1. League Overview

Welcome to the FHM version of the Premier Sim Hockey League (PSHL_2). Commissioner of sim leagues for over 26 years, Scott Shafer has taken his STHS expertise and is now building it on the FHM side. Over the years FHM has improved a great deal where it is now a great time to be part a new legacy of online play. Shafer constantly runs extensive testing before transitioning to a new version of FHM and has used his leadership and successful Commissioner history to build PSHL_2 to an elite league. Shafer is a firm believer that a league is only as good as its GM base and has spend alot of time and resources to help build an active and dedicated GM base. The league has always had requirements and time sensitive tasks GMs need to adhere to in order to remain a GM in the league. GMs are not forced to trade to be “active” but must reply to trade offers or messages in a timely matter and must keep Discord chat notifications on so that important news is received especially from league sources. The Activity Points (AP) feature helps reward those GMs who actively export and participate in league events.

The current version of PSHL_2 (FHM) was formed in November of 2019 with FHM 6 and used the default roster set for the 2019-20 NHL season. The league converted to FHM 7 in 2023 offseason, FHM 8 in the 2027 offseason, FHM 9 in the 2033 offseason, FHM 10 in the 2036 offseason. Testing will be implemented once future versions are released to insure changing over is in the best interest of the leauge.

All GMs are required to be active participants in the league. If you will be away for more than a couple days you should alert the Commissioner of your absence. If you will be away during vital times in the sim schedule (for example the Entry Draft) you should submit a draft list prior to being away. You do not need to dedicate a ton of time to the league, but there should be no reason that a GM should not be able to upload rosters/lines at least once per week and make necessary roster changes after trades/injuries occur.

All GMs must be respectful to others and should offer help to GMs who are new to the league and/or FHM. When trading you should be mindful of trades that have value to both teams in some way. If a GM is repeatedly making unrealistic and unfair offers to teams that GM could be under league discipline.

It is a GMs responsibility to make sure you are running your franchise to your best ability. You should be offering players contract extensions/participating in free agency (even for filler/AHL type signings) to make sure your rosters are full, signing your unsigned prospects before their signing deadline occurs so that your franchise is not losing key young players, making sure your team is cap compliant at all times and not giving out crazy contracts that you will regret in the long term, as well as doing your best to properly develop your younger players and keep your players happy.

If at any time you feel like you do not have the time to dedicate to being the best GM for your franchise as possible, please do the league a favor and submit your resignation to the Commissioner, no questions will be asked and you will be assured you are leaving the team in the best possible shape as we would rather have AI making player signings than franchises being destroyed long term from inactive GMs.

2. League Settings

Click image to enlarge

3. GM Setup Instructions

Initial Game Setup- Once you have been approved for a team in PSHL_2 and have the game downloaded and set up using the steps below, you can reach out to the Commissioner to get your game password. That same password will also be your login for the Web Portal. You can change your in game password to your liking once logging in. You will need to download and load the accountsdata_gm file which holds the FTP info for exporting and downloading the new league file. Always make sure you have current files loaded to make sure your export works.

Follow the steps below from the FHM manual to get your initial set up. You can always view the FHM 10 manual HERE

It is very important to create the league folder first in your FHM10/saved_games folder. You must name the folder PSHL_2.lg (lower case "L" and "G" the abbreviation for league) If you have not created this folder and named it properly you will get a database error. To update the league files you must go to File/Setup/Options and click the "Online League" tab and click the "Download and Update League File" link on the right side. Always confirm the game date is correct before making any changes and exporting.



Default GM/Manager Settings- Below is a screenshot of the default settings set up for your in game account. These can be changed to your preferences in game and submitted with your team file export.

You MUST keep the settings for Financial Settings, Manage Staff, Renew Staff Contracts and Transactions set to yourself, THEY CANNOT BE CHANGED TO AI.



Once you are logged in and get your team set up you will probably want to change "Setting Lineups and Tactics" to your control and off of "Assistant" control so your lines and tactics and not the game AI. You may also want to change the "Scouting" or "Training" to your control if you wish.

