Multiple Free Agent Questions

[danman5550]

Hi all! Trying to manage my first hockey FA period, and it's a bit crazy.
1) Do all the best players always sign immediately? How do they choose where to sign? I offered Stamkos a deal like he asked but it was backloaded heavily (and with extra money), and he signed a frontloaded cheapo deal. And I couldn't negotiate with other good players (I was going to try to sign Byfuglien as a backup) because they signed immediately with other teams. I come from a baseball background, so is that insanely different? (Plus the Oilers traded Byfugien right away. Same day made a trade. Why did/can they do that when I have to wait days and days for trade offers?)
2) Where can I find foreign players? Can I sign them straight from their teams? Do they have to be free agents? Some AI teams are signing halfway decent players, and I want to get in on it.
3) Has anyone else seen people refuse to negotiate off the bat? Jonas Hiller said he refused to negotiate with American teams! That's really funny, but come on dude!
4) This one is less so about free agency. When offering trades, sometimes teams just ignore me. I was trying to get Sharp back on the Hawks for a while, and I offered a very favorable package (my assistant said that they were likely to accept) including 2 NHL caliber players, rights to 2 guys, and a first round pick. They never answered back, and I had to offer different variations of the same trade multiple times to get him. Am I supposed to sometimes be ignored?
Thanks all.

[tarashnat]

Originally Posted by danman5550

Hi all! Trying to manage my first hockey FA period, and it's a bit crazy.
1) Do all the best players always sign immediately? How do they choose where to sign? I offered Stamkos a deal like he asked but it was backloaded heavily (and with extra money), and he signed a frontloaded cheapo deal. And I couldn't negotiate with other good players (I was going to try to sign Byfuglien as a backup) because they signed immediately with other teams. I come from a baseball background, so is that insanely different? (Plus the Oilers traded Byfugien right away. Same day made a trade. Why did/can they do that when I have to wait days and days for trade offers?)
2) Where can I find foreign players? Can I sign them straight from their teams? Do they have to be free agents? Some AI teams are signing halfway decent players, and I want to get in on it.
3) Has anyone else seen people refuse to negotiate off the bat? Jonas Hiller said he refused to negotiate with American teams! That's really funny, but come on dude!
4) This one is less so about free agency. When offering trades, sometimes teams just ignore me. I was trying to get Sharp back on the Hawks for a while, and I offered a very favorable package (my assistant said that they were likely to accept) including 2 NHL caliber players, rights to 2 guys, and a first round pick. They never answered back, and I had to offer different variations of the same trade multiple times to get him. Am I supposed to sometimes be ignored?
Thanks all.

It might help if you mention whether you are on the latest version of FHM2 or using a prior release before some of the bug fixes. There have been some tweaks to the AI with respect to addressing some of the issues with player transfers.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by danman5550

Hi all! Trying to manage my first hockey FA period, and it's a bit crazy.
1) Do all the best players always sign immediately? How do they choose where to sign? I offered Stamkos a deal like he asked but it was backloaded heavily (and with extra money), and he signed a frontloaded cheapo deal. And I couldn't negotiate with other good players (I was going to try to sign Byfuglien as a backup) because they signed immediately with other teams. I come from a baseball background, so is that insanely different? (Plus the Oilers traded Byfugien right away. Same day made a trade. Why did/can they do that when I have to wait days and days for trade offers?)
2) Where can I find foreign players? Can I sign them straight from their teams? Do they have to be free agents? Some AI teams are signing halfway decent players, and I want to get in on it.
3) Has anyone else seen people refuse to negotiate off the bat? Jonas Hiller said he refused to negotiate with American teams! That's really funny, but come on dude!
4) This one is less so about free agency. When offering trades, sometimes teams just ignore me. I was trying to get Sharp back on the Hawks for a while, and I offered a very favorable package (my assistant said that they were likely to accept) including 2 NHL caliber players, rights to 2 guys, and a first round pick. They never answered back, and I had to offer different variations of the same trade multiple times to get him. Am I supposed to sometimes be ignored?
Thanks all.

1. They'll usually sign fairly quickly, but it really depends on their demands relative to what teams are willing to pay for them. They may need to come down in price before they find someone who can afford them. It is possible that they may sign for a cheaper offer than one you've offered, depending on the exact circumstances - e.g., they prefer to stay with their existing team, signing with a team they like, the GM's negotiating skills, etc.

