2020 Free Agency

[SharksGM]

Unrestricted free agency will begin on Wednesday, August 19 at 5 PM EDT.

All free agent re-signings must be completed by next Tuesday, August 18 by 11:59:59 PM EDT. If you have any concerns about a contract that has already been entered, bring them up ASAP.

As far as I'm aware, WPG, NJ, STL and FLA have yet to submit offers. STL and FLA are open, so I am actively seeking volunteers (from the opposite conference) to serve as interim GMs during UFA. soulja (NJ) has not logged in for a while; if he doesn't return I'll handle their contracts. Mason's active so I presume that the Jets will be fine.

Questions or comments?

[AvalancheGM]

I can handle Florida's extensions. I guess any UFA signings will depend on their cap situation - it seems like no one has much space to maneuver.

[Dallas Stars GM]

7PM EDT is 01:00 after midnight for me. If it could be moved to 4PM EDT what would actually be 22:00 for me, would make things much better for me. If possible. If it's not possible, it's not a big deal. Just wanted to let you know. Except that, everything sounds perfect.

[Vik (Habs)]

I suppose I can do St. Louis if no one else is.

[SharksGM]

I suppose I can do St. Louis if no one else is.

That would be appreciated.

I can handle Florida's extensions. I guess any UFA signings will depend on their cap situation - it seems like no one has much space to maneuver.

Sorry I didn't opine earlier but Florida should qualify Chytil, Harkins and Blackwood and let Spacek and Thomas walk (possibly Pettersson too). This won't give them enough cap space to re-sign Koivu at the max but will give the new GM more options.

I'm looking at NJ now and they're also going to have a ton of cap space but more than enough players to fill out a roster. I'm not sure what if anything these teams should do during UFA. Florida is probably still a playoff team even without Koivu; NJ and STL are on the bubble. Is it better to try to have them bid on some top-tier UFAs with 1-year contracts or leave it all open for a new GM? Unfortunately these three teams have all had bad luck with their recent GMs.

[AvalancheGM]

I'm not re-signing Grant for what he wants, so at the moment Pettersson and Thomas are their 7/8 defencemen. I think Pettersson at the very least should be retained out of those three.

I'll remove Spacek from my offers, as well as Kaspar - he's already their 14th forward.

[SharksGM]

Uhh, I can't edit that post for some reason - cancel the offers to Spacek and Kaspar.

So, I have disabled post editing in the contract offers forum so that people don't edit out offers entirely (accidentally or otherwise). There needs to be a record of every contract offer in case I enter them incorrectly or forget to edit the number of years back when trading an expiring contract.

The same rule applies for the free agency forum - there is no editing offers or deleting posts. Take care when you make an offer. If you accidentally add an extra zero or something, quote the yourself with the correction.

[AvalancheGM]

Makes sense. Those two won't be offered then?

[SharksGM]

Makes sense. Those two won't be offered then?

Yes, I replied there with changes. My preference is to avoid committing orphan teams to long-term contracts unless necessary, and for Harkins in particular he's unlikely to maintain his overdeveloped ST/CH/PO for very long so a QO is preferable.

[AvalancheGM]

Cool. On another note, I can't get into GM Office - every time I click it, it logs me out and gives the "must be logged in" message. I've been having to log in manually every visit lately, but it wasn't a big deal till now.

[SharksGM]

Cool. On another note, I can't get into GM Office - every time I click it, it logs me out and gives the "must be logged in" message. I've been having to log in manually every visit lately, but it wasn't a big deal till now.

You have to use https://ehec.pro and not http://ehec.pro. There shouldn't be any http:// links left on the site so check your bookmarks. The links are all relative though so if you start off at http://ehec.pro you're going to stay there.

[SharksGM]

7PM EDT is 01:00 after midnight for me. If it could be moved to 4PM EDT what would actually be 22:00 for me, would make things much better for me. If possible. If it's not possible, it's not a big deal. Just wanted to let you know. Except that, everything sounds perfect.

Ok, I compromised with 5 PM EDT. The time is set, rev your engines for this Wednesday.

I bumped the thread on hfboards so hopefully we can get a new GM or two by then. If not, Vik & Josh are you interested in making bids for STL & FLA?

By my math, STL & NJ have ~8M in cap room (with numerous QOs) and FLA has 3M. None of them really need to sign anybody, although STL could use goalscoring and NJ grit, respectively, and they probably all need some farm fodder. Or we could just leave them be and maybe just have NJ & STL take bids on picks for one-year contract dumps.

