NHL Must Lower UFA

[EricBowser]

The reported rumor of UFA dropping to 30 will not do it for the NHLPA, nor do I blame them.

Restrictions on salaries must be made up by a sharp change in the restrictive free agency system.

NHLPA should ask for and demand UFA after six years in the NHL, age no longer a factor. If a player is in the AHL for four of those six years, oh well, he had an NHL contract.

Click to read more...

 

[txomisc]

The reported rumor of UFA dropping to 30 will not do it for the NHLPA, nor do I blame them.

Restrictions on salaries must be made up by a sharp change in the restrictive free agency system.

NHLPA should ask for and demand UFA after six years in the NHL, age no longer a factor. If a player is in the AHL for four of those six years, oh well, he had an NHL contract.

Oh, you did not know that the whole cap thing is simply a ploy by owners? It's clear they want to lower UFA but don't want to look bad to fans. So they fight for a cap, lower UFA and then they can get all the superstars on the big market teams at earlier ages.

 

[vanlady]

Oh, you did not know that the whole cap thing is simply a ploy by owners? It's clear they want to lower UFA but don't want to look bad to fans. So they fight for a cap, lower UFA and then they can get all the superstars on the big market teams at earlier ages.

Does the phrase, "you can't have your cake and eat it too" mean anything to you. The NBA and NFL both took big hits on free agency, they NHL has to suck it up if they want what the big boys have.

 

[Captain Lou]

Oh, you did not know that the whole cap thing is simply a ploy by owners? It's clear they want to lower UFA but don't want to look bad to fans. So they fight for a cap, lower UFA and then they can get all the superstars on the big market teams at earlier ages.

I agree, I think the owners want a low UFA so the marquee players can end up in big markets. (And they will end up there).

 

[wazee]

I have said for years that the owners would trade a lower UFA age for a salary cap. The only variable in my mind was how much of the season they would waste getting to that point.

Will a lower UFA age mean the star players all go to the big market teams at a younger age? Only if those big market teams can fit the young star under the cap. And they won't be able to fit them all. I expect a salary cap, even with a lower UFA age, will result in the stars being more evenly spread through the league.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

UFA Age should be 24 then if theres a hard cap, its what they do in the NFL and everyone says they want this league more like the NFL so.

 

[Scoogs]

I don't know about 24... I would say the lowest they would go is 27.. This would be a very sweet plum in this proposal. Definately something that will compensate for the hard cap.

 

[ColinM]

I wouldn't expect all the stars to end up in the biggest markets, just the biggest of the big stars. Insteading of New York and Toronto bidding on the Bobby Holiks of the world they can bid on the Jarome Iginlas. Such a scenerio would be great for the NHL since it would help their sagging tv ratings.

 

[Wetcoaster]

Lowering the age of free agents has not been high on the NHLPA's wish list.

Goodenow subscribes to the Marvin Miller theory of free agency. With free agents not becoming unrestricted until such a late age, it limited the supply and drove up the demand. The result was a bidding war that drove up prices or, in this case, player salaries. It's simple economics. It's a lesson that Goodenow learned from the Major League Baseball Players' Association, which he greatly admires.

Marvin Miller, the founding Executive Director of the MLBPA, wrote in his book, A Whole Different Ball Game, that "It dawned on me, as a terrifying possibility, that the owners might suddenly wake up one day and realize that yearly free agency was the best possible thing for them; that is, if all the players became free agents at the end of each year, the market would be flooded, and salaries would be held down..... I realized it would be in the in the interests of players to stagger free agency so that every year there would be, say, three or four players available at a particular position and many teams to compete for their services."

This why you have heard virtually nothing from the NHLPA on lowering the age of free agents.

 

[Morbo]

I think it'll end up being 28 at the most, probably 27.

 

[Strazzobosco]

my god, if we keep dropping the UFA age, why bother with player rights if you get to keep them for 6 years max?? Why bother with a draft? Lets have all the players UFAs from the start! Lowering the UFA age is a concession; the NHL would love to have the teams keep the rights to their players indefinetly; UFAs inflate salaries by creating a bidding war over their services.

 

[Crazy Lunatic]

Lowering the age of free agents has not been high on the NHLPA's wish list.

Goodenow subscribes to the Marvin Miller theory of free agency. With free agents not becoming unrestricted until such a late age, it limited the supply and drove up the demand. The result was a bidding war that drove up prices or, in this case, player salaries. It's simple economics. It's a lesson that Goodenow learned from the Major League Baseball Players' Association, which he greatly admires.

Marvin Miller, the founding Executive Director of the MLBPA, wrote in his book, A Whole Different Ball Game, that "It dawned on me, as a terrifying possibility, that the owners might suddenly wake up one day and realize that yearly free agency was the best possible thing for them; that is, if all the players became free agents at the end of each year, the market would be flooded, and salaries would be held down..... I realized it would be in the in the interests of players to stagger free agency so that every year there would be, say, three or four players available at a particular position and many teams to compete for their services."

This why you have heard virtually nothing from the NHLPA on lowering the age of free agents.

While Goodenow might not want it, I imagine most of the players do. I've know a lower unrestricted free agency age would benefit the owners for quite a while, but I'm not sure its good for the game to have a completely different team every year. Drafting players becomes almost completely useless too. The lowest age I for free agency should be 27. I think that gives the perfect mix of flooding the market with free agents and allowing teams to keep their drafted players for at least 9 years.

