Player Movement and Salary Cap

Chomps · 06-21-2016, 09:26 PM

I am following your Historical Winnipeg Jets and Modern Jets video series, and playing along with my own games.

I need help at the LD position and noticed that the Manitoba Moose have a player that is 32 years of age, and rated at 3.0a. I was thinking about bringing him up to the Jets NHL team. However, his salary is currently $1,000,000 and I would take a $925,000 salary cap hit.

Can you please explain the Salary Cap and let me know if you think this is a good idea?

It would be really helpful if you would go into these sorts of scenarios and issues in your video series. I would like to see you cover more in-depth management of your team. I am only on the 3rd video, so maybe you have covered this already.

Thanks for helping the community and producing the weekly videos.

Torgonius · 06-21-2016, 10:00 PM

there are 3 NHL teams that act basically like ATMs for their owners, and can pretty much print money. Toronto, the NY Rangers and Montreal.

There were some other teams that were also mildly profitable, but not to the extent of those three.

In the days before the salary cap, those teams could just throw inordinate amounts of money at any free agent. The other franchises couldn't keep up without going out of business. Also, by throwing 1st line money at what were really 3rd line players, they wrecked the salary structure of the rest of the league.

On the other end of the spectrum, you had teams that would throw the bare minimum of salary, and field generally non-competitive teams.

The salary cap serves two functions. It determines the player's share of league revenue, and then compels teams to spend no more or no less than a strictly defined range, which is a percentage above and below the amount that is the total players' share divided by the number of franchises.

One mechanic that was added more recently is that a player in the minor leagues only has $925,000 of his salary discounted from the team's cap hit. It's called the 'Wade Redden' rule because the Rangers demoted Redden to the AHL to get rid of the cap hit his contract placed on them. They still had to pay him the money, but that was of little consequence to them. Now if a player has a 2 million dollar cap hit and gets sent to the AHL, he still counts as 1.075 million in cap hit.

There are also mechanics in place that prevent teams from circumventing the cap, but that's a different, much longer post!

A player's cap hit is basically the total dollar amount of his contract divided by the length of the contract. So a player who is on a 3 year, 3 million dollar total deal will have a cap hit of $1,000,000 per year, but his salary could be 950k, 1.00m, 1.05m over those 3 years.

Without more information, it's not possible to give you a definitive answer on your roster move. If you have a lot of cap space, then it isn't going to hurt you. If you don't have much cap space, then it becomes a much tougher decision.

Adam B · 06-21-2016, 11:02 PM

Excellent explanation Torognius.

I'm just going to add a bit:

You can see your teams current Salary vs the Cap on the Roster menu. Just look at the bottom.

If you're playing as the Jets, you should have more than enough room to make that call up, so you should be fine.

The Cap is there to make sure no teams have a $ advantage, not only in terms of Money allowed to be paid, but also to make sure teams can recruit players.

Using Winnipeg as the example - Winnipeg is one of the most interesting cities in a Sports Market. It gets hot and nice during the summer, but it is known for being a Cold place in the Winter. Many players when given a choice would prefer...better climates, so often you would see Winnipeg on a place where players don't want to go. The Salary Cap system allows for Winnipeg to make contract offers to get an retain Free Agents without worry of another team swooping in and stealing their players (often). (although Side note: It's not very often you'll actually hear someone complain about the weather once they are here.)

The Salary Cap isn't in affect in Historical Mode (if you're playing the 80s Jets), as the Cap wasn't introduced until after the lockout in 2004/05. What you have instead is Team Budgets, which we have discussed (although I'm not sure which video that is at this point), where it can be dealing with Scouts and Coaches but also a part of budgeting for your Owner. More often you shouldn't run in to budget problems (you can see this under the Finance tab), but an owner can become more likely to fire you if he's paying a lot and not getting results.

Romagoth · 07-07-2016, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torognius

A player's cap hit is basically the total dollar amount of his contract divided by the length of the contract. So a player who is on a 3 year, 3 million dollar total deal will have a cap hit of $1,000,000 per year, but his salary could be 950k, 1.00m, 1.05m over those 3 years

Don't forget the signing bonus. IRL, a signing bonus is added to the cap hit for a player, I am not sure if this is true in FHM2 as I haven't been able to locate a place where the signing bonus is listed (both in edit mode and normal mode). If there is a place, please point it out to me. If not, can we have that added for FHM3?

