Unrestricted free agency

[BluesGM]

i understand why nick made the free agency chart - i've run leagues and i know how annoying/infuriating it is when GM's send in 5 year, 1.5 mil offers for sidney crosby type offers. it's great for RFA's

but i think unrestricted free agency should be a free market. last year UFA's were rejecting offers in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds just because the offers weren't abiding by the chart. i think that's silly - in the NHL UFA's get overpaid - and underpaid - all the time. it's a free market and there's only so many jobs to go around.....there's no way some of the lesser free agents would be rejecting offers in the later stages of free agency. some guys go well into the season without a job and would take any offer offered to them without hesitation

just an example: but tomas vokoun declined the panthers offer of $5mil last year because he wanted to test free agency....but there were no offers. he ended up having to settle for $1.5 mil in washington - severely underpaid.

stuff like this happens all the time in the NHL, some guys even go into the season without contracts . if those players were presented with an offer, ANY offer, they would accept it in a second. $500,000 is more than $0

i just thought it was ridiculous seeing some players rejecting contracts just to sit half the season on the unassigned list....they're unemployed, why would they be rejecting these offers?

if you want to reject offers for this reason in round one, thats fine, even round 2 is fine, but in the later stages FA's should start accepting all offers to secure themselves a job.

just my $0.02

[Avs]

agreed.

[Harry]

I could get on board with this. But keep in mind sometimes players draw more interest in the later stages of free agency after teams strike out on their Plan A or Plan B options. I think rejecting offers in the 2nd round is understandable, if it is a low ball offer. If the UFA isn't getting any other offers by round 3, then I think this makes a lot of sense.

[BluesGM]

yeah thats what i meant...i dont have a problem with FA's rejecting early in free agency, i just found it silly that last year, in the later rounds, lower tier FA's were still rejecting my offers and started the season on the unassigned list.


i guarantee you those guys would rather sign for 900k than be unemployed

[bluejacketsgm]

can you? can you REALLY guarantee it?

[anaheimgm]

It's true. They might choose Europe to league minimum. But I agree in principle, that most guys would take a one yr low(-er) value contract over not playing in the league. How low, I don't know.

[sensgm]

Also to take into account is the new rules regarding farm players:

1. Any player who's overall is 75+ and under 34 years of age cannot be sent to the farm.

2. Any players with a salary of $4,000,000 per season or higher and is under the age of 34 cannot be moved to the farm."

This would mean people can't pick up cheap decent players for peanuts and just store them in their farm, only to be traded later on in the season. I have no problem with players going cheaply if GM's actually intend to use them!