Trading

[Admin]

A. Trade discussions must remain private and be done via private messaging or off-site communication. The Chopping Block section of the forum is reserved for posting available players or draft picks.

B. Once a trade has been agreed upon by both parties, it must be posted in the Trades section of the forum and include the teams, players (with their consistency rating) and draft picks involved, as well as a short justification. Both general managers must confirm the trade under this post.

C. Trade Rulings
1. The Trade Committee evaluates every trade from both teams’ perspective before giving a ruling. During the season, trades are allowed 48 hours for evaluation. If no objection is raised, the trade is entered in the next sim following this period. Any consistency rating (CON) drop resulting from the trade is reset.
2. If the trade is rejected, a message will be posted to inform the parties involved. The general managers can then ask for an explanation via PM and one of the Committee members will explain the ruling. In some instances, the Committee’s explanation will be posted so that the other general managers can see the thought process involved.
3. Trades that put a team well over the salary cap are prohibited. Trades that put a team slightly over are allowed, but the GM must ensure cap compliance prior to the next game.
4. When a trade is rejected, the two (or more) teams can attempt the same core of a deal once more. For example, if Player A for Player X and Player Y is rejected, Players A, X, and Y can only be included in a similar deal one more time. This also applies to draft picks.

D. Consistency Boosters
1. CON boosters (players with CON ratings below 50) may only be traded once per season (defined as starting from when UFA begins and the file is updated from June to August in-game), to prevent repeated attempts to get them to boost.

E. AHL Player Trades
1. AHL players who are traded once the season has begun will remain in the AHL and do not need to go through waivers after the trade.

F. Interim GM Trades
1. Interim GMs are generally forbidden from trading with their main team. Exceptions may be made for inconsequential contract-balancing moves, e.g. swapping mediocre farm players with expiring contracts.
2. Interim GMs, being caretakers for future (hopefully long-term) GMs, are encouraged to make moves that are cap-saving (or neutral at worst), and that do not add additional cap commitments in future years. Trades will also receive a higher level of scrutiny of their cap implications under rule C.3.

G. Draft Picks
1. Only draft picks that can be traded in-game are permitted to be included in trades. These are typically picks from the next four drafts, as displayed on team roster pages on the website.

H. Salary Retention
1. Salary cap hits may be retained in trades, following those rules.
2. Retained salary will be treated as a cap penalty, like buyouts, and cannot be changed after a trade is entered.
3. The nominal salary of the retained player will be reduced as specified. For any other purpose (e.g. offseason contracts negotiations), the player's original full salary will be used (implementation TBD).

[SharksGM]

I added a bit on CON boosters only being traded once per season, which didn't seem to get migrated from the old PDF rulebook.

[SharksGM]

E. AHL Player Trades
1. AHL players who are traded once the season has begun will remain in the AHL and do not need to go through waivers after the trade.

I added this rule, which has been policy for several years now but didn't get written down here.

[SharksGM]

F. Interim GM Trades
1. Interim GMs are generally forbidden from trading with their main team. Exceptions may be made for inconsequential contract-balancing moves, e.g. swapping mediocre farm players with expiring contracts.
2. Interim GMs, being caretakers for future (hopefully long-term) GMs, are encouraged to make moves that are cap-saving (or neutral at worst), and that do not add additional cap commitments in future years. Trades will also receive a higher level of scrutiny of their cap implications under rule C.3.

I added these two rules - #1 was already league policy but is now formalized, and #2 was only really implied.

[SharksGM]

C. Trade Rulings
1. The Trade Committee evaluates every trade from both teams’ perspective before giving a ruling. During the season, trades are allowed 48 hours for evaluation. If no objection is raised, the trade is entered in the next sim following this period. Any consistency rating (CON) drop resulting from the trade is reset.

This update is following our general procedure during the season, which is essentially to assume that all trades are fine and approved unless noted otherwise.

D. Consistency Boosters
1. CON boosters (players with CON ratings below 50) may only be traded once per season (defined as starting from when UFA begins and the file is updated from June to August in-game), to prevent repeated attempts to get them to boost.

This update clarifies what a 'season' means, at least for the purposes of this specific rule. It previously stated July 1st but did not specify whether that meant the actual calendar date or the in-game date.

G. Draft Picks
1. Only draft picks that can be traded in-game are permitted to be included in trades. These are typically picks from the next four drafts, as displayed on team roster pages on the website.

This is newly added and hopefully will prevent any further kerfuffles regarding future draft picks.

[AvalancheGM]

Good changes. I do think the in-game rollover makes most sense as a reset date for con boost trades.

[SharksGM]

Note the new section on salary retention:

H. Salary Retention
1. Salary cap hits may be retained in trades, following those rules.
2. Retained salary will be treated as a cap penalty, like buyouts, and cannot be changed after a trade is entered.
3. The nominal salary of the retained player will be reduced as specified. For any other purpose (e.g. offseason contracts negotiations), the player's original full salary will be used (implementation TBD).