[Dallas Stars GM]

Cool, thanks!

[Vik (Habs)]

If not, Vik & Josh are you interested in making bids for STL & FLA?

Figured I would.

[AvalancheGM]

FLA could use a couple of fourth-line forwards, rest will be AHL depth.

[Dallas Stars GM]

I think Victor Baldayev contract extension (CAR) hasn't been inputted. Hopefully, WPG can do their contracts extensions by today. Other than that, I don't see any other issue.
Excellent work!

[SharksGM]

Well, the file has been advanced and we have officially entered a new season. Rev your engines for the opening of UFA Feeding Frenzy in just over 16 hours. Don't forget to review the bidding rules - veterans should especially note that all bids are in 50k steps now, even below 800k.

[AvalancheGM]

Is the UFA list in GMO up to date? I see a lot of guys in there who got offers from their teams.

[Vik (Habs)]

Is the UFA list in GMO up to date? I see a lot of guys in there who got offers from their teams.

Qualified RFAs end up in the UFA list. You have to check here to make sure you're not offer sheeting someone (unless that's what you want to do).

Boston and New Jersey's QOs are missing from that list:
Brent Gates (BOS)
Nikita Korostelev (BOS)
Sam Reinhart (BOS)
Tyler Parsons (BOS)
Ebbe Sionas (NJ)
Gustav Lindstrom (NJ)
Ondrej Najman (NJ)
Stephen Harper (NJ)
Zemgus Girgensons (NJ)

Errors in contracts entered:
Michael Rasmussen should be 4 years.
Conor Timmins' contract was missed (1.75M x 1 year with St. Louis).
Ben Bishop should be 1.45M for 2 years.
Ilya Karpukhin should be 3 years.
Viktor Baldayev should be 3 years.
Jesper Eliasson should be 1.2M.
Nate Schnarr should be 2 years.
Matthew Murphy should be 850k.
Troy Rutkowski should be 2 years.
Nils Lundkvist's contract was missed (720k x 3 years with Arizona).
AJ Greer should be 2 years.
Alexander Pechurski should be 650k.
Ian Moore's contract was missed (600k x 3 years with Winnipeg).
Samuel Laberge should be 1 year.

[SharksGM]

Qualified RFAs end up in the UFA list. You have to check here to make sure you're not offer sheeting someone (unless that's what you want to do).

Indeed. While I have considered entering QOs right away, that would make them not appear on any of the UFA pages except the pending one, which obviously has tons of other players on it.

Michael Rasmussen should be 4 years.
Conor Timmins' contract was missed (1.75M x 1 year with St. Louis).
Ben Bishop should be 1.45M for 2 years.
Ilya Karpukhin should be 3 years.
Viktor Baldayev should be 3 years.
Jesper Eliasson should be 1.2M.
Nate Schnarr should be 2 years.
Matthew Murphy should be 850k.
Troy Rutkowski should be 2 years.
Nils Lundkvist's contract was missed (720k x 3 years with Arizona).
AJ Greer should be 2 years.
Alexander Pechurski should be 650k.
Ian Moore's contract was missed (600k x 3 years with Winnipeg).
Samuel Laberge should be 1 year.

Thanks, I fixed these.

Y'all will want to double-check any contracts I enter for you in the future. There will be blo... a lot of contracts entered in the next week or so.

[AvalancheGM]

Did Cederholm's contract not get inputted still? He's in the UFA list. Don't want to lose anyone I made offers to.

[Vik (Habs)]

Did Cederholm's contract not get inputted still? He's in the UFA list. Don't want to lose anyone I made offers to.

It's entered in the file, he's on your roster page, and I'm not seeing him in the UFA list. Maybe try a refresh?

[IslandersGM]

can we get a clear number on the $ side of things. My spreadsheet includes the Barb buyout at i'm stilling at 57.08M I removed the rookies and farmers off the roster on the site and I sit at 55.66 even with a .62 that doesn't boost the salary on the site to 57/ I assume the spreadsheet is correct but am I mistaken?

[Vik (Habs)]

can we get a clear number on the $ side of things. My spreadsheet includes the Barb buyout at i'm stilling at 57.08M I removed the rookies and farmers off the roster on the site and I sit at 55.66 even with a .62 that doesn't boost the salary on the site to 57/ I assume the spreadsheet is correct but am I mistaken?

