SimLeague Hockey offers four types of leagues:

• Open Public Leagues: These are where we recommend new users to start. The salary cap is $70 million, and you can draft any players from 1917 to present to create your team. These leagues are open to everyone and they fill on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Private Leagues: These are also good for new users. They are the same as public leagues except they stay private for 30 days while you invite your friends to join.
• Theme Leagues: These are a little more advanced and are not recommended for new users. When a user starts a new theme league, he makes his own rules. He may state that you have to draft only players from 1990 or later. Or he may only allow players with shooting percentages within a certain range. These are just two examples, but with a little creativity, the possibilities for your theme leagues are endless!
• Dynasty Theme Leagues: These are the same as theme leagues, but they allow for multiple seasons. Between seasons, there is a prospect draft and extra money given to the top teams. Stats are tracked for all seasons!
• Progressive League Chains: These are simply a chain of theme leagues. Chaining leagues together is advantageous for people running progressive style leagues. All leagues in the chain remain intact until the chain is finished -- meaning all standings and stats are accessible!

If this is your first time drafting a team, and you are drafting for an open public league, these pointers will help you get started:

• To avoid fatigue and injury issues, make sure you draft enough players that have a decent amount of games played. Players with a low number of games played will not make it through the whole season as a starter on your team without running into fatigue issues and potential injuries.
• Avoid spending too much money on super stars. Remember you have nine lines and seven pairs to fill. Try to keep your team balanced. One or two great players cannot carry a team.
• Make sure you are prepared for injuries. Hockey is a rough game and most likely some of your starters will suffer an injury at some point.
• Goalies are important! Having great defense is important, but you still need good goaltending. Don't be too cheap with your money when it comes to your starting goalie!
• Defense is also important! In addition to your goaltender, you need good defense. Even the best goalies won't be able to stop everything -- especially if the defense is allowing quality shots to be taken. So when drafting your defensive pairs, pay attention to the DEF (defensive) stat of each player!
• Save some money for the waiver wire or trading. During the season, you can release and claim players from the waiver wire. However, there is a 10% transaction fee (of the player's salary in which you are claiming) for using the wire. The more money you save, the more you can use the waiver wire during your season. Click here for more information on the waiver wire. You can also trade players, money, or both with other owners. Click here for more information on trading.
• Keep your prospects in mind! You will have one minor league player for each position that you can call up at any time during the season before the roster deadline. These guys will also help fill in for injured or tired players. Click here for more information on your prospects.
• Avoid drafting too many goons unless you plan on drafting a great penalty killing unit. Goons generally commit a lot of penalties. Being shorthanded is obviously a disadvantage you want to try to keep to a minimum. Players that commit a lot of penalties also have a higher risk of being suspended for a few games.