The Cazah League of Legends (CLL)

The League
The Cazah League of Legends (CLL) is a fantasy hockey league that was founded in 2014. The League is played on the Yahoo Fantasy Sports website/application and is well recognized as North-America's #1 Fantasy Hockey League.

Rosters
Each Club may roster up to 23 players on its active roster (19 dressed, 4 bench) according to the following distribution:


 * 3x Centers (C)
 * 2x Left-Wingers (LW)
 * 2x Right-Wingers (RW)
 * 5x Defensemen (D)
 * 2x Goaltender (G)
 * 4x bench (BN)

In addition, franchises are afforded the following special designations:


 * 2x Injured Reserve
 * * 1x day-to-day (DTD) or out (O) eligible
 * * 1x injury reserve (IR) eligible

Schedule
The season consists of 20 matchups spanning approximately 22 weeks (schedule is per Yahoo's standards of that season). Franchises play against every other team at least one time during the season. Each franchise plays eight (8) out-of-conference matchups (1 matchup against every non-conference opponent) and in twelve (12) in-conference matchups (at least 1 matchup against every conference opponent and 4 additional in-conference matchups which are randomized).

Conferences
Two conferences, consisting of eight (8) franchises each, are split by a draft by which the previous season's finalists select franchises one by one following the draft. Last year's CLL Champion has the right of first selection.

Please refer to the Conference Draft page for past results.

Power Rankings
Each month, the Cazah Power Rankings are released. The Power Rankings were founded by the New England Kodiaks. Since the 2018-19 season, the Bramtpon Barnburners (GM Dylan Kerr) and Wyoming Wizards (GM Cody Kaplin) have produced the rankings. Please refer to the Power Rankings page for historic rankings

Qualifications
8 Clubs out of 16 qualify for the postseason in The Cazah League of Legends. While conferences help determine schedule, they have no impact on the playoff seeding or format. Playoff seeding is determined by the teams finishing one (1) through eight (8) in total points through the regular season. The tie-breaker for teams with an equal number of points is their total number of wins (more wins being assigned the higher seed). The league playoffs operate in a non-reseeding format, so that teams can anticipate their upcoming matchup. This also facilitates the ability to organize an annual Cazah Playoffs Bracket Challenge.

Finalists face off in a week-long matchup in pursuit of the highly coveted Cazah Cup.

Format
The CLL Playoffs Round 1: Quarter-finals Round 2: Semi-finals Round 3: The Cazah Cup Final Round 3: The Bronze Medal Consolation Final
 * Matchup 1: #1 vs #8
 * Matchup 2: #2 vs #7
 * Matchup 3: #3 vs #6
 * Matchup 4: #4 vs #5
 * Matchup A: [Winner Matchup #1] vs [Winner Matchup #2]
 * Matchup B: [Winner Matchup #3] vs [Winner Matchup #4]
 *  [Winner Matchup A] vs [Winner Matchup B]
 * [Loser Matchup A] vs [Loser Matchup B]

In the result of a playoff tie, the win will be awarded to the team that had a greater regular season record versus their opponent.

Length
The draft takes place once a year in September, preceeding the start of the NHL season. The draft consists of:
 * 18 rounds
 * 16 picks per round
 * 288 total draft picks

Format
Rounds 1 through 18 are snaking.

Order
The draft order is randomized prior to each season. For the 2020-21 season, the draft order was randomized at the 2019-20 CLL Draft to facilitate draft pick trading.

Slot Trading
All franchises have the right to trade their pick positions for the entire draft, or a certain number of individual reounds. The only stipulation is that all franchises own an equal number of picks (typically eighteen).

Category Impact
All player categories for each week's matchup count towards the franchise's overall standings

Skaters
Skater categories are as follows:

Goalies
Goalie categories are as follows:

Restrictions
Each franchise may keep anywhere from zero (0) to three (3) skaters each season according to the Keeper rules and guidelines of the CLL. Franchises, however, do not have the right to keep any:
 * Goalies
 * Players who have been drafted in the first two (2) rounds of the previous CLL Draft
 * Players who have not been drafted into the NHL

Costs
Players are ascribed a keeper cost based off of where they were selected in the previous year's draft. These costs denote the draft pick compensation required to keep them. It follows an X-2 formula (X being the round they were drafted in the previous year's draft).

Players who were not drafted, and therefore began the season on the Free Agents (FA) list, are eligible to be kept for a compensation following a Y-6 formula (Y indicating the final round of the draft). Currently, free agents can be kept for a round 12 pick, since there are 18 total draft rounds (18 - 6 = 12).

Required Picks
In cases where franchises own 2 picks in a respective round in which they hope to keep a player, the franchise is allowed to select which pick they would like to use as their keeper slot. (e.g. If Brampton wants to keep Kyle Conner in R9 and has picks R9P1, R9P10, R9P12, they may select R9P12 as their keeper slot)

In cases where franchises do not own a pick in a respective round in which they hope to keep a player, the franchise is allowed to select which pick they would like to use as their keeper slot in a preceding round.

(e.g. If Brampton wants to keep Kyle Conner in R9 and has no R9 picks, they may select any of their R8, R7, R6, etc. picks as their keeper slot)