LEAGUE RULES

Each team must maintain a minimum of 6 players and a maximum of 23 players on their active roster at all times. Teams below the minimum will be flagged by Admin. Teams at the maximum may not sign new players until a roster spot is freed.

Players may register a primary position and up to two secondary positions. GMs should ensure their roster is balanced across Forwards (C, LW, RW), Defense (LD, RD), and Goalie (G) to be competitive.

GMs must submit their weekly lines before the Admin-set deadline each week. Lines include 4 Forward Lines (C/LW/RW), 3 Defense Pairs (LD/RD), a Starting Goalie and Backup, plus PP1, PP2, PK1, and PK2 units. Players not assigned to any line will be flagged. Late submissions are logged.

A new team is founded through the GM application. The applicant is the team's GM and brings five players from the GM's EASHL club, so a new team starts with six players: the GM plus five. The application gives the EASHL club name, the team city, the team name and abbreviation, and the five club players. Each of the five players is given a proposed salary and contract length. Staff review every application and may adjust the salaries and contract lengths. An application cannot be approved unless every salary and contract is within the league minimum and maximum, every contract length is within the league limit, and the payroll of the five players fits under the salary cap. On approval the team is created, linked to its EASHL club, and the five players are signed to their contracts.

Every team has one Captain and at least one Assistant Captain. The Captain relays lineup and strategy from the GM to the roster, is the first stop for in-game disputes before they reach staff, and helps new and call-up players settle in. The Assistant Captain steps in when the Captain is away. The GM may change the Captain at any time but must tell the league, because captains appear on the public roster. A team with no Captain or Assistant Captain on file gets a warning, then a league-appointed interim captain.

GMs are expected to rotate the full active roster over the season. A healthy, available player who goes several games in a row without a lineup spot may file a playing-time grievance with the Discipline Officer. A grievance that is upheld gets a warning and review first, then a required rotation plan, then a review of the GM's standing. GMs should also manage two-line rotations with the fatigue system in mind rather than overplaying the top lines.

Each team has a hard salary cap set by Admin each season. Teams may not sign any player whose salary would cause them to exceed the cap. The cap amount, minimum salary, and maximum single-player salary are configured per league per season and displayed on the Salary Cap page.

In addition to the dollar salary cap, each team has a maximum number of contract years they can hand out per season (default: 55 years). Signing a player for 3 years uses 3 of your contract years. The remaining years roll back each season as contracts expire.

GMs send contract offers to free agents through the Contract Offers page. Each offer includes a salary and contract length. Players have 72 hours to accept or reject. GMs may withdraw pending offers at any time. Offers are blocked if they would exceed the team's salary cap.

Players selected in the draft receive automatic rookie contracts. The salary is determined by draft position — the #1 overall pick receives the highest rookie salary (set per league by Admin) and it scales linearly down to the minimum salary for the last pick. All rookie contracts are 3 years.

At the start of each new season, all active contracts tick down by 1 year. Contracts reaching zero expire and players become free agents. Teams gain back the cap space freed by expiring contracts automatically.

No player may be offered a salary below the league minimum or above the league maximum, regardless of cap space available. Minimum and maximum values are set by Admin per league per season.

The GM/owner of a team has no salary and no contract and does not count against the salary cap. Every other player has a salary and a contract, including the Captain and Assistant Captains. Assistant GMs and coaches do not get this exemption. Contract offers cannot be made to a GM/owner, and staff cannot override a GM/owner's salary.

Trades are only permitted during the regular season up until the trade deadline. The deadline is calculated as a fraction of the season — for example, 2/3 of all games played. Once any team in the league reaches the deadline game count, all trades lock automatically for the remainder of the season and playoffs.

All trades must be submitted through the Trades page and approved by Admin before taking effect. Verbal agreements made outside the platform are not valid until processed on the site.

Players may voluntarily place themselves on the Trade Block through their profile, or GMs may list their own players. Interested GMs can express interest directly on the Trade Block page. The listing GM will be notified via the messaging system.

Both teams involved in a trade must remain cap-compliant after the trade is processed. Admin will verify cap space before approving any trade. Trades that would violate the salary cap will not be approved.

When a GM releases a player from their team, that player is automatically placed on waivers for 72 hours. The player remains on the releasing team's roster during this window and cannot be rostered by any other team until claimed or cleared.

