Free Agency Rules

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Dr.Sens(e)

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Gentleman,

Below are the rules for free agency. This list of free agents will also be sound soon off the link on the home page under the “Trade Center†navigation bar through the link to ‘2003-2004 Free Agents’.

Please read these rules very carefully. We will simply not listen to any complaints from General Managers who fail to follow these simple, but fundamental rules, and keep in mind that submitting in the wrong format will result in your offer being ignored without exception. It’s a lot of work to go through these offers, and following the requested format reduces the workload considerably.

The Rules:

I. Submission:
All offers must be sent to [email protected] with a subject of "HFNHL Contract Offers: Team Name". If you send an email with a different subject it will not be sorted properly and may be lost. NOTE – This is a new e-mail address.

II. All offers should be in the following prioritized bid format:
Rank Player Name Prev Team: Base Salary x No. Years + Bonus

For Example:
1. Wayne Gretzky EDM: $10,000,000 x 4 years + $2,000,000 bonus
1. Gordie Howe DET: $10,000,000 x 4 years + $2,000,000 bonus
2. Guy Lafleur MON: $8,000,000 x 4 years + $1,000,000 bonus

1. Bobby Orr BOS: $10,000,000 x 4 years + $2,000,000 bonus
2. Denis Potvin DET: $5,000,000 x 4 years + $1,000,000 bonus

1. Brian Trottier SJ: $1,500,000 x 2 years + $500,000 bonus
2. Bob Gainey TOR: $1,250,000 x 4 years + $350,000 bonus

In the above instance, you would sign Gretzky, Howe, Orr and Trottier if your bids were the best on all four. Lafleur would only be signed if you failed to land Gretzky or Howe, while Potvin would only be signed if you failed to land Orr and Gainey only if you failed to sign Ricci.

Basically, since all negotiation happens at once, this allows you to avoid getting stuck with more players than you wanted. You can have as many groupings as you want, and list third and fourth etc choices as well.

There may be instances where your second choice is ready to sign with you right away, but you are still in another round of bidding for your higher selection. For instance, Gainey may be willing to sign that deal, but you are still in the final bidding for Trottier. In this case, the General Manager would be contacted and given the option to pull the trigger on Gainey right away, and/or remain in the bidding for Trottier (which would result in re-opening the bidding for Gainey if the General Manager held off signing the deal with Gainey immediately).

And finally, the only bonus allowed is a signing bonus. There are no performance bonuses.

III. Restricted Free Agents compensation is as follows:

OFFER -- COMPENSATION
• $727,502 or below -- No compensation
• $727,502 - $1,000,315 -- Third-round choice
• $1,000,315 - $1,182,191 -- Second-round choice
• $1,182,191 - $1,455,005 -- First-round choice
• $1,455,005 - $1,818,754 -- First and third-round choices
• $1,818,754 - $2,182,505 -- First and second-round choices
• $2,182,505 - $2,546,256 -- Two first-round choices
• $2,546,256 - $3,091,882 -- Two first-round and one second-round choice
• Over $3,091,882 -- Three first-round choices
• Each additional $1,818,754 -- One additional first-round choice to a maximum of five

By offer this refers to the salary, plus the yearly average of the signing bonus. Compensation must be paid in consecutive years beginning with the 2005 draft. DO NOT BID ON AN RFA IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE APPROPRIATE COMPENSATION. If you do, you risk being fined. Also, you can only bid on as many RFAs as you have compensation to pay. You cannot bid on 5 players, and then decide which ones you want to keep later.

IV. Bidding Deadline:
Bids are due by Midnight on the 10th of July and are to be sent no earlier than Midnight on the 4th of July.

V. Evaluation of Bids:
Bids will be reviewed based on formulas which weigh the differing values of signing bonus, total salary (base * years), ice time, line-mates, contender status, player loyalty, etc. Compensation will be the main factor however.
- If one bid is clearly superior (rating at least 20% higher than the next highest bid), the player will sign immediately with that team**
- If one bid is received, the player will sign with that team**
- If three or more bids are received and none sign the player in the first round, there will be a second round (and ONLY one more round) of bidding, with the top three bidding teams participating, and going through the same review process. At the end of this second round, the top bid will sign the player**

**IMPORTANT NOTE - if the best offers received for a player are obviously well below legitimate market value (for example, signing LW Markus Nasland to a $2 million contract), the league office retains the right to have the player hold out and wait to receive a better offer at another point in the season. This holds true for RFAs as well - a team presenting an offer sheet to another team's RFA does not automatically sign the player in question - they have to feel the offer is a good one first, then the team holding the rights has the choice to match or not. So please keep in mind the qualifying offer a player must have already turned down when considering making an offer (i.e. it should be significantly better than a 10% raise).

Teams with Restricted Free Agents: those given Qualifying Offers who have not yet signed with their current teams will have the option to match the offer in question or receive compensation (either negotiated or draft picks as per above).

VI. All offers are final.
SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW BEFORE YOU MAKE AN OFFER IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS.

