BoG ---
I want to quickly address player movement as I am sure 90 percent of the players in our league do not understand how it works. It happens rarely but it does occur.
Every season I give players a chance to change teams for valid reasons as long as they do not dictate which teams will be their destination. As long as they are not trying to move to a "better" team already stacked in order to win, I usually allow them to move. Some players leave because they are unhappy with their current team. Certainly in a REC league we want everyone to be happy as possible. But happiness does not and should not come from "winning". So I usually talk to them in details before acquiesing on their request.
Per our roster rules, we do allow you to STACK LEGALLY if you bring in new talent OUTSIDE of the league that has no current affiliation or past serious affiliation with the league. Also per our roster rule, once I have determined that a player's request to change teams will be granted, I work on the possible destinations. This is our "unofficial" free agency or draft. I usually look at teams that have need and give the players options that I feel would best work for the league and ensure competitive balance. For a top talent, I only give him or her the option of bottom teams that need players or new teams coming in. This again ensures competitive balance. So the player has some choices based on this but not full choices.
This primarily applies to "STAR or SUPERSTAR" Males Players and "SUPERSTAR FEMALE PLAYERS AND GOALIES". The list is not very big on who fits in this category. Since female players are allowed to double deep in PRO and REC, unless you are a Lucy Meyers or Keri Rapalski I do not put too many restrictions on those. I primarily focus on top level male players and the occasional super star goalie or super star female.
If a new player is introduced to the league as a free agent or to me as a free agent, their rights belong to the league so I can pass them on to teams that need them. Case in point --- I know a new female player to the First Ladies was introduced to me a long time back by Assistant Commissioner Molly but a PRO team suddenly wanted to put in a claim for her several weeks later. I denied it because I had nothing from the PRO team introducing her to me (thus bringing her into the league via them) or even requesting her on their roster. And that particular PRO team is fully stocked with females. So keep this in mind as well. I document everything and keep all emails for this reason.
Also, since women players are in short supply, I usually do not allow a team to keep more than 4 FULL time female players because I rather distribute to teams that need them.
In a case where a player is leaving his or her team, I usually alert the captain(s) that their player is leaving and that I am approving it. Sometimes it hurts when that player is a talent but I cannot force a player to stay on a certain team. However, I only approve their decision if the decision is made WELL in advance and I have a chance to add new talent/free agents to the team. I may not be able to tell you exactly why they are leaving. But I always email the captains after the season to give them enough info as to give some anonymity and disclosure.
CASE IN POINT: Two prominent players from Two REC teams (2 groups of two) alerted me LONG before the season they were leaving the team or wanted to try something different. In one case it was the team dynamics and in another they wanted a different challenge. Two of the players were labeled to head a FREE agent REC team that was going to be created but as it turned out we did not have space for such a team so they decided to go PRO. The other two players wanted to go PRO as their first choice.
All four players are not superstars but certainly had talent of various range. They were given options on which PRO teams (current or potential) that had space and could use their talent to make them more competitive. Two of these players were already part of an X division team going PRO so they chose to stay with that X team and move PRO. The others debated for a while and chose one of the three teams I had given permission to move. As it turned out, it was the same X team. Since that X team needed players I approved it. Then, this past weekend two other top female players chose to move full time to one of the bottom level PRO teams and move to a reserve role on their current REC team. I have no problem with these moves as they did not go to a Top 5 PRO team (what I call the powerhouses --- Puck Buddies, Ducks, The All Blacks, Funkmaster Redux, Snake Eyes). By ensuring this, we will have an even more tougher and balanced PRO team.
Bottom line --- all this is fair to all parties. For the team that loses players with credible talent they will be given free agent talent compensation to the best of my ability though it is hard to judge how good the talent level on new player is based on his/her word. I always encourage to find and get players OUTSIDE the league that best fits their culture and needs. This way you control more of what your team looks like. I always try to fill rosters but that should be a last resort.
The team "I" put together --- neXus --- is a drafted X division team that had 8 of its male players with no PRO or REC affiliation after this season. So it was easy to keep them together. We then picked up 1 male FREE agents that had no PRO or REC affiliations after this season and focused on female players that had NO potential PRO affiliation after this season. I cannot tell you how many emails I have gotten from current neXus players who want to stay with us but cannot due to affiliations with current PRO-REC teams and other male stars from other PRO-REC teams clamoring to join our team. But those would be against roster rules. We will fill our spots with free agents, MDHL players, and outside players for the most part when no viable league free agent is available so we can build a team of our philosophy within the preset roster rules. The player personnel decision on these players are handled by the captain and senior player on neXus with my consultation. They know they cannot go after anyone within the league.
FINAL NOTE --- All player transactions on all teams are monitored by me and ultimately approved me.
I think the only change I am contemplating to make is to find a way to allow REC male players to go PRO IF their talent justifies it. But again they cannot choose which team AND they would have to spend at least 2 or 3 seasons with their current REC team before they can move up if they are deemed to belong. PRO will be more like PRO with this. I want to create a distinction. If male players (or female players) want to play a more rougher/tougher tournament style hockey like they do in these national tournaments, X will be cater to most of them. For females and goalies, they can double and triple dip so it really is not a factor.
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