There's really no way for us to give numbers in the offseason since we won't know who teams are using. I've given out rough estimates in past years but don't know if I'll have a chance to do anything this year. Could Ethan Bear be the issue (won't be on your team in GMO until his qualifying offer is accepted)?

[SharksGM]

can we get a clear number on the $ side of things. My spreadsheet includes the Barb buyout at i'm stilling at 57.08M I removed the rookies and farmers off the roster on the site and I sit at 55.66 even with a .62 that doesn't boost the salary on the site to 57/ I assume the spreadsheet is correct but am I mistaken?

The number on the roster page is just a sum of all of the salaries on your roster, not including RFAs. There's nothing more to it.

[SharksGM]

If by chance you accidentally start a second thread for a UFA that already has offers, let me know and I'll delete it.

[IslandersGM]

Bear - that's who I forgot - ok numbers jive.

[AvalancheGM]

Thanks Vik, EHM is giving me the dreaded runtime 53 error at the moment

[Dallas Stars GM]

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=9778

This can be deleted

[SharksGM]

For reasons I could not figure out, the Free Agency forum was showing strange results when it was split into the old default of 125 posts per page. Specifically, the bottom 10 topics from page 1 were showing up at the top of page 2. I tried changing the number of posts per page to 100 and the same thing happened. I've decided to just set it to 500 so that all of the topics show up on one page.

There is still an issue that the topic count (149) doesn't match the actual number of topics visible (139, including the RFA list thread). As far as I can tell, the topic count is just wrong. I don't remember if it was off by 10 when we started. I did delete some duplicate threads, but that doesn't seem to have changed anything. I suspect that there was a bug in older versions of phpBB. Anyway, as far as I can tell, no topics are missing from the forum list, but just to be safe you should also use the forums search if you want to bid on a player that doesn't seem to be listed.

[Vik (Habs)]

So I decided to do some very basic projections and Colorado needs to ease up on the spending (to put it kindly). Trades aren't factored in and all of these projections are likely low with the lack of talented young'ns included. I also haven't factored in that Colorado is well over the 50 contract limit (and will, therefore, likely require some buyouts).

Code: Select all

Team	NJC	WEC	WES		UC	UWEC	US	 TC	TWEC	P	TS		MTS
COL	46	18	55510000	15	11	17300000 61	29	1400000	74210000	68610000
BUF	40	20	52870000	1	0	0	 41	20	3734000	56604000	57804000
NSH	35	16	52300000	5	2	1750000	 40	18	0	54050000	56450000
WSH	34	20	54280000	0	0	0	 34	20	880000	55160000	56360000
CHI	24	12	50240000	3	0	0	 27	12	0	50240000	56240000
ARI	41	13	50600000	0	0	0	 41	13	0	50600000	56000000
CBJ	47	21	54634000	0	0	0	 47	21	0	54634000	55234000
T.B	33	9	47022000	12	0	0	 45	9	0	47022000	54822000
OTT	31	10	47040000	0	0	0	 31	10	0	47040000	54240000
PIT	34	16	49710000	9	1	1300000	 43	17	0	51010000	54010000

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NYI	28	13	47060000	9	2	1750000	 37	15	620000	49430000	53630000
NYR	34	17	50512000	5	0	0	 39	17	0	50512000	53512000
MTL	32	12	46180000	5	2	2400000	 37	14	0	48580000	53380000
DAL	29	14	47600000	10	1	850000	 39	15	600000	49050000	53250000
CAR	44	15	48620000	2	1	1000000	 46	16	0	49620000	53220000
S.J	32	11	43730000	8	4	4950000	 40	15	0	48680000	52880000
L.A	37	11	44900000	8	2	2400000	 45	13	0	47300000	52700000
MIN	35	12	46150000	1	0	0	 36	12	514000	46664000	52664000
DET	38	19	49610000	4	2	2150000	 42	21	0	51760000	52360000
PHI	19	12	45540000	6	1	900000	 25	13	0	46440000	51840000

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VAN	47	17	47636000	1	1	850000	 48	18	300000	48786000	51186000
FLA	41	14	44220000	5	1	850000	 46	15	0	45070000	49270000
EDM	33	9	38760000	7	0	0	 40	9	503000	39263000	47063000
WPG	27	13	38960000	3	1	1100000	 30	14	816000	40876000	45676000
ANA	39	13	36126000	2	2	3450000	 41	15	1264000	40840000	45040000
TOR	39	13	36720000	2	2	3400000	 41	15	0	40120000	44320000
N.J	37	11	35886000	1	0	0	 38	11	512000	36398000	42998000
BOS	28	12	34000000	1	0	0	 29	12	1144000	35144000	41144000
CGY	44	10	31380000	0	0	0	 44	10	0	31380000	38580000
STL	24	8	19960000	15	6	9550000	 39	14	2952000	32462000	37262000

