EACH GM IN OHC IS ASKED TO:
- Play by the concept of representing the team’s nation – Mainly by building a team with a majority of local players.
- Follow the house rules, which are created to make each team equally competitive.
- Honor the Olympic spirit of fair play by being friendly and honest.
LOCAL, FOREIGN & DOUBLE NATIONAL PLAYERS
- A local is a player whose nationality is the same as the team’s country.
- A foreign player is any player who’s not local.
- Double national players are those who are allowed to represent two nations (e.g. BARKOV for FIN & RUS).
- A list of double nationals is updated each post-season and published here.
BIG NATIONS TEAMS
Big hockey nations can have multiple teams in OHC. It helps to spread the talent so they are not too strong.
- CAN, USA, RUS have 3 teams
- SWE, FIN, CZE have 2 teams
- If the league decides to expand, more big nations teams can be added.
SMALL NATIONS TEAMS
Smaller hockey nations have only one team in OHC and some advantages in order to make them more competitive.
- SALZBURG: can use AUT, SVN, CRO, HUN players as locals.
- COPENHAGEN: can use DNK, NOR players as locals.
- ASTANA: can use KAZ, BLR, UKR as locals.
- RIGA: can use LVA, LTU, EST, BLR as locals.
- Some small nations like FRA, ITA, DEU have more double nationals based on the player’s ancestry.
- All small nations teams are allowed up to 3 naturalizations compared to only 1 for big nations teams (see wild card).
- Small nations teams have no competition when using the Wild card for local player protection (see wild card).
TEAM NAME & LOGO CHANGES
- The team names should represent either a traditional club name from that country/town or a national/regional symbol.
- Some exceptions are allowed especially for more modern markets.
- The team name or logo can’t be changed without prior discussion & permission from the TC & commissioner.
3 types of OHC house rules:
ACTIVE HOUSE RULES – enforced during or after the season
OHC WILD CARD – post-season step
ATTRIBUTE CREATION RULES – no action from GMs
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FUTURE LEAGUE EXPANSION
- Expansion can only happen if we have no interim GM after the season.
- For the new small nation’s teams, an extra players addon may be created
- If any of the existing OHC teams would be handicapped because of the expansion, they will get compensations
- Some of following teams could be considered:
- CAN – Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Hamilton, …
- USA – Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, …
- SWE – Malmo Redhawks
- FIN – Turku Titans
- BLR – Minsk Bisons
- NOR – Oslo Thunder
- CRO – Zagreb Bruins
- HUN – Budapest Griffins
- POL – Krakow Kraken
- UKR – Kiev Falcons
- SLO – Ljublana Olympia
- GBR – London Royals