Crazy_Ike
Cookin' with fire.
- Mar 29, 2005
- 9,081
- 0
As long as it's low enough. Doing so dumps a large amount of players into the UFA pool, and because supply is higher, the player's leverage in negotiations is lower and you actually get more reasonable contracts for the low and mid tier players. Someone like Holik would never get contracts like he did if there were twenty more guys just like him available.
It falls apart for the high tier players, unfortunately, since there can never be a high enough supply of those to go around. Like in baseball, the wide disparity in potential player skill along with so many positions (reducing supply) makes free agency salary inflation almost certain. The same force would not be nearly as strong in the NHL at low and mid end, but it would probably be there at the high end.
Still, the NHL shouldn't reject a low free agency age just on principle.
It falls apart for the high tier players, unfortunately, since there can never be a high enough supply of those to go around. Like in baseball, the wide disparity in potential player skill along with so many positions (reducing supply) makes free agency salary inflation almost certain. The same force would not be nearly as strong in the NHL at low and mid end, but it would probably be there at the high end.
Still, the NHL shouldn't reject a low free agency age just on principle.