Brock
Registered User
Please read these rules very carefully. There are a few new things, so be sure to read everything through.
Once again, we will 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.
LIST of Free Agents:
You can find all UFA's and RFA's on the website (make sure you're looking at this year and not next year)
HFNHL - Free Agents
You can also bid on any bought out players or released prospects which you can find here:
HFNHL: Buyouts and Prospect releases
As for College, European, and CHL Free agents, you're on your own.
I. Submission:
All offers must be sent to [email protected]. I will confirm receipt of your offers as well as update the bottom of this post. The subject of the e-mail should be "HFNHL Contract Offers: Team Name". If you send an email with a different subject it will not be sorted properly and may be lost.
Your offers can be sent via Excel, word doc, and other formats.
*NOTE* GMs do not have the ability to leave special instructions when submitting their offers. You will not be able to request that you spend x amount of money on x players at x positions. If you make offers on 8 different groups of players you should be prepared to sign up to 8 players. Please keep your cap situation and contract limit in mind when sending in your offers.
II. Format:
All offers should be in the following prioritized bid format:
Rank Player Name Base Salary x No. Years
For Example:
Rank Player Name Salary ($) Term (yrs)
1 Wayne Gretzky $7,500,000 4
1 Gordie Howe $7,000,000 4
2 Guy Lafleur $6,000,000 4
1 Bobby Orr $7,000,000 4
2 Denis Potvin $5,000,000 4
1 Brian Trottier $1,500,000 2
2 Bob Gainey $1,250,000 4
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 Howe, while Potvin would only be signed if you failed to land Orr and Gainey only if you failed to sign Trottier.
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 further choices as well. Priority lists are capped at 4 players. But keep in mind in the above scenario with four ‘#1’ priority offers, these bids could result in the team landing all four players.
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, 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).
This year, the maximum salary in the HFNHL is $12.5 million per year (matching the highest NHL cap hit). Minimum is now $750,000 (new this year).
There are no signing bonuses and no performance bonuses.
All “unknown”, or so called “Undrafted Free Agents” require a link to PROVE that they are eligible. Links include transactions notes from official sources, articles, and team sources. If you do not include a link then your offer will be INVALID. There are no exemptions from this rule EVEN if the player is bid on by 20 other teams who did provide links.
*NOTE* The Max salary for rookies this year is $925,000
NEW THIS YEAR - You will be capped at 40 total offers per round in free agency. So make your offers accordingly and strategically.
This includes all UDFA and all prioritized offers.
EXAMPLE:
If Team A offers to 15 UDFA players, than they would only be able to offer on 6 groups of 4 roster players.
If Team A offers to Zero UDFA players, than they would be able to offer on 10 groups of 4 roster players.
III. Restricted Free Agents:
Offer sheet compensation has been set for 2020/21:
Compensation must be paid in consecutive years beginning with the 2022 draft. DO NOT BID ON A RFA IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE APPROPRIATE COMPENSATION ALREADY LISTED ON YOUR PROSPECTS PAGE If you do, you risk being fined - a minimum penalty of $500,000 will apply. Also, you can only bid on as many RFAs as you have compensation to pay and the compensation must be your own draft selection. You cannot bid on 5 players, and then decide which ones you want to keep later, although you can prioritize offer sheets as per the description above.
IV. Bidding Deadline:
Bids are due by 11:59 PM EST on Friday, August 6. All bids should be sent to [email protected]
V. Evaluation of Bids:
Annual compensation will be the main factor, followed by total salary, followed by player loyalty (aka a random lottery). A few other notes:
- 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, unless significantly under market value**
- If two 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 bidding teams (within that 20% range) participating, and going through the same review process. The top bid submitted thus far will also be revealed. At the end of this second round, the top bid will sign the player**
- *NOTE* If an undrafted player falls under the rookie salary cap and receives multiple max offers only teams that offered the max will be involved in a lottery for that player, lesser offers within 10% will no longer be included. Players who receive multiple offers but do not receive the max will continue to a second round of bidding if they are within 10% of each other.
- *NOTE* If required, lotteries will be held after the first wave of offers and again at the end of Free Agency. Details of the lottery will follow.
**NOTE** - if the best offers received for a player are obviously well below legitimate market value (for example, signing Eric Staal to a $1 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.
***NOTE*** - teams will have to offer at least $2 million (so a guaranteed/one way contract) in order to get into the 2nd round of bidding (inside the 80%) for a player...if said player has at least one offer above $2 million. *e.g. If Player A receives two contract offers. One at $1,999,99 and one at $2,000,000, he will sign the $2,000,000 offer immediately and not go to a second round of bidding.
