S22 NHL and AHL Review

One of the best times of the season is without question bidding! That is normally when our site traffic is the highest and the chatbox is the craziest! Each season I tend to sit back and review what went well and what didn't from the past season and try and adapt and readjust moving into the follow season! Therefore I'd like to touch on a few hot topics from last season and the direction we are heading coming into S23.

#1 Input Delay, Seasonal Delay, Game Night Procedures...

I think we all can agree the most frustrating part of last season was input delay! Having games drag on, having to restart multiple times, or simply accepting the fact "home ice advantage" was basically null. I think the seasonal delay was good and bad. Looking back, one can argue we delayed for no real reason, since we did not see relief until last week. Others can argue that at least the League did it's due diligence and took some time to adapt and adjust to ensure our season got played. Both sides of the seasonal delay story have valid points. One downfall which I accepted when I agreed with the delay was in regards to our summer season. We are going to have a drastically shorter summer season than normal due to the time we spent waiting to start S22. That may end up being a good thing, because summer season tends to see lower sign up numbers anyways. Less weeks may equal less commitment.

Many may not full know the entire input delay story. It was a hot topic in Vancouver last December when the GameChangers met. Each of us made it very clear, this issue is VERY real and is slowly killing online 6s hockey. I left those meetings with a better feeling that EA was going to take the steps to correct it. Tons of rumors floated around in regards to how it wasn't going to be addressed until NHL 17, and personally that was never a concern for me. It was more of a matter of when, not if. A big thanks really needs to go out to the PSN side GameChangers. They ran a ton of games against EA to try and recreate and log the input delay. Those games truly were the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. Now we can get back to the root of 6s hockey, and not worry so much about things we cannot control.

I think last season it was a collective agreement to allow games to start late since we all released that the input delay was so unpredictable, that if it occurred to us, we'd hope for the same respect. I think we all should give ourselves a pat on the back for that one, because by no means was it enjoyable waiting 45 minutes to start a game. That being said, a huge thanks needs to go out to our Owners and Managers from last season who battled hard through those tough times in order to ensure we all can enjoy the experience we expect each season. That being said, I think the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed is what about this season? Now that we have a game that will allow us to play competitively again, I see no reason why we can't ensure our times are respected. That will only make everyone happy! ECU won't need to run late, those who have to get up early won't have to quit. I just think respecting our timelines this season should be a major priority of us all since last season was a struggle to get anything started on time. That being said, some discussion about enforcing Club have been had. Personally I think that is maybe a future discussion. I think the players whom are signed up did so under the impression that this League primarily uses Lobbies for games. That being said, I see no reason why we shouldn't honor the ability to use club if teams agree. That seem to work out great last season, so we can continue down that path again if agreed on.

Overall it was a very interesting start and finish to the season basically due to connection issues. I think we all are looking forward to S23 to finally play some hockey and play it on time.

#2 Understanding Player Status', Eligibility and Why?

Player status' tends to be an EXTREMELY hot topic for everyone. I can ensure you when i dreamed this one up, it was not meant to be as complicated as it may appear. For those of you on the outside looking in, curious as to where this came from and why, I have all those answers.

By now I assume everyone understands that change tends to flow through the Owners. Each off-season we enter into engaging discussions and debates in regards to rules and changes that normally lasts three weeks. Once the three weeks are complete, I put together all the pieces, make adjustments and present the final product to them to review again.

A few seasons ago, the flavor of the day was "two way contracts". In a nutshell, two way contracts allow for some waiver exempt between the NHL and AHL and also allow for some organizational stability. The easiest way for me to add this dynamic feature into the League was by analyzing the games played at each level then assigning a status.

Then it was time to break the League down into three status;Veterans, Amateurs, and Prospects. The veteran status and prospect status have been around for decades, but the middle status was something I felt would add some dynamics to the league. It was agreed that after 27 games completed(Seasonal or Playoff), a player should be considered a Veteran. 27 is the average amount of games a player could play in a 9 week season. Then the next logical thing was to ensure ANYONE brand new to the league would be given prospect status. I understand we have had some exceptions, but in a nutshell, we do want the majority of new talent to come through the CHL first. That allows us to offer a decent draft class each season BUT also ensure the CHL gets some experience from some talented players. The impact a top player can have on a young CHL team could be incredible. Therefore we decided that after 15 games AND completing the season, our Prospect players could become Amateurs. Then of course our Amateur status was the middle ground between 15 CHL games and 27 NHL games. Some guys it may take four seasons, where other it may only take one season. That was the middle ground we needed to create. We are in the second season of Amateur status, and some adjustments needed to be made. The season only has eight complete seasons, where the NHL and AHL have 23. Therefore we recolonized there would be situations where a player would be labeled wrong simply for never having played in the CHL. As stated above, that wont be a concern any longer since we are filtering our new players to the CHL for their first season.

