How do FAs get signed so fast on Jul 1?

[senseimike]

Hey guys,
Given teams can't tamper with other teams' players, what is going on behind the scenes that enables players to get signed so fast on the day free agency opens up?

Despite the "no tampering" are players talking to other teams' management already anyways?
Or what's going on?

Click to read more...

 

[TheRarestDangles]

Tampering

 

[norrisnick]

Aren't GMs allowed to talk to players that final week? Just no ink on paper?

 

[82Ninety42011]

It's not tampering when every ones doing it but of course they talking. May it be through others.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Aren't GMs allowed to talk to players that final week? Just no ink on paper?

Yeah I think it's something like they can talk in general about level of interest and fit on the roster, but can't offer specific numbers or sign the player until July 1st.

 

[Kahvi]

Agents talk to GM's like

 

[Coffey]

Just like fighting and taking slapshots into empty nets.

Part of the unwritten code.

 

[Brodeur]

Excerpt: Money Players

How did the NHL get to this point? Look back no further than the first day of free angency two years ago.

www.espn.com

I always enjoyed this peek behind the curtains back when Mike Gillis was a player agent. Players/agents probably have done their homework leading into July 1, so most players aren't sorting through 30 offers. That article was from 2002 (before the salary cap). Players likely would know certain teams wouldn't be in a position with the cap to chase some of the big names.

It's not unusual that the first guys to sign are the goalies since there are a finite amount of spots.

In recent years, I remember Johnny Gaudreau and Dougie Hamilton not officially signing until later in the evening on the first day of free agency. Vaguely recall that being the case with Alex Pietrangelo too. Usually the player verbally agreed to the general size of the contract but the agent/team are hammering out the signing bonuses and/or whether it's frontloaded which might take time.

 

[Toby91ca]

Well, couple reasons:

1) Contracts are generally pretty standard, not a ton of details to iron out and a lot of the minor details don't need to be ironed out when announcing you've signed a guy....so the big things really come down to $$, years and movement clasuses.

2) Players can start meeting/interviewing with teams the day after the draft.....so have about a week to field some offers....when you get to July 1st, that's when the real pressure is on for teams to give their best offer, but the ground work is already there.

 

[Voight]

In certain cases I'm sure they have friends on other teams that call them in advance (which is legal , not ethnically tampering) and gauge their interest.

 

[StreetHawk]

Excerpt: Money Players

How did the NHL get to this point? Look back no further than the first day of free angency two years ago.

www.espn.com

I always enjoyed this peek behind the curtains back when Mike Gillis was a player agent. Players/agents probably have done their homework leading into July 1, so most players aren't sorting through 30 offers. That article was from 2002 (before the salary cap). Players likely would know certain teams wouldn't be in a position with the cap to chase some of the big names.

It's not unusual that the first guys to sign are the goalies since there are a finite amount of spots.

In recent years, I remember Johnny Gaudreau and Dougie Hamilton not officially signing until later in the afternoon. Vaguely recall that being the case with Alex Pietrangelo too. Usually the player verbally agreed to the general size of the contract but the agent/team are hammering out the signing bonuses and/or whether it's frontloaded which might take time.

Agents go through the cap situation of all of the teams. So, they know who has cap room to spend on July 1.

 

[Chainshot]

Aren't GMs allowed to talk to players that final week? Just no ink on paper?

They got rid of that a few years ago.

 

[Khelandros]

 

[tmg]

They got rid of that a few years ago.

Yep. It’s all quite hilarious.

There was clearly a lot of illegal tampering going on. The press was stating to ask questions about it and the NHL’s reaction was to create the ‘ufa negotiation window’ and just put the pre free agency talks that were happening anyway above board.

The people stopped caring and they removed it and went back to being ok with known but unenforceable violations of the tampering rule.

They’ll probably re re re reverse course again if a loud enough press outlet starts asking the same questions the OP did here, again.

 

[Headshot77]

Teams illegally talk to players. All the time. Nothing can really be done to curtail it as long as there is no paper trail (emails/texts)

 

[MikeyMike01]

I’m guess some signings are announced before they’ve actually literally signed.

 

[tmg]

View attachment 852866

Is that the 2012 cba? It’s understood the 2020 MOU removed that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

View attachment 852866

There we go.

Teams illegally talk to players. All the time. Nothing can really be done to curtail it as long as there is no paper trail (emails/texts)

Even if there’s a paper trail of texts, who’s going to find them? The cops?

 

[Khelandros]

Is that the 2012 cba? It’s understood the 2020 MOU removed that.

Yup, it's "gone".

 

[WarriorofTime]

The Standard Player Contract is a factor here. When it comes to agreeing numbers/term, that's not overly difficult and players/agents aren't going to be sorting through 32 different ones. Both sides know they need to move fast.

The rest of the contract terms are uniform so there isn't negotiating over numbers, travel accommodations and hotel rooms, etc.

 

[cptjeff]

Is that the 2012 cba? It’s understood the 2020 MOU removed that.

Yep, that no longer exists.


These days, a GM just calls up an agent who happens to represent a pending FA and casually asks the agent what a 30 year old two time 40 goal scorer coming off a better than PPG season might just happen to be looking for in free agency. For advice and cap planning purposes of course, and speaking entirely in the hypothetical. The agent gives an estimate and suggests that he may happen to represent a player fitting a similar profile who maybe the GM should consider calling on July 1.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Tampering.

 

[Brodeur]

Even if there’s a paper trail of texts, who’s going to find them? The cops?

I still enjoy that a disgruntled Blues exec accidentally on purpose left evidence in 1999 for the NHL to find that they had tampered with Scott Stevens in 1994. Blues were fined 1.4 million and lost a first round pick (and the Devils had the option to swap first rounders in a different year).

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]