Why Salaries Grow
Finding value should be rewarded. Keeping it should eventually cost you — but the increase depends on performance and salary.
A great contract should matter.
It just shouldn't stay great forever.
IceCore allows General Managers to find value through the draft, waivers, prospect development and long-term roster building.
Find a player before everybody else and you should benefit.
But if that player becomes one of the best assets in the league, his salary eventually has to follow.
That is why keeper salaries grow.
Two Paths
When a regular player is protected for another season, his salary follows a simple two-part system.
Every regular keeper receives the current Base Increase, which starts at +4 and may float between +3 and +5.
Some regular keepers may also receive an IceCore Value Bonus. The bonus is available to underpaid players based on their final Yahoo Fantasy Points ranking and the actual salary economy of their performance group. The bonus is one third of the positive gap between the player's salary and his group benchmark, rounded to the nearest whole Coin.
The Top 150 skaters are divided into groups of 10. The Top 10 goaltenders form one separate performance group. For each group, the highest and lowest salary are removed, and the average of the remaining salaries becomes that group's benchmark.
A player receives a Value Bonus when his previous salary is below the benchmark of his performance group. The bonus is calculated from the salary gap rather than being a fixed amount.
There are no fixed salary thresholds and no commissioner-assigned player values. The benchmark is created by the actual salaries paid by IceCore franchises, so the league's own market determines what represents an underpaid contract.
There is no separate fixed Value Bonus or arbitrary salary threshold. The total increase is the current Base Increase plus the calculated Value Bonus, so the size of the increase depends on the actual market gap.
The IceCore Value Board will be published on the league website at Value Board. During the season, the page may contain informative interim lists of players who would currently appear likely to qualify for a Value Bonus based on the information available at that time. These lists are informational only. Final Value Bonus recipients are determined after the completed regular season using the final Yahoo Fantasy point rankings and the final applicable salaries.
The Normal Keeper
Start with a useful established player carrying a 34-Coin salary.
He remains productive, but is not selected for the Value Bonus.
Nothing dramatic happens.
Every offseason the General Manager pays the current Base Increase to keep him. If the Base remains at +4, that means another 4 Coins.
Eventually the question changes.
Not:
Is he a good player?
But:
Is he still worth keeping at this salary?
That decision is the point.
The Breakout
Now imagine a player already carrying a salary of just 1 Coin.
He breaks out and finishes inside the Top 150. More importantly, his salary is below the average salary of his performance group after the highest and lowest salaries are removed.
The regular keeper receives the current Base Increase, which starts at +4 and may float between +3 and +5. The Value Bonus is then calculated as one third of the positive gap between his salary and the benchmark of his final performance group, rounded to a whole Coin.
The player was discovered early, and the franchise benefits from that value. But the increase is determined by the player's actual production relative to his salary — not by a commissioner-set salary threshold.
If his salary remains below the benchmark of his new performance group in another completed season, he may again qualify for a Value Bonus. The amount depends on the new gap, not on a fixed bonus.
The market decides.
The Waiver Discovery
Some of the best fantasy stories begin with a player nobody owned.
A player entering the IceCore economy without an established salary can be acquired from waivers at 0 Coins.
If he remains outside the selected Value Bonus group and you protect him:
If his completed season makes him eligible for the IceCore Value Bonus:
You found the player for nothing.
You still get the bargain — but exceptional value is eventually reflected in the contract.
The Dropped Contract
Releasing a player does not erase his IceCore salary.
Imagine a player carrying a 10-Coin salary.
His franchise drops him and another General Manager claims him.
He does not become a new 0-Coin asset.
His established salary follows his IceCore history.
If the new General Manager protects him after an ordinary season:
If his completed season also makes him eligible for a Value Bonus, the total increase is calculated from the benchmark gap rather than a fixed +9:
Changing franchises changes the owner.
It does not reset the contract.
The Expensive Star
Salary growth is not only about cheap players.
Imagine an established superstar already carrying a 94-Coin salary.
The Base Increase starts at 4 Coins and may float between +3 and +5 based on the league's salary economy. It does not automatically become larger just because the player has a high salary. The Value Bonus depends on the benchmark gap, so there are no arbitrary salary cliffs.
*These figures assume the Base Increase remains at +4 and no Value Bonus applies.
That player may still be worth every Coin. But under a 500-Coin Salary Cap, the rest of the franchise has to live with that decision too.
Keeping an elite player is easy. Building around an increasingly expensive elite player is the challenge.
If he becomes too expensive for you, you can put him back into the draft pool and try to get him back for less. But you risk another GM claiming him.
The Rookie
Then there are players who enter the system differently.
Every IceCore Entry Draft selection joins his franchise at:
There is no immediate salary escalation.
He was drafted at 1 Coin.
That is his salary.
If he eventually becomes a regular player and is protected as a Regular Keeper in a future offseason, the normal salary escalation rules begin.
Imagine that rookie becomes eligible for the IceCore Value Bonus before his next regular keeper decision.
The franchise receives the benefit of finding and developing the player.
Success eventually begins moving the contract.
The Prospect Who Stays on the Farm
Development Keepers work differently from Regular Keepers.
A Development Keeper retains the IceCore salary at which the player was acquired. If the player was acquired through Waivers, his salary is 0 Coins. If he was acquired through the Salary Cap Draft, his salary is the winning bid.
A Development Keeper receives a separate +1 Coin increase for each offseason in which he is protected again as a Development Keeper.
The development system is there to reward scouting and patience without creating an arbitrary salary progression before the player becomes part of the regular roster economy.
When that player eventually becomes a regular keeper, the normal salary escalation rules begin to matter.
Cheap Does Not Mean Permanent
This is the balance IceCore is trying to create.
Find a breakout early?
You deserve the advantage.
Develop a prospect for years?
You deserve the 1-Coin asset.
Discover somebody on waivers before the rest of the league?
You deserve the bargain.
But once those players become established pieces of the franchise, their contracts begin moving with them.
The system does not immediately erase good scouting by forcing every breakout player to market value.
And it does not allow elite production to remain almost free forever.
Find value early.
Benefit from it.
Then decide how long it is still worth keeping.
The Decision Returns Every Year
That is what salary escalation is really for.
Not inflation for the sake of inflation.
Not punishment for finding a great player.
It makes the same question return every offseason:
At his new salary, do I still want him?
Sometimes the answer will be obvious.
Sometimes the Base Increase will be enough to change it. Sometimes the additional Value Bonus will make the decision even harder.
Sometimes a 100-Coin superstar will still be worth every bit of the cap space he consumes.
And sometimes the hardest decision will be releasing a player you found years ago for almost nothing.
That is not the system taking your advantage away.
That is the advantage becoming a contract.
Great value should be rewarded.
Great value should also evolve.