Expansion 2017 (Let's Make ProFSL Great Again ;))

[Drew]

Rules & Happenings

Number of teams:
Adding 2 teams, divisions will be realigned based on what 2 teams are added.

Protection rules:
a) Seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender
b) Nine skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goaltender
c) All 2015 & 2016 Draftees would be protected and not count against the protection limit. Additional 5 minor keepers. It is the responsibility of the keeping team to state the year and round in which the player was draft for 2015-2016 draftees.

Expansion Draft Process:
a) 17 round snaking draft (this would give these teams full rosters to play with)
          i) Of these 17 players, 9 must have contracts for the 2017-18 season
         ii) The expansion teams must select 9 forwards, 6 defense and 2 goalies.
                 a) 1 goalie must have at least 20 NHL games played
b) No team may lose more than 1 goalie and a total of 2 major league players.
c) Expansion team takes on complete contract of the drafted player.
d) All current Backyard free agents are eligible with contract being equivalent to their real life contract.
e) If an experienced minor leaguer is drafted, they are immediately placed on the expansion teams major league roster with a contract equal to their real life contract.
f) Expansion teams must remain cap compliant throughout the draft Under the maximum cap - currently $74m.

2017 Entry Draft:
a) The 2 expansion teams would receive the equivalent odds in the draft lottery as the combined odds of position 3 and 4 divided evenly by 2 teams. Current Backyard team finishing 3rd would move to 5th, 4th to 6th and so on. (Lottery odds would be re-configured for the non-playoff teams)
b) Draft Lottery would take place after the 2017 Expansion draft.
c) Expansion teams draft picks are trade-able once trading opens for the 2017 season.
d) Teams receive a compensatory pick in the 2017 after the 5th round when if a minor leaguer is selected from your team.

Division Re-Alignment/Playoff Structure:
Since we are going from 18 to 20 teams. The divisions would be re-aligned based on the team name selected by the expansion teams. We would move from 3 divisions of 6 to 4 divisions of 5.
Playoff structure would remain unchanged with 8 teams making playoffs but out of these 8, the top 4 would be division winners.

2017 Regular Season Schedule:
We currently have 22 week schedule for the 2016-17 season. The 2017-18 season is an Olympic year so I expect that we will have a shorter schedule. Ideally I would like everyone to play everyone but I think that is a pipe dream and divisional matchups are better.
Proposed schedule would be for a 20 week schedule:
~ 8 divisional games - 2 against each divisional team
~ 4 conference games - 1 against each opposite divisional team within conference
~ 8 inter-conference games - therefore we play every team.
Any additional weeks will add divisional games.

Required Votes
I will be setting up polls for this.
1. Internal GMs being considered for expansion franchises.

2. Vote on GMs entering the league as expansion GMs.

Sample Protected Roster
Using my current roster to show what someone might do? And how many would actually be protected. Green means 2015-2016 draft protected. Blue means I have protected them. I decided to use for this one: 9 players + 1 goalie.

Nicklas Backstrom, $4.8m (2016-17)
Bryan Little, $3.6m (2017-18)
Zemgus Girgensons, $0.2m (2016-17)
Artem Anisimov, $2.9m (2016-17)

Left Wing (5) - $20.8m
Milan Lucic, $3.6m (2017-18)
Taylor Hall, $6.3m (2018-19)
Alex Ovechkin, $7.9m (2016-17)
Michael Ferland, $0.7m (2016-17)
IR - Matt Beleskey, $2.3m (2016-17)
Adam Lowry, $0.5m (2016-17)

Right Wing (4) - $10.8m
Jordan Eberle, $4.6m (2017-18)
Gustav Nyquist, $4.1m (2018-19)
Leo Komarov, $1.1m (2016-17)
Trevor Lewis, $1.0m (2016-17)

Defensemen (9) - $16.6m
Justin Schultz, $1.8m (2016-17)
Aaron Ekblad, $2.8m (2016-17) <-Minor Keeper
Dan DeKeyser, $1.4m (2016-17)
IR - Niklas Kronwall, $3.0m (2017-18)
Alex Biega, $1.0m (2016-17)
Jack Johnson, $3.0m (2018-19)
Dan Hamhuis, $1.9m (2016-17)
Stephen Johns, $0.6m (2017-18) <-Minor Keeper
Brandon Manning, $0.5m (2016-17)
Dan Girardi, $1.6m (2016-17)

Goalies (3) - $13.2m
Ryan Miller, $4.4m (2017-18)
IR - Jimmy Howard, $3.6m (2017-18)
Luke Glendening, $0.4m (IR Contract)
Petr Mrazek, $5.2m (2018-19)

