Article 01 – League Structure and Admin

1. Mission Statement
The Mid-West Old Tyme Hockey League (MWOTHL) is founded to foster friendships and fair competitive play utilizing the Action! PC Hockey Game.

The league features Continuous Ownership, conducts an Annual Free Agent Auction and has a Salary Cap. Founded in the Winter of 2018 by Stray Corrado, with much help from John Niespodzianski & Bill Schindel.

MWOTHL Website: http://www.mwothl.com

2. Best Interest of the League
All member of the league are expected to act in the overall best interests of the league. Missing deadlines, bending the rules for your team’s gain, collusion with other GM’s or any other activities not in the best interests of the whole league will be dealt up to and including expulsion from the league. Familiarization and adherence to the League Guide is also expected from all GMs.

3. League Organization

3.1. Officers

3.1.1. Commissioner
It is the Commissioners duty to direct the operations of the league to ensure the rules are balanced to allow every team an opportunity to succeed. All league officers will be appointed by the Commissioner and will serve at his digression. Any situations that arise that are not adequately covered by the league Constitution, the Commissioner is charged with implementing the solutions he feels will best address the issues at hand.

3.1.2. Assistant Commissioner
The Assistant Commissioner is appointed by the Commissioner and serves at the Commissioners discretion.

The Assistant Commissioners duties will include but are not limited to:
● Serving as Acting Commissioner any time the Commissioner is not available or when any conflicts
arise that may include the Commissioner.
● Keeping the Constitution updated with all approved changes, additions and deletions.
● Assisting the Commissioner as requested by the Commissioner.

3.1.3. League Statistician & Software Developer
The League Statistician & Software Developer is appointed by the Commissioner and serves at the Commissioners discretion.
The League Statistician & Software Developer duties will include but are not limited to:
● A list of responsibilities is still to be determined.

3.1.4. Other Officer Positions (to be announced as necessary)

3.2. Conferences
The league will be comprised of two Conferences.
● The Clarence Campbell Conference
● The Prince of Wales Conference

3.3. Divisions / Franchises
The Clarence Campbell Conference will host the Patrick & Smythe Divisions.
The Prince of Wales Conference will host the Adams & Norris Divisions.

Franchise Name Changes
Take care when naming your franchise. Franchise names can only be changed when a new GM takes over the team.
New GM’s are allowed a one-time opportunity to change the name of their teams at the beginning of their first new season.
The Commissioner reserves the right to approve franchise names.

3.4. General Managers
General Managers (GMs) control a single franchise.

3.5. Action! PC Hockey Game Version
The MWOTHL will utilize the latest version of Action! PC’s Hockey Game, unless that version is unstable or has issues that would impede MWOTHL play. In such case the Commissioner will publish the specific version of the game the MWOTHL will be using. All GMs are required to buy the game and buy EACH season disk the league will utilize. NOTE: The commissioner will attempt to get a league discount, so check first before you buy.

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Article 02 – Season Format – Schedule - Playoffs

4. League Schedule

4.1. Regular Season
The Regular Season will consist of 80 games. Each franchise will be responsible for playing their 40 home games. When Actual NHL season lengths change, MWOTHL will adjust accordingly.
Games will be played in weekly segments. See Section 12 for GM responsibilities during the Regular Season.
The schedule will alternate year-to-year.
Games within your Division – 4 Home and 4 Away (24)
Games with the other Division in your Conference – 3 Home and 3 Away (24)
Games with all teams in the other Conference - 2 Home and 2 Away (32)

4.2. Playoffs
The MWOTHL will have eight teams make the Playoffs. The four Division winners and then the next two finishers in each Conference will be wild card teams.
The first round of the playoffs will be the Conference Semi-Finals. The Division Winners will be the home team for games 1-2-5-7. The Wild Card teams will be home team for games 3-4-6. The top seeded Division winner will host the lower seeded Wild Card team, the lower seeded Division winner will host the top seeded Wild Card team.
The second round of the playoffs will be the Conference Finals. The top seeded team will be the home team for games 1-2-5-7. The lower seeded team will be the home team for games 3-4-6.
In the Championship series the top seeded team will be the home team for games 1-2-5-7. The lower seeded team will be the home team for games 3-4-6.
See section 11 for Player Usage Limitations in the Playoffs.