Team File Uploads - Every time you make a change in game you should immediately export your new team file to FTP. You can continue to upload your team file and it will overwrite the previous uploaded file. You need to make sure you are using the most up to date league files by using the in-game file download and update option and you must make sure you have the most up to date version of FHM for your team upload to work properly.

4. League Sim Schedule

The league currently runs sims 6 out of 7 days per week taking Tuesday's as the off-day during the regular season. Each sim consists of 5 in-game days in most cases. Some differences in the 5 day sim will be due to needing to stop on the 1st of the Month for Monthly Finance Points Distribution changes so those sims could be more or less than 5 days. All changes in sim schedule will be announced ahead of time and be posted on the league schedule. During the offseason the schedule will be at a different rate for a different amount of in game days. Be sure to check the Sim Schedule on the website for the exact schedule. Playoffs run with games 1 and 2 taking place, then next day games 3 and 4, next day games 5 and 6, then finishing off the series, if necessary, the next day with game 7.

The sim schedule will be set up so that we can get through 1 calendar year in game in just about a 3 month real life time period giving us the opportunity to get through 3-4 seasons in game per real time year. This sim schedule will allow teams to see their prospects develop and give GMs a chance to rebuild and see the results of the rebuild quicker than a slower moving league would.

Team files should be uploaded before 11 AM EST (unless announced otherwise) on sim days but the actual sim time may vary depending on work schedule, but its always safe to get them in before 11 AM EST as the sim will not be run before this time unless announced in advance.

5. Trading

All trades are negotiated through discussions on the Discord chat with other human run teams/GMs. Once you both have agreed on a trade, the following need to be completed in order.

A. One of the GM's will post it to the website for approval using the Trade Tool.
B. It is the responsibility of the posting GM to ensure the trade has been entered and submitted correctly.
C. Once it is posted to the site you can let the other GM know they will need to login to the website and go to the Trades page to review and approve.
D. Once it has been approved by the 2nd GM, one GM can post in their Discord Team Channel that a trade is ready to be approved by the Commissioner.
E. The Commissioner will review the trade for approval. If approved, the trade will show up on the Trades page on the website.
F. Trades will be updated in game following the next sim.

As GM you are able to trade any players/unsigned prospects or draft picks for the current draft+2 years in advance.

Some players hold no movement or no trade clauses (NMC/NTC) in their contracts, if you have an approved deal in place with a player with this clause in their contract the player can revoke the transaction once submitted in game nullifying the potential deal. Please make sure you are aware of contracts when talking trade and do not assume a trade will be processed in game once posted and make subsequent trades assuming the deal will go through. You can view the players NTC/NMC team list he will approve trades to in game on the Player Screen under Contract.

If a trade is made that will put you over the salary cap the Commissioner can revoke the trade. If a trade is processed that puts you over the salary cap, you have until the next sim to get back under the cap. If you are still over cap at the time of the sim, the Commissioner will send any Waiver Exempt players to the AHL or waive players till you are under. The Commissioner holds all rights to revoke trades as needed to maintain league integrity and is deemed not beneficial to the franchise and/or the leagues competitive balance. A GM who has repeated trades brought up for discussion will be subject to removal.

Teams can retain salary in trades in 5% increments up to a maximum of 50% of the remaining years of the contract. FHM follows real life NHL salary retention rules so in some cases you may not be able to retain the full 50%. Any salary retention in a trade needs to be listed in the "Futures or Retention Details" box in the trade submission tool.

You are able to add future considerations to the trade but it must be dependent on exact stipulations and must be explained thoroughly in the trade submission. Examples of future considerations that will be accepted is compensation for an expiring contracted player that was extended or unable to be re-signed or compensation given for a teams success in the playoffs due to acquisition of the player.

You can only trade a maximum of 5 assets per team, per trade submission. Any additional assets agreed upon in a trade will be considered a separate trade

A player that is currently on Waivers cannot be involved in a trade until the player clears waivers.

You can have up to 60 players under contract at any particular time and counting unsigned prospects you can have 100 total players on your “protected list”, keep these numbers in mind when making trades/transactions. If you are near the 100 player limit and have draft picks putting you over the 100 the game will not let you draft additional players and rights will have to be released to use the picks or the picks will be forfeited.