Teams with Restricted Free Agents: those teams whose players sign offer sheets will have the option to match the offer in question or receive compensation (either negotiated or draft picks as per above). Regardless, any player signing an offer sheet will automatically have a no-trade clause for the next year.
*NOTE* - RFA offers from another team (an offer sheet) need to be at least 75% of said players NHL contract (or the ask of the HFNHL Agents) in order to be accepted on a one or two year deal. In order to be accepted for a long term deal, said offer sheet needs to be at 100% of their NHL deal (or the ask of HFNHL Agents)
**NOTE** - teams who are looking to resign their own RFA, can now only match an NHL deal. If no offer sheet is signed and he is not resigned to an NHL match, the player will head to our new salary arbitration process.
For all the information about this arbitration process, go here: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2106017
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.
A. North American Free Agency Eligibility
(i) The players birth date is in 2001 or earlier (20+ years of age)
(ii) Player is not playing in the NCAA (graduated or left early to sign a pro contract - link required)
(iii) This applies to CHL and NCAA free agents. USHL players (or other Tier 2 leagues) who have a college commitment can not be signed until they sign a pro contract.
B. European Free Agency Eligibility
(i) The players birth date is in 1999 or earlier (the player must be a minimum 22 years of age at signing)
(ii) The player is currently in a North American league or has signed a contract to play in the NHL for the 2021/22 season (LINKS REQUIRED). Any European player who has signed an NHL contract and is eligible to be signed (by age), can be signed, with assumption that they intend to play in NA at some point over the coming year. Link is required.
Post-Free Agency rules: Any Europeans who have not signed to play in the NHL, but subsequently signs an NHL deal after our submission deadline will be eligible for free agent offers from any HFNHL team with the top offers evaluated a minimum of 48 hours past the date of the official signing, similar to past protocol.
European born players fall under North American rules if they meet one of the following conditions:
(i) NHL drafted players - They played in a North American league in the season prior to being drafted into the NHL. Having played in NA after being drafted is irrelevant.
(ii) NHL un-drafted players - They played in a North American league in the year just prior to them turning 20. In all other cases the European FA rules apply.
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 rookie salary cap of $925,000 –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,
• 1 year if they their first contract at age 24
*NOTE*
a Player who at the time he was drafted was playing for a team outside North America or who meets the qualifications set forth in Article 8.4(a)(v) (a "European Player") who signs his first SPC at ages 25-27 shall be subject to the Entry Level System for one (1) year. A European Player who signs his first SPC at age 28 or older is not subject to the Entry Level System under any circumstances.
This means that European players aged 25-27 are also bound by the ELC max at a 1 year deal. Euros aged 28 and older are not.
For the purpose of these players a cutoff date of September 15th will be used for birthdates. Anyone born prior to September 15th, 1995 would be considered 25 years old and not bound by the rookie salary cap and contract term limitations. Anyone born September 15th and after would be considered 24 (or younger) and will need to be paid within the rookie salary cap and contract term limitations (or European aged 25-27, see above).
Failure to adhere to the proper term for these rookies will result in the offer not being considered.
VIII. Signed Player Playing in Europe
If a free agent is signed this off-season that ultimately commits to playing in Europe before October 1, the player will be removed from your roster and placed on your prospect list. Players who have already committed to playing in Europe next season are not eligible for free agency, with fines applied to those offers where the player in not eligible (do your research!).
IX. Salary Cap
The cap is set at $81.5 million.
The floor is set at $60.2 million.
REMEMBER, players making 2 million and over will be placed on one way contracts and will make that full amount in the minors.
*NOTE* (a reminder)
All players aged 25+ (so 25 and older) will be subject to waivers should they be sent down to the minors (regardless of salary or number of HFNHL games played), EXCEPT those recently signed UDFA's without ratings. The recently signed UDFA's who are 25+, will be given a one year exemption from waivers (so that they may accumulate ratings before having to be exposed to waivers). Players with salaries $2 million and over will still make full salary in the minors (with $1,999,999) remaining the cutoff there (so no change in that regard).
X. Contract Limit
We have instituted a 50 contract limit for all HFNHL teams. This is a hard cap. So make your offers wisely. Should any contract signed put you over the 50 mark this offseason, said contract will become null and void. At 50 contracts, teams will be removed from all UDFA lotteries.
XI. UDFA “LIVE” DRAFT
At a date yet to be determined, there may be a live internet broadcast of a lottery if there are multiple maximum rookie offers on any so-called “Undrafted Free Agents.”
Happy Hunting!
Once again, we will 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.