NJC = number of non-junior aged contracts
WEC = number of waiver eligible contracts over 800k
WES = waiver eligible salaries over 800k
UC = number of leading bids on UFAs
UWEC = number of leading bids on waiver eligible UFAs for over 800k
US = waiver eligible UFA salaries over 800k
TC = total contracts
TWEC = total waiver eligible contracts
P = penalties
TS = total salaries
MTS = minimum total salaries (if more than 22 waiver eligible contracts, remove 800k for each, if fewer, add 800k to get up to 22)

[Vik (Habs)]

Realized I wasn't factoring in qualifying offers. So I added those in as well as any recent trades. Thing is getting too big now so here be the basics.

Edit: Also had Colorado signing Koivu instead of Florida, Mike fixed that anyway.

Code: Select all

Team	TC	TWEC	TS		MTS
COL	59	28	69510000	64710000
BUF	41	20	56604000	57804000
T.B	51	14	52862000	57662000
WSH	36	21	56160000	56760000
ARI	46	14	51750000	56550000
NSH	40	18	54050000	56450000
CHI	26	11	49200000	55800000
CBJ	47	21	54634000	55234000
PIT	46	18	52110000	54510000
OTT	31	10	47040000	54240000

Code: Select all

NYR	41	18	51512000	53912000
MTL	41	15	49580000	53780000
NYI	38	15	49430000	53630000
S.J	43	16	49680000	53280000
DAL	40	15	49050000	53250000
CAR	47	16	49620000	53220000
L.A	46	13	47300000	52700000
MIN	36	12	46664000	52664000
DET	42	21	51760000	52360000
PHI	25	13	46440000	51840000

Code: Select all

VAN	48	18	48786000	51186000
FLA	49	17	47620000	50620000
EDM	41	10	42013000	49213000
TOR	42	16	44920000	48520000
WPG	34	16	44726000	48326000
BOS	33	14	40844000	45644000
ANA	42	15	40840000	45040000
N.J	43	13	39148000	44548000
CGY	44	10	31380000	38580000
STL	42	14	32462000	37262000

[AvalancheGM]

Well that was dumb of me.

[DetroitGM]

Small thing that I noticed; Colorado's first reply on the Oscar Klefbom thread was "650k 2 yrs (FLA)", but his second was "850k 2yr". I assume he's not bidding against himself and that the second was intended to be for Florida ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[AvalancheGM]

Whoops, yes it was for FLA.

[TBGM - Geoff]

Are GM's running 2 teams allowed to bid against themselves on the same player? I've seen it come up a few times.

[SharksGM]

Are GM's running 2 teams allowed to bid against themselves on the same player? I've seen it come up a few times.

When?

We didn't really formalize rules for this. There is certainly strategy to UFA bidding but I don't see many circumstances where this would benefit anyone.

[SharksGM]

Ok, I see what you mean:

1.6 2yr (FLA)

1.9 2yr (FLA)

1.8 2yr (FLA)

Yeah, this is not cool. I forgot that last year we did, in fact, forbid interim GMs from bidding on the same free agents as for their main team. I'm really struggling to see how these bids could be in good faith.

[AvalancheGM]

All three players would be good additions to the Panthers roster. I didn't know that wasn't allowed though.

[TBGM - Geoff]

As someone who once ran an EHM league, here's my 2 cents.
-If someone is willing to outbid the current high bid, he can re-enter with the team that made the highest previous bid.
-If the bidding ends with the 2 final bids by the same GM, all bids should be cancelled and start fresh.
I see no reason to directly punish the GM in question if the rules weren't clearly stated beforehand. However if the rules are clear, some form of punishment should be handed out.

[TorontoGM]

So then why didn't he make any initial offers for those players on behalf of Florida? He made the offers only after the fact Vik pointed out his excessive spending and now it directly benefits him cause he isn't the top bidder on those players. Pretty suspect, regardless of what rules are in place.