San Antonio Rampage
Total Roster Size: 23/30
Minor League Cap Space: $4.9m
Nick Cousins, $1.2m (2016-17)
Nick Shore, $0.8m (2016-17)
Austin Watson, $1.0m (2016-17)
Jiri Sekac, $0.5m (2016-17)
J.C. Lipon, $0.9m (2017-18)
*Zack Kassian, $0.8m (2016-17)
Scott Harrington, $0.6m (2016-17)
Mike Reilly, $0.5m (2017-18) '05-2nd
Jakub Nakladal, $0.5m (2017-18) '06-5th
*Brian Campbell, $1.3m (2016-17)
Joonas Korpisalo, $0.5m (2017-18)

Saskatoon Blades
Total Roster Size: 10
Brett Howden, N/C (0 games) '06-3rd
Sonny Milano, N/C (3 games)
Kyle Baun, N/C (5 games) '05-4th
Cameron Morrison, N/C (0 games) '06-5th
Casey Bailey, N/C (6 games) '05-4th
Oscar Dansk, N/C (0 games)
Jake Paterson, N/C (0 games)
Matej Tomek, N/C (0 games) '05-3rd
Felix Sandstrom, N/C (0 games) '05-3rd
Alex Lyon, N/C (0 games) '06-2nd

Notes: Basically all my important assets in the minors are covered. Only 1 goalie from each team can be selected but decided to save Korpisalo and Dansk just in case. Can get creative by using additional minor claims on players like Johns and Ekblad who are major leaguers but still have two way eligibility. Can definitely keep your core together but will luck of the draw if you lose a necessary goalie but you can only lose 1.

Any comments feel free to place them below. I will be figuring out our first vote for internal GMs soon.

[SlackJack]

Why expand after losing how many GM's this season? Washington, Tampa, Philly, and now Dallas with Hoackeyfreak MIA for over a month. By Backyard rules he should be kicked out now. Losing Walt was huge, Martin is a big loss too. Expansion is an over-reach at this time.

[abbyroad]

Why expand after losing how many GM's this season? Washington, Tampa, Philly, and now Dallas with Hoackeyfreak MIA for over a month. By Backyard rules he should be kicked out now. Losing Walt was huge, Martin is a big loss too. Expansion is an over-reach at this time.

I couldn't agree more. And I need a lawyer to deceiver the expansion rules.............

[Drew]

I know it has been tough losing good people but if we never lost anyone we wouldn't have the great GMs we have today.
Hockeyfreak is still setting his lineups so I sent him an email yesterday, just waiting for a response.

As for why we are continuing with expansion is because:
1) There are still a ton of great Gms around looking to get in. This can further increase the competitiveness of BY.
2) Increase league parity. This season has been great for that but adding a couple more will definitely add a new element.
3) It was already voted in. Teams may have been operating under this assumption because it is the reality. We have already committed to it.
4) It will be fun. Stressful to know we are going to lose elements of our teams but it will be really cool to do this right along side the actual nhl.

Hope you guys understand.

[SlackJack]

To be clear, the first vote was disapproval for the idea. If we have enough votes on any one subject, eventually we'll get the outcome that is being promoted. It's your show Drew.

[SlackJack]

Please consider exempting free agents from the expansion draft!

With the expansion teams being guaranteed 2 goalies, near top billing in the prospect draft, and pick of the litter of free agents, they will fare much better than some of the original franchises.

It would be better if expansion teams had to fill the balance of their rosters by competing for free agents with everyone else.

[Drew]

Please consider exempting free agents from the expansion draft!

With the expansion teams being guaranteed 2 goalies, near top billing in the prospect draft, and pick of the litter of free agents, they will fare much better than some of the original franchises.

It would be better if expansion teams had to fill the balance of their rosters by competing for free agents with everyone else.

What do you mean?

Like any 2016-17 contracts are non-eligible? or just those in the free agent pool? If it is those in the free agent pool, the current rule states that they can draft them but their contract will match their real life contract therefore our top free agent right now is:
Mike Fisher whose contract is $4.4m or Paul Statsny whose contract is $7.0m, wouldn't say free agency is the best way for an expansion team to start up with those high values for those players.

But looking for clarification on what you mean?

[Drew]

One thing we should discuss is maybe they only get to select 1 goalie?

Because based on our protection rules, we can only protect one so why should an expansion team be allowed to pick two?

[SlackJack]

One thing we should discuss is maybe they only get to select 1 goalie?

Because based on our protection rules, we can only protect one so why should an expansion team be allowed to pick two?

  This amendment would address my concern.

[Tony]

This amendment would address my concern.