4.3. Tie Breakers
When required to determine qualification for the Playoffs or for seeding the following tie breaking procedures will be followed:
A. Most Wins.
B. Points in Head-to-Head Games
1. For comparing two teams: Use the points earned in the Head-to-Head games
2. For comparing more than two teams: Points earned in the Head to Head games ÷ GP in
Head to Head. This allows for the likelihood of having not played head-to-head and an equal number of games.
C. Regular Season Goal Differential: (Team Goals Scored – Team Goals Allowed)
D. If this is to determine Play-off eligibility, then a single game play-off at a neutral location with
both coaches submitting COA files and the league playing the game with both teams set for Computer Control.
E. If this is to determine seeding, then a Commissioner monitored coin flip will be the final tiebreaking step.

4.4. Playing Regular Season Games
The MWOTHL will play games in one-week blocks.
Each GM will have the opportunity to submit a new COA file before the start of each week’s games. This will often be necessary to adjust for trades or player use limitations. It is each GM’s responsibility to make sure your COA files are accurate and submitted on time. The Commissioner (or his designee) will post a new League File prior to each week’s game play. (Note: if a trade occurs during a week, the COA can’t be updated until the Commissioner sends out a new league file reflecting the trade.)
It is also each GM’s responsibility update their game with the weeks new game file.
Each GM is responsible for playing their home games for the week and submitting their .wks file by the week’s published deadline.
Head-to-head playing of games utilizing the built feature of Action! PC Hockey during the regular season is encouraged but not required.

4.5. Playing Playoff Games
The MWOTHL encourages using Head-to-Head play for Play-off games, but it is not mandatory. Head to head play allows each GM to make last minute changes to their line-ups and strategies in addition to calling the line changes and play action during the game. When not playing head to head the visiting coach will be responsible for submitting a COA file.
Play-off games should not be played out of sequence as player limitations might have a major impact on line-ups and tactics.

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Article 03 - Player Classifications and Roster Limits

5. Player Classifications
All players rated by Action! PC Hockey will be classified as follows:

5.1. Active [A]
Active players are players who are rated in the current Action! PC hockey game and under contract to a MWOTHL Franchise.

5.2. Restricted Free Agent [RFA]
Restricted Free Agents are players on the current Action PC Hockey game season disk who appeared in fewer than 10 NHL games for the season in use AND they are not already under the control of any MWOTHL Franchise. These players may not be drafted and will NOT appear on the MWOTHL player disk for the current season. If a player of this type shows up on the season disk, contact the commissioner and he will be removed to avoid any confusions.

5.3. Unrestricted Free Agent [UFA]
Unrestricted Free Agents are players who are rated in the current Action! PC hockey game and who are NOT currently controlled by any MWOTHL Franchise and who are not classified as Restricted Free Agents. New players rated for the 1st time by Action! PC Hockey will be UFAs. Unrestricted Free Agents will be available to any MWOTHL Franchise in the Annual Free Agent Draft.

5.4. Not-Carded [NC] or Uncarded Players
Not carded players are players who were on the just played Action! PC Hockey season disk and do not appear in the next season to play (injured or sent to minors in NHL) and have not retired from NHL (they will appear again in NHL future). There are two restrictions concerning NC players:

• 5.4.1. Drafting – no player who is NC (not on the disk) can be drafted. Even if a player was on previous season disk and released and is not on the new disk, he cannot be drafted. When he reappears in a future season disk, he will be considered an UFA for drafting purposes with a Contract Year value of 1 (see section 7.1)
  5.4.2. Player Retention For Players Not on Disk – a player who is on the just played Action! PC Hockey disk and won’t be on the next season disk (injury or minor league assignment in NHL) and will reappear in a future season disk and is on a MWOTHL active roster for the just played season may be retained by the owning team subject to the following limitations:
  5.4.3. Limit – A team may keep no more than one (1) player in this category, any additional players in this category must be cut at Roster Cut Down
  5.4.4. Roster Cut Down – A player kept in the NC status needs to be part of the 15 player keepers at Roster Cut Down.
  5.4.5. Contract Value – A player kept in the NC status will have his Contract Year advance just like any other player and his Contract Value adjusted accordingly. (See sections 7.1 and 7.2)
  5.4.6. Trading – A player in the NC status may be traded subject to MWOTHL trading requirements. His CY and CV will continue with the new team and the new team must have room for his NC status (i.e. no other NC players currently on his roster at the time of the trade).
  

5.5. Codes [C]
In the MWOTHL database all players receive a Code based on their position OR classification (Waiver Claim player). The following are the codes players receive:

• 1 – Goalies
  2 – Defensemen
  3 – Forward, Left Wing, Right Wing
  4 – Center
  6 – Waiver Claimed player (regardless of position)
  7 – Not carded player (only players who were on your roster the previous season and are not on current season disk
  

5.6. Retired [X]
Any player who has played at least 1 game in MWOTHL and is no longer rated by Action! PC Hockey and is retired from the NHL considered Retired.

