As We Head To Free Agency

[Wingies]

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who feels this way, which is why I'm posting on suggestions instead of sending a message to PR and/or Devs.

Although I know PR is the one with the final call, I think we GMs really need to be responsible for not killing this league with shitty contracts.

I know it's basic supply and demand: high demand + low supply = increased market price. But this free agency I think we need to control these ridiculous offers. I know there'll be one or two idiots who'll offer Phaneuf or Bergeron or something 9 million dollars or something.

Plus these insane contracts for super star players also pushes the salaries for regular players. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to pay an 83 the same as I pay the Sedins.

Now don't think I'm bitching, since I'm not. I don't like building teams through free agency. I got nobody during last year's free agent frenzy, not a damn player, yet I'm still a country mile away from the 2nd placed team.

I'm just worried that in a few seasons we'll have 20 guys on waivers... 20 quality NHLers.... just because of their ridiculous contracts. Funny thing is, we don't have penalties for waiving these contracts so we GMs just offer away.

My two cents. Wingies out.

[Wingies]

Just want to note, in no way am I bashing PR. PR is a fucking hard job, I've been it a couple of times. We just need to be smart about it.

[leafsftw]

I think PR shouldnt be bias against the teams. This is my second year where im scrambling to trade my top players for atleast something so I dont lose my player to FA for nothing. I dont know if its just me where he tells me my best players cant be signed and want to test.. and its not like I dont get anything players in FA either. Thats just my two cents.

[Colorado Avalanche GM]

NHL teams every year are trying to trade players they know they might lose to free agency. Atleast he lets everybody know ahead of time. You could be like NewJersey or Nashville and get totally blindsided by the players. I lost Howard and had to pay 9million to get him back. I will just use my plus 6 on him to try and make him worth that much. Supply and demand. Alot of lower rated players aren't getting what they would get on the market, so I don't think anybody should complain. It all balances out in the end. Just about everybody has cap space and that would never be so in the real NHL. The agents would make sure of that.

[therealbk]

You guys gotta remember about Player Morale when it comes to the guys who are testing FA. Practically all of them were traded at one point, at another point maybe a few times (I know that's the case with Bouchard). Morale is lower when they get traded no matter what.

As for free agency signings, sometimes you have to bid high to get the players you want. I'll take my signing of Semin for example. A source told me that someone was gonna bid 7M for him, so I had to up my bid to 8M. It's gonna be from someone somewhere, it will never leave. That's why the salary cap slowly increases every 3 or so seasons.

Just my $0.02

[Wingies]

That's my point. Because of all these stupid contracts we have to increase the salary cap every single season. It sucks.

[Colorado Avalanche GM]

everybody has cap space though, so why does the cap need to go up? Pretty much everybody has between 5-10 million in space.

[New Jersey Devils GM]

I'm in agreement with you Nucks. Contract offers are ridiculous. Paying $8+ million is stupid. It's bad for the league too.

Ducks, I've been burned too. Lost Iginla last season and now Bergeron is testing without even receiving a contract offer. I understand having good players available for free agency but it sucks to get hit two years in a row.

[Mazurka Former Coyotes GM]

i dont really have a problem with big contracts in free agency as its part of the game. but i think a penelty for waivers is pretty good idea. only problem with that though is it would be even harder to trade high salary players. maybe just leave things the way they are. pr does need to keep track of who gets the bone though. i have to admit, i noticed right away that ducks got fucked hard. losing perry last year and now phaneuf steen and bouchard. wow, thats just wrong.

[leafsftw]

Feb 26, 2013 15:44:43 GMT -8 New Jersey Devils GM said:

I'm in agreement with you Nucks. Contract offers are ridiculous. Paying $8+ million is stupid. It's bad for the league too.

Ducks, I've been burned too. Lost Iginla last season and now Bergeron is testing without even receiving a contract offer. I understand having good players available for free agency but it sucks to get hit two years in a row.

See, its unfair that they pick on the same teams to lose great players. I have a franchise player in Phanuef who was going to help out Reilly and Murray but cant because PR said he is testing.. There are 30 Teams in the league, still find it to be bs

[leafsftw]

Feb 26, 2013 16:08:46 GMT -8 Mazurka Former Coyotes GM said:

i dont really have a problem with big contracts in free agency as its part of the game. but i think a penelty for waivers is pretty good idea. only problem with that though is it would be even harder to trade high salary players. maybe just leave things the way they are. pr does need to keep track of who gets the bone though. i have to admit, i noticed right away that ducks got fucked hard. losing perry last year and now phaneuf steen and bouchard. wow, thats just wrong.

