Spares Use in League Games
Here are the rules governing the use of spares in league games (not playoff games). The first principle is that a team cannot improve itself through the use of spares.
- To ensure competitive games, the league goal is to have full teams on the bench for all games, including play-offs.
- If a team is missing one regular player, it usually plays with 10 skaters.
- If a team is missing 2 or more skaters, they are expected to use one or more players from the spares list to ensure they will have 10 skaters.
Spares being used to replace a player must have a ranking equal to or lower than the players being replaced. In practical terms, this means that when a team is missing two players, they can replace the missing player with the higher ranking. If three players are missing, then the team would replace the two players with the highest rating.
Spares Use in Playoff Games
Here are the rules governing the use of spares in playoff games. Please remember that as much as we all want to win, a spare is used only for replacing a missing player and not to gain an advantage. The guiding principles are:
- You have to have at least 9 skaters, but as you will notice as you go through the scenarios outlined below, 10 skaters provide the best overall scenario and is preferred.
- You can only play with 11 skaters if they are all from your team.
- You must get approval to use spares in the playoffs from Steve Fex, VP Spares, or Don Grant, President. This approval must be requested no later than by noon on the day of the game.
- If you use a spare that is not approved, you run the risk of forfeiting the game. When approving a spare you will be informed if the spare has already been approved for a game that night to give the option of choosing someone else.
- A list of approved spares will be given to our timekeeper, Jacob.
- The spares ratings are reviewed before the playoffs and updated to ensure accuracy.
- Regardless of how many spares you need, you may never get a spare that is rated higher than the highest rated player that you are missing.
- You cannot use the same spare in consecutive games.
In the case of extreme circumstances i.e. a spare is in a car accident on the way to the game, the President has the final say as to the outcome of any possible protest. We will try and be as flexible as possible should an unforeseen circumstance occur with the priority being to ensure a competitive balance.
Playoff Summary Chart
In order to provide some flexibility, especially for those teams that require 2 or more spares, you may work within a Total Allowance to replace missing players.
Example: TEAM A is missing a 6.5, a 6, a 5.5 and a 4. The first spare is a 6.5 to replace the highest rated player. For the next two spares, TEAM A adds up the ratings of those replaced (6+5.5+4) divides by 3 to get an average and then multiplies by 2 to get the allocation.
(6+5.5+4) / 3 x 2 = 10.3 rounded to 10.5
TEAM A’s Total Allowance would therefore be 17 (highest player 6.5 + allocation 10.5).
In this scenario TEAM A can select any 3 spares whose ratings total 17 as long as no spare is rated higher than your highest rated missing player – in this case 6.5. Options include:
6.5 + 6 + 4.5
6 + 5.5 + 5.5 etc.
In this scenario, if TEAM A chose to only get 2 spares, their Total Allowance would be 6.5 + [(6+5.5+4)/3] = 11.5.