VII. Eligibility:
Teams can bid on any of the players listed, plus eligible players not represented in the HFNHL (overage juniors over 20, graduated college players, etc., but NOT un-drafted Europeans or players in college).

Keep in mind the number of contract years for younger player is set in stone. For prospects and rookies under 25 years old - who are also subject to the current rookie salary cap of $1,185,000 –they are limited to following contract lengths:
- 3 years if they are between the ages of 18-21,
- 2 years if they sign at age 22 or 23,
- one year if they their first contract at age 24

Failure to adhere to the proper term for these rookies will result in the offer not being considered.

VIII. Logistics & Privacy:
Given the allegations that St. Louis Blues General Manager Nick Quain still has some form of involvement in player contracts, he will be submitting his offers to Claudio Mannarino by midnight on Sunday July 4th, so it's important for you conspiracy theorists to adhere to section IV so there are no further concerns over him having the benefit of seeing your offer in advance of submitting his (to potentially the same player). Mr. Quain will obviously not be involved in the evaluation of the offers for players he will be bidding on (another member of the admin team will get involved as a back-up).

Regards,

Reggie Swingstein
HFNHL Player Agent
 

kasper11

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1 more question....
For RFA compensation, can I bid on 2 RFAs that each get a first and second round pick as compensation, and team a the first this year and the second next, and team b the second this year and the first next?

Also, Matt, please make this sticky. Have a feeling people will need the quick reference.
 

Dr.Sens(e)

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kasper11 said:
1 more question....
For RFA compensation, can I bid on 2 RFAs that each get a first and second round pick as compensation, and team a the first this year and the second next, and team b the second this year and the first next?

Also, Matt, please make this sticky. Have a feeling people will need the quick reference.

Hi Rich. Good question, and I suppose this could be somewhat open to discussion, but at first glance, I don't think that is going to work. The main reason being is the team doesn't get a 1st next season, which shouldn't really be up to the team who is making the offer sheet to dictate. It should be a standard compensation, based on the scale.

That said, if you wanted to create a prioritized offer sheet ala UFA's for RFA's, that is obviously allowed.
 

MatthewFlames

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Jul 21, 2003
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RE: Negotiating with our own RFA's.

I am assuming that we can continue to negotiate with our own RESTRICTED free agents at this time or do we have to wait until July 4 to make our next round of offers?
 

Dr.Sens(e)

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mashcanada said:
RE: Negotiating with our own RFA's.

I am assuming that we can continue to negotiate with our own RESTRICTED free agents at this time or do we have to wait until July 4 to make our next round of offers?

Bidding is now closed. It will have to wait until July 4th Matt.
 

BlueAndWhite

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RE: RFA signings

Let's say I bid on a player and the compensation is TWO first round picks. What happens if the team has two first rounds picks in 2005 and one in 2006 as well ?

Is the compensation going to be the two firsts in 2005 ? Or one from 2005 and one from 2006 ?

As well, when a person has multiple picks in any round, I would assume the "highest" probable pick would be compensation - but how is this probability calculated ?

As well, when we create our weighted lists, can we have a mix of a RFA and UFA ?

i.e. I want to bid on a RFA and my backup plan is a UFA

Thanks
 
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Dr.Sens(e)

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One of the other Admin Team members might correct me on this, but I believe we will default to your team's original first round pick first, and if that one is no longer with the team, then any other first round picks would go in their place. Obviously if you don't have a pick in the required round, your offer wouldn't qualify as legit. Unless you hear otherwise on this discussion string, this is how we will handle it.

And I don't think there is a problem with a prioritized list of both UFA's and RFA's.
 

BlueAndWhite

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Thanks for the reply Nick, but I'm still unsure on a particular scenario..

Let's say I have 5 first round picks in 2005 (accquired through trades, hence only one is my actual first round pick), and I sign an RFA to the maximum compensation. Will the team I sign the RFA from, get the 5 first round picks in 2005 OR will, they get my five successive first round picks in 2005,2006,2007,2008,2009 ?

Thanks..
 

Ohio Jones

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Feb 28, 2002
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BlueAndWhite said:
Thanks for the reply Nick, but I'm still unsure on a particular scenario..

Let's say I have 5 first round picks in 2005 (accquired through trades, hence only one is my actual first round pick), and I sign an RFA to the maximum compensation. Will the team I sign the RFA from, get the 5 first round picks in 2005 OR will, they get my five successive first round picks in 2005,2006,2007,2008,2009 ?

Thanks..

It defaults to one pick a year, but you and the receiving GM can negotiate different terms if you want, say 3/1/1 or whatever.
 

Dr.Sens(e)

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Chuzwazza said:
Ok...so just to confirm. You give up your own pick first....regardless of whether the other 1st rounders you have are likely to be higher?

Only time highest comes into issue is in multiple RFA offers, or if you don;t have your own pick in the appropriate round....correct?

That's correct Josh. Your first RFA signing compensation will default to your team's original picks, regardless of whether you have other picks in the same round and which picks may be projected to be higher - after all, we never really know which pick will be higher until the season is played and the draft order established.

Reggie smells another offer sheet coming...
 
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