Value of: Bridge Deal RFAs

[Phaneufasaurus Rex]

What protection do the teams signing bridge deals have?

Can the player not just accept the qualifying offer on the fourth year and just walk after chasing UFA money?

Click to read more...

 

[StreetHawk]

Team has to decide whether to give the QO to retain rfa players rights.
If they opt not to give the QO the player becomes a ufa.
Team does have option to take the player to arbitration to drop the QO down as much as 15%. But in this case the player would have not lived up to the contract. So, not a great outcome.

Player upon receiving the QO can either sign it or they can still file for arbitration to get more.

 

[CupsOverCash]

What protection do the teams signing bridge deals have?

Can the player not just accept the qualifying offer on the fourth year and just walk after chasing UFA money?

If they choose to yes. Most usually only do that if they dont like where they are playing or just want to test UFA. Usually though its smarter for the player to negotiate a deal before the 1 year signing the QO. Its risky to take a 1 year deal unless you feel like you have something to prove and dont mind risk that goes with 1 year deal. Players for the Lightning usually sign a bridge deal and then sign the year before the QO even can take place.

 

[Menzinger]

What protection do the teams signing bridge deals have?

Can the player not just accept the qualifying offer on the fourth year and just walk after chasing UFA money?

Yes.

In fact they can get even more money than the qualifying number by taking the team to formal arbitration

 

[Dekes For Days]

The teams have zero protection. It's just pushing the problem down the road and hoping that the player won't want to leave/get paid.

The off-season 3 years from now is going to be interesting.

 

[Beyonder91]

Yep, people are laughing at the Leafs but their guys are all locked up for at least 5 years.
These bridge players can comfortably walk after 4 years and play the field with the way these contracts are structured.
This is going to come back and bite a lot of teams in the ass.

 

[ToDavid]

What protection do the teams signing bridge deals have?

Can the player not just accept the qualifying offer on the fourth year and just walk after chasing UFA money?

They can but how often does this happen? You're talking about a league where the vast majority of players re-sign with their team.

Players don't like one-year contracts. This is basically built in negotiating leverage but I would not be surprised if all of them are locked up to long-term deals in three years time.

 

[AveryStar4Eva]

These teams are going to attempt to lock up the players long term as soon as they are able to negotiate. Teams still hold a slight advantage because they are able to offer a 8th year.

 

[StreetHawk]

Yep, people are laughing at the Leafs but their guys are all locked up for at least 5 years.
These bridge players can comfortably walk after 4 years and play the field with the way these contracts are structured.
This is going to come back and bite a lot of teams in the ass.

Like Trouba, if they want to hit ufa the threat of just going to arbitration is there. Plus they can get ufa prices for that final year.

Could also be kucherov and sign with the team as well.

So completely up to the player which option they wish to pursue.

 

[Beyonder91]

They can but how often does this happen? You're talking about a league where the vast majority of players re-sign with their team.

Players don't like one-year contracts. This is basically built in negotiating leverage but I would not be surprised if all of them are locked up to long-term deals in three years time.

It seems the tide is changing in the league with young players recognizing the power they have and what they should be getting paid for their prime years.
This will only get worse... Not better.

 

[Curufinwe]

Yes.

In fact they can get even more money than the qualifying number by taking the team to formal arbitration

If they regress, the team could take them to arbitration and get a deal for less than the QO.

 

[Beyonder91]

Like Trouba, if they want to hit ufa the threat of just going to arbitration is there. Plus they can get ufa prices for that final year.

Could also be kucherov and sign with the team as well.

So completely up to the player which option they wish to pursue.

Do you think Kucherov would still do the same thing if he had seen these latest RFA deals? The market has changed.

 

[Beyonder91]

These teams are going to attempt to lock up the players long term as soon as they are able to negotiate. Teams still hold a slight advantage because they are able to offer a 8th year.

