Up next is the Valid Roster Deadline at noon on Thursday, followed by the Waiver Draft that evening. I'm currently showing nine teams over at least one of the limits.

The Cape Breton Capers have gone inactive, with their assets used to restore the Chicago Expos franchise, which has been renamed the Chicago Stars. In their place, the Portland Huskies have relocated to Cape Breton to become the Cape Breton Eagles. Simultaneously, the Thunder Bay Kodiaks have moved to San Antonio as the San Antonio Law.

Per our usual renaming process, all of the new names are retroactive to the start of this season's calendar.

I have not updated the Ottawa Valley Wolfhounds because their request was only a couple days ago so I'll give more time for comment. Plus I'm still considering leaving the Wolfhounds identity behind as a dormant franchise - as was done with the Capers - and I'll need to write some code to handle that.

With all of that done, we have our new Chicago GM in place. Colin was the DFHL's newest GM but took me up on an offer to jump from that league to the NSHL. He initially came recommended by Aaron and, whether in the DFHL or NSHL, I've got no concerns about him getting up to speed.

With everyone in place, we can start looking at draft dates again.

I think my initial draft date thoughts have become too ambitious with replacing PM and all of the franchise shifts and updated code I've been working on. My tentative plans are a Supplemental Draft on the evening on February 20, the Entry Draft on February 23, the valid roster deadline on February 26 and the Waiver Draft that same night.

That said, that starts to bump up against a kind of insane week for the puzzle business so I'm not entirely certain that'll work.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

So this means that updated player eligibility has been applied. The list of rated players who were deemed ineligible will be posted to the forums shortly. If there are any questions about that, let me know.

At this point there's no reason not to schedule the drafts. I posted a potential schedule at the end of the playoffs. Tentatively we're going to stick with that but I'll give a couple more days for feedback before adding it to the league calendar.

Coincidentally, this happens on the twenty-fifth anniversary of our sibling league's first games.

Next steps remain as previously stated. I'll try to get re-rates done shortly but database issues with the site could delay that. From there we'll figure out draft dates.

Voting for end-of-season awards is now open via the GM Tools and will remain open until noon on Thursday, January 22. As always, this is a required event.

Given the time of year, it should come as no surprise that we have no new ratings set for next season. As such, current ratings will be carried over with updated eligibility applied. My goal - possibly aspirational - is to have re-rates done by January 25.

Looking further ahead, if we try to do a quick offseason, I think we might have a Supplemental Draft on Feburary 9 or 10, Entry Draft on February 13, Valid Roster Deadline on February 15, and Waiver Draft the night of February 15. None of that is set in stone yet; if anyone has any thoughts, feel free to speak up.

I would like to get some more of the site reliability work I've been doing completed before the drafts so the database issues we've been having don't impact it but I'm not sure I can get that done in time. We'll see how it goes.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks again for another successful season.

Aaron is also the GM of the DFHL's Colorado Rockies, so he's familiar with how things work over here. As such, I don't expect any transition issues.

Welcome to the NSHL, Aaron!

As per usual, ballots can be completed via the GM Tools. Remember that voting for the All-Star Roster is a required action.

The reason for this is that Ottawa Valley GM Guy Morin has decided to leave the league.

At this time, there is no one on the NSHL or DFHL waiting lists who hasn't already been contacted about the Wolfhounds opening. There was a backup plan when the team first became available, though, and we're going forward with it now. As such, I'm happy to welcome Jenny back to the NSHL as our new Ottawa Valley GM.

The plan is for Jenny to serve as something of a caretaker GM until we have someone else who is interested in the team. I'll use the start of the new season as an opportunity to advertise the league via social media and see what comes of it. But, until that time, the team is hers to run as she sees fit, not just draft as a placeholder.

The extra hour before the start of the draft gives her time to get a draft list pulled together on short notice.

As always, if there are any questions, let me know.

Supplemental Draft - August 18, 7:00 PM
Entry Draft - August 21, 7:00 PM
Valid Roster Deadline - August 24, 12:00 PM
Waiver Draft - August 24, 7:00 PM

Assuming that schedule holds, I expect the preseason to begin on either August 26 or 27.

With Guy in place, we've got a full slate of GMs once again and can move on with our offseason.

Looking ahead at possible draft dates, I'm thinking of holding the Supplemental Draft on August 18 and the Entry Draft on August 21. The Valid Roster Deadline would then be at noon on August 24 with the Waiver Draft that evening. The preseason would begin on August 26 or August 27.

Obviously it's hard to find draft dates that work for everyone but I'd like to know if anyone has any particularly strong feelings about those dates.

And I don't have it in the system yet but the Supplemental Draft teams this season are the Portland Huskies, Brampton Capitals, Edmonton Bandits, and Thunder Bay Kodiaks.

As always, feel free to reach out if there are any comments or concerns and welcome to the NSHL, Guy!