If you are needing to release the rights of unsigned prospects, do not submit this in game, it can cause the game to crash. The request will be posted in your Discord Team Channel for league processing.

It is in the leagues, and your, best interest to take the position of GM serious and always try to run the franchise to the best of your ability for long term success. It is your responsibility to be aware of the contracts you are acquiring or lack there of. There is some players that may be unsigned prospects or prospects that are hard to sign because of their KHL contract that is honored, keep this in mind when negotiating trades.

6. League Finances

Once of the most important aspects of being able to successfully run a franchise is to properly balance your finances and player payroll. It is important to be aware of the league salary cap as well as your team budget and money available for free agents or contract extensions.

The league began with a salary cap of $82,000,000. This number will TEMPORARILY INCREASE 10% in the offseason allowing you to spend extra in player transactions, but you must be back down below the $82 mil salary cap before opening night sim. *The Salary Cap increased to $88,000,000 in 2024 offseason due to increase in player demands in FHM 7*

The 2037-38 season saw the implementation of the Salary Cap Lottery. The lottery is decided by using Chat GPT AI and will determine whether the cap increases, decreases or remains the same for the upcoming season. The possibilities are below

A. 0 increase
B. $1,000,000 increase
C. $2,000,000 increase
D. $3,000,000 increase
E. $4,000,000 mil increase
F. 0 increase
G. $1,000,000 decrease
H. $2,000,000 decrease
I. $1,500,000 decrease
J. $1,500,000 increase

On July 1st, all Team Budgets were made equal to $125,000,000 due to the disparity from the higher teams to the lower teams.

Your team salary cap room will also increase as the season moves on based on your available cap space. You should be aware of this number on your “Finances” page or at the bottom of your Roster page.

The Salary Floor is set to $30,000,000, this should not be an issue for any team with it set this low.

If you make a transaction that puts you over the salary cap, the Commissioner can look to see if a move can be made to put you under by waiving players or sending waiver exempt players to the AHL. In some cases, in may be required to use AI to set up your roster to get you cap compliant which could lead to transactions you would not want and/or losing player(s) to get you under the cap, as well as any time AI is used to set up your team it will reset your lines and player roles set. You should do EVERYTHING in your power to never have AI run on your team!

7. Lines/Tactics/Roles

It is the responsibility of the GM to make sure your lines and rosters are up to date. You must make sure a player is “Dressed” before inserting him into your lines, to dress the player you can right click on him and select “Dress Player” you may need to scratch a player to make room for that newly dressed player if you already have 18 skaters dressed. If an injury occurs, the Commissioner will replace that player in the lines with a scratched player (see below) but once the league files are posted it will be the GMs responsibility to make sure they edit the lines to their liking and make any necessary roster movements or place the injured player on IR. Commissioner will ONLY replace a injured defenseman with a scratched defenseman, or a injured forward with injured forward (regardless of what forward position they play). If no scratched players are available, your team will play short players in the lines.

When an injury occurs to a player in your PRO lines the Commissioner will use the “Replace With XXX” option and replace that injured player in ALL lines by the person at that position below them in the lines. This will continue to be done for all subsequent lower lines until the 4th line spot will be replaced by a scratched forward or defenseman if its a defenseman pair position. If at all possible the Commissioner will NOT place the player on IR, unless it needs to have a roster spot opened or needs to to open up cap space. If a player needs to be put on IR the length of the injury would not be taken into effect, meaning even if the player has a minor day to day injury he may still be placed on IR if necessary.





It is important to make sure you have complete lines for all situations, 5 on 5, Power Play, Penalty Killing, and 4 on 4/ 3 on 3.

You can set the ice time for each specific unit by adjusting the numbers next to the units up or down to your liking.

You now have the opportunity to select your goalie starter for each game. Please make sure to assign Starter or Backup to each game on the Goalie Starts screen. If it is not set it will use the default goalie start settings that are determined by the league. Goale starts seem to not work come playoffs however, and it continues to be a league wide issue with AI chosen goalies for the playoffs. It is best to use the Goalie Start settings as well as maybe call up a bad backup goalie to avoid the backup being chose by AI to start a playoff game.