This is true but the teams are going to have to pay biiiiig dollars because the player will have all the leverage. Assuming these guys are still playing to their potential of course...

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

Yep, people are laughing at the Leafs but their guys are all locked up for at least 5 years.
These bridge players can comfortably walk after 4 years and play the field with the way these contracts are structured.
This is going to come back and bite a lot of teams in the ass.

Praise be to the Leafs for paying an insane premium to get 1 UFA year of Matthews and Nylander and 2 UFA years from Marner!

It seems the tide is changing in the league with young players recognizing the power they have and what they should be getting paid for their prime years.
This will only get worse... Not better.

Lol at anybody still saying this after what this year’s RFA crop signed for.

 

[Beyonder91]

Praise be to the Leafs for paying an insane premium to get 1 UFA year of Matthews and Nylander and 2 UFA years from Nylander!

Lol at anybody still saying this after what this year’s RFA crop signed for.

You mean the highest bridge deals ever?

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

You mean the highest bridge deals ever?

They are only “the highest bridge deals ever” in the same sense that Toronto gave Matthews “the highest 5 year deals ever”. By looking at AAV and not adjusting for inflation.

In reality guys took significantly lesser in terms of cap hit percentage than guys like Eric Staal and Dany Heatley did on their 3-year bridges back in the day, and their cap hits relative to their peers around the league are also lower than Staal and Heatley’s were.

Jeff Carter also took more than Point and Tkachuk on a 3-year bridge.

 

[Beyonder91]

They are only “the highest bridge deals ever” in the same sense that Toronto gave Matthews “the highest 5 year deals ever”. By looking at AAV and not adjusting for inflation.

In reality guys took significantly lesser in terms of cap hit percentage than guys like Eric Staal and Dany Heatley did on their 3-year bridges back in the day, and their cap hits relative to their peers around the league are also lower than Staal and Heatley’s were.

I don't care about what happened 10+ years ago. Completely different league then.

 

[DFF]

Yep, people are laughing at the Leafs but their guys are all locked up for at least 5 years.
These bridge players can comfortably walk after 4 years and play the field with the way these contracts are structured.
This is going to come back and bite a lot of teams in the ass.

They are laughing because they have 3 yrs of cap space to build a winning team..

 

[Beyonder91]

They are laughing because they have 3 yrs of cap space to build a winning team..

And the leafs have 5 years...

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

I don't care about what happened 10+ years ago. Completely different league then.

So shouldn’t you start saying “the highest bridge deal ever among players who signed in the past 10 years”? Because right now you are just completely false. And the logic that you’re using here has a lot of holes in it.

 

[DFF]

And the leafs have 5 years...

With no to little cap space to improve...

 

[Beyonder91]

So shouldn’t you start saying “the highest bridge deal ever among players who signed in the past 10 years”? Because right now you are just completely false. And the logic that you’re using here has a lot of holes in it.

You haven't even addressed my main point in this thread. Instead you're nitpicking one small part of it... And using such great argument as "lol"

 

[Beyonder91]

With no to little cap space to improve...

Hard to put together a better team than they have now.

 

[kabidjan18]

They are only “the highest bridge deals ever” in the same sense that Toronto gave Matthews “the highest 5 year deals ever”. By looking at AAV and not adjusting for inflation.

In reality guys took significantly lesser in terms of cap hit percentage than guys like Eric Staal and Dany Heatley did on their 3-year bridges back in the day, and their cap hits relative to their peers around the league are also lower than Staal and Heatley’s were.

Jeff Carter also took more than Point and Tkachuk on a 3-year bridge.

4.5 out of 50 million is about the same as 7 out of 80. About .09. The significantly modifier could probably be dropped.

 

[Dekes For Days]

They can but how often does this happen? You're talking about a league where the vast majority of players re-sign with their team.

I also believe that most will re-sign when the time comes, but this is uncharted waters. Bridge deals with star-level qualifying offers don't happen all that often.