LIST of Free Agents:
You can find all UFA's and RFA's on the website (make sure you're looking at this year and not next year)
HFNHL - Free Agents
You can also bid on any bought out players or released prospects which you can find here:
HFNHL: Buyouts and Prospect releases
As for College, European, and CHL Free agents, you're on your own.
I. Submission:
All offers must be sent to [email protected]. I will confirm receipt of your offers as well as update the bottom of this post. The subject of the e-mail should be "HFNHL Contract Offers: Team Name". If you send an email with a different subject it will not be sorted properly and may be lost.
Your offers can be sent via Excel, word doc, and other formats.
*NOTE* GMs do not have the ability to leave special instructions when submitting their offers. You will not be able to request that you spend x amount of money on x players at x positions. If you make offers on 8 different groups of players you should be prepared to sign up to 8 players. Please keep your cap situation and contract limit in mind when sending in your offers.
II. Format:
All offers should be in the following prioritized bid format:
Rank Player Name Base Salary x No. Years
For Example:
Rank Player Name Salary ($) Term (yrs)
1 Wayne Gretzky $7,500,000 4
1 Gordie Howe $7,000,000 4
2 Guy Lafleur $6,000,000 4
1 Bobby Orr $7,000,000 4
2 Denis Potvin $5,000,000 4
1 Brian Trottier $1,500,000 2
2 Bob Gainey $1,250,000 4
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 Howe, while Potvin would only be signed if you failed to land Orr and Gainey only if you failed to sign Trottier.
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 further choices as well. Priority lists are capped at 4 players. But keep in mind in the above scenario with four ‘#1’ priority offers, these bids could result in the team landing all four players.
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, 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).
This year, the maximum salary in the HFNHL is $12.5 million per year (matching the highest NHL cap hit). Minimum is now $750,000 (new this year).
There are no signing bonuses and no performance bonuses.
All “unknown”, or so called “Undrafted Free Agents” require a link to PROVE that they are eligible. Links include transactions notes from official sources, articles, and team sources. If you do not include a link then your offer will be INVALID. There are no exemptions from this rule EVEN if the player is bid on by 20 other teams who did provide links.
*NOTE* The Max salary for rookies this year is $925,000
NEW THIS YEAR - You will be capped at 40 total offers per round in free agency. So make your offers accordingly and strategically.
This includes all UDFA and all prioritized offers.
EXAMPLE:
If Team A offers to 15 UDFA players, than they would only be able to offer on 6 groups of 4 roster players.
If Team A offers to Zero UDFA players, than they would be able to offer on 10 groups of 4 roster players.
III. Restricted Free Agents:
Offer sheet compensation has been set for 2020/21:
- For AAVs below $1.35654 million, there is no compensation
- From that number to $2.055364, the price is one 3rd-round pick
- From that number to $4.110732, its one 2nd
- From that number $6.166096 its one 1st and one 3rd
- From that number to $8.221463, it’s one 1st, one 2nd and one 3rd
- From that number to $10.276829, it is two 1sts, one 2nd and one 3rd
- Over that number, it is four 1sts
Compensation must be paid in consecutive years beginning with the 2022 draft. DO NOT BID ON A RFA IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE APPROPRIATE COMPENSATION ALREADY LISTED ON YOUR PROSPECTS PAGE If you do, you risk being fined - a minimum penalty of $500,000 will apply. Also, you can only bid on as many RFAs as you have compensation to pay and the compensation must be your own draft selection. You cannot bid on 5 players, and then decide which ones you want to keep later, although you can prioritize offer sheets as per the description above.
IV. Bidding Deadline:
Bids are due by 11:59 PM EST on Friday, August 6. All bids should be sent to [email protected]
V. Evaluation of Bids:
Annual compensation will be the main factor, followed by total salary, followed by player loyalty (aka a random lottery). A few other notes:
- 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, unless significantly under market value**
- If two 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 bidding teams (within that 20% range) participating, and going through the same review process. The top bid submitted thus far will also be revealed. At the end of this second round, the top bid will sign the player**
- *NOTE* If an undrafted player falls under the rookie salary cap and receives multiple max offers only teams that offered the max will be involved in a lottery for that player, lesser offers within 10% will no longer be included. Players who receive multiple offers but do not receive the max will continue to a second round of bidding if they are within 10% of each other.
- *NOTE* If required, lotteries will be held after the first wave of offers and again at the end of Free Agency. Details of the lottery will follow.
**NOTE** - if the best offers received for a player are obviously well below legitimate market value (for example, signing Eric Staal to a $1 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.
***NOTE*** - teams will have to offer at least $2 million (so a guaranteed/one way contract) in order to get into the 2nd round of bidding (inside the 80%) for a player...if said player has at least one offer above $2 million. *e.g. If Player A receives two contract offers. One at $1,999,99 and one at $2,000,000, he will sign the $2,000,000 offer immediately and not go to a second round of bidding.
