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Free agent compensation guide (updated April 2008)

Carefully read this entire page before making any offers!

Quick links: Free agent compensation tables | How to make an official offer

The objectives of the FA guide are to:

1. Bring a relatively consistent salary structure to the league and end salary creep. This system will allow us to maintain consistent salary levels under current the salary cap for the foreseeable future.
2. Encourage GMs to let their UFAs test the off-season FA market. GMs should, in most cases, be able to re-sign their own UFAs for less by letting them test the market. This is due to inflated FA Guide demands for UFAs, and the 10% loyalty clause discount for players you have allowed to test the market.
3. Compensate fairly younger elite players relative to their older counterparts. The old FA Guide is set up so that younger young superstars (e.g. Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin) were paid far less than older, equally rated players. The new guide looks to create better pay parity among the league's best players while still allowing for an "experience/seniority" factor for the older elite players.

Important notes

• The free agent compensation tables below should be used as a rough guide when negotiating a free agent's contract. It is not meant to be followed literally, but should be used in negotiations by both agents and GMs to come to a deal that fits in with the league salary structure.

• The job of CNGHL agents and GMs is to come to an agreement on what category best describes their free agent, then add or subtract salary based on what additional strengths and weaknesses the player brings to the table. For players 25 years old or older, the difference from the suggested salary could be up to $250,000 of either side of the guide's target salary -- and possibly a little more in rare cases where the player is right in between two categories. ( e.g. A 28 year old cherry picking floater forward with no leadership abilities who scores 40 goals per season could accept $250k less than the recommended $5.35 million, while a gritty, defensively responsible NHL captain of the same age who scores 40 goals per season could demand $5.6 million.) Players 24 years old or younger should not receive salaries more than $200,000 higher or lower than the suggested salary. Only players with no significant additional strengths or weaknesses beyond what is mentioned in the tables should get the suggested salary.

• Remember CNGHL age (the age used on the tables) is determined by taking the current calendar year and subtracting the birth year! Using this formula (i.e. 2008-1977=31), all un-signed players 31 and older are automatically deemed impending Unrestricted Free Agents.

• Suggested salaries are based on three year deals. Adjust accordingly if the GM prefers a shorter or longer contract, depending on the stage of the player's career (young players may take less for short contracts, over the hill players may take less for long contracts, and young players will only accept four year contracts if the offer is very generous - in other words, it safely exceeds the expected potential of player). No agent will accept a contract of over four years.

• Contracts are based on real (NHL) performance/potential etc., not the player's performance in the CNGHL. This is because the annual player re-rates are based on the NHL. CNGHL performance or their place on a CNGHL team's depth chart has absolutely no bearing on negotiations.

• Agents and GMs should factor in both the performance of the player in the past three years and the expected performance of the player over the duration of his new contract when agreeing on a price. Remember, the player's past three seasons affect the player's SC and PA ratings (70-20-10 ratio).

• Please be conservative when assessing expectations for unproven and younger players, as more often than not they do not live up to the hype as fast as expected, if at all. Agents should always be skeptical about huge point projections for high-profile youngsters -- we're trying to be fair for everyone, so it's better to underestimate than overestimate and leave someone stuck with an overblown contract until the player hits age 31.

• Do not overrate break-out seasons. If a player jumps more than 20 points in one year, the odds of him repeating that increased production the next year is low. Splitting the difference between the current season and the one before should create accurate production expectations in most cases, or you may choose to offer a one year deal at a lower price to allow the player to prove he is not a one-hit wonder. 

• Since SC and PA ratings are based upon points per game, be sure to keep this in mind when assessing offensive talent. (e.g. If a player gets 35 points in 41 games he should be considered a 70 point player.) Also keep in mind that players who played less than 35 regular season games in the NHL retain their SC/PA ratings from the previous year.

• Unlike the NHL, a CNGHL agent's job is to demand what he thinks is fair for the player, not demand as much as possible. He may lean towards the generous side, but should be willing to compromise at least a little. Conversely, CNGHL GMs should not try to severely lowball their players (or make an offer with no reasons to back it up). This is a waste of time and could lead to agent backlash in the other direction. Instead, come to the table armed with as many facts, stats, quotes and links as you can to prove what you believe is a reasonable offer. Agents will be more willing to compromise for those who have done their research and made a solid presentation. In most cases, expect to go back and forth with counter offers one or two times before a decision to sign or test the free agent market is made.

• Expect agents to be extra tough when negotiating deals for unrestricted free agents, and do not expect to retain your unrestricted free agent before he hits the market unless you can meet the rather hefty demands of the compensation table. But keep in mind you still have the 10% loyalty factor (see rules page) in your favour should you choose to let him test the market. Not being able to sign a UFA before he hits the deadline does not mean you will lose him for sure, it only means you believe market value for him is lower than what the agents are demanding.