In two or three seasons we won't even blink and eye anymore. This stuff will become second nature. The minor changes here and there to the scripting were for us to adjust to situations unforeseen. After time, everything will be accounted for.

One thing I'd like to clear up, and I am directly responsible for is, player status DO NOT update MID Season! The wording currently in Article Three is confusing and implies that is the case. Currently I have no signed off on that occurring, therefore each off-season, we will ensure everyone prior to bidding has the correct status. We had a hiccup for NHL bidding recently, but that has been corrected as of now.

The way I look at it is 15 games in the CHL isn't that bad... It is basically five weeks. I get the question all the time, "What If I Don't Get Played". My solution this season was to have more teams. Zeno was able to accomplish that giving us a 48 team CHL. My second solution is take management! We have the tools, videos, and availability to make your transition to GM easy! At the end of the season, you become draft eligible and never have to be management again! The upside is the number of hidden talent in the CHL is INSANE! As a CHL GM, you basically right your own ticket for your team. Scout players no one has hear of, and win them in bidding for cheap making yourself a dynasty! That would be a great way to earn NHL eligibility!

#3 Player and Manager Commitment

I think we all can take a long hard look in the mirror and admit there has been some commitment issues hurting us all. We have players going on IR for two weeks to end the season. We have playoff teams forfeiting games in the final week, because they don't want to play, we have general forfeits sky rocket higher than we have ever seen and we have managers and players walking out on their team for completely invalid reasons.

I must admit I counted the days until I was eligible to tell LG the input delay had a cure. It was difficult watching GMs, Owners, and Players walk away from LG due to game related issued. Hence why I have opened my arms to appeals and will try my best to help everyone. I also can't express enough how grateful we all should be for having the Managers we did last season!

With that all being said, there has been some adjustments made to our rules. This is the third or forth season season we require players to give a MIN of four games availability. It is a requirement! If you don't give that many games, and are scheduled for games you can not make thereby end up removed. I cannot and will not protect you. When you click sign up for LG there is a certain level of commitment required. This League shouldn't be treated any different than another sports team or club you belong to. You signed up to play, so play. Therefore moving forward, all bans issued, will be a MINIMUM of two season. Our single season timeouts, have proven to be very ineffective. Therefore we have made an adjustment.

The IR system and rules ALSO have taken a MAJOR overhaul. The first thing many will notice is that IR requests can NO LONGER be made by a player in the action center. Your requests now have to be made to your Managers whom then send it onto the Staff. No longer will we tolerate IRs to prevent a player from being ban. That system was abused for far too long. Also that is new this Season is, temporary call ups(IR call ups) are NO LONGER A THING!!! There was some obvious confusion in the AHL last season that drastically influenced a series. Looking back at that event, it became very clear in my opinion we have ZERO need for IR Replacements.

The rule now will allow for a player to ECU, eight times a season MAXIMUM / ECU, three times a week MAXIMUM. Basically that will allow a team to have the same guy replace a player on IR all week. The BIER benefit to the players is games played! Look at it this way, you are a CHL player. You can play your three games a week in the CHL, then ECU three times in the AHL, AND ECU three times in the NHL! This new system will offer more playing time to those whom are committed to their organization! Not much more we can ask for! This will ensure we have simpler rules, but allow give players more opportunities to play hockey!


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In my eyes, those were the most important issues of S22. I think we have adjusted well and heading into S23 we are setting ourselves up for a better season. Just a few other points to pass on

-The BOG are going over Article Two, and Four right now with a fine tooth comb ensuring there is no room for interpretation. We are trying our best to have the rules simple!

-NHL bidding ends Friday, then NHL Trades will open again!

-There will be no official preseason for the NHL and AHL.

-CHL bidding will begin after AHL bidding is completed and the hope is we can assign those players won in CHL bidding to AHL TC by Opening Night to allow for ECU's if need be.

-Send downs, and waivers do not open again until Opening Night

-Site related concerns and issues, NEED to be sent to Tris. I get a lot of PMs sent to me that i can't do anything about. Just keep in mind he is our programmer!

-I'd like to see an Awards / All-Star committee formed early on this season. I am trying to finish up the NHL and AHL awards as best as possible, I have just been busy. My goal is to have them out by the end of this week.

-If possible increase the media! With us having our own Twitch feed, you know Tris has something cool in the works to showcase what we do here better!

-Expect the rules to be fully updated by the end of the week as well! ​