Teams with Restricted Free Agents: those teams whose players sign offer sheets will have the option to match the offer in question or receive compensation (either negotiated or draft picks as per above). Regardless, any player signing an offer sheet will automatically have a no-trade clause for the next year.
*NOTE* - RFA offers from another team (an offer sheet) need to be at least 75% of said players NHL contract (or the ask of the HFNHL Agents) in order to be accepted on a one or two year deal. In order to be accepted for a long term deal, said offer sheet needs to be at 100% of their NHL deal (or the ask of HFNHL Agents)
**NOTE** - teams who are looking to resign their own RFA, can now only match an NHL deal. If no offer sheet is signed and he is not resigned to an NHL match, the player will head to our new salary arbitration process.
For all the information about this arbitration process, go here: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2106017
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.
A. North American Free Agency Eligibility
(i) The players birth date is in 2001 or earlier (20+ years of age)
(ii) Player is not playing in the NCAA (graduated or left early to sign a pro contract - link required)
(iii) This applies to CHL and NCAA free agents. USHL players (or other Tier 2 leagues) who have a college commitment can not be signed until they sign a pro contract.
B. European Free Agency Eligibility
(i) The players birth date is in 1999 or earlier (the player must be a minimum 22 years of age at signing)
(ii) The player is currently in a North American league or has signed a contract to play in the NHL for the 2021/22 season (LINKS REQUIRED). Any European player who has signed an NHL contract and is eligible to be signed (by age), can be signed, with assumption that they intend to play in NA at some point over the coming year. Link is required.
Post-Free Agency rules: Any Europeans who have not signed to play in the NHL, but subsequently signs an NHL deal after our submission deadline will be eligible for free agent offers from any HFNHL team with the top offers evaluated a minimum of 48 hours past the date of the official signing, similar to past protocol.
European born players fall under North American rules if they meet one of the following conditions:
(i) NHL drafted players - They played in a North American league in the season prior to being drafted into the NHL. Having played in NA after being drafted is irrelevant.
(ii) NHL un-drafted players - They played in a North American league in the year just prior to them turning 20. In all other cases the European FA rules apply.
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 rookie salary cap of $925,000 –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,
• 1 year if they their first contract at age 24
*NOTE*
a Player who at the time he was drafted was playing for a team outside North America or who meets the qualifications set forth in Article 8.4(a)(v) (a "European Player") who signs his first SPC at ages 25-27 shall be subject to the Entry Level System for one (1) year. A European Player who signs his first SPC at age 28 or older is not subject to the Entry Level System under any circumstances.
This means that European players aged 25-27 are also bound by the ELC max at a 1 year deal. Euros aged 28 and older are not.
For the purpose of these players a cutoff date of September 15th will be used for birthdates. Anyone born prior to September 15th, 1995 would be considered 25 years old and not bound by the rookie salary cap and contract term limitations. Anyone born September 15th and after would be considered 24 (or younger) and will need to be paid within the rookie salary cap and contract term limitations (or European aged 25-27, see above).
Failure to adhere to the proper term for these rookies will result in the offer not being considered.
VIII. Signed Player Playing in Europe
If a free agent is signed this off-season that ultimately commits to playing in Europe before October 1, the player will be removed from your roster and placed on your prospect list. Players who have already committed to playing in Europe next season are not eligible for free agency, with fines applied to those offers where the player in not eligible (do your research!).
IX. Salary Cap
The cap is set at $81.5 million.
The floor is set at $60.2 million.
REMEMBER, players making 2 million and over will be placed on one way contracts and will make that full amount in the minors.
*NOTE* (a reminder)
All players aged 25+ (so 25 and older) will be subject to waivers should they be sent down to the minors (regardless of salary or number of HFNHL games played), EXCEPT those recently signed UDFA's without ratings. The recently signed UDFA's who are 25+, will be given a one year exemption from waivers (so that they may accumulate ratings before having to be exposed to waivers). Players with salaries $2 million and over will still make full salary in the minors (with $1,999,999) remaining the cutoff there (so no change in that regard).
X. Contract Limit
We have instituted a 50 contract limit for all HFNHL teams. This is a hard cap. So make your offers wisely. Should any contract signed put you over the 50 mark this offseason, said contract will become null and void. At 50 contracts, teams will be removed from all UDFA lotteries.
XI. UDFA “LIVE” DRAFT
At a date yet to be determined, there may be a live internet broadcast of a lottery if there are multiple maximum rookie offers on any so-called “Undrafted Free Agents.”
Happy Hunting!