• Remember, a qualifying offer in the CNGHL is the player's current salary, not a 10% raise like in the NHL.

• Restricted free agents will never accept an offer lower than their current salary (qualifying offer). If a GM makes one, the player will always choose to explore unrestricted free agency. The only players who will accept an offer lower than their current salary are significantly overpaid unrestricted free agents who are on an obvious downward slope in their career and do not feel they could get more in an open market.

• Unrestricted free agents will never accept more than a 25% pay cut from their current team without testing the market first. In order to discourage the practice of re-signing UFAs and then trading them for cheaper assets shortly after, UFAs will no longer accept a pay cut of 25% or more to re-sign with their current team. The only time you will be able to get a UFA to take a larger pay cut is if no other CNGHL team is willing to pay them more during UFA auctions.

• $6 million is the ceiling for the CNGHL's salary structure. No agent should decline an offer of $6 million or more and only top-of-the-line unrestricted free agents should demand this much. 

• The line classifications on the compensation tables are what the player would be on an average NHL team. So if the player in question is a first liner on Columbus, that does not necessarily mean he should be in a different category than someone else who is a second liner on Ottawa.

• If a stalemate has been reached in contract negotiations and the player decides to explore free agency, the GM is free to meet the agent's demands at any time before the league imposed signing deadline (deadline will be some time during the summer, you will have plenty of warning before a date is set). In the event of a serious setback to a player following a negotiation stalemate (major injury, trade to a team where he is much lower on the depth chart, etc.) the agents may also agree to accept a lower offer -- but this will not happen very often, and it will be up to the GM to make -- and justify -- a new offer.

• When a GM is deciding on the length of a contract, he should keep in mind the rule which says to cut a player you must pay half of the player's salary over the total value of his contract. Having to cut someone after signing them to a four year deal will put a significant dent in your finances.

• It is not necessary to sign players prospects on your prospects list who have played less than 35 NHL games in the previous NHL season. You must sign all prospects who have played 35 games or more, but those who have played fewer may stay on your prospects list if you prefer.

• Free agent monitors Chris and Bryce will review all negotiations and have the right to veto any contract, though this will only happen in the most extreme cases where agents agree to a contract significantly below the player's worth. It is unlikely that the monitors will have to veto any deals.

• New for 2008: "Rookie/Entry Level" contracts can fall into one of two categories - a young player aged 19-22 playing his first Pro season in the NHL or a mature player who debuts in the NHL much later in his career. This mature player may not have an impact or he could excel immediately. The Rookie/Entry Level category should provide a more fair compensation for this type of player over the traditional age-based compensation.

Suggested free agent compensation tables (for three year deals)

Forwards

Defencemen

Goaltenders

How to make an official offer:

We are now accepting free agent offerings. It's a good idea to get all your FAs signed as soon as possible, as waiting until the signing deadline could limit the agent's ability to compromise. Here's how you do it:

-First, collect all the facts, stats, quotes and links needed to make your point. As mentioned, agents will be more willing to compromise with GMs who make a thorough presentation, and those who make no attempt to explain their offer may be subject to harsh counter-offers.

-Second, choose the first six players you want to make an offer to, three from each "half" of the alphabet as that is how we are assigning representation this year. You may not submit more than three offers to each of the two agent groups at any one time, and please wait until all three negotiations are settled by the agent group before sending in more.

-All free agent negotiation e-mails must have this headline: "CNGHL FA- (player names)" 

-All free agent negotiation e-mails must contain the following information: Name of player, current contract, new offer (amount per year and number of years), which category you believe the player fits into the compensation tables on this page, and why he deserves the amount offered.

-Send your offer to one of the following agents, depending on the player's last name:

Pat ( patrickj@interchange.ubc.ca ) and Andy ( andy@andysthoughts.com ) are agents for players whose last names begin with A through M

Michael ( mleduc@pacbell.net ) and Kevin ( prehpreh19@hotmail.com ) are agents for players whose last names begin with N through Z

Andreas ( blondes_storm@yahoo.com ) is agent supervisor and all contracts must be confirmed by Andreas before they are sent to the league offices for final approval.

-Andreas will be sending all parties an official response, hopefully within a week or two. Please be patient, we're all very busy and doing this voluntarily in our spare time.

-When a player officially signs, you will be notified via e-mail and his name will be posted to the "signed players" list in the Archives menu shortly after.

-If possible, please retain all negotiation e-mails to prevent disputes or lost negotiation results.

That's it! Happy negotiating.