to re-download and open the league files each day to make sure you are updated with any injuries and condition changes of your players.

3)       After installing the Line Editor, downloading the league files, and unzipping the league files, you then run the line editor (also called the GM Program) and open the league files (where you unzipped them), you will then be able to edit your lines.  When you save your lines, do not save them with a password, it will ask you where you want to put your lines file.  Put your lines file where you can find it, you will then need to e-mail me the lines file and I will put it into your next game.

Player Challenging:

You are allowed to challenge a players rating, whether he be on your team or not. However, the challenge can only be used to improve your own players or de-rate your opponents. A GM from another team cannot choose to improve another team’s players. Just email the commissioner stating which player you want rerated.  It is also helpful to send the scoring and passing that the player gets in the rerater. You are only allowed to challenge 1 player a week, if you attempt to challenge more, you'll get a 20,000 fine. The player's who get rerated will only change in SHOT/PASS/PUCK CONTROL, no other attributes will change. There is a 40 game minimum NHL games played for rerating a player.  Player rerating is only permitted during the regular BTHL season, it is frozen for the playoffs.

Any defence that is also listed as forward or forward as defence will be given a rating based on the position they most play. If a GM wishes to change their postion to forward or defence then the player's rating will be adjusted to that position.

Player Rerater:

The player rerater allows you to check player's ratings, so that you can ask for them to be rerated. You don't have to use the rerater, it's optional. More information is on the rerater page.

Free Agency:

At the end of each BTHL season, players signed to R1, and U1 contracts become free agents.  Restricted free agents may be re-signed by offering them a contract, the procedure for this is as follows:

Re-Signing RFAs:  When you want to re-sign a restricted free agent, so he won't go to bidding, you can e-mail a new contract offer to the Commissioner (when he announces that  you may start offering).  Use the Salary Calculator that you can download under the "Archives & Files" section on the front page.  Enter all information in the program to calculate what the player will sign for:

**Note - The player's contracts are based on their performance in the BTHL and not in the NHL.

Once the re-signing period is over, players that have not been offered new contracts, or are unrestricted go into a free agent bidding period.  The bidding period is usually around 1 week in which teams may place bids on players they want to sign off of free agency.  A webpage for bidding is posted on the site, after the week period expires (A time is announced), the last bid that has an hour pass before another bid is placed stands.  By the highest bid having to stand for an hour before being final, it avoids "sniping" where someone places a bid in the final seconds of the week. 

Here is a summary on free agency:

      Miroslav Satan’s old contract was 2.65 million dollars (Super high in this league).  The Meteors did not re-sign Satan in the hopes that nobody was willing to pay him too much.  Sure enough, the highest bid was 1,110,000, which the Meteors could afford, so they matched the offer.  If a team had come in and bid 1.5 million the Meteors would not have matched as it would have been too high a number (I can say that in this case because I am the GM of the Meteors).  Free agency is the one place where you can get you player’s contracts lowered, however it comes at the risk that someone might be willing to take him for his old salary or more.  If you are a team that is under budget, you can build part of your team through smart free agent bidding.  Keep in mind that you have to compensate a team when you win the bid for their players, here are some examples of compensation handed out in season 8, see further below for arbitration rules:

If a free agent doesn't get bided on, the team that owns him may:

A) Send him to their minor team at a league minimum contract.
B) Offer him a new contract (E-Mail it to the commissioner)
C) Release him, and let any other team sign him.

Note: if your going to send him to your minors, you'll need to call someone up to fill the empty
spot on your pro team.

If you have a restricted free agent who has been bided on, you can:

A) Match the highest bid, and keep the player.
B) Let the highest bidder have the player, and talk to that GM about fair compensation.

Bidding is done on a posted website and is automated we use the Jack Bauer style of bidding, here is how it works:

1) You can place a bid on any player but that bid is binding! Your bid must hold up for 24 hours for the player to sign with your team. If they are a restricted free agent, your bid will be considered the high bid and the team that holds the player's rights must decide to match or seek compensation.

2) Bidding will Start once the bidding page is posted unless otherwise mentioned on the website or forum etc.

Note - This is a new format so it may be modified slightly, any modifications will be announced

Compensation:

    Compensation is for Restricted Free Agents only. When a team decides to take compensation for a restricted free agent who has been bided on (See Free Agency) he must contact the GM of the team who has bided the highest on the free agent, the 2 GMs must decide upon a fair compensation, it can be in the form of Draft Picks, Money or Players. If the 2 GMs are unable to come up with fair compensation on their own, the GM that owns the rights to the player must notify the commissioner that they are seeking arbitration.

Arbitration will be awarded as follows:

0-249,000 = $100,000
$250-349 = 5th rounder OR 175,000
$350-449 = 4th rounder OR 300,000
$450-$650 = 3rd rounder OR 475,000
$651-$1,000 = 2nd rounder OR 750,000
$1,001+ = 1st rounder OR 1,500,000
$1,400+ = Decided by Arbitration Group (combination of 1st's and Cash and/or lower picks)

If a pick or money is not available, equal compensation will be decided by the Arbitration Group.

It is mandatory to respond to compensation negotiations, any team that fails to respond to contract negotiations will be fined $20,000. Failing to respond means you did not reply to a GM who is seeking to negotiate fair compensation or you did not notify the commissioner that you would like compensation to go to arbitration.

Retired & Injured Players:

  If a player retires the NHL, they also retire in the BTHL, they will be removed at the end of the current season.  If the BTHL is in the offseason and a player retired in the NHL, they will be removed immediately.  For players injured long term in the NHL, the following rule applies:

Any Goalie that has played one game in the previous season will be allowed to stay in the BTHL or be created. Any Goalie that has not played a single game in the previous season will be removed and added to their respective team’s prospect list.

Draft

After every NHL Entry draft the BTHL will have an Entry Draft.  The order will be worst team to best team in every round.  There will be 5 rounds to the draft, and you may draft players from the NHL Entry Draft and any player unsigned in the BTHL that has been drafted in the NHL.  Drafted players are added to your prospect list, they do not count towards your payroll unless you are over the 25 player prospect limit in which case they cost 40,000 each per season against your payroll.  Once you activate a player off the prospect list they will receive a rating, they can be signed to an entry level contract based on the rating they receive:

Below 70 = 150,000
70-73 = 250,000
74-77 = 350,000
78+ = 450,000

Draft Lottery Rules:

I would like to announce a new rule that has to do with the way we determine the top 8 picks of the draft. Any team in the bottom 8 can move any amount of spaces up or down and has a varying chance to win the 1^st overall pick.

Each team that finishes in the bottom 8 will get lottery tickets into the hat, their tickets are based on how they place in the previous season or the average of the previous two seasons (wins then goal differential being the tie breaker).

8^th place gets 8 entries (22.2% chance of winning 1^st overall)
7^th places gets 7 entries (19.4% chance)
6^th place gets 6 entries  (16.6% chance)
5^th place gets 5 entries  (13.8% chance)
4^th place gets 4 entries (11.1% chance)
3^rd place gets 3 entries (8.3% chance)
2^nd place gets 2 entries (5.5% chance)
1^st place gets 1 entry (2.7% chance)
Total Entries (36)