OFFICIAL: 2011 HFNHL Free Agent Results - *** COMPLETE ***

[Hossa]

I really like the result of my free agency so far. Conklin and Brent Johnson would have cost me more than Garon and Bernier will. Langkow will slot in perfectly on either the 2nd or 3rd line. Most likely 3rd line with Talbot and Dowell.

The backup goalies work in weird ways in our league. There's a kind of musical chairs going on. Boucher goes to you, Conklin comes to me, Brodeur heads to Montreal.

Personally, I'm feeling lucky to have grabbed Conklin and Deslauriers. With Gerber going to Europe, I had absolutely no in-house backup plan. If I struck out, I'd go in with Richard Bachman, and his 10 minutes of NHL time, as the #2 to Price. And as I expected, I was outbid for Garon, Boucher and Johnson.

It's a hard thing to find backups in the HFNHL, because you can't just promote your own top goalie prospect. There's a limited number of playable goalies in our league, and it really squeezes the market. Because I'd rather rotate in Jake Allen, Jussi Rynnas, Richard Bachman and Harri Sateri, than pay Conklin or Deslauriers over a million bucks, but I can't. Oh well, nature of the game I guess.

 

[Lord Stanley]

It lists the Kings as having signed Jordan Henry (with the NHL Flames), but I actually bid on Jordan Hendry (who plays for the NHL blackhawks).

From what I can see Hendry wasn't even available to be bid on.

 

[Wildman]

re: QO

I said it for every free agent season, the QO must EXPIRE just like in the NHL.

If the player doesnt accept the QO within a defined window, he is still property of the team but the team is no longer obligated to the QO amount.

There is no risk to a player not accepting the QO, if he doesnt get a better offer, he just defaults to the QO. However in the NHL, if the player doesnt take the QO, he cant shop around with the QO offer in his back pocket.

This rule needs to be fixed, why would any player ever accept his QO? If I was an agent I would reject all QO because there is no reason not too.

Rob, there are quite number of differences between NHL and HFNHL. For example, in NHL, there is a thing called arbitration which we don't have, the UFA age is much lower than HFNHL and the maximum salary is 20% of Cap amount not $8M. Also, all our contract are two way contract where a team can send a player to minors without financial consequences The best example is Souray where NHL Edmonton was forced to pay full salary while HFNHL Washington paid only 10%.

As for not accepting all QO, if Gilroy was Qualified earlier than perhaps I would have accepted but due to time contraint and last minute email from Toronto, I just ended up logging the offer.

 

[Dr.Sens(e)]

I agree with this completely. We should look at this for sure. My opinion is that these players need to accept or reject these after the 1st wave of FA, there needs to be some risk involved for the player as there is in NHL. If players accept after the 1st round than they can't receive bids in round 2 if they reject than they risk having to take less money somewhere along the line.

While we can certainly look at making the QO null and void after July 1st, as I've said before, I'm not sure this changes much.

Can anyone give me an example of where a player passed on his QO in the NHL (going to RFA status), and then later that summer signed a deal for less than he would have received as a QO? I'm not familiar with any scenario like that.

As such, the QO is still likely the lower threshold of what the player would accept.

As an HFNHL agent for many years, I understand teams have loved to use the lack of an offer sheet to try and shove a four year deal at the QO price down a player's throat, but the agents are still not going to accept those if that's the team's take it or leave it position. The player can sit on your prospect list if you don't want to sign them to the same deal they had last year, or give them a 10% raise if they had made ess than $1M.

That said, once the offer sheets have passed, teams are in a much better position to sign the guy to a better long-term deal, but it is still going to have to look better for the player than taking a bunch of successive QO's.

 

[Tampa GM]

Can someone confirm or deny if Jay McKee will be able to play for me this upcoming season since he is not offically retired? If he cant play for me I will GO for plan B.

 

[MatthewFlames]

BUMP for additional signings/info

 

[The old geezer]

UFA's going to a 2nd Bid

Eric Belanger 4 x 3,200,000 ANA, DET, NYI, TBL
Michal Rozsival 2 x 3,000,000 BOS, DET, EDM
Bryan McCabe 2 x 3,000,000 BOS, CAR, DET, FLA, NYI

E-freakin'-gads!