If you make a trade it is your responsibility to make sure your rosters and lines are updated for the NEXT SIM.

Failure to have compliant rosters or for the league to have to be forced to use AI to fix any roster problems will result in a 2 point AP penalty and possible further discipline.

Tactics- GMs will have the option to run their team tactics settings. You can have Global/Team tactics, Unit tactics, or individual player tactics settings.

Make sure if you are using specific tactics separate from your global settings you click on the “USE” button next to each setting.

Player Roles- Each player can be assigned a tactical role by double clicking on the role in lines and selecting the role from the tactic screen. The player has a numberical rating based on how well he will fit that specific role. You can also edit the “Major Role” of players by right clicking them and selecting “Change Major Role” this role will determine how you view the player and their style of play. You can change the way you see them as part of your franchise by right clicking the player and selecting “Change Supplementary Role” these 2 latter roles are usually set when negotiating contracts with the player.

8. Injuries

As stated above, injuries are the most tricky thing a Commissioner has to balance out. As a league we will do our best to replace injured players in the best way possible but it is the responsibility of the GM to make sure injured players are dealt with once they occur.

You should be checking your rosters after each sim to make sure no injuries occurred during the sim. If needed, you can place a player on IR for a minimum of a 7 day period. The player can remain on IR until he becomes healthy. Once healthy the player must be added back to the roster and may be done so by the Commissioner. It is in your best interest if you see a player is close to returning, add him back to your roster before the sim and let him be a healthy scratch until ready to play. The league does not take responsibility for subsequent moves that are necessary to keep your roster compliant so you need to be aware and prepared for players becoming healthy. If a player is added back from injured list to your roster and you are now OVER the 24 player maximum, the Commisioner may waive a player to make room.

When a goalie gets injured his injury time in amount of days will be changed from DAYS to WEEKS. This is to suppliment FHM's lack of major injuries to goalies. For example, if a goalie gets injured for 7 days he will be changed to 7 weeks. This will only apply to goalies that are injured mid-sim or that need to be replaced by the Commissioner during a sim. In these cases the next goalie in the depth chart will be called up.

9. Contract Extensions

In order to keep your team competitive it is vital to make sure you are on top of player contract extensions as much as possible. Of course you do not have to re-sign all your players but in most cases it is important to try not to let too many of your players walk due to free agency.

Once you initiate player contract extension negotiations you can see what the player is potentially asking for and get the numbers in the right ballpark and then click on “Ask for Response”. Once the player agrees and says he likes the offer you can click “Submit Offer” and wait for the answer.

From past experiences you should match the requested offer of the player right off the bat. If they reject the first offer it is very difficult to re-sign them and their is a glitch in the game that you may not be able to increase your offer to the player. If you want to keep the player it is best to just give them what they want.

If a player is considered a Restricted Free Agent you can make a minimum qualifying offer as stated on the players contract extension page and even if a contract extension cannot be met, you will still maintain the players “Rights” and he will not be lost as a Unrestricted Free Agent. To submit a qualifying offer you will need to use the "Auto Qualify" option on a players contract extension page. You can switch this to "on" and the player will automatically receive, and reject a qualifying offer so you can retain the players rights.

A RFA who was qualified is available for teams to bid on by signing the player to Offer Sheets. As a qualified player you will still have the right to match the Offer Sheet or you can let the player sign with the new team and be given the required compensation. At the time an offer sheet is signed, as the team that holds the rights to the player, you will be notified of the offer sheet signing and be notified of the potential compensation from letting the player sign with the new team. GM’s will have 48 hours to match the offer from the time they are given notification of the signing. The player and compensation will temporarily switch teams, but if the offer is matched the player will be edited back to the team that owns the rights and the compensation given up will be returned to the player. Matching of an offer sheet must be done in the #rfa-offer-sheets Discord channel.

PSHL_2 DOES NOT use the in-game RFA compensation rules, so the compensation you end up needing could be different than the in-game request. The current league compensation table is below.

