THE RULES OF THE ANTI-PUTIN HOCKEY LEAGUE

THE APHL GENERAL POINTS

The Anti-Putin Hockey League (aka APHL) is an NHL-based fantasy league, which is located on Fantrax. The inaugural season of the APHL was played in 2025/26.

APHL is using Head-to-Head Points system.

In 2025/26, APHL had 20 teams. That number might go down in 2026, but this version of the Rules is based on that exact number. If the number of teams is smaller, the Rules will be adjusted accordingly.

All APHL team managers should oppose Vladimir Putin and support Ukraine in the defensive war against Russian aggression.

THE APHL TEAM ROSTERS

Each APHL team roster consists of 33 hockey players:

-- 11 starting-lineup players

-- 12 reserve players

-- 10 minor players (to qualify as “minor”, a skater has to have 150 or less NHL games under his belt, while for a goaltender, that number has to be 70 or less)

During the APHL regular season, each team also has Injured Reserve with 3 slots for injured players.

In the starting lineup, 11 players have the following positions:

-- G (goaltender)

-- D, LW, C, RW (offensive players who earn extra fantasy points for goals, assists and power-play points)

-- D2, C2, W (two-way players who earn extra fantasy points for goals, assists, takeaways, hits and blocks)

-- D3, F (defensive players who earn extra fantasy points for takeaways, blocks and playing on penalty-killing units)

-- Enf (an enforcer who earns extra fantasy points for hits and fights)

The reserve players and players in minor slots can have any positions, except for one thing: a team cannot have more than two non-minor goaltenders.

THE APHL REGULAR SEASON GAME PERIOD

Every game period (or match-up) in the APHL regular season corresponds to 1-3 calendar days and has to include 8 or more NHL games.

(EXAMPLE: On Monday, NHL has 3 games. On Tuesday, 6 games. Therefore, an APHL game period can start Monday and end Tuesday. It will correspond to 9 NHL games).

The APHL regular season calendar is being created by the league commissioner after the NHL publishes theirs. (In 2026/27, there will be 104 game periods).

In each game period, an APHL team can start only one player at each of the 11 positions, even if the period lasts more than one day. If two or more players are being started at the same position, only the first player’s stats will be counted.

(EXAMPLE: Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon are playing on the same APHL team. On the first day of the game period, McDavid starts as C. On the second day, so does MacKinnon. Therefore, only McDavid’s stats will be counted, while MacKinnon’s stats will not. However, MacKinnon can still start as C2, F or Enf).

Besides, if a real NHL team plays two games during the same APHL game period, only stats from one of those games will be counted.

(EXAMPLE: Edmonton plays on both Monday and Tuesday, and the APHL game period lasts from Monday to Tuesday. That means that Connor McDavid’s fantasy owner has to decide whether to start McDavid on Monday or Tuesday. If he starts on both days, only the Monday’s stats will be counted).

(NOTE: I admit it does not sound very pleasant, but realistically, this will occur rather rarely. In 2026/27, this will occur only two to five times, depending on the real NHL team).

THE APHL ROSTER CHANGES

During the offseason, a 33-round APHL draft is conducted. Every pick has an 8-hour time limit (in order to account for time zone differences), but of course you should not wait that long when your turn has come.

In a draft, the order in each round will be the same. As a rule, the worse you did in the previous season, the earlier you will pick in every round. (Some exceptions to that rule will be depicted later).

Before the draft, a team manager can protect (keep) up to 10 top players and up to 10 minor players.

If you keep X top players, you will skip the first X rounds of the draft. And if you keep Y minor players, you will skip the last Y rounds.

(EXAMPLE: I kept 7 top players and 8 minor players. Therefore, I will skip Rounds 1-7 and 26-33, and I will pick in Rounds 8-25).

During the regular season, a team manager can make the following changes to the team roster:

-- by trading with other teams (you can trade both players and future draft picks. Please note that you have to be very careful when you trade picks in Rounds 1-10. For example, if you traded away your pick in Round 5, you will not be able to keep more than 4 top players).

-- by claiming players from waivers and signing free agents (the limit is 7 players per week. All the waiver claims will be processed daily. Most likely, waiver claims will be processed at 8 am New York time. Meanwhile, all the free agent signings will be processed immediately).

