0.  You will have fun participating in the draft!

1.  Each team starts with 1000.0 points with which to purchase players.

2.  The pre-season price of a player is computed using statistics from
    the previous season.  However, see rule 5 also.

3.  The pre-season price of a player who is classified by the NHL as a
    rookie is 45.0 points.  See rule 19 for the determination of the minimum
    purchase price.

4.  The mid-season value of a player is computed as follows:

    The mid-season purchase price of a player is the player's current
    value, subject to the minimum price described in rule 5.

5.  The minimum purchase price of a player at any time (pre-season or
    mid-season) is 45.0 points.

6.  The mid-season sale price of a player is computed as follows:

    You must take into account the 10% loss when you are thinking of
    selling one player to buy another.  However, see rule 7 also.

7.  The minimum selling price of a player is 50% of what you originally
    bought the player for.  This rule is designed to give you a break if
    a player you buy doesn't play any games.  For example, you could give
    up on a rookie if he is doing poorly and still get 22.5 points for him.

8.  You can buy and sell players in the pre-season with no 10% penalty.

9.  Buy and sell prices are rounded to the nearest 0.1 point.

10. During the season, cash points are included in team totals only to a
    maximum of 90.0 points.  For the final standings,  cash points will be
    included in team totals only to a maximum of 45.0 points.

11. Make sure that your team is complete by the deadline!  Teams with more
    than 45.0 cash points when the season begins will have the totals reduced 
    to 44.9 points.  You must buy as many players as you can before the season
    begins.  Teams with more than 200.0 cash points when the season begins
    will be eliminated.

    During the season, you can carry more that 45.0 cash points from 
    week to week, but only up to 90.0 cash points (2 X the minimum
    purchase price) will count towards yours team total (rule #10).  But
    at the end of the season, only up to 45.0 cash points will count to
    your FINAL team total.

12. Once a player is sold, you cannot buy that same player back again at
    any later date.  Players sold in the pre-season (as per rule 8) are not
    subject to this rule, meaning you can change your mind with no penalty
    up until the entry deadline.

13. You must keep a player on your roster for six weeks before you can
    sell him.  This implies that no players can be sold until week 6 of
    the season.  If you pick a player in the pre-season who doesn't pan
    out in the first six weeks, tough luck.  You can, however, sell a
    player before the season starts because of rule 8.  Once the season
    has begun, the "six-week rule" goes into effect.

14. At most, 100 different players can be bought (and sold later) in one
    season.  This limit should not be restrictive for any team.

15. Each week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday.  Each players point
    totals are updated on Tuesday for the previous week.  Point totals from the
    most recent update are used for transactions during the week.

16. I will try to post the current contestant standings of all entries and
    the price list for each player each Monday, at 7 PM (EDT).

17. All buys/sells are FINALS during the regular season.  

18. All pariticipants'teams must be password-protected.

19. The minimum purchase price is based on the following:

    A) The minimum purchase price should be an integer.    

    B) There should be an average of four players per NHL team which meet this
       at the end of a season to have a playable Draft.  With 30 NHL teams, this
       equals to:

    30 teams X 4 players/teams = 120 players

    Thus for last season (2002-03), there should have been 120 players who had
    points equal or above the minimum purchase price.  In last year's final
    price list, the player at position #120 had 45 points. Also, last year's
    minimum purchase price was 45 points.  I have defined the following 
    formula to determine the minimum purchase price for the next season.   

    This formula is simply the average between the last year's minimum 
    purchase price (45 points) and the number of points by the player who 
    finished #120 in the final price list (45 points).  If necessary, this
    value is round to the next integer.  Thus, for this year we have:

    45 + 45 
    -------  =  45.0  
       2              

    Since there were just a little bit more than 120 players having the minimum 
    purchase price of 45 points last year (124 players had 45 points or more),
    there will be no change this year. 

    Now let assume that for this year draft, the player listed #120 has 42 
    points in the final price list.  Using the same formula, the minimum 
    purchase price will be for the year 2003-2004:

    45 + 42
    -------  =  43.5 which will be increase to the next integer, 44 points
as
       2             the minimum purchase price.

    This formula will allows for a decreasing of the minimum purchase price if
    scoring keeps on going down, or may increase the minimum purchase price if
    we return in the years where 7-8 goals were scored per game. It should 
    also help the Draft to be more consistent over the years.

20. It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.  In other words, I have the
    final say on matters that may arise during the course of the draft.
    There will undoubtedly be situations that I haven't considered - I'll do
    my best to be fair in resolving them.  In the previous drafts (playoffs
    and regular season), there hasn't been any big dispute.