The 2026 Prospect Ruling

ACT means a keeper slot needs refilling, a prospect is about to be lost, or the commissioners need a draft year from you. CLEAR means nothing is owed — four of those six clubs simply gained options.

All five were drafted in 2022, and a 2022 class keeps the age limit it was drafted under — forwards 21 and under. What moved is the measuring date: age is now read on opening day rather than on the last game of the season, and all five turn 22 inside that gap. Every one of them clears the games-played test comfortably. Nothing about their play changed and no deadline was missed — the calendar moved. All five were sitting on a keeper list, so each club now has a slot to refill.

Derek has one slot to refill, Dylan one, Matt three. Whether those clubs get to re-pick is a commissioner decision, listed in section ⑥.

Six more prospects leave too — but not because of the ruling

These six are over the games-played cap, which the ruling did not touch. They were going to the draft either way. Aaron, David, Dylan and Matt lose these on top of anything above.

A ROOKIE ONLY player is too old to sit in the farm and too valuable to waive: a rookie slot, or one of the eight, is the only way to keep him. All five clubs have both rookie slots already spent. Quintin has two of these and no room for either.

Only Albin Grewe changes an outcome: a 2022 class sends him to the draft, 2023 or 2024 keeps him. The other five are prospects whatever the year turns out to be — fill them for tidiness, not urgency.

Two lines on the Rules page contradicted this and were rewritten: C27 removed the age gate with no class qualifier, and C22 measured rookie age on the final regular season game.

· Does a re-declaration window open? Derek, Dylan and Matt each had a prospect age out on the new measuring date after their list was already in, so their keeper slots emptied through no decision of their own.

· How does an over-subscribed rookie slot resolve? Sixty-three prospects newly qualify for one and the cap is still two per club.

· Is a Golden re-designation allowed before the draft, when a correction forced it?

Rule set: DATA - Eligibility. Per-player verdict and the test applied: Prospects Master, columns K and L. Your own club's before-and-after: section ⑦ at the bottom of your Keeper Selection tab. Diff taken 29 Aug 2026 against the pre-ruling sheet.

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