Limited UFA Pre-Signing

[Dave B (Northstars)]

I Would like to propose a rule that could be introduced into our league that could potentially improve team finances and league activity. I think if we limit the amount of players (3 is suggested) that can be pre-signed during the alloted pre-signing period each season than that would create a larger influx of unrestricted free agents available each free agency period. I would hope the supply would outweigh the demand and players would not receive enormomous offers some players have gotten in the past (Ron Francis). Without the burdon of a large contract many teams and GM's could negotiate more trades and could move on to other free agents if the first player is requesting too high of a salary. Any thoughts Ed?

[toronto]

I would be interested in hearing a discussion on this as i support this. However, there may be some reasons not to do this that i haven't thought of yet.

We could also make the rule slightly differently and do soemthing along the lines of giving each gm 5 total free agent presignings to use for ufas and rfas and let them decide who they sign. This might create more chance for rfa offer sheets but might also take away from what would be Dave's suggested UFA pool if a gm simply used all 5 extensions on ufas.

I'd like to hear other thoughts on this.

[Dave B (Northstars)]

Ideally this would only include UFA's. If GM's start sending out too many offer sheets on RFA's then GM's will start to sign their RFA's to full length (with inflated salaries to compensate for lost RFA years) contracts, again, hurting team finances. This is what happened in the NHL. This idea came from an article about Bob gainey and how he "bought in" to Bettmans idea, only to have GM's like Lowe ruin it for financially responsible GM's. (http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/02/11/kelley_gainey/) With our league rule of a 5 year maximum contract, this system could work, as we wouldn't see 15 year contracts and such as in the NHL.

[Edward Thomas Swan]

I think the salary cap is "hand cuffing" enough to GMs and limiting the amount of the FA signings punishes GMs who are smart and watch their cap space. Also, though this will increase activity in the UFA market, it would decrease the amount of trading, as team would not be forced to deal salaries....so no matter what, I think you have the same amount of activity.

[Dave B (Northstars)]

Bump.