 

[me2]

While Goodenow might not want it, I imagine most of the players do. I've know a lower unrestricted free agency age would benefit the owners for quite a while, but I'm not sure its good for the game to have a completely different team every year. Drafting players becomes almost completely useless too. The lowest age I for free agency should be 27. I think that gives the perfect mix of flooding the market with free agents and allowing teams to keep their drafted players for at least 9 years.

What's bad for the game would hurt the players' pockets in a system with linkage.

 

[I in the Eye]

This why you have heard virtually nothing from the NHLPA on lowering the age of free agents.

Interesting...

How about loosening the constraints on restricted free agents? Right now there is virtually zero restricted free agents moving teams each year... I assume that there would be demand for restricted free agents if the very high transaction cost wasn't there (5 first round draft picks) and if teams didn't have the right to match...

Leave UFAs where it is (30 or 31)... but open up the restricted free agent market (at age 25)... Don't allow teams to have a right to match, and make the cost a 1st round draft pick instead of 5 - allow the player to better control where he wants to play...

Loosen the constraints so that it is common place for a handful (or a baker's dozen) of restricted free agents to move teams each year, but not so loose that the restricted free agent market gets flooded...

That way, a player can have more control where he wants to play in the middle of his career (as a restricted free agent) and towards the end (as an ufa)...

 

[Wetcoaster]

While Goodenow might not want it, I imagine most of the players do. I've know a lower unrestricted free agency age would benefit the owners for quite a while, but I'm not sure its good for the game to have a completely different team every year. Drafting players becomes almost completely useless too. The lowest age I for free agency should be 27. I think that gives the perfect mix of flooding the market with free agents and allowing teams to keep their drafted players for at least 9 years.

I doubt it. Goodenow has been very clear with the players why lowering the free agency age is not all that important and in fact could be detrimental.

I do not recall any players pushing for a reduced age for free agency.

 

[John Flyers Fan]

As fans, I think we'd all prefer the UFA age to stay high. Any tools we can give teams to help slow roster-turnover is a positive IMO.

 

[djhn579]

UFA Age should be 24 then if theres a hard cap, its what they do in the NFL and everyone says they want this league more like the NFL so.

Like the NFL? You mean that you want them to be atleast 21 and have completed college before they can be drafted? (except in some limited cases...)

 

[Crazy Lunatic]

Like the NFL? You mean that you want them to be atleast 21 and have completed college before they can be drafted? (except in some limited cases...)

He must also was an end to guaranteed contracts, meaning that Holik could have been cut and sent home without earning another dime from the Rangers.

 

[McDonald19]

UFA Age should be 24 then if theres a hard cap, its what they do in the NFL and everyone says they want this league more like the NFL so.

NO!!

28 is as low as the NHL should consider going.

24-25 is the average breakthrough year for NHLers.

You want them to become UFA's just as they are having or about to have their breakout seasons.

small market teams will get screwed.

 

[djhn579]

So instead of that lets make the players slaves of the owners and so that does not cost them to much make the players pay the owners to play in the NHL. That should satisfy all you management suck ups

If I could make an average of $1.4M per year, and be able to walk away at any time I want, I would not have too much problem being a slave like those poor hockey players...

 

[McDonald19]

As fans, I think we'd all prefer the UFA age to stay high. Any tools we can give teams to help slow roster-turnover is a positive IMO.

Agreed.

 

[AH]

Lowering the age of free agents has not been high on the NHLPA's wish list.

Goodenow subscribes to the Marvin Miller theory of free agency. With free agents not becoming unrestricted until such a late age, it limited the supply and drove up the demand. The result was a bidding war that drove up prices or, in this case, player salaries. It's simple economics. It's a lesson that Goodenow learned from the Major League Baseball Players' Association, which he greatly admires.

Marvin Miller, the founding Executive Director of the MLBPA, wrote in his book, A Whole Different Ball Game, that "It dawned on me, as a terrifying possibility, that the owners might suddenly wake up one day and realize that yearly free agency was the best possible thing for them; that is, if all the players became free agents at the end of each year, the market would be flooded, and salaries would be held down..... I realized it would be in the in the interests of players to stagger free agency so that every year there would be, say, three or four players available at a particular position and many teams to compete for their services."

This why you have heard virtually nothing from the NHLPA on lowering the age of free agents.

Which is why I have always maintained that a lower free agency age combined with a hard cap is bad news for the players, real bad. Not having an arbitrator decide on player's incomes for an additional year or two will drive the market way down automatically. This way, teams will be forced to make a decision on a player's value earlier on in their career, instead of just feeding them the same qualifying offeres just to hold on to an asset.

 

[McDonald19]

So instead of that lets make the players slaves of the owners and so that does not cost them to much make the players pay the owners to play in the NHL. That should satisfy all you management suck ups

oh god...

 

[Crazy Lunatic]

What's bad for the game would hurt the players' pockets in a system with linkage.

Yeah, I know. It's killed the NFL, hardly anybody pays attention to that league. Is it even still in business? :lol

 

[acr*]

How would that help competitive balance?

How is Columbus going to compete when while they're still building their way up, Rick Nash becomes an FA?

This just doesn't fit in line with what the NHL wants, which is complete parity