RFA Compensation & Trade "Requests"

[JetsGM (Jacob)]

Figured I'll toss a league discussion up while more people are active on the forum (hopefully posting deals) in the next 24 Hours.

RFA Compensation

At the moment, the RFA compensation table is a bit too light. Goal would be to up the ante so GMs aren't throwing bids around. Goal would be to have this implemented this offseason.

Colin put in some (more) great work and has proposed a new table:
750K - 2M = 3rd round pick
2M - 3M = 2nd, 5th
3M - 4M = 1st, 4th
4M - 5M = 1st, 3rd, 5th
5M - 6M = 1st, 2nd, 3rd 
7M - 8M = 2x1sts
8M - 9M - 2x1st, 2x2nd
9M - 10M = 3x1st
10M - 11M = 4x1st
11M+ = 5x1sts

Beyond the new table, other thoughts we've had (or have been proposed):

• GMs being allowed to match bids with a proposed better pick offer (higher 1st for example)
• After a certain level (ex: above 5M), GM who owns the RFA gets to choose which picks they want from a bidding team

Trade "Requests"

This one is a bit more hypothetical, not necessarily coming into effect, but if the general consensus is positive, we can move forward with. There are quite a few GMs who have stockpiled a TON of depth in their minors, taking full advantage of the no cap on players under 2M. I give it to them, it was smart, plus being able to rotate guys in and out during the week provides a much needed extra fantasy point boost. However, there's quite a few players that also just sit there "in case", and some that would slide into one of the other 20 teams' roster easily.

To keep a competitive balance, my thoughts were to implement a trade "request" system. All players on drafted ELCs would of course be ineligible, but the idea is that veterans who are sitting in a teams minors want to play and after a certain number of games would request a trade.

Very open to thoughts on how to potentially implement this. Early thoughts:

• All players with over X games at the beginning of the season would be waived. Optional to have this repeated again near the halfway point of the NHL season (Dec 31)
• Devise an evaluation metric (i.e., player is >0.9 fppg, >90% GP, time on roster < 25%), he must be traded within 30 days or is placed on waivers. Optional here could be that the waivers claim costs a low pick (5th round) to claim

Let's hear your thoughts!

[Jim Rutherford/Pens GM]

I’m a big fan of the the new RFA table, specifically the proposed ideas regarding draft pick choice. I really believe that will make a difference for future bidders.

Trade requests sounds interesting but we would need a poll on the strict guidelines. Also it just sounds cool to have in the league haha

[chris - Hartford Whalers]

I like the request trade idea. Also think the weekly call up limit may be a little high.

For RFA compensation I think with the new lower player signing costs this will probably end quality player RFA bidding. In 2 offseasons under the old metric we barely saw any poaches and Pitt and wash were the only teams in 2 years that actually didn’t have cap to match. With new resign metric teams will have more cap space and will probably just match every roster player. This combined with the expensive compensation metric for RFAs really deters any bidding.

[Devils GM(Colin)]

Not necessarily. Before it was way too easy for a team with the picks and cap space to throw a bid at a player knowing they would probably match out of being handcuffed and then move the player afterwards. With the new potential table it would make the GM receiving the bid actually think about taking the compensation rather than auto matching.

It is just a proposal and we can tweak the compensation if it is liked overall.

The high end 10+ mil is a ridiculous amount of compensation because we let McDavid sign for 9.5 so realistically no player should have a cap hit above 10 mil in this league going fwd. It just makes it so if a team really wants to make a higher bid they have to have some resources.

[chris - Hartford Whalers]

Idk. How many available players last 2 years would you actually bid on if it required a 1st+ to win

[Devils GM(Colin)]

Like I said we can still tweak the Draft pick compensation, the biggest thing is having more tiers IMO. Like 2.25 - 4.25 shouldn't have the same compensation. There is definitely a happy medium between the old way and the proposed new way