[SharksGM]

Being able to bid against your second team is a clear conflict of interest, as Vik raised last year. It means you can bail yourself out of bids you decided against with extra information about what other bids were made since then. So, I will allow other existing bids to stand, since I don't know of any others with clear conflicts, but the two on Smith and Jacques will be withdrawn. Yandle has already been outbid so that's a moot point, give or take 50k.

Any future bids by a GM with an interim position must be made by one and only one of those teams.

[AvalancheGM]

That's fine with me. There have been several times I forgot whether I was making the bid as STL or FLA - you'll find I quoted several of them to clarify - and I know, for example, my first bid on Scheifele was intended to be from FLA.

[Vik (Habs)]

After what he got the last couple years, I can't believe Joni Pitkanen went so cheap this year.

Updated projections:

Code: Select all

Team	TC	TWEC	TS		MTS
COL	52	23	63086000	62286000
T.B	52	15	53712000	57912000
BUF	42	19	55404000	57204000
WSH	36	21	56160000	56760000
ARI	46	14	51750000	56550000
NSH	40	18	54050000	56450000
CHI	26	11	49200000	55800000
PIT	47	19	53760000	55560000
CBJ	47	21	54634000	55234000
L.A	48	15	50050000	54250000

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OTT	31	10	47040000	54240000
NYR	41	18	51512000	53912000
DAL	40	16	49900000	53500000
NYI	37	14	48580000	53380000
CAR	46	16	49620000	53220000
S.J	47	17	50180000	53180000
MTL	39	14	48280000	53080000
MIN	35	12	46664000	52664000
DET	42	21	51860000	52460000
PHI	22	13	46440000	51840000

Code: Select all

VAN	48	18	48786000	51186000
FLA	49	17	47620000	50620000
EDM	40	11	43013000	49613000
WPG	38	17	45826000	48826000
TOR	42	16	44920000	48520000
BOS	35	16	43594000	47194000
N.J	43	14	39998000	44798000
ANA	41	14	39740000	44540000
CGY	46	11	33380000	39980000
STL	44	15	33912000	38112000

Colorado's getting closer to compliant. Tampa Bay's up to 52 projected contracts (and these don't include junior aged players).

[TorontoGM]

Team Finland is coming together nicely

[Vik (Habs)]

Team Finland is coming together nicely

Koivu, Pitkanen, and Pickard all on reasonable deals. Pretty solid couple of days for the Leafers.

[Vik (Habs)]

With bidding closed on most players, here be an update.

Code: Select all

Team	TC	TWEC	TS		MTS
COL	53	23	63086000	62286000
T.B	52	16	54612000	58212000
BUF	41	19	55404000	57204000
CHI	27	12	51200000	57200000
WSH	36	21	56160000	56760000
ARI	46	14	51750000	56550000
NSH	39	18	54050000	56450000
PIT	47	19	53760000	55560000
CBJ	47	21	54634000	55234000
OTT	31	10	47040000	54240000

Code: Select all

MTL	40	15	49830000	54030000
NYR	41	18	51512000	53912000
NYI	40	15	49530000	53730000
L.A	47	14	48700000	53500000
DAL	39	15	49050000	53250000
S.J	46	16	49630000	53230000
CAR	47	16	49620000	53220000
PHI	26	17	50140000	53140000
MIN	36	12	46664000	52664000
DET	43	21	51860000	52460000

Code: Select all

VAN	48	18	48786000	51186000
TOR	43	17	47720000	50720000
FLA	49	17	47620000	50620000
EDM	39	12	43863000	49863000
WPG	36	15	43626000	47826000
BOS	34	15	41744000	45944000
N.J	44	15	41648000	45848000
ANA	41	14	38590000	43390000
CGY	48	14	35980000	40780000
STL	42	14	32262000	37062000

Colorado and Tampa don't have any open bids so, unless I've entered something wrong (entirely possible), they're over the contract limit.
And Colorado's over the cap.

Some noteworthy players not included in the numbers for some of the more expensive teams:
Mackenzie Entwistle (BUF)
Brett Howden (BUF)
Miro Heiskanen (WSH)
Tyler Benson (ARI)
Julien Gauthier (NSH)

[TBGM - Geoff]

Yup, I know I've gotta move a few bodies ASAP

[DetroitGM]

Yup, I know I've gotta move a few bodies ASAP

And by "asap" you mean over the next month and a half

[Vik (Habs)]

Just noticed that Paul Dejersey (Boston buyout) is listed as an RFA with the Bruins.