Any GM may claim a waived player during the 72-hour window. Claims are awarded on a first-click basis — the first GM to click Claim wins the player. A GM may not claim a player their own team just released.

If no team claims a waived player within 72 hours, they automatically become a free agent and are removed from the releasing team's roster. They are then available to be signed by any team.

A GM may not claim a waived player if their roster is already at the maximum roster size. Cap space must also be available to absorb the player's contract.

The league holds a 5-round draft each season. Each team receives one pick per round. Draft order is determined by reverse regular-season standings — the team with the fewest points picks first.

Draft picks may be traded along with players. Traded picks must be processed through the Trades page. Future picks (picks from upcoming seasons) may also be traded subject to Admin approval.

All drafted players sign automatic rookie contracts based on their pick number. See Section 4.4 for the full salary scale. Players may not negotiate a different salary until their rookie contract expires.

Only players currently in the league as free agents are eligible to be drafted. Players signed to a team are not eligible. Players must have completed the signup process before the draft.

The regular season schedule is set by Admin at the start of each season using the round-robin schedule builder. Each team plays every other team at least once. Game dates and times are published on the Schedule page.

After a scheduled game is played, both GMs must confirm on the schedule page that the game was played. When both teams confirm, Discord is notified and Admin can submit the final score.

Game results are submitted by Admin using the OCR Stats system — upload a screenshot of the final scoreboard and player stats, review the auto-filled data, and save. Player season totals are updated automatically.

If one team fails to show for a scheduled game without prior notification, the opposing team may report the no-show to Admin. Admin will review and may issue a forfeit win or schedule a makeup game at their discretion.

- Only players on a team's league roster earn stats. There are no guest players in any league. - EA may fill an empty spot with an AI or computer player. AI players never receive stats. - Every roster player's stats count in both a restarted game and its replay, as long as they belong to a human player.

- 1st or 2nd period: the game is restarted so the player can return. The score and the time remaining are kept. - 3rd period: the game plays on without the player. No restart.

1. The team of the player who disconnected quits the game first. EA then shows a DNF win for the other team. 2. Both teams start a new private game. 3. The teams run the clock down to the time that was remaining when the disconnect happened. Play resumes from that point with the same score. 4. Restarts are only allowed in the 1st or 2nd period. A DNF is not a final result. The game is restarted until it is completed with a final score and stats for the players.

- The goalie is the most important player in the game. If the goalie drops, EA ends the game automatically. - The league replays the game. - If the same goalie drops twice, there may be a connection problem. That team must get a replacement goalie from its roster.

If a team refuses to restart a game, the result is an automatic forfeit: - The other team is awarded a 3-0 win. - No player stats are recorded for the forfeited game. - The team that quit and every active player on its roster take the largest prestige loss in the prestige system, and the promotion floor does not protect them. The other team and its active players receive a normal win.

When a game ends in a DNF, EA may award the winner goals up to a 3-0 score. No player is credited with an awarded goal.

- Both teams submit screenshots after every game, not just one. They are the backup in case EA did not register the stats correctly. - The EA data and the screenshots are compared. This stops a team from claiming goals that players do not show. - If a score or stat does not match, an admin reviews it before it is final.

EA does not record when a goal was scored, so staff log the goals of each completed game: the scoring team, the period, the time, the scorer, up to two assists and the strength (even strength, power play, short handed, empty net or penalty shot). A team cannot have more goals logged than it scored. The Game Summaries page shows the log with the score by period. A game whose goals are not all logged is shown as a partial log, and the period totals may not add up to the final score until it is finished. Shootout goals are logged but are not part of the score by period. If a goal looks wrong, report it to league staff with a screenshot or clip.

The Advanced Stats page shows shooting percentage, shots for and against, power play and penalty kill, time on attack, passing and faceoffs for teams, and shooting percentage, shot attempts, power play goals, faceoffs, takeaways and giveaways for skaters. The numbers come from the EA data and only count games that staff have applied or verified. Goals on this page are the goals credited to players. If EA awarded or added a goal, the total can differ from the official score by a goal or two. The official score and the standings always come from the result recorded by staff. Players are tracked by their EA account, so a trade or a gamertag change does not split their numbers. The skater leaderboard needs a minimum number of shots, set by staff. EA does not send shot locations, so there are no shot maps.