I thought I had enough cap room for free agency but I guess not. Decisions decisions on who to up the ante on and who I'll have to walk away from. Mine was not even the highest bid for any of those three.

The scariest one is Belanger. When preparing my offers I initially keyed $2.5M and changed it upwards 3 different times before submitting. I swear I thought I was offering so much I was going to get called out for inflating contracts and in the end mine barely met the "within 10%" consideration of the leading bid.

BTW can we call tampering on the player agents since, next to maybe Tampa, I see their teams attached the most to players in the 2nd round of bidding. [j/k]

 

[Vagrant]

So I bid on two ineligible players and missed on a target barely.

 

[Wildman]

Drew, have you noticed I have zero signing so far. I was hoping to get Broduer with max bid and that failed. So now I have another $8M to spend on Koivu and company

 

[kasper11]

Drew, have you noticed I have zero signing so far. I was hoping to get Broduer with max bid and that failed. So now I have another $8M to spend on Koivu and company

Could be worse...I only made it to the second round on one player.

 

[Wildman]

Could be worse...I only made it to the second round on one player.

There are not many players worth a dime. Last year we had few RFAs to bid on as well.

 

[DiamondJoeQuimby]

I'm looking for answers on Nick Holden and Eric Boulton. We got Tim Kennedy, but these two guys were listed as 1's as well.

 

[Dempsey]

Are all bids in the 2nd round now essentially ranked "1"? I'm asking because I'm in the 2nd round of bidding for two players who were both in the same group of offers, with different ranking numbers. I wouldn't want to get both.

 

[HFNHL blogger]

I'm thinking keep using the excel file and rank the players especially if you don't want to get both

 

[Lord Stanley]

I'm looking for answers on Nick Holden and Eric Boulton. We got Tim Kennedy, but these two guys were listed as 1's as well.

Tim Kennedy was signed by Sens Matt must have missed in the file also Nick Holden was signed by Montreal Matt must have missed.

I made the error on Eric Boulton he should have been signed by Ottawa I missed this because the players weren't separated and it looked as though they were part of the same group. Everyone other one was separated in your file except for those guys probably why I missed it, So that is all figured out now.

 

[Vagrant]

Not rushing AT ALL, but I was just curious when we'd see the first wave of non lottery UDFA players.

 

[Tampa GM]

Did Raymond sign something?

 

[MatthewFlames]

Did Raymond sign something?

No...

 

[MatthewFlames]

Tim Kennedy Nick Holden Eric Boulton .

Fixed.

Not rushing AT ALL, but I was just curious when we'd see the first wave of non lottery UDFA players.

There is a little delay while we figure out an administrative wrangle regarding some of the signings...

M

 

[kasper11]

Question....

Are bids on unsigned players due on Saturday along with the second round bids, or are those going to be handled separately?

 

[Vagrant]

Awesome guys. Take as long as it needs to get everything accurate. That's the primary importance.

 

[MatthewFlames]

Are bids on unsigned players due on Saturday along with the second round bids, or are those going to be handled separately?

We're gonna handle them all together. The deadline is going to change - everyone will get an extension to Monday most likely.

 

[MatthewFlames]

BUMP

UDFA all ADDED.

DEADLINE CHANGED for ALL the NEXT ROUND OF OFFERS

Please Note that the Blues, Hawks, Rangers and Coyotes UDFA offers were all voided due to the lack of links.

 

[Ohio Jones]

Please Note that the Blues, Hawks, Rangers and Coyotes UDFA offers were all voided due to the lack of links.

Ouch. Rules really couldn't have been more clear on that point, though.

 

[Ohio Jones]

FYI, Aleksey Yemelin (however you choose to spell it) is property of Columbus.

I thought I had offers in for both Nagle and Kinkaid... Could the COL on those lists be CBJ/CBS/CLB (again, however you choose to spell it...)?