Custom Leagues and League Rules

Create and Configure an HLM Custom League

An HLM custom league combines its identity, teams, divisions, affiliations, and awards with rules for contracts, drafts, schedules, playoffs, and player eligibility. Build a league in the roster editor before starting a career. During a Classic Mode career, use Office → League Settings to schedule supported changes for a future season.

How to create an HLM custom league

Open the roster editor and add a league.
Enter its Name and Abbreviation. An abbreviation can contain up to six characters.
Choose its logo, background color, location, gender, league type, strength, and number of teams.
Add or select the teams that belong to the league.
Set the number and names of its conferences and divisions, then place every team in the intended division.
Open Affiliates to connect teams across leagues when you want them to have formal affiliations.
Review the league settings described below, then save the roster before starting a career.

Changing the team, conference, or division count resets the current team alignment. Set those counts before spending time placing individual teams.

HLM Roster League Editor with league identity, team count, and structure settings — Define the league and its team structure before assigning teams to divisions.

Choose league rules that match your format

The settings available for a league are grouped by what they control:

Group	Rules you can edit
Contracts	Whether contracts are required, contract limit, salary cap, maximum contract length, and maximum extension length for your own players.
Draft	Whether the league holds a draft, number of rounds, years of draft eligibility, which leagues supply players, whether draft picks can be traded, and lottery rules.
Schedule	Games per team and the end-of-season date. The available game totals adjust to the league’s team count.
Playoffs	Number of playoff teams, seeding format, and the number of games in each round.
Player eligibility	Whether contracted or already-drafted players can join, nationality restrictions, loans into the league, maximum seasons, and age limits.

When a draft is enabled, Years of Draft Eligibility can be set from one to five years. Lottery settings let you choose whether only non-playoff teams participate, how many teams enter, how many positions are drawn, the maximum move, and the odds assigned to each position.

Age rules can use a minimum age, maximum age, or both. If a minimum is set, the league can allow from zero to ten underage players and set a separate minimum age for those exceptions. Academic leagues also have a maximum eligibility age.

The loan setting controls whether teams without an affiliation can loan players into the league. It does not limit loans to a specific level of league.

HLM League Settings screen showing contract, draft, schedule, playoff, and player eligibility rules — League Settings groups the rules that control contracts, drafts, schedules, playoffs, and eligible players.

Configure conferences, divisions, and affiliations

Use Divisions and Conferences to name each conference and division. Open Division Alignment to assign the league’s teams. Every team must have a place in the structure you created.

Affiliations connect specific teams. The separate loan setting determines whether teams without an affiliation may also send players to the league. Use the available leagues guide when deciding which leagues should exchange players.

Schedule expansion, relocation, or realignment

During a Classic Mode career, open Office → League Settings and choose the league with the league selector.

Select Teams to plan an expansion, relocation, team removal, or division realignment.
Select Settings to change the league’s draft, schedule, playoff, contract, or eligibility rules.

The League Settings screen lists scheduled changes under the season in which they will take effect. Expansion teams appear under Expansion Draft, relocations show the original and replacement teams, and removed teams appear under Folding Teams. This list lets you verify the future change without re-entering the editor.

HLM League Settings screen with Teams and Settings controls and a future-season change summary — Scheduled league changes are grouped under the season when they will take effect.

If you manage more than one team after changing the league structure, review Commissioner Mode to choose which teams remain under your control.