5.7. Hall of Fame [HOF]
Only Retired players who have been voted into the MWOTHL Hall of Fame.

5.8. Rookie [1]
5.8.1. The Rookie classification is used only for MWOTHL AWARDS.
5.8.2. MWOTHL rookies will be players who have played less than 26 MWOTHL games (cumulative) in any preceding MWOTHL seasons. The player must be less than 26 years old on September 15th of the MWOTHL current season.

6. Franchise Rosters
Each MWOTHL Franchise will a 30-player roster. Requirements for this roster are noted below.

6.1. Active Roster Max. Size
MWOTHL Active rosters will be set at 30 Action! PC Hockey rated players. One player in an NC status is allowed within this 30-Player limit.

6.2. Roster Limits by Position
It is each GM’s responsibility to ensure that his 30-man roster has enough games to cover all his positions for a full 80 game schedule. See Goalie Drafting restrictions in section 8.5.

6.3. Playing Roster
Each week, each MWOTHL team is required to set an active Playing roster of 18 skaters and 2 goalies (20 players total). The playing roster will consist of 12 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 2 goalies.

Article 04 - Player and Team Contracts and Values

7. Player Contracts and Contract Values
The MWOTHL rosters will be controlled by roster size (30 players) and contract value limits. All players will have a Contract Value (CV) based on Contract Years (CY). Contract Values will adjust annually based on playing time on rosters.

7.1. Contract Years (CY)
The term Contract Years refers to how many years a player has been on a MWOTHL team. CY is used to determine the players’ Contract CV (see section 7.2). All players begin with a CY of 1 when they are FIRST drafted. As a player continues in the MWOTHL and remains on an active roster, each year his CY will increase by 1. There are two limiting factors to Contract Years – maximum limit, and release readjustment. If a player is traded while under contract his CURRENT CY value remains with him when he goes to the new team.

7.1.1. Maximum limit and length of contract.
The maximum limit for CY in MWOTHL is 7. After a player reaches 7, he is automatically released after that current MWOTHL season and returned to the UFA draft pool (provided he appears on the next season disk and played in 10 or more games in that season). This value of 7 for CY is total years for that player, even if he’s been traded. It is the total accumulation of consecutive years of a contract with one or more teams.

7.1.2. Contract Year [CY] length adjustments.
CY can be adjusted under the following situations:

7.1.2.1. Players released by at team at the Roster-Cut-Down (RCD) point to the player pool will be a UFA. His CY will be adjusted in accordance with the following table based on his CY at the time of release. This well affect his new Contract Value (CV)

7.1.2.2 Contract Year Adjustment For Cut Players Chart

• 
  NOTE: A player dropped in this manner MAY NOT be redrafted by the releasing team until the 2nd Round of the next player draft. This protects against teams dropping players with the sole intent of resigning at a lower CV – but if no one wants the player in the 1st round, the releasing team is then eligible to redraft him if available with any pick the team may own in round 2.
  

7.1.2.3. Values are based on the CY at the time of release. Example: Team A has a player on roster with a CY of 5. He is released at the end of the season to the pool and is still eligible for drafting in the upcoming draft. His CY will be reduced to 2. And this CY of 2 will be used to determine his Contract Value [CV].

7.1.2.4. A player who has been released to the draft pool, either a UFA, RFA, but is NOT DRAFTED during the upcoming season’s draft, will have his CY reduced to 1 the next year he is eligible to be drafted and is drafted. This will also be the case for a player who is released, and he was not on the disk in the upcoming season. If a player is not on a disk for a season and not on a roster as an NC player, his CY will be back at 1 in the next season he is eligible.

7.2. Contract Values [CV]
Contract Values [CV] are at the heart of roster management for MWOTHL. Each team is required to have a 30-player active roster. Each player will have a CV and that CV is based on the number of years a player has been under a contract on a team, CY. The contract values increase each year until the player undergoes a reset to his CY as noted in Section 7.1.

7.2.1. Contract Values Allowed per Team
Contract Values are capped per team and there are three points in the season were the cap is implemented.

• Roster Cut Down (RCD) – Team will have a CV they have to be at or below at RCD.
  Draft CV Limit – At the draft teams will have a set CV that they cannot exceed during the draft.
  In-season CV Limit – After the draft, teams will have a great CV limit to allow in-season trade flexibility.

