Eastside's Hockey Elite Collide

Hoping this is the right place to post, and hoping someone can fill in a few blanks. Forum posting as opposed to a PM as Dal GM has the same questions... and my guess is there might be a couple other guys. Please note I understand there is potential for changes on the horizon, but just more or less looking for a general answer/guideline as my inexperience with the system is making any sort of trades/team decisions that much harder.

I am getting offers for "bird rights" on players and seeing that some 32+ guys rights being traded even though their contract is up this year. I am reading the rules pdf as, 32 yrs and older (going off memory, might be a year or two off) players go straight to UFA with GM's "basically" being given the option to bid on the amount of guys they lose to UFA. Other than getting another "UFA slot" what is the benefit of trading for an expiring contract if he will be fair game to everyone come UFA and you could essentially just wait till UFA to sign a guy? Or is there an NHL style pre negotiating window before UFA, a la the current Boyle situation with NYI?

So as an example could someone timeline/give me some insight on what will happen with Jonathon Cheechoo (34 yrs old, expiring contract) for me?

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

The rules for signing your own UFAs are on pages 18 & 19. If they have 110 greed or higher, they go straight to UFA. If you trade for the rights of a greedy UFA, you get one shot at re-signing them. Otherwise, you can sign a limited number of your own UFAs through arbitration.

Cheechoo's greed is lower than 110, so you can re-sign him through arbitration if you want. If you trade his rights, whoever acquires him can do the same. The advantage to doing this is that you may be able to get him for less than he'd get on the free market, and you would have the option of walking away from the arbitration award if you think it's unreasonable.

SharksGM wrote:The rules for signing your own UFAs are on pages 18 & 19. If they have 110 greed or higher, they go straight to UFA. If you trade for the rights of a greedy UFA, you get one shot at re-signing them. Otherwise, you can sign a limited number of your own UFAs through arbitration.

"3. Teams will have two chances to sign a player whose rights they have acquired. If the first attempt fails, they can re-submit a new contract offer against the same arbitration number"

Section D3 page 31 of the rulebook.

Tampa Bay GM wrote:

SharksGM wrote:The rules for signing your own UFAs are on pages 18 & 19. If they have 110 greed or higher, they go straight to UFA. If you trade for the rights of a greedy UFA, you get one shot at re-signing them. Otherwise, you can sign a limited number of your own UFAs through arbitration.

"3. Teams will have two chances to sign a player whose rights they have acquired. If the first attempt fails, they can re-submit a new contract offer against the same arbitration number"

Section D3 page 31 of the rulebook.

Fine. Everyone else gets two attempts, but you get just the one for your insolence.

Big thanks guys, and my apologies for missing that section in the rulebook.

Also a big thank you for the detailed PM's I received outlining the process.