As we head into free agency a reminder that the in game compensation for signing a Qualified RFA is different than how league compensation is. Please make sure you are checking the chart below before bidding on a RFA. Also keep in mind if you do not have the required compensation below the pick gets UPGRADED for instance if compensation is a 2039 2nd round pick and you do not own one it becomes a 2039 1st Round pick! If you are making a RFA offer on a team with no GM, the league will make the decision.

AAV Less than $1,356,540 - 2039 4th Round Pick
AAV $1,356,541-$2,055,364 - 2039 3rd Round Pick
AAV $2,055,365-$4,110,732 - 2039 2nd Round Pick
AAV $4,110,733-$6.166.096 - 2039 1st Round Pick, 2039 3rd Round Pick
AAV $6,166,097-$8,221,463 - 2039 1st Round Pick, 2039 2nd Round Pick, 2039 3rd Round Pick
AAV $8,221,464-$10,276,829 - 2039 1st Round Pick, 2040 1st Round, 2039 2nd Round Pick, 2039 3rd Round Pick
AAV Over $10,276,830 - 2039 1st Round Pick, 2040 1st Round Pick, 2041 1st Round Pick, 2042 1st Round Pick

10. Unsigned Prospects

Under the “Transactions” tab in your team menu you can find the “Unsigned Prospects”. These are players who you own the rights to but need to be signed before being added to your NHL or AHL roster. Each player has a signing deadline and it is listed to the right of the players name. If a unsigned prospect is not signed before the deadline listed he will become a unrestricted free agent.



If a prospect is signed he would be added to your roster once his season is over. If eligible he can be loaned back to his junior team or to his european team that owns his rights. Prospect signing period is from June 23 (Day after draft) to Aug 31. Some recently drafted prospects may not sign until July 1.

If an Unsigned Prospect has a current KHL contract, it is honored in its full unless his negotiations gives you the option to have him buyout of his KHL contract, otherwise you will not be able to sign the player until his KHL contract has expired. First chance to sign a KHL contracted player whose contract expires would be on July 1. KHL players rights will continue to automatically advance to the next year even though it may say his rights expire that year.

Obviously some of these Unsigned Prospects are the future of your team and the league, it is important to keep up to date with the signing deadlines so that you are not losing key young players with no compensation. Keep in mind all these players will count towards your franchise 100 player limit so if there is any you know you will never look to sign it is best to release their rights from your team.

The prospect signing window is only 1 sim. There will be a few days after the league draft to take care of the signings before the prospect signing sim takes place. It is one of the MOST IMPORTANT sims of the season since the windows to sign prospects are so limited. If a player whose rights are expiring does not sign during this sim, he will become an Un-Restricted Free Agent.

To have a good idea of who needs to be signed, this would be any CHL player who was drafted 2 drafts prior as well as european players drafted 4 years prior. If there is every any questions to expiry dates let the Commissioner know.

11. Team Staff

You are responsible for the hirings, firings and extensions of all staff members ie. Coaching staff, scouts etc. You can give out contract extensions in game to any staff with expiring contracts. From the “Staff” screen you can right click on a staff member with an expiring contract and select “Renew Contract” you will then be given 3 options for contract extensions and you can select which one best works for you.



Hiring new staff members is now an AP Reward. It will cost 20 Activity Points to hire an Assistant Coach and 10 Activity Points to hire a Scout or Trainer. With the addition of this new rule there will also no longer be any restrictions as to how many staff you can have on your staff as well as when the signings can take place. The only restriction is that there is a limit of 3 total hires per sim.

If you want to hire a new staff member easiest way would be from the staff screen click on “Free Agents” tab. Once you find the scout you want to hire you would need to post your signing in the #staff-hirings channel. You can hire staff from any league except from other NHL franchise contracted NHL or AHL staff. If they are contracted staff in other leagues they are eligible to be signed. You can only sign staff members for the job they are listed as, but once signed you can move them to other jobs within your organization. All new NHL staff hirings are for 1 year at the base salaries described below. AHL staff hirings will be 3 year deals because you are not able to extend their contracts in game.

