Hello SHL Community,

So one thing that I've noticed as a common question of interest in media or podcasts is this question of Parity. It is often brought up that there is just too much of a gap between top and bottom teams in the league. A quick browse on the goal differential stat shows a big one.
So, now that some teams are beginning to figure out the sim engine as can be seen with the increase of the differentials and individuals point production on those teams let's try to look at what exactly the problem is, what kind of steps have been taken, and what if any should be taken? I'm hoping to have a discussion here so that hopefully some good points bubble to the surface.

The SHL has an issue with power teams and bottom teams. Teams can move between these categories. Texas climbed into one of the premier team slots. NOLA went from powerhouse, to basement and now are doing a pretty good improving season, and are trending to look really strong again in not too long. So our issue isn't that there is no team movement, it's that the top teams are really good, and the bottom teams are really bad.

Part of this divide has to do with the STHS to FHM switch. When we made the switch there were a lot of rebuilding teams caught off guard. Realizing that their rebuild would not cut it, they sold and the only teams buying were the competitive teams, which drove the prices down for asset return (theoretically). So, the good teams got better, or sustained, and the bad teams got worse.

This cycle is difficult to break, because the bad teams need to work really hard to retain their players. There is a timer because once the players are called up if their team is not doing well at all it can be an easy enough choice to move on in FA or request a trade.

Some things have been done to try and reduce the log jam of high quality players from the top teams: Regression changed to hit harder the longer you went on - this was targeted at basically 20+ season players, which honestly we might not see again with the scale of FHM, with a jam of prospects coming up and hitting 1k before they step on the SHL ice retiring players can be forced out the door either into retirement before they intended or to a different team. This would hopefully go a little way towards balancing the league, but the top teams will still be the top, just less of a gap.

Expansion has added 4 teams. Contract Salary changes have tightened teams ability to go to the cap, so some player decisions are being made. Look at this last offseason for some moves that may not have happened if the crunch wasn't where it is now.

RFA rights post draft contracts. It used to be a thing where teams could scoop up players in a draft, never offer them a contract and utilize them as trade fodder. This has at least changed to where if a team doesn't offer a minimum contract the player can walk as a free agent.

Where does this leave us? well I see two standout things that I think can be targeted to try and tighten the gap, as I believe that's the true goal of the 'Parity' discussion:
1) GMs. HO themselves have said that there is a serious lack of qualified applications for some of the teams. I don't think it's a stretch to figure out these teams are probably the ones in the basement with a long rebuild looming. That is a lot to take on. So what do we do if we are unable to attract talent for a job opening? We increase the compensation. Maybe there can even be a performance bonus for GMs, or a tenure bonus to try and retain stable management. I think the solution has to come from either bumping the pay to at least $10M a season, but I think an even better winner could be looking at PT passes. I know I know, those are sacred grounds in the SHL, but I feel we as a league need to take a good long look at the possibility of including these. I think that could be enough to drive up interest in what used to be highly competitive roles.
2) Player / team agency. One thing I've heard discussions are player builds and tactics. There absolutely seems to be a slowly evolving Meta, and that is driving the differential up and down respectively. It seems to be acting like a multiplier. So is the solution take agency away from the player? Restrict tactics? I'm really not sure where to go with this, I'm definitely not well versed to have a solid opinion on it. Would it overall be a benefit to the league, or do we want to embrace what FHM seems to bring to the table in more player choice?
3) Minimum Contracts. Contracts have really just been a bit stale. I think something that could freshen up this, and potentially pull players in a FA direction, or at least be open to moving can be made in this realm. Send down players are essentially limited to $2.5M contracts, with their team eating 500k of that. We used to have an unrestricted send down budget. I think making a change here could be something stimulating retention. maybe bring back a send down budget separate from the SHL budget? Give all send down players a flat contract? I think we can do something to tweak these because although money is easier to come by now, I feel there are a lot of newer players who still have their banks holding them back, and this can cause them to leave if it seems like too big of a hill to climb.
3b) Contract Bonuses. This is something I think can tweak standard minimums and add some life to this system. You can sign bonuses, but it pays out of next cap, and next cap you have to be accountable for the same amount. So it effectively hurts the team the following season. What if we instituted a special bonus salary pool for each team. Let's say every team had access to an unrestricted 5 or 10 million they could hand out in the form of bonuses each season. Now, they would probably have to be controlled bonuses by a 3rd party body in order to make it so teams don't say "+$10 M bonus for doing an AC this season". You could word it to be "Can not exceed 50% of the seasonal salary, must be performance based" that type of thing. The obvious issue is figuring out what can and can't be allowed because bonuses should be bonuses, and not just salary add ons.

That's my ten cents. I really hope this can spark a helpful conversation and get chime in from across the league.