Looking to start a keeper league that will be hosted on CBS-Sportline.com. I want to have 16 teams in four divisions. I’m going with the old NHL names – Norris, Smythe, Adams, & Patrick. Currently I have two spots filled (myself and my brother) so I need 14 more people.
Please add your name and email in a reply to this post if you are interested!

I am hoping to find a lot of serious owners; especially since my current league is nowhere near serious...

$25 entry fee. Payout as follows:

$12.50 for each of the four non-division winning playoff teams.

$25.00 for each of the four division winners.

$50 for the runner up in the championship game.

$100 for the League Champion.

Yes, that adds up to $300 (16 x 25 = $400), the fee that goes to CBS for hosting the league is $100.00 if you pay before a certain date (which we will make because of our draft date).


RULES (sorry that this is somewhat long but I wanted prospective owners to know ahead of time what this league is about!)

Player Pool:

30 players - 20 pro, 10 prospects

14 active – 8 F (any mix of center and wingers – you will not be able to change a player’s position), 4 D, 2 G, 16 on reserve.

Injured players do not count against roster limits.

Keeper league – 12 pro players for five years. Prospects are kept forever until they no longer meet our prospect rules.

Prospects are any players who have played less than 40 games.

Owners may make trades during and after the season.

All Players from every NHL team will be in our pool. Positions: F (C & W), D and G.



Transactions:

Lineups are set once for the start of each period.
Deadline is 30 minutes before game time on the first day of the period.

Owners may set lineups.

Add/drops are handled by a waivers process.

The waivers process runs on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The waiver order resets after each weeks\' games.

Dropped players remain on waivers for at least 3 day(s).

Signing and releasing players will cease on the date the playoffs begin and will be in effect until the day after the draft is completed.

Schedule: Weekly scoring periods, starting on Mondays.
Playoffs start in Period 25 and last for 3 Periods.

Scoring: Head-to-Head, Points Based System.
Ties go to the team with more points from Reserves.
Scoring based on total stats each period.

Scoring for all players:
+/- + or – 1
Assists – 1 point
Goals – 2 points
Power Play Goals - 3
Power-Play Assists – 2
Shorthanded Goals – 5
Short-Handed Assists - 3
Minor Penalties – 1
Majors - -1
Misconducts - -1

Goalie points:
Wins – 5
Shutouts – 3
Saves - .1
Assists – 1.5
Goals Against - -1
Shootout Wins – 1
Shootout Loss - -1
Penalties - -1

Constitution:

ROSTER RULES
1. You have a limit of 30 players which is divided into the following:
20 Non-Prospect or \"Pro\" players.
10 Prospects.
Prospects are players who have played less than 40 games.

2. Injured players do not count against the roster limit.

3. Signing and releasing players will cease on the date the playoffs begin and will be in effect until the day after the draft is completed.



PLAYOFF RULES
1. Division winners automatically get in. After them the teams with the best overall record from ANY division gets in. The order is determined like so:
Division winners take the top four spots. The division winner with the best record is #1; the team with the second best record is #2, etc. The remaining playoff teams are ordered by overall record.

2. If a tie-breaker is needed for any two teams tied (exception – if a division winner is tied with a non-division winner the division winner will always be ranked higher):
(Ties within the division are always broken first)
1. Head-to-head record
2. Division record (if applicable)
3. Points For
4. Points Against
5. Record vs. common opponents.



DRAFT RULES
1. League fees are due on draft day with NO exceptions (except in EXTREME circumstances).

2. The draft will held online with a time limit of 90 seconds. The draft will be held on September 21st at noon CST. This will give us a week and a half to setup our teams once the draft is complete.

The draft robot will be enabled - picks are made automatically for any team that lets the clock expire.

3. If all team rosters are empty:
The initial draft will be a straight-line (i.e. 1-16 each round) for 30 rounds. You are drafting 20 ‘pro’ players and 10 prospects. They may be drafted on any round.


4. Once keeper teams are set the draft will be handled in this format:
A straight-line draft for ten rounds (i.e. 1-16 each round). Any prospects that you wish to draft will be done afterward using three rounds. If they are not needed then the draft will be complete.


5. The Draft Order will be determined in this manner:
Champion picks last. Runner up picks next to last. Other teams pick according to final season standings, with worst team 1st and so on down the line. Tied teams are broken by - head to head record, then points for, points against, and then record vs. common opponents.



KEEPER LEAGUE RULES
1. At the end of every season teams will be allowed to keep twelve players and up to ten prospects. The maximum number of pro players at each position a team may keep is as follows:
2 Goalies, 4 Defenseman, 6 Forwards (wingers and/or centers)
Teams will be allowed to keep those players for a period of five years; after which they must be released. There is no position maximum for prospects.

The 2008-2009 season counts as one year for anyone you protect.



2. The cutoff date for setting your keepers is 7:00PM EST on the Monday after the championship game. Any team that does not set their keepers by this date will lose all of their players, prospects included.

