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 plus an 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 10 forwards, 6 defense and 1 goalie.
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. NHL free agents with no contract into the 2017-18 season can not be selected.
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 5th and 6th divided evenly by 2 teams. Current Backyard team finishing 5th would move to 7th, 6th to 8th 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 a minor leaguer (non-experieced) 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 will be changed to include the top 6 teams in each conference in a brand new format similar to the real NHL playoff structure.
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.