NHL Assistant Coach Base Salary=$175,000 AHL Assistant Coach Base Salary=$75,000 AHL Head Coach Base Salary=$75,000
NHL Scout Base Salary=$100,000 AHL Scout Base Salary=$50,000
NHL Trainer Base Salary=$125,000 AHL Trainer Base Salary=$60,000

Staff signings cost 15 Activity Points for AHL staff. If you are wanting to Fire AHL staff it will cost 5 AP for each year left on their contract. Ultimately, AI is in control of AHL staff not the GM so any moves made has the risk of being changed by AI.

Staff signings are on a first come first served basis. Once you sign a new staff member for the base 1 year deal you can offer them an extension in game to your liking as mentioned above.

If you wish to fire a staff member you will post the firing in the channel or you can try to process the firing in game and export with your team file. Any compensation for early termination required will be added to your expenses. AHL staff members CANNOT be fired/released unless you go the AP route listed above and AI may make additional changes to AHL staff since AI is ultimately in control of the AHL team.

12. Free Agency

Once July 1st hits in game the league file will be release containing all the available free agents. You can place your contract offers in game and upload your team file. Free agency sims will take place on a daily basis with a specified number of days being simmed, with more days simming later in free agency.

You can bid on RFA’s who have been qualified but be aware of the compensation required if the player signs the offer sheet and the team does not match the offer sheet. You must have the required compensation in possession at the time of the signing.

In the event that a team signs a Qualified RFA the following compensation will be awarded to the previous team. The annual salary average will be the total amount of the contract divided by either 5 years or if the contract is less than 5 years, the amount of years. The offering team must own the compensation for the offer to be valid.

Please remember when bidding on players, in the offseason your available cap space is 10% higher than it will be on opening night, be careful when spending past the regular season salary cap and make sure if you do, you have a plan on how to get under before opening night to avoid having your roster AI’d and/or players waived to get under.

13. Scouting

By default all GM settings are set to have scouting run by the AI or your “Assistant” if you wish to control your own scouting you can set it to you in the Manager Options screen. You can set and control the area which each scout is concentrated on or scout specific players, teams, leagues or drafts.



Right click on the scouts name in the “Scouting” menu on your team page and assign the scout to the requested region.



Scouting will also become necessary to scout your own prospects who are unsigned as some that have not been scouted have hidden or inaccurate ratings.

If you are experienced enough with FHM controlling your own scouting can be a huge advantage over GMs who are not as experienced with scouting settings, however for those not as advanced I recommend leaving the setting on “Assistant” controlled, the default setting.

14. Training/Player Development

By default the player training setting is also set to “Assistant” but you are welcome to set it to controlled by yourself if you wish. You can develop players in 5 categories and you have a certain amount of points per category you can dish out. The total points available is based on the skill of your coaching staff. You may have 20 points available to dish out and the more players you select for the certain category the 20 points is divided up between those players. The 5 categories are…

Mental Training, Physical Training, Offensive Training, Defensive Training and Goalie Training.

Right click on the scouts name in the “Scouting” menu on your team page and assign the scout to the requested region.

15. Waivers

After pre-season has completed it is time to set your 24 man roster for the opening night sim. Any player not on the Pro roster that has Waiver eligibility will be placed on waivers.

You can see when the player will be waiver eligible from the player profile screen under “Contract” at the bottom left. It will say yes or no and the year the player will become or has become eligible.

You will place a player on waivers by selecting them to go to the minor leagues and the game will ask if you want to place them on waivers. This will only occur during the season, as in preseason you can move guys to the minors but if they are still there on opening night they will automatically be placed on waivers, so you will need to make sure everyone you DO NOT want to waive is put onto your pro roster by then.

Waiver claims during the regular season are not claimed in game but in your Discord Team Channel. The claiming team will now be responsible for the new contract and you need to make sure you have a roster spot and salary cap space open for the claimed player. Please make sure you have a roster spot open if making a claim so that when the player is added to your team the league will not be forced to make a move to open the roster spot. Waiver priority goes based on the current seasons reverse standings after November 1st in game and goes by the prior seasons reverse standings before November 1st.

You cannot place a player in the minors or on waivers that has a NMC unless it is for purposes of a buyout during the buyout period.

