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FoCH Rulebook
3. Draft Day
A draft will be held with teams picking in reverse order of regular season finish. The first three rounds will consist of all teams. From the fourth round on, the highest seeded team remaining in the draft will be eliminated from the draft until the final round consists of only the last place team from the previous season. The team that wins the League championship playoffs will pick last in every round but will maintain its earned number of picks based on the previous regular season’s standings.
A team is under no obligation to use all of its draft picks and passing on a draft pick will not preclude the team from exercising any future picks.
The draft will take place on the weekend following the opening of the NHL regular season.
The draft can be postponed from that weekend for the following events:
• Wedding
• Birth
• Funeral
• Hospitalization
When a team drafts a player that puts them over the 28 man roster limit, that team must IMMEDIATELY cut a player OTHER than the player just drafted, and that player is eligible to be drafted by any team after he clears waivers. The exception to this rule is if the drafting team places a player on the Injured or Retired list.
Each team will have 3 minutes to make each selection.
Each team will have 2 timeouts during the draft. One will be 5 minutes in length, the other will be 10 minutes. When a timeout is taken, the full amount of time will be used regardless of the fact that the team which called the timeout may not need the full time. A unanimous vote can end the timeout at any time.
The draft will be scheduled for a certain time and will begin promptly at that time. Any team(s) not present when the draft begins will be subject to the following rule: The draft will continue, and the late team will make their pick when they arrive – accepting the possibility that their choice of player may have already been drafted.
4. Position Eligibility
A player may be drafted and played at the position at which he is listed in a league approved* publication. If the player is listed in a pre-season publication, the player must be listed at his position in a ROSTER as opposed to a STATS page. The player is not eligible to play any other position with the following exception:
The player is listed at a different position in an approved source. The player may be played at this position only for as long as he is listed at the alternate position in the appropriate source.
A player may be declared at a position on a minor league roster only if he is not listed on an NHL roster in an approved source. If a player is declared at a minor league position and a protest is raised, it is the responsibility of the team registering the protest to provide proof of the infraction.
* = A list of approved publications follows. This list is subject to change at the discretion of the league. If a source is not listed, the league can still approve it by a simple majority vote.
• NHL site – Team Sections
• NHLPA
• CBC Hockey Night in Canada – Roster Section
• The Sports Network – Roster Section
• ESPN – Roster Section
• Fox Sports – Roster Section
• CANOE NHL Team Sites – Roster Section
• USA Today Roster Page
• CBS Sportsline Players Section
• The Sporting News - Team Reports/Roster
• The Hockey News – Roster Section in Print Version
• Hockey Digest – Rosters only
• Forecaster Season Preview – Roster Section in Print Version
• The Hockey News Yearbook
• The Sporting News Yearbook
• USA Today – Printed version – Roster Section
Once a player is cut from a team, he loses his position restriction. His position must be re-established upon his re-entry into the league.
If a player is traded, the new team may determine a new position for the player by the method described above. If this player is later traded back to his original team, he must be used at the position at which that team initially declared him.
If a player was already in the league the previous season, he may be kept at his old position for a period of not more than one year.
If a player is listed at multiple positions in an approved source he may be declared at one and only one of those positions.
5. Injured List
An Injured List exists, and for a player to be placed on this list requires that he be listed as injured in an approved source, or other verifiable proof be presented. If an active player is placed on this list, a replacement player must be added to the active roster. The player on the injured list will not count against the size of a team’s 28-man roster. The player on the injured list must remain on the list for a minimum of 3 weeks.
In addition to the requirements listed above, a player may be placed on the injured list only if he is currently playing in the NHL.
When the player is no longer listed as injured in an approved source, and has returned to active status for his NHL team, he MUST be taken off the team’s injured list (with the exception that the player must serve 3 weeks on a team’s injured list). This may put a team over the 28-man limit. If this is the case, then the team has to announce a cut effective at the start of the next scoring week. If no cut is announced, then the player who came off the injured list will automatically be considered cut. A team can specify when the player is placed on the injured list, which player will be cut once the injured player is required to be removed from the injured list, thus avoiding the penalty of having the injured player become the player cut. Until the cut is announced, the player coming off the injured list may NOT be placed on the active roster. * = Since the HOCKEY NEWS is almost two weeks behind on injury moves, a team may challenge any injury moves based on HOCKEY NEWS information.
A player may be placed on the injured list before the start of the season, as long as proof of injury is provided. This player will be required to miss the first three weeks of the regular season.