GMs confirm game times with the opposing GM at least 48 hours ahead, submit reschedule requests with 24 hours notice, and make sure enough players are confirmed for each game. Lines must be in before the weekly lock and must reflect players who can actually play. A missed scheduling deadline is a warning, then loss of reschedule privileges for one cycle, then a League Council review. A late lineup is a warning, then an automatic lineup applied by staff, then a review of the GM's standing.

The top teams from the regular season standings qualify for the playoffs. The number of qualifying teams is set by Admin each season (4, 8, or 16 teams). Seeding is based on regular-season points.

The playoffs follow a single-elimination bracket format. All series are Best of 7 — the first team to win 4 games advances to the next round. The bracket is seeded so the #1 seed plays the lowest seed, #2 plays the second-lowest, and so on.

Rounds are named based on the number of remaining teams: the final series is the Championship Finals, the round before is Conference Finals, and prior rounds are labeled Semi-Finals and Round 1.

The trade deadline passes before the playoffs begin. No trades, signings, or roster moves are permitted once the playoff bracket is set, except in cases of Admin-approved emergencies.

Only Admins may issue suspensions. GMs may request a suspension review through the messaging system but may not issue suspensions themselves.

Suspensions are issued as either a set number of games or a set number of days. Game-based suspensions decrement each time a game result is entered for that player. Day-based suspensions expire automatically.

Suspended players remain on their team's roster and still count against the cap. They may not participate in games until the suspension is served.

All suspension decisions are made by Admin and are final. There is no formal appeals process. Players may contact Admin privately if they believe a suspension was issued in error.

Suspensions may be issued for but are not limited to: unsportsmanlike conduct, harassment of other players or GMs, exploiting game mechanics, intentional disconnecting, and violations of league rules.

Each player earns and loses prestige points based on game results. Wins earn points, losses deduct points. The amount earned or lost is affected by the tier gap between opponents — beating a higher-tier player earns more, losing to a lower-tier player costs more.

There are 19 prestige tiers ranging from No Rank to Fire 1. Players need a minimum of 7 games played before their prestige tier is displayed. Tier advancement and demotion happen automatically based on your prestige score.

Prestige scores may be subject to a soft reset at the start of each new season at Admin discretion. The reset brings scores closer to the midpoint rather than wiping them entirely.

A team that quits a game and does not return, forcing a forfeit win for the other team, takes the largest prestige loss in the system. The loss goes to the team and to every active player on its roster. The promotion floor does not protect against it. The other team and its active players receive a normal win. See Disconnects, Restarts and Forfeits.

Staff publish power rankings during the season. Every team is ranked by a formula built from the games played: season record (25%), recent form over the last five games (30%), goal difference per game (20%), strength of schedule (10%) and the team's prestige rating (15%). An overtime or shootout loss counts as part of a win in the record. Early in the season every team is pulled toward the middle so one game does not swing the table. Staff add a short note for each team and may move a team away from where the formula put it. Every move needs a recorded reason that league leadership can see. Arrows show how a team moved since the last published edition. Power rankings are opinion: they do not affect standings, seeding, playoffs, prestige or contracts.

At the end of each season, eight awards are presented: Most Valuable Player, Scoring Champion, Best Goaltender, Best Plus/Minus, Best Defenseman, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, and Sportsmanship Award.

Stat-based awards (Scoring Champion, Best Goaltender, Best +/-, Best Defenseman) are auto-calculated from season statistics. The MVP defaults to the top scorer but can be overridden by Admin. Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, and Sportsmanship are selected by Admin.

Awards are announced by Admin at the end of each season and posted to the Awards page. Award announcements are also sent to Discord.

At the end of each season, Admin archives the season results including the champion, runner-up, award winners, final standings, and notable records. This information is permanently stored in the Hall of Fame.

Admin may write a season recap narrative that is published alongside the archived stats. Recaps may highlight key moments, standout performances, and season storylines.

The record books track team and player records (career, single game, goalie and rookie) and milestones every 100 in the main stat categories. Only players on a league roster count: guests and AI players never earn records. A traded player keeps the records he set with his old team until they are broken, and competes for his new team's records from the trade forward.