Contract Limit

[Vik (Habs)]

Been meaning to post this for a bit but keep forgetting. Have a couple things on my mind about it...


1) I don't think prospects should count against the limit. In the NHL, players on the slide rule don't count towards it which we can pretty much equate to guys in the prospect pool here. Seems to me including them is just punishing teams for drafting POT boosters (and I don't have any so it's not like this is a self-serving suggestion ... at least not right now).

2) I think a rule for temporary relief could help with situations like we've occasionally had with Washington this year. Basically what I have in mind is any team that requires a fast-sign due to injury can be over the limit as a result of the fast-sign until the injured player returns, at which time the fast-signed player will have to be released to get back to the limit. So if someone at the 50 contract limit has a D go down and are left with only 5 healthy farmers, they can fast-sign Johnny Dman and Johnny won't count towards the 50 player limit until their injured player comes back at which time it's bye bye Johnny. Might be a little annoying to track but it's probably better than having to release a new fast-signed player every other sim for a team with injury troubles.

3) It'd also be nice if we could bump the limit up a bit. Of course I seem to be rather partial to having somewhat bloated farm teams so maybe it's just a personal preference but I find the current rules somewhat limiting in how I run things. It'd be nice if we could have guys signed to AHL-only deals but I think the only way to do that here would make things more difficult to track for everyone (especially the guys in charge). But even just bumping the limit up to say 55 would help ease things some. But maybe that's just me?

[MartyFromOTTAWA]

Vik, u forgot that you can call up a signed prospect from juniors anytime... and send him back to his junior team anytime.

This is why they count against the limit.

[Jets GM]

I like what Vik about not punishing teams for POT boosters; however, I am not as unbiased as him.

I think the other suggestions have some merit. I know we have the limit at 50 to emulate the NHL, but it appears there is something called the "slide rule" which we do not incorporate.

A thread should be started with suggestions for the committee to examine when deciding on rule changes for next season.

[Calgary.Flames]

Teams shouldn't "need" a fast-sign due to an injury in the first place.
23 guys on each team and 4 signed prospects should be enough.

Not quite sure what you'd like to do with your farm team... Have like 30 guys on the team?
We'll talk about this nonetheless.

[Jets GM]

Teams shouldn't "need" a fast-sign due to an injury in the first place.
23 guys on each team and 4 signed prospects should be enough.

Not quite sure what you'd like to do with your farm team... Have like 30 guys on the team?
We'll talk about this nonetheless.

I didn't see where Vik said he wanted the limit to be 30?

Vik stated he enjoys having a more robust farm team, and I echoed his comments about not counting/increasing the amount of signed prospects.

[Jets GM]

Also, fast-signs happen all the time. Even if the simmer takes the time to check to see if he can change positions of a scratched player, they do happen often.

[Calgary.Flames]

I don't dislike the idea, I just don't see any real use to it for the moment.
Of course, I've spent only like 2 minutes thinking about it as I've never had any issues about it myself.

Other than poor management, what leads to fast-signed players?

[Jets GM]

I don't dislike the idea, I just don't see any real use to it for the moment.
Of course, I've spent only like 2 minutes thinking about it as I've never had any issues about it myself.

Other than poor management, what leads to fast-signed players?

Poor management is kind of harsh, but things slip through. GMs don't update their line-up after trades, injuries, and suspensions sometimes. If their AHL players don't have extra position eligibility, or there have been call-ups to fix NHL line-ups, it happens.

[SharksGM]

I'm okay with excluding prospects. Their ELCs should slide when they're in juniors anyways.

I don't see the need for increasing the limit. 50 contracts in the pros is 23 EHEC + 27 AHL. That's more than enough. The whole point of the rule was to stop people from stockpiling 40+ players in the A and leaving nobody available to sign mid season.

[Vik (Habs)]

Vik, u forgot that you can call up a signed prospect from juniors anytime... and send him back to his junior team anytime.

This is why they count against the limit.

Well in the NHL, even junior aged players in the AHL don't count towards it (my favorite example is Tomas Tatar playing 5 seasons on his 3 year entry level deal). Since we're already giving teams the advantage of letting anyone play in the AHL, I don't think we'd need to go that far but I don't see why prospects should count.

Teams shouldn't "need" a fast-sign due to an injury in the first place.
23 guys on each team and 4 signed prospects should be enough.

Well it originally occurred to me with goalies. To me, it seems useless to have 5 contract spots to goalies since you're often at most going to have 3 that are of actual use. And I don't want to have to release someone just because one of my goalies gets hurt.

Not quite sure what you'd like to do with your farm team... Have like 30 guys on the team?

I actually generally have closer to 40 but that's just me. I guess I like having options. I think the best option would really be to have AHL contracts so that those players can be signed to NHL deals by any other team at any given time but, like I said, that would probably be a real pain to do.

[Commish Bub(NYR)]

This is something to consider for next season. I could possibly get behind not counting prospects towards the 50-contract limit, but would like to keep that limit in place. Like Julien, I haven't thought much about it yet.

Also, we will be posting rules changes for next season (starting in the off-season, actually) very soon on a new thread. To give people time to digest things and start thinking accordingly.

[Dallas Stars GM]

Maybe it would be nice if we could have, let's say 3 players to have down there in the AHL, with AHL contract (which means they can play AHL only ... and if the GM would want any of these AHL contracted players to play for his team, then he would have to sign him with professional NHL deal...... NHL teams in reality do it like this too and they also have some players signed with AHL contract down there) . . . Just an idea

[Josh-EDM]

Maybe it would be nice if we could have, let's say 3 players to have down there in the AHL, with AHL contract (which means they can play AHL only ... and if the GM would want any of these AHL contracted players to play for his team, then he would have to sign him with professional NHL deal...... NHL teams in reality do it like this too and they also have some players signed with AHL contract down there) . . . Just an idea

Then someone would have to track it which would be a relatively useless expenditure of time.