Commissioner: Steve Berrigan

These rules are subject to change at any time.

The World Hockey Association uses the FHL hockey simualator, which will fairly simulate every game, and output league stats daily. The WHA will consist of 16 teams in four divisions, the Pacific and Atlantic in the Canadian Conference, and Western and Eastern in the American Conference. The players used are that of the NHL, and will be updated as to how the perform in the NHL rather than there performance in the WHA. The will be updated every NHL offseason, and will be implimented into the WHA in the next offseason. We do not run a similar pattern to the NHL.

Please note that harrassment or abuse of other GMs in this league will NOT be tolerated, if a GM is found to be guilty of any of these, he will be removed from the league immediately. A hearing will be held with league GM's over ICQ to determine whether the offending party is guilty or not. All disciplinary actions will be carried out in this way.  The Commissioner is allowed to be the Owner of a team, but must ALWAYS be fair in all rulings against his team, and in the simulation of the games.
 

ROSTERS

The WHA rosters will always be 1 year behind the NHL. For example, if it is the
beginning of the 1999-2000 season in the NHL, Vincent Lecavalier will be starting his
rookie season in the WHA. The WHA also runs a different pattern. One seaon in the WHA is covered in less time than the NHL, though we do play an 82 game circuit, we have 16 teams, so the circuit runs quicker. If there are no updated stats at the end of a season, another season will begin with the draft picks remaining on there teams for an offseason with updates.

Here are the 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: Stick Hand
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

Each roster must consist of a minimum of 18 players and 2 goaltenders. You must have
AT LEAST 3 Centers, 3 Left Wingers, 3 Right Wingers, 6 Defencemen, and 2
goaltenders on your Team roster, and Game roster. NOTE: No more or less than 2
goaltenders are allowed to be on your Game Roster. The maximum amount of signed players is 45.  Any player that retires in the NHL will be retired the next season in the CSHL.  If the player in the NHL returns from retirement, he will be placed on the CSHL roster of the team that obtained him in the NHL the following season.

WAIVERS

Any player who has played at least 30 games in the season will be immediately put on waivers if he is sent to his farm club.  Players who a re 18-23 years old can be freely sent to the farm club. Once a player is placed on the waiver wire, any team may claim him for 24 hours.  If two or more teams claim a player, the player will go on a first come first serve, so which ever e-mail comes first.If a team claims a player, he must be put on the pro roster; otherwise, he will be placed on waivers again.  If a player is not claimed in 24 hours, he will go to the farm team.  After the regular season is over, a team may send any player to the minor leagues without having to go through the waiver process.  The league reserves the right to announce to all GMs when a player is put on waivers. Any player accidentally put on waivers by his team must remain on waivers for the 24 hour period with no exceptions.

RELEASED PLAYERS

Players that are released from their team will go directly to the unsigned players pool, and will be available in the next free agent draft, during the offseason.

GM RESPONSIBILITIES

All GMs will be expected to participate in the league, any non participating GMs will be
removed.. A non participating GM will be determined upon by the league GM's. An appeal may be held by the GM if he deems that he was participating, and a verdict will be decided. All GMs must also release one (1) press release every two (2) weeks, it may state anything pertaining to the team (please no obscenities!), and can start rivalries. PLAYFUL harrassment or abuse of teams during these rivalries will be permitted, to a certain extent, but please not enough that it would ignite a fight over league mail. Arguments and degraded statements must stay on the message board, the comments are not through real aggression, just fun conflict. Failure to release one once every two weeks will lead to elimination of the GM.

POWERS OF THE COMMISSIONER

The Commissioner has the right to, at any time, propose a hearing for the removal of any GM. Of course the GM will ONLY be removed after the hearing is completed, and a full agreement of all of the legue GMs has been voted upon.

The Commissioner has the power to invoke fines upon any GM

The Commissioner, may at any time add to or
create rules for the governing of the league.

COACHES

Coaches like players will be drafted at the beginning of the league and GMs can fire a coach at anytime, but must select a replacement who is available.

OF:  Offence
DF:  Defence
LD:  Leadership
EX:  Experience

It will also include a salary.

TRADING

Any trades completed by the GMs must be sent to the Commissioner via e-mail, by all parties involved.  If a trade is deemed too lopsided by the league commissioner, or any member,  an inquiry will be made into the situation. This is so that the league remains fair and we don't have one super power. Only if a GM majority votes against the fairness of a trade will it be removed.

LEAGUE NEWSPAPER

There will be a league newspaper called the World Report which the commissioner will right in awards for the term between papers, statistics and reports on the league, players or GMs, and also a "Trash Talk" section where the commissioner will come up with comedic story's and also where GM's can send articles to be posted.

FINANCES

All arenas will be the size designated when you build it, and ticket prices will be set by each team's GM. (NOTE: ticket prices are also relevant to how many people attend your game, good team or bad, so make your tickets reasonable! A good starting ticket price is $27 - $40.) Attendance from each game will also be simulated by FHL, and will vary from game to game depending on ticket prices (see above), and the way your team is playing.

Money will be carried over from year to year, so anything left over from this season will
be added on to your next season's totals.

FREE AGENTS

Free Agency Rules

On the commencement of a players contract, he will be available for free agency. The free agent draft will take place every off-season of players who are not currently part of an organization, including those whose contracts just ended.