The waiver period is set to 10 days so that if a player is placed on waivers with the team file upload he will still be on waivers after the 5 day sim is completed and will be added to your roster once claimed on the last day of the following sim. Depending on when the player actually was waived, they could be added to a claiming team during the sim. If you do not have a roster spot available they may be placed back on waivers by the Commissioner.

16. League Draft/Lottery

The draft will be run live in the Discord chat for the first day (Rounds 1-4) and you can submit your draft rankings list in game if you are unavailable for the live draft. By this time you would of needed to do extensive scouting on the draft eligible players or you will be drafting players that have hidden ratings to you. Any subsequent rounds will be finished on day 2 via list draft in game only.

The Entry Draft is one of the biggest responsibilities of GM and the future of your franchise. Some extra work will have to go into preparing for this event.

The game will have Mid-Term and Final prospect rankings that can be found under the “League” menu under “Scouting”. The game also has a link to view the draft page at the bottom of your home screen when logging in.

Most draft eligible players are edited by the Commissioner a season or 2 before they are draft eligible. Strengths of drafts are determined ahead of time and the player editing is based off of that. Normal player development could change that by the time the draft takes place.

We will be using the In-Game lottery system that has been recently changed to reflect new NHL rules. The lottery will only select 2 of the non-playoff teams to "win" the lottery. Winning the lottery can move a team up as much as 10 slots in the draft order. If a team moves up in the order than any other subsequent teams can move down as much as 2 slots. Draft lottery odds are created based on the previous seasons standings with the last place team receiving the best odds. As an example, if the last place team does not win the lottery, the lowest they can draft would be 3rd overall.

The 16 teams that miss the playoffs will be eligible for the draft lottery with the following percentages with standard tie breaker rules applying for standings order for last to best.



Once the top 2 teams in the draft are selected using the lottery, the picks #3 through #30 will fall into place in reverse standings order. The final 4 spots of each round will be the 4 teams that make the Conference Finals with the Cup champ drafting last each round.

Draft lotteries are streamed online on the PSHL_2 Twitch channel and posted later on YouTube to veiw later for those who cannot watch live.

17. Pre-Season

Preseason and training camp will get underway on September 20th in game. I prefer to call up as many players to training camp and preseason as possible. If you decide to go this route you just need to make sure you get your roster down to 24 players before the opening night sim to avoid having your roster AI’d. You CANNOT use the "Invite Player to Training Camp" option as it causes online games to crash.

If you have a young player who is signed to a contract but still has rights to be sent back to juniors you can do so by right clicking on the players name in game. You should be aware that once a player has appeared in 10 games their contract will kick in so if the plan is to try them out then send them back to juniors you need to do so before then. You can also loan european players back to their european teams and still retain their rights.

The entire pre-season will be simmed in 2 sims (4 games and 3 games) so you should have your lines set the way you want to give certain players an opportunity to earn a spot or impress you. There could also be pre-season national tournaments taking place that will affect players availability for pre-season participation.

18. Buyouts

Contract Buyouts are an option to get rid of an underperforming player to help your cap situation. You can right click on the players name and select “Buyout Rights” at this point you will have to place the player onto waivers first to see if there is any takers at his current contract. If they are not claimed off waivers during this period they will become a free agent. Make sure of the financial commitment of the buyout and the buyout money will be broken down into your expenses over a certain amount of seasons. In game buyout rules are based off of NHL buyouts so you can get an idea of the financial committment going HERE.

19. Activity Points

Our activity points system is to reward those who are actively participating in league activities, submitting team exports and writing team articles.

You have the opportunity to earn 1 point per sim for team exports and 1 point per sim for writing a team article in the #team-articles channel on discord. This team article needs to be at least a nice paragraph to get points awarded, it cannot be a simple "I went 2-1 that sim".

There is also a "Bonus Points" section where each point earned in this section is worth DOUBLE Activity Points (AP). If you submit team exports for over 85% of the sims you will be awarded an EXTRA 5 BONUS POINTS that when doubled is actually worth 10 AP! There is also other league activity categories in the Bonus Points section that you will be able to earn double AP with active participation in these.

There is about 90 points available to be earned each season. There is a new revamped reward system below that you can use your earned points to spend on. If you wish to use one of the rewards you must post it in the #ap-rewards channel in Discord. Points earned carry over to any subsequent seasons.

