Trade deadline looms; WHL owners review rules

With the trade deadline approaching, Mark and I felt we should review some of the rules, just so everybody’s on the same page.

* The trade deadline for the 2009-10 season is [b]Wednesday, March 10[/b] at noon.

* To be keeper-eligible, a player must be on a WHL roster by the trade deadline and remain on that roster for the rest of the season. This means that a player who is dropped after the trading deadline will lose keeper eligibility.

* There are two reasons for the keeper eligibility deadline: 1) to prevent a run on young, cheap players at the end of the season or in the offseason, which would circumvent the draft; 2) to make owners show at least a modest (one-month) commitment to a player before keeping him.

* Just like the NHL, trading is open during the offseason. Trades may be made from the day after the end of the regular season up until the keeper selection deadline (Sept. 8). Any player who is keeper eligible (see requirements above) will retain that eligibility if traded.

To reiterate Mark’s email, the current poll is to gauge interest in increasing the number of keepers after NEXT season. The 5 player, $200 cap keeper system will remain in place for this 2010 offseason. We would not change that midseason since everyone is making their plans based on that system.

That said, we are very pleased with the strong turnout in the poll! Thanks to all 16 teams that have voted. It appears that more than half of the league owners (13) approve of increasing keepers following the 2010-11 season, so we will likely hold a formal vote on that during the summer.

We’ve received some other great suggestions and valid concerns and we are taking them all into consideration. I am sure that there will be at least a couple other changes up for official vote during the summer.

Thanks again to everybody for your contributions to the league!