commissioners' decision 2010/11-4: ahhl gm v. rule 3 ("the goon rule: no minors allowed")

This is a direct lift from Our recent email exchange with an AHHL GM:

My "mystery goon" has 161 PIMs from a combined major midget/junior year (part of the year in major midget, part in junior). I got the stats from the Wikipedia site, not the hockey db site. I would like a decision on whether or not he is a goon.

Your Commissioners have decided that no, this guy is not a goon. He is not a goon if his only qualification is 150 PIM or more from a combined major midget / junior year. As we discussed in separate emails, this particular decision has nothing to do with our decided lack of regard for your stated source (wikipedia).

If we are not allowing major midget, I think the rules need to be clarifying, specifying only which leagues (though "European" is probably vague enough -- if someone wants to bother to find stats from some obscure European league, more power to them).

It's not part of the decision but we can say that if -- if -- rule vagueness is the problem, it is all but certain that "probably vague enough" terms like "European" will not be part of the solution. We don't think the rule needs clarification, not right now, but we're looking at it and we'll certainly post this to the League for our mutual benefit.

As always, formal rule change proposals are most welcome and will be dealt with in the normal course.