The Commissioner can give out AP penalties at any time for not completing required tasks in a timely manner or causing problems with other GMs.

The rewards and costs for each one are listed below.

Increase Market Size 1 level-Maxes out at "Huge" level (Cost 40 AP)

Increase Fan Loyalty 1 level-Maxes out at "Fanatic" Level (Cost 40 AP)

Increase Season Budget 2.5 mil-Budget are set to $125 mil each season, but 2.5 mil extra could get that extra spending money you need. (Cost 35 AP)

Upgrade prospect 10 points in hidden potential rating-Commish will edit player 10 points in their hidden potential rating in the category of your choosing (Offensive, Defensive or Goalie potential) (Cost 55 AP)

Add 1,000 seats & 20 Luxury boxes to arena-Upgrade your arena adding extra seats (Cost 75 AP)

Upgrade Coach 5 attribute points in categories of choice- Select 5 attributes you wish to upgrade an assistant coach (Cost 40 AP)

Upgrade Scout 2 attribute points in categories of choice- Upgrade a scout of your choice in 2 attribute categories (Cost 35 AP)

Obtain ratings screenshot for 3 draft eligible prospects not scouted-Commissioner will login and screenshot players of your choice (Cost 35 AP)

Obtain ratings screenshot for 1 unsigned prospect not scouted on your team-Use this feature to view an unscouted prospects ratings on your team (Cost 20 AP)

Obtain ratings screenshot for 1 player/prospect for player of another organization-If you need to get an accurate view of ratings of another franchises player use this reward. (Cost 20 AP)

Obtain ratings screenshot for 1 free agent player-View a ratings screenshot of an unscouted free agent. (Cost 10 AP)

Lower injury time on a player by 50%-Lower the amount of days a player is injured for by 50% (Cost 75 AP)

Staff Signing-Staff signing during the season for AHL team (Cost 15 AP)

Fire AHL staff member, cost is 5 AP for EACH remaining year on the staff contract (Cost 5 AP per year)

>Use of concept team logo change and uniform change (you will find the concept logo to use and the league will create new home and away uniforms for you based on the logo) (Cost 125 AP)

Rollback a KHL prospects extension, if a player signs an extension in the KHL after April 1 of the current season before you are able to negotiate with him on July 1 you can have the extension cancelled. You will then need to sign the player right away before he signs a new deal in KHL. You must own the rights to the player when he signed the KHL extension, cannot be a player who signed the extension before being drafted. (Cost 40 AP)

Hire Assistant Coach, can be done at any point in the season and no maximumn amount of coaches can be on your staff at once (Cost 20 AP)

Hire Scout or Trainer, can be done at any point in the season and no maximumn amount of coaches can be on your staff at once (Cost 10 AP)

Obtain HIDDEN ratings screenshot for 1 player in your organization-Use this feature to view a screenshot of Offensive and Defensive Potential hidden ratings. (Cost 25 AP)

Obtain HIDDEN ratings screenshot for 1 player outside of your organization-Use this feature to view a screenshot of Offensive and Defensive Potential hidden ratings. (Cost 30 AP)

20. Finance Point Distributions

Whenever possible we will stop simming on the 1st of each month as that is the only time adjustments can be made to the MONTHLY Points Distributions. You can adjust settings in the following categories

A. Scouting Support
B. Team Morale
A. Game Promotions and Arena Operations

If at any time your team goes into the negative you will be lowered by the Commissioner in categories to get you into the positive ending points.

You will have 1 opportunity per year to set your ANNUAL Finance Distributions. Since you only have 1 chance to set these and your team is not earning points in the off-season, it is suggested that you have your settings to allow a couple hundred extra points.

The Annual Points Distributions are done through the form on the website HERE, you must be logged in and be on July 1st in game to be able to submit your settings.

Here you will be able to set the following

A. Ticket Prices
B. Arena Upgrades
C. Arena Quality
D. Arena Construction
E. Wages Budget
F. Player Development
G. Strategic Marketing

GM's often overspend in the Annual Distributions causing them issues with being negative points during the season having to run the monthly settings on the lowest settings.