06-21-2016, 09:26 PM	#1
Chomps Major Leagues Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Taiwan Posts: 445	Player Movement and Salary Cap I am following your Historical Winnipeg Jets and Modern Jets video series, and playing along with my own games. I need help at the LD position and noticed that the Manitoba Moose have a player that is 32 years of age, and rated at 3.0a. I was thinking about bringing him up to the Jets NHL team. However, his salary is currently $1,000,000 and I would take a $925,000 salary cap hit. Can you please explain the Salary Cap and let me know if you think this is a good idea? It would be really helpful if you would go into these sorts of scenarios and issues in your video series. I would like to see you cover more in-depth management of your team. I am only on the 3rd video, so maybe you have covered this already. Thanks for helping the community and producing the weekly videos. Last edited by Chomps; 06-21-2016 at 09:32 PM.

06-21-2016, 10:00 PM	#2
Torgonius All Star Reserve Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 826	there are 3 NHL teams that act basically like ATMs for their owners, and can pretty much print money. Toronto, the NY Rangers and Montreal. There were some other teams that were also mildly profitable, but not to the extent of those three. In the days before the salary cap, those teams could just throw inordinate amounts of money at any free agent. The other franchises couldn't keep up without going out of business. Also, by throwing 1st line money at what were really 3rd line players, they wrecked the salary structure of the rest of the league. On the other end of the spectrum, you had teams that would throw the bare minimum of salary, and field generally non-competitive teams. The salary cap serves two functions. It determines the player's share of league revenue, and then compels teams to spend no more or no less than a strictly defined range, which is a percentage above and below the amount that is the total players' share divided by the number of franchises. One mechanic that was added more recently is that a player in the minor leagues only has $925,000 of his salary discounted from the team's cap hit. It's called the 'Wade Redden' rule because the Rangers demoted Redden to the AHL to get rid of the cap hit his contract placed on them. They still had to pay him the money, but that was of little consequence to them. Now if a player has a 2 million dollar cap hit and gets sent to the AHL, he still counts as 1.075 million in cap hit. There are also mechanics in place that prevent teams from circumventing the cap, but that's a different, much longer post! A player's cap hit is basically the total dollar amount of his contract divided by the length of the contract. So a player who is on a 3 year, 3 million dollar total deal will have a cap hit of $1,000,000 per year, but his salary could be 950k, 1.00m, 1.05m over those 3 years. Without more information, it's not possible to give you a definitive answer on your roster move. If you have a lot of cap space, then it isn't going to hurt you. If you don't have much cap space, then it becomes a much tougher decision.

06-21-2016, 11:02 PM	#3
Adam B Hockey Community Manager Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: A Hockey Rink Posts: 2,369	Excellent explanation Torognius. I'm just going to add a bit: You can see your teams current Salary vs the Cap on the Roster menu. Just look at the bottom. If you're playing as the Jets, you should have more than enough room to make that call up, so you should be fine. The Cap is there to make sure no teams have a $ advantage, not only in terms of Money allowed to be paid, but also to make sure teams can recruit players. Using Winnipeg as the example - Winnipeg is one of the most interesting cities in a Sports Market. It gets hot and nice during the summer, but it is known for being a Cold place in the Winter. Many players when given a choice would prefer...better climates, so often you would see Winnipeg on a place where players don't want to go. The Salary Cap system allows for Winnipeg to make contract offers to get an retain Free Agents without worry of another team swooping in and stealing their players (often). (although Side note: It's not very often you'll actually hear someone complain about the weather once they are here.) The Salary Cap isn't in affect in Historical Mode (if you're playing the 80s Jets), as the Cap wasn't introduced until after the lockout in 2004/05. What you have instead is Team Budgets, which we have discussed (although I'm not sure which video that is at this point), where it can be dealing with Scouts and Coaches but also a part of budgeting for your Owner. More often you shouldn't run in to budget problems (you can see this under the Finance tab), but an owner can become more likely to fire you if he's paying a lot and not getting results.