Each team will keep several players from the previous year’s final roster. There is no limit to the number of years a team may keep a particular player.
2008: 9
2009: 10
2010: 10
2011: ?
At the end of a season, rosters will be frozen on the Thursday after the Reckless Bacon Championship Game, at 3 p.m. EST. As soon as this deadline has past, teams may declare their keepers for the next season until the Deadline to Declare Keepers.
The keeper deadline is typically about a week before the draft. If a team fails to submit the maximum number of keepers, keepers will be automatically selected from the team’s final roster from the previous year. First, the team’s keepers from the previous season will be selected. Then, if necessary, the highest-scoring players will be selected (based on cumulative stats from the previous season, regardless of how those stats were distributed between games). If multiple players were equally high-scoring, it will be the commissioner’s choice among those players.
Although draft picks may be traded, keepers may not. All teams will keep the same number of keepers at the trading deadline. Players may be traded prior to the Deadline to Declare Keepers. After this deadline has past, however, a team may make a trade in which one team gives more players than it receives. Thus, for example at the Deadline to Declare Keepers in 2010, all teams will have 10 players on their roster, but may then trade such that for example one team has only 9 players before the draft and another team has 11 players before the draft.
For more information on trades, see Transaction Rules.