Thank you! I dont feel like such a prick now lol

[Former Tampa Bay Lightning GM]

I agree for sure Nucks. But it's a hard thing to stop. I mean it happens in real life even. I honestly think the salary cap should stick firm at where it is. If people want to offer those stupid contracts, let them ruin their cap situation. We could always bring in an instant buyout like the NHL amnesty clause so future gms that may inherit stupid contracts can buy them out or something. I don't know. I understand wanting to stop this and I always understand why some GM's may be willing to spend big money.

[luongod]

we have to change the waiver rules. GM's think they can sign a player to a shitty contract, then just waive them without any consequences. no more free buyouts imo

[Former Tampa Bay Lightning GM]

Feb 26, 2013 22:15:02 GMT -8 luongod said:

we have to change the waiver rules. GM's think they can sign a player to a shitty contract, then just waive them without any consequences. no more free buyouts imo

I think the opposite. We should have instant buyouts for these types of guys once they are on waivers, so that other Gm's can have them. Having to keep track of salary being paid for paid buyouts would be a pain.

But before that it would nice to be able to avoid these huge contracts even being signed.

[luongod]

well if their are consequences i dont think GM's will be as agressive and signing them to these contracts. i think a lot of GMs just think they have a fallback, which is the waivers.

[Winnipeg Jets GM]

I don't know why this is even that big of an issue right now. From my dealings with PR he's been impartial and fair. Also, as previously mentioned, most of us have $5M+ in cap space; I personally have $4.8M and my team is doing really well, finally. If you can afford that player, and you want that player, pay him what you think is right.

However, I do agree that teams shouldn't get picked on annually. I know from experience over at Quest. 3 seasons in a row, starting in Season 1, I had Cammalleri demanding a trade and it was just a carbon copy of what he did to Montreal. I was able to convince PR to let him stay, we made the playoffs, then the same thing the next season for 3 more seasons. I was able to convince him to stay on, we won the Presidents' Trophy in season and the following season he's demanding a trade again at the start of the following season. It was a vicious cycle and perpetual for 4 seasons.

Finally, after not being able to find a deal that benefited my team in any way, and the player refusing to play if I didn't deal him, I got fed up and waived him. You'd think that'd be the end of it because they got the player off my team that they wanted, but it wasn't.... That off season they decided to retire Kipprusoff; 1 downgrade, but no warning. Just, you don't have a goalie anymore... Fuck you, Kruze. In the end, they got what they wanted, I guess, cuz losing those two players completely destroyed my team for the next 2 seasons. I'm only now starting to recover there.

In any event, the short version is that picking on teams is wrong. If these teams are getting whapped every year with always having their best players "testing", that's hardly fair. Not ALL star players want to leave, no matter how much we need to have a "good FA Pool". There's some years IRL that the FA crop is shit too. It happens. We can't have an uber list of FAs every season, that's not realistic either.

[Former Tampa Bay Lightning GM]

Feb 26, 2013 23:05:19 GMT -8 Winnipeg Jets GM said:

I don't know why this is even that big of an issue right now. From my dealings with PR he's been impartial and fair. Also, as previously mentioned, most of us have $5M+ in cap space; I personally have $4.8M and my team is doing really well, finally. If you can afford that player, and you want that player, pay him what you think is right.

However, I do agree that teams shouldn't get picked on annually. I know from experience over at Quest. 3 seasons in a row, starting in Season 1, I had Cammalleri demanding a trade and it was just a carbon copy of what he did to Montreal. I was able to convince PR to let him stay, we made the playoffs, then the same thing the next season for 3 more seasons. I was able to convince him to stay on, we won the Presidents' Trophy in season and the following season he's demanding a trade again at the start of the following season. It was a vicious cycle and perpetual for 4 seasons.

Finally, after not being able to find a deal that benefited my team in any way, and the player refusing to play if I didn't deal him, I got fed up and waived him. You'd think that'd be the end of it because they got the player off my team that they wanted, but it wasn't.... That off season they decided to retire Kipprusoff; 1 downgrade, but no warning. Just, you don't have a goalie anymore... Fuck you, Kruze. In the end, they got what they wanted, I guess, cuz losing those two players completely destroyed my team for the next 2 seasons. I'm only now starting to recover there.

In any event, the short version is that picking on teams is wrong. If these teams are getting whapped every year with always having their best players "testing", that's hardly fair. Not ALL star players want to leave, no matter how much we need to have a "good FA Pool". There's some years IRL that the FA crop is shit too. It happens. We can't have an uber list of FAs every season, that's not realistic either.

Bagels?