Discussion: 2017 Expansion

[Drew]

Proposed by Drew.

Basically looking for a Yah or Nah here guys!

Here would be the expansion rules:
- 2 teams would be added following the conclusion of the 2016 season. All teams current rosters would freeze and protections would need to be made by a specified date!

- 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.

- 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 3 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.
f) Expansion teams must remain cap compliant throughout the draft.

- 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.

- 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 4.
Playoff structure would remain unchanged with 8 teams making playoffs but out of these 8, the top 4 would be division winners.

- 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:
~ 9 divisional games - 3 against each divisional team
~ 4 conference games - 1 against each opposite divisional team within conference
~ 7 inter-conference games - means we only don't play 1 other team throughout the year.

Please state yah or nah and minor comments. We can talk particulars after a decision is made.

[Jwalk100]

Yes

[Mariner]

Not a huge deal to me either way. If the majority want expansion then I will go along as well. Could we protect 2 goalies?

[Tony]

I'm ok with expansion and will put more input into this after some more thought.

[jlapo11]

OK for expansion with 9 players (Forwards/defence) + 1 goalie

[SlackJack]

I would support it if our Backyard header could be fixed to update team icons and divisions.

[Tony]

I would support it if our Backyard header could be fixed to update team icons and divisions.

this would be nice.  Also forgot to mention that I would like to have the opportunity to take one of the expansion teams.

[Drew]

I would support it if our Backyard header could be fixed to update team icons and divisions.

I know!!!! I talked to Colby and thought it was a done deal. Will try again!

[Drew]

this would be nice.  Also forgot to mention that I would like to have the opportunity to take one of the expansion teams.

I guess we would have to determine the rules around this as well. Someone internal taking the expansion team may have a distinct advantage over a none BY member in an expansion draft due to knowing the scoring and what is a good/bad contract.

[abbyroad]

As long as we can find active........commited GM's.......... I am ok with expansion