-- by dropping your players, who will go to waivers for two days, and then become free agents.

The APHL trade deadline will be set at three days after the NHL one.

You cannot either pick or claim players that have never played in the NHL and whose rights do not belong to any NHL team.

Also, you cannot pick or claim players who represent Russia or Belarus. (If there is dual citizenship, the deciding factor is what country the player represented in the international competitions. For example, Ivan Fedotov and Alexander Barkov are both dual Russian/Finish citizens, but Fedotov played for Team Russia, while Barkov played for Team Finland. Therefore, Barkov can play for an APHL team, while Fedotov cannot).

THE APHL PLAYER SALARIES

Every APHL player has a salary, which is equal to one or several million dollars.

When a player is picked at an APHL draft, his salary depends on the round in which he was picked:

-- If a player is picked in Round 1, his salary is $10 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 2, his salary is $9 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 3, his salary is $8 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 4, his salary is $7 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 5, his salary is $6 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 6 or 7, his salary is $5 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 8, 9 or 10, his salary is $4 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 11, 12, 13 or 14, his salary is $3 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 15, 16, 17, 18 or 19, his salary is $2 million

-- If a player is picked in Round 20 or later, or not picked at all, his salary is $1 million (which is the APHL minimum salary)

The APHL salary cap is $90 million. It does not include players in the Injured Reserve or minor player slots.

When you keep up to 10 top players before the new draft, their combined salary cannot exceed $50 million. (The up to 10 minor players you keep do not have any salary limits).

After a top player is included in the list of keepers before the new draft, his salary is being increased by $1 million.

(EXAMPLE: A team manager picks Connor McDavid in the beginning of Round 1 in 2025. McDavid’s salary is equal to $12 million. If the manager keeps him in 2026, his salary will be $13 million. In 2027, $14 million. And so on).

If a player is not included in the keeper list, his salary expires. In the new season, his new salary will depend on what draft round he is picked in (or not picked at all).

THE APHL SEASON STRUCTURE

Before the first season, the 20 APHL teams will be divided into four divisions, five teams in each.

The APHL regular season corresponds to the NHL regular season, except for the last three game periods.

A team gets 2 points for a win, and 1 for a tie. If two teams have the same number of points, the first tiebreaker is the total number of fantasy points earned, and the second tiebreaker is head-to-head matchup.

When the APHL regular season ends, its standings are deemed final on the next day, 1 pm New York time. (If Fantrax recalculates something and changes anything after that time, it’s too late). The four division winners get No 1, 2, 3 and 4 overall places.

The best 12 teams of the regular season advance to the APHL playoffs, which will coincide with the Stanley Cup playoffs. All of those teams cannot make any further roster changes.

The other 8 teams (placed 13-20) use the remaining three game periods to play a consolation tournament, whose winner will pick first in every round of the next draft:

-- in the first game period of the consolation tournament, No 13 faces No 20, No 14 faces No 19, No 15 faces No 18, and No 16 faces No 17

-- in the second game period, the winners of the first round will face each other (the “best vs worst” re-seeding will take place)

-- in the third game period, the winners of the second round will play one another

If any of the game periods in the consolation tournament results in a tie, the victory will be awarded to the team that finished higher in the regular season.

The results of each game period in the consolation tournament are also deemed final on the next day, at 1 pm New York time.

As soon as a team is eliminated from the consolation tournament, it cannot change its roster anymore. The same goes for the consolation tournament winner when the tournament is over.

THE APHL PLAYOFFS

The APHL playoffs consist of four rounds. Each APHL playoff round coincides with the corresponding Stanley Cup playoff round.

The four best regular season teams (aka division winners) advance directly to the second playoff round.

In the first playoff round, No 5 faces No 12, No 6 faces No 11, No 7 faces No 10, and No 8 faces No 9.

In each subsequent playoff round, the “best vs worst” re-seeding takes place.