Rules for Signing a Group I Free Agent

The team must match at least his current salary, and the contract must be at least 1 year. Maximum length of a contract will be 5 years. The minimum contract amount is $150,000. This represents what the team is bound to pay the player. If a team does not place a qualifying offer before the end of the
playoffs, then the player will be considered an unrestricted free agent.  Restricted free agents will work in a similar manner to that of unrestricted free agents with respect to bidding. The player will sign an offer sheet with the highest bidder or the original team if offer is 95% of highest offer. When a player signs an offer sheet, the player's current team has the right to match or to accept compensation. The team has 1 week to decide on which option they are going to take.  Compensation can either be negotiated between the two teams or if no agreement can be reached the compensation will be as described in the following table:

NEW CONTRACT VALUE : COMPENSATION
$150,000 to $500,000 : 2nd Round Draft Pick
$500,001 to $1,000,000 : 1st Round Draft Pick
$1,000,001 to $2,500,000 : 1st Round and second round Draft Picks
$2,500,001 to $5,000,000 : 2 1st Round Draft Picks
$5,000,001 And Above : 3 1st Round Draft Picks 2 2nd round

If a team has more than one applicable draft pick then they will offer either their own or
the one that is highest in the draft order.

An Unrestricted Free Agent may be signed by any team in the league.  Payment can be
any amount desired (over $150,000), and the highest bid will receive the players. The
minimum allowed bid offered to an unrestricted free agent is $150,000. The maximum
length of time you can sign a UFA is 3 years. The signing of an UFA can only take place
in the off-season, and any talks before the off-season results in a fine or suspension for
tampering.  Unrestricted players will go to the highest bidder with the exception of a
player loyalty factor. If a player's current team offers 95% of the highest offer, the free
agent will accept that offer.  Otherwise, no compensation will be given to the previous
team.

Free Agency Draft

There will be 3 rounds of bidding, taking place after the Playoffs end.  Each team will present a list of the free agents they wish to bid on (max 5 restricted - not including players on your own team, no limit on unrestricted players though must stay under 45 player roster limit).  The list of free agents will be presented along with the number of bids placed on each.  Teams will then present their bids. The highest five bids move on to round two.  Bids are called for round two and the highest two bids move on to round three.  After bids are received in round three the highest bidder receives the player.  You cannot lower your bid from one round to the next. You can however bid the same amount. This is to prevent GMs from making it to the final round by bidding an astronomical amount and then bidding peanuts in the last round.  If your bid is accepted as the highest then you MUST take that player at the salary you have stated. Participation in the voting process is indication enough that you are willing to pay for the player.  In the case of restricted free agents, the original team has the option to offer 95% of the highest offer at the end of round 3 and thereby retain the player. Otherwise, they can release the player in return for the appropriate compensation.  If there are still free agents left there will be another bidding round. Bidding rounds will continue until all free agents have been signed or until there are no more bids for free agents. If there are unrestricted free agents that no team has interest in signing, they will be placed in a free agent pool and teams can sign them at any time for the league minimum salary at any time during the season. If no team is willing to pay the player the assigned amount, it can be assumed that they are "holding out" or are in the minor system.

SALARIES

The league minimum salary is $150,000 per year.   The rookie salaries will decided
upon by what they receive in the NHL, up to a max of $950,000 per year. If the owner
does not pay the stated amount, then the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.

REVENUE

You can purchase more seats for your arena in the off season. Extra seats will cost
$2000 per seat.  Each off season the CSHL will award a certain amount of money to
each club. This represents TV revenue the league earns. It will never exceed $10,000,000.

MONTHLY and WEEKLY AWARDS

Any team's player that receives a monthly or weekly award will receive the following revenue:

WEEKLY AWARDS

Player of the week - $1,000
Goaltender of the week - $1,000
Rookie of the week - $1,000
Goon of the week - $1,000

AWARDS

Awards will be given to players who led the league in some way or another. For a run
down on what each award means, please visit the Awards page. Each award won will
give the player who won that award's team some money. They go as follows:

Regular Season Division Winners - $425,000
Regular Season Division Runner-ups - $200,000
President's Trophy - $550,000
Conference Quarter Final losers - $175,000
Semi Final losers - $350,000
Conference Championship losers - $675,000
Beer Mug Championship losers - $1,075,000
Beer Mug Winners - $1,750,000

Hart Memorial Trophy - $15,000
James Norris Trophy - $15,000
Lady Byng Trophy - $15,000
Vezina Trophy - $15,000
Calder Memorial Trophy - $15,000
Frank J Selke Trophy - $15,000
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy - $15,000
GM of the Year Award - $15,000
Art Ross Trophy - $15,000
Maurice Richard Award - $15,000
Tiger Williams Award - $15,000
William M. Jennings Trophy - $15,000
Jack Adams Award - $1,000
Lester B Pearson Award - $15,000
Conn Smyth Trophy - $15,000
 

All awards will be voted upon by the 16 GMs in the league, GMs cannot vote on their own
players. There will be nominees for each award. You will place 1 vote on one player out
of the three for each award.

ALL-STAR GAME

The WHA All-Star Game will be held roughly in the mid-season. A list of the top 27
forwards, 12 defencemen, and 6 goaltenders will be created by the league executives
for each conference, and the final rosters will be voted upon by CSHL GMs. The top
coach in each conference will become the coach of their conference's All-Star team. The
coaches will then develop a set of lines to be used in this game.