3. On the My Lineup page you will notice that there is a column called Contract after the last date of the scoring period. This column will be used to keep track of the status of your keepers. The number in this column will correspond to how many years you may keep this player. The values are as follows:

5 - The maximum number of years you may keep a player on your team.

4 – This number corresponds to a player you have already kept for one year and to which you still have exclusive rights to for another four years if you so desire.
3 - This number corresponds to a player you have already kept for two years and to which you still have exclusive rights to for another three years if you so desire.
2 - This number corresponds to a player you have already kept for one year and to which you still have exclusive rights to for another two years if you so desire.
1 - This number means after the end of the current season this player will be put back into the draft pool (example - if a team decides to keep Ilya Kovalchuk as one of his keepers he will have him until the end of the 2012-2013 season. When you look at his roster in 2012/2013 you will see a \"1\" next to Kovalchuk\'s name).
0 - this number means that they player is a prospect and his status is governed by our prospect rules. This number will stay with a prospect until he plays more than 40 games, at which time he will get a 1 for contract status.

3. Any players teams protect in their five year cycle must be kept unless one or more of them met these conditions:
They are released or traded.
The player - retires, suffers a career ending injury, or elects to play outside of the NHL for a length of time. (Regarding playing outside of the NHL: There is always a chance that player could return to the NHL so it is up to you whether you continue to protect him or not.)
There may be other conditions added to this as they come up.

4. Any owner that stops playing in the league would be replaced by a new one. That person would then be able to protect anyone they wish - even if the previous owner already submitted a list. Any new owners must email me and read our rules before joining.



VETO RULES

1. The only deals that will be investigated will be ones where collusion is suspected. This league will NOT investigate lopsided deals unless collusion is suspected. We are not going to punish bad owners; only owners that wish circumvent the rules in order to help one buddy bone the rest of the league.

2. Trades that are deemed to be due to collusion:

(This was done in a H2H, points league where PIMs counted against a team)
(This happened in 2001) Mark Parrish (60 points that year) for Brian Savage (41 points that year). This was right before the former Parrish owner quit the league. This was also after a six player trade in which former owner traded Tkachuk (75 pts) & Kolzig (31W’s, 6 SO’s) for Joe Thornton (68pts that year), Mark Parrish, Ray Ferraro (27pts), & Manny Fernandez (backup in MIN).

(This happened in 2005) Markus Naslund for Brian Rolston & Mathieu Schneider. Looks good on the surface until you realize that the team who had Naslund was trying to load up the other team for a Cup win.

(This happened in 2006) Dany Heatley and Tomas Vokoun for Cristobal Huet & Mike Riberio. Another deal made for a Cup win. Plus Vokoun was being traded for an out-for-the-season Huet AND Riberio will NEVER be in the same class as Heatley (this is 100pts vs. 60pts, a no-brainer. It’s like trading Sidney Crosby for Ryan Smyth).


3. Once a trade is brought to the attention of the commish (either by finding it himself or via another owner) the commish will investigate in this manner:
a) an email will go out stating that such trade is under review. The review process will take one week. Any non-response will result in a verdict of guilty.
b) The commish will speak with both owners involved in the trade.
c) The commish will then speak to any other owner with knowledge of the people involved.

4. Once all of the findings are in the commish will email the other owners with the evidence and a vote will take place to determine whether the league feels this trade violated our rules. The vote must be 3/4 in favor of collusion or else the trade is deemed legal.

5. If it is decided that no rules were violated then no punishment will be handed out.

6. If it is decided that the trade is illegal an email will go out to the two parties under investigation explaining the league\'s decision.
The punishment for an illegal trade is as follows:

The trade will be reversed.
The next game for each team will be automatic losses; unless a scoring week went by during the investigation and the players that were part of an illegal trade helped said team(s) win. The outcome of that game will be reversed and the team(s) will have served their penalty.
Both teams involved will lose their #1 and #2 draft picks for two consecutive years. This punishment will be fulfilled even if the owner leaves the league and returns. In other words, there is no escaping this penalty.


MISC RULES

1. ***IMPORTANT***: Return all phone calls and all emails within 48 hours if possible. Even for offers that seem stupid, at least give owners the courtesy of a two-minute phone call or email. Nobody likes waiting for answers, and it may affect other deals they are considering, which are time sensitive. If the offer requires further thought, email the person with a brief note: “I’ll think about this for the next ## days and get back to you”. If hitting “reply” and typing that sentence is too time consuming, then join a Hockey News pool where you just have to check boxes once per year. (Yeah, I stole this from Dobber.)

2. You can now trade draft picks but ONLY for next season. No trading picks two or three years away.

3. Signing of a multi-positional player (i.e. one who play forward or defense) will cause the commissioner to review the players’ current position in order to place him correctly. Some players are much harder to place than others but, fortunately for the commish, those “two-way” players do not score often enough to be sought after.

4. If a situation comes up where two goalies share a shutout the points will be split evenly between the two net minders; even if one is currently not on a fantasy roster.


Deadline for entry is August 1st, 2008. If we have everyone then the payment due date is September 19, 2008. Thanks for reading this!