Each playoff round will be divided into seven game periods. For example, in the first round, the division will be conducted thus:

-- if you can divide the round into seven periods, each of which will include 8 Stanley Cup playoff games, do so

-- if not, try dividing the round into seven periods, each of which will include at least 7 Stanley Cup playoff games

-- if you can’t, try dividing the round into seven periods, each of which will include at least 6 Stanley Cup playoff games… and so on.

(EXAMPLE: In the first playoff round in 2026, the division into Game Periods looked like this:

Game Period 1 = April 18-19 (7 Stanley Cup playoff games)

Game Period 2 = April 20-21 (8 games)

Game Period 3 = April 22-24 (9)

Game Period 4 = April 25-26 (7)

Game Period 5 = April 27-29 (10)

Game Period 6 = April 30 - May 1 (7)

Game Period 7 = May 2-3 (8)).

Naturally, in the second playoff round, we start with an attempt to divide the round into seven game periods with 4 Stanley Cup playoff games in each rather than 8. In the semifinals, the number of games will be 2, and in the final, 1.

The result of each playoff game period will be deemed final on the next day after it ends, at 1 pm New York time.

Each playoff series is played until one of the teams has won 4 game periods. However, if the round is over early (sometimes, no series in a Stanley Cup playoff round reaches 7 games) and no one won 4 game periods, the series winner is simply determined by the number of game periods won. If both teams won the same number of game periods (say, 3-3), then the first tiebreaker is the total number of fantasy points earned during the series. The second tiebreaker is the higher regular season placement.

If a Stanley Cup playoff round is not over yet, but the next one has already started (it is a rare situation, but it does happen sometimes), then the stats from the game played in the next Stanley Cup playoff round count in this APHL playoff round.

For each APHL playoff team, the playoff roster consists of 20 hockey players (including no more than 2 goaltenders). There is no Injury Reserve, there are no minor player slots. There is no salary cap, either.

Before the APHL playoffs start, each playoff team manager decides, which regular season roster players (up to 20) will be included into the playoff roster. All the unchosen players enter the playoff free agent pool.

Also, the playoff free agent pool will include all the regular season free agents, as well as the players from the 8 non-playoff APHL teams, provided their salaries do not exceed $4 million.

Before the first APHL playoff round, a special 20-round draft is conducted, during which 12 playoff team managers can pick players from the playoff free agent pool – until the team roster has 20 players.

(EXAMPLE: If your team made it to the playoffs, and you included 11 of your players into the playoff roster, you can draft in Rounds 1-9 of the special draft, so that you will end up with exactly 20 players).

In each round of the special draft, the draft order is determined by the regular season final standings (the higher you finished in the standings, the earlier you will pick in each special draft round).

After the special draft, the playoffs will have the same waiver claim and free agent signing mechanisms as the regular season did (no more than 7 player additions per week). No trades are allowed.

After an APHL playoff round ends, all the players of the newly eliminated teams, whose salaries do not exceed $4 million, will enter the playoff free agent pool. A new special draft will be conducted, this time consisting of 5 rounds. All the teams still in the APHL playoffs will participate, and the draft order, again, will be determined by the regular season final standings.

And then, the same rules as after the first playoff round: you can add players, but no more than 7 per week.

Needless to say, when the playoffs end, all the APHL team rosters go back to the same state they were in when the regular season ended.

In the new annual APHL draft, the APHL playoff winner will pick last in each draft round. The playoff runner-up will pick next to last. The playoff semifinalists will pick 3^rd- and 4^th-last. As we already noted, the first pick will go to the consolation tournament winner. Other than that, the rule is “the worse you finished in the regular season, the earlier you will pick”.

(EXAMPLE: Let’s say team No 15 (the one that finished 15^th in the regular season) wins the consolation tournament, team No 2 wins the playoffs, team No 3 is the runner-up, and teams No 1 and No 5 are the semifinalists. Therefore, the draft order in each round of the new draft will be as follows: 15, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 5, 1, 3, 2)

THE CONCLUSION

All APHL team managers should subscribe to the league char in Telegram and, if possible, follow announcements there. Most likely, that’s where we will conduct the second, third and fourth playoff special drafts.

The managers should fill their starting team rosters for each game period rather than abandon the team. If there is an emergency, you can always ask the league commissioner to manage your team temporarily. Or the team might get a new manager.