2. It depends on the exact league they're playing in (and their draft status; if they haven't been through a draft yet, you can't sign them.) KHL contracts, for example, must be honoured. For most of the world, though, the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement applies, and players can be signed regardless of contract status for a small fee ($240,000). Most North American minor leaguers can be signed at no cost.

3. Some players will refuse to sign outside their 'home' continent, but it shouldn't be happening in Hiller's case, since he's already an established NHLer, we'll have to check that.

4. No, you should always get a response. How long did you wait before re-submitting the offer? It may take a few days at times.

[danman5550]

Originally Posted by JeffR

1. They'll usually sign fairly quickly, but it really depends on their demands relative to what teams are willing to pay for them. They may need to come down in price before they find someone who can afford them. It is possible that they may sign for a cheaper offer than one you've offered, depending on the exact circumstances - e.g., they prefer to stay with their existing team, signing with a team they like, the GM's negotiating skills, etc.

2. It depends on the exact league they're playing in (and their draft status; if they haven't been through a draft yet, you can't sign them.) KHL contracts, for example, must be honoured. For most of the world, though, the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement applies, and players can be signed regardless of contract status for a small fee ($240,000). Most North American minor leaguers can be signed at no cost.

3. Some players will refuse to sign outside their 'home' continent, but it shouldn't be happening in Hiller's case, since he's already an established NHLer, we'll have to check that.

4. No, you should always get a response. How long did you wait before re-submitting the offer? It may take a few days at times.

1.) Makes sense. I just panicked when all of the top free agents were gone before I could even negotiate with them! I may just have to offer a bit of extra cash to keep them enticed!
2.) I think the thing I saw was teams signing their draft picks: the players they have the sole rights to. But I don't understand what that NHL-IIHF thing means. I haven't yet found a player that I can sign that has gone through a draft, and ended up in another league. Every player is owned by another team, or is playing in a league where I apparently don't own the league rights. Is there any non-free agent player I can sign?
3.) Hiller's gone back to normal, but for the first day of free agency after 2015-2016, he didn't want to play outside of Canada.
4.) Sometimes they do take longer than just one day (I'm used to MLB Manager, and making trades instantly!), but some I resubmit after more than a week has passed, and there are some from the beginning of the season (I'm more than a year away) that never contacted me. Does it have something to do with cap room? If I make a deal that involves me going over cap, but not over payroll, that could possibly be it. I tested that theory by renegotiating a trade where we both stayed under payroll and cap, with the same level of assistant confidence in the trade, and the second time it went through.
Also, when I get mail back from trade offers, I sometimes get ACCEPTED, and the GM says "this is barely fair", but I only have the option to discuss the trade again. I think that's an issue between the "GM accepted" bounds and the "mail page thinks this is accepted" bounds.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by danman5550

2.) I think the thing I saw was teams signing their draft picks: the players they have the sole rights to. But I don't understand what that NHL-IIHF thing means. I haven't yet found a player that I can sign that has gone through a draft, and ended up in another league. Every player is owned by another team, or is playing in a league where I apparently don't own the league rights. Is there any non-free agent player I can sign?

Oh, I should have mentioned: for the most part, you need to sign those players during the summer, not while the season is underway. For most European leagues (aside from the KHL), you should be able to sign any player that's old enough, has been through a draft, and whose NHL rights aren't owned by another team.

4.) Sometimes they do take longer than just one day (I'm used to MLB Manager, and making trades instantly!), but some I resubmit after more than a week has passed, and there are some from the beginning of the season (I'm more than a year away) that never contacted me. Does it have something to do with cap room? If I make a deal that involves me going over cap, but not over payroll, that could possibly be it. I tested that theory by renegotiating a trade where we both stayed under payroll and cap, with the same level of assistant confidence in the trade, and the second time it went through.
Also, when I get mail back from trade offers, I sometimes get ACCEPTED, and the GM says "this is barely fair", but I only have the option to discuss the trade again. I think that's an issue between the "GM accepted" bounds and the "mail page thinks this is accepted" bounds.

We'll have to take a look at those, it shouldn't be working that way in either of those cases.

[danman5550]

The only thing I've found with trying to sign European players is that they are marked as free agents anyways. Was I just not looking hard enough over the offseason for teams I could find players from? Obviously I can sign them as free agents, as no one holds rights, but it seems like all of the players in foreign leagues just went there after free agency ended.