• 7.2.2. Contract Values [CV] Per Team

• RCD - $70

• Draft CV Limit - $85

• Post draft - In-season - $95

7.2.2. Player Acquisitions
However, GMs must consider the RCD cap when acquiring new players, it might be a one and done thing if they can’t afford to keep them.

7.2.3 Contract Value – Team Totals
Each team will have a roster of 30 players with CV ranging from 1 to 12 per player based on their years under contract. Player values escalate as covered in section 7.2.4. Team owners need to based their RCD on the CV of the players for the next season – they will always CUT to 15 players at the end of a season and they have to do this within the RCD Team Contract Value. Teams will also be drafting 15 NEW PLAYERS each year. If they draft 1st year players – their CV will be 1 per player. And cutting to the maximum RCD will work just fine. But if you plan to draft any player in the pool who has a CV greater than 1, you will need to factor that into your cuts at RCD. The lower your team CV at RCD, the more drafting flexibility you will have.

6.1.2. Contract Value Chart - Players

7.3. Contract Lengths
As noted, the contract year for each player retained increases by 1 every year and therefore their contract value increases accordingly. Players released at Roster Cut-Down [RCD] have their CY value reduced as noted in section 7.1.2.2 down to a minimum of 1. Since each team has a cap, it does limit the number of players you may keep over a longer period. This is further discussed in Section 9.2

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Article 02 – Season Format – Schedule - Playoffs

4. League Schedule

4.1. Regular Season
The Regular Season will consist of 80 games. Each franchise will be responsible for playing their 40 home games. When Actual NHL season lengths change, MWOTHL will adjust accordingly.
Games will be played in weekly segments. See Section 12 for GM responsibilities during the Regular Season.
The schedule will alternate year-to-year.
Games within your Division – 4 Home and 4 Away (24)
Games with the other Division in your Conference – 3 Home and 3 Away (24)
Games with all teams in the other Conference - 2 Home and 2 Away (32)

4.2. Playoffs
The MWOTHL will have eight teams make the Playoffs. The four Division winners and then the next two finishers in each Conference will be wild card teams.
The first round of the playoffs will be the Conference Semi-Finals. The Division Winners will be the home team for games 1-2-5-7. The Wild Card teams will be home team for games 3-4-6. The top seeded Division winner will host the lower seeded Wild Card team, the lower seeded Division winner will host the top seeded Wild Card team.
The second round of the playoffs will be the Conference Finals. The top seeded team will be the home team for games 1-2-5-7. The lower seeded team will be the home team for games 3-4-6.
In the Championship series the top seeded team will be the home team for games 1-2-5-7. The lower seeded team will be the home team for games 3-4-6.
See section 11 for Player Usage Limitations in the Playoffs.

4.3. Tie Breakers
When required to determine qualification for the Playoffs or for seeding the following tie breaking procedures will be followed:
A. Most Wins.
B. Points in Head-to-Head Games
1. For comparing two teams: Use the points earned in the Head-to-Head games
2. For comparing more than two teams: Points earned in the Head to Head games ÷ GP in
Head to Head. This allows for the likelihood of having not played head-to-head and an equal number of games.
C. Regular Season Goal Differential: (Team Goals Scored – Team Goals Allowed)
D. If this is to determine Play-off eligibility, then a single game play-off at a neutral location with
both coaches submitting COA files and the league playing the game with both teams set for Computer Control.
E. If this is to determine seeding, then a Commissioner monitored coin flip will be the final tiebreaking step.

4.4. Playing Regular Season Games
The MWOTHL will play games in one-week blocks.
Each GM will have the opportunity to submit a new COA file before the start of each week’s games. This will often be necessary to adjust for trades or player use limitations. It is each GM’s responsibility to make sure your COA files are accurate and submitted on time. The Commissioner (or his designee) will post a new League File prior to each week’s game play. (Note: if a trade occurs during a week, the COA can’t be updated until the Commissioner sends out a new league file reflecting the trade.)
It is also each GM’s responsibility update their game with the weeks new game file.
Each GM is responsible for playing their home games for the week and submitting their .wks file by the week’s published deadline.
Head-to-head playing of games utilizing the built feature of Action! PC Hockey during the regular season is encouraged but not required.

4.5. Playing Playoff Games
The MWOTHL encourages using Head-to-Head play for Play-off games, but it is not mandatory. Head to head play allows each GM to make last minute changes to their line-ups and strategies in addition to calling the line changes and play action during the game. When not playing head to head the visiting coach will be responsible for submitting a COA file.
Play-off games should not be played out of sequence as player limitations might have a major impact on line-ups and tactics.