Lasse Kukkonen / Group VI UFA

[Rick Deckard]

This thread is mainly a question to Irish Blues and kdb209.

Irish Blues, you say on your homepage under the player cap page that Lasse Kukkonen will be a Group VI UFA, if he doesn't play 70 NHL games this season, otherwise he is a RFA.

According to the CBA a player has to be 25 or older, needs three professional seasons under a SPC and played less than 80 NHL games to qualify for Group VI UFAs.

(c) Group 6 Free Agents.
(i) Means any Player who is age 25 or older who has completed three (3) or more professional seasons, whose SPC has expired and: (i) in the case of a Player other than a goaltender, has played less than 80 NHL Games, or (ii) in the case of a goaltender, has played less than 28 NHL Games (for the purpose of this definition, a goaltender must have played a minimum of thirty (30) minutes in an NHL Game to register a game played). For the purposes of the foregoing, the term professional season shall: (A) for a Player aged 18 or 19, mean any season in which such Player plays in eleven (11) or more Professional Games (including NHL Regular Season and Playoff Games, minor league regular season and playoff games, and games played in any European professional league, while under an SPC), and (B) for a Player aged 20 or older, mean any season in which such Player plays in one or more Professional Games (including NHL Regular Season and Playoff Games, minor league regular season and playoff games, and games played in any European professional league, while under an SPC).

As Kukkonen only played two seasons in North America (03-04, 06-07), why does he qualify for Group VI UFAs? Was he under contract with Chicago than he played for Oulu during the lockout?

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[Ted Hoffman]

You're right ... it probably stems back to when I was counting '04-05 as a year of pro service for determining Group VI free agency; however, in Exhibit 16 it states that it's not. Thus, Kukkonen should be RFA - I'll fix it later this week.

 

[Rick Deckard]

Thanks for the quick answer.

 

[kdb209]

You're right ... it probably stems back to when I was counting '04-05 as a year of pro service for determining Group VI free agency; however, in Exhibit 16 it states that it's not. Thus, Kukkonen should be RFA - I'll fix it later this week.

Yup. For some inexplicable reason, Group VI is the odd man out. For Group II, Group III, and Group V FA status, a player who earned a professional season / accrued season in '03-'04 also earned one during the lockout in '04-'05. Even for things like qualifying for a one way QO or meeting option year criteria for games played, players were credited the same number of games played during the lockout as they played in '03-'04.

 

[RangerBoy]

Yup. For some inexplicable reason, Group VI is the odd man out. For Group II, Group III, and Group V FA status, a player who earned a professional season / accrued season in '03-'04 also earned one during the lockout in '04-'05. Even for things like qualifying for a one way QO or meeting option year criteria for games played, players were credited the same number of games played during the lockout as they played in '03-'04.

Does that mean Thomas Pock won't be a group VI?

2003-04 New York Rangers NHL 6 2 2 4 0
2004-05 Hartford Wolf Pack AHL 50 1 5 6 55 6 0 1 1 8
2004-05 Charlotte Checkers ECHL 3 0 2 2 2
2005-06 Hartford Wolf Pack AHL 67 15 46 61 99 6 0 3 3 15
2005-06 New York Rangers NHL 8 1 1 2 4
2006-07 Hartford Wolf Pack* AHL 4 0 1 1 2
2006-07 New York Rangers NHL 35 1 2 3 12

49 NHL games played.He is 25 years old.

If 04-05 isn't counted,Pock is a group II.He played in Hartford/Charlotte during the lockout

 

[Ted Hoffman]

No, because Pock has a year of pro service from 2003-04. See 10.1(c)(i) - if you're under 20, it takes 10 or more games to count as a professional season; if you're 20 or older, it only takes 1 game to count. As defined above, "games" includes NHL regular-season, NHL playoff, minor league regular-season, minor league playoff, and any games in a European league while under an SPC.

So Pock has 3 pro seasons: 2003-04, 2005-06, and 2006-07. He does get credit for 6 games in 2004-05 as per Exhibit 16, but right now that still only gets him to 55 games. That's 3 pro seasons and fewer than 80 NHL games, making him a Group VI free agent.

 

[RangerBoy]

No, because Pock has a year of pro service from 2003-04. See 10.1(c)(i) - if you're under 20, it takes 10 or more games to count as a professional season; if you're 20 or older, it only takes 1 game to count. As defined above, "games" includes NHL regular-season, NHL playoff, minor league regular-season, minor league playoff, and any games in a European league while under an SPC.

So Pock has 3 pro seasons: 2003-04, 2005-06, and 2006-07. He does get credit for 6 games in 2004-05 as per Exhibit 16, but right now that still only gets him to 55 games. That's 3 pro seasons and fewer than 80 NHL games, making him a Group VI free agent.

This is exhibit 16?

For purposes of qualifying for Group 6 Unrestricted Free Agency: (1) the 2004-05 League Year will not be counted as a "professional season," regardless of the Player's status in the 2003-04 League Year, and (2) a Player shall be credited with an additional number of NHL Games played in an amount equal to the number of NHL Games he had played in 2003-04

 

[Ted Hoffman]

You snipped exactly what I was talking about. For the 2004-05 season, Pock gets credit for the 6 games he played in 2003-04 and the lockout year doesn't count as a year of pro service. The problem is, he was 22 in 2003-04 so once he played one (1) game in the NHL or AHL, it counted as a pro season for the purpose of Group VI.

 

[nyhiflyer]

Lasse Kukkonen - Games Played re: Group VI UFA

Won't Lasse Kukkonen also have played too many games (i.e., assuming no injury, he will have over 80 total NHL games by the end of this 06-07 season) to be a Group VI UFA?

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Hence the, "if he doesn't play 70 NHL games this season" disclaimer that I had before he hit 70 games. (Of course, we've clarified his status so it's all moot.)