Draft rules- Drafted players from KHL become available as UFA

geisterhome · 02-26-2019, 12:47 PM

I'm in year 2020 at the free agency. Sorokin and Sestyorkin just became available as UFAs for every team to sign them. I was wondering which rules apply, I'm no expert on this by any means but after some internet research I found out that for players from the KHL (or any league with no transfer-agreement) the team that drafted the player will hold on to the draft rights indefinitely.
In that case those players shouldn't be available as UFA, why does it still happen?

JeffR · 02-27-2019, 02:27 AM

They don't hold the rights indefinitely, but the exact mechanics are a bit complicated:

Generally, teams have four years (two if the player is older than 20) to sign players drafted from outside North America. However, there's a loophole: if the player signs a professional contract with a team in a league that does not have a transfer agreement with the NHL (the KHL and Swiss leagues being the only significant ones like that), he's considered a "defected player" and the drafting team has the option of retaining the player's rights.

But there are limitations on that; depending on the amount of time the player spends contracted to such a team and how long he waits after his contract expires, the player can become a Group 4 free agent, effectively a special type of RFA, that must be offered a qualifying offer for his rights to be retained, and, if that's done, allows his drafting team to retain the right to match an offer sheet made to him (but, unlike other RFA's, does not grant them draft pick compensation if they don't match.) Additionally, if such a player signs a contract in a league that does have a transfer agreement with the NHL, the rights are lost.

Incorporating all of that into the game's free agency mechanics and AI logic would be very ugly - it's an exception to a general rule that's further modified by various other exceptions and conditions. And in practical terms, most of it rarely comes into play - most players stuck in defected status will never come over; those that do generally do so at an age where which NHL teams controls their rights doesn't materially affect the size of their contract, so there's no incentive to try to escape defected status.

So we just use the default rights expiration for every league and don't bother with the special KHL/Swiss situations. I've looked at adding a simplified way of simulating the perpetual rights situations, but haven't yet come up with a way that's relatively lightweight in terms of the coding requirements and doesn't present a danger (e.g. wasting proected list spots) to the AI.

geisterhome · 02-27-2019, 05:27 AM

Ok that makes sense. thanks for elaborating.
thinking about a house rule to apply for myself, maybe adding those players to the team they drafted if it makes any sense for those teams (and players).

Suggestions anybody?

Gesendet von meinem SM-G955F mit Tapatalk

02-26-2019, 12:47 PM	#1
geisterhome Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 286	Draft rules- Drafted players from KHL become available as UFA I'm in year 2020 at the free agency. Sorokin and Sestyorkin just became available as UFAs for every team to sign them. I was wondering which rules apply, I'm no expert on this by any means but after some internet research I found out that for players from the KHL (or any league with no transfer-agreement) the team that drafted the player will hold on to the draft rights indefinitely. In that case those players shouldn't be available as UFA, why does it still happen?

02-27-2019, 02:27 AM	#2
JeffR FHM Producer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Kelowna, BC Posts: 16,623	They don't hold the rights indefinitely, but the exact mechanics are a bit complicated: Generally, teams have four years (two if the player is older than 20) to sign players drafted from outside North America. However, there's a loophole: if the player signs a professional contract with a team in a league that does not have a transfer agreement with the NHL (the KHL and Swiss leagues being the only significant ones like that), he's considered a "defected player" and the drafting team has the option of retaining the player's rights. But there are limitations on that; depending on the amount of time the player spends contracted to such a team and how long he waits after his contract expires, the player can become a Group 4 free agent, effectively a special type of RFA, that must be offered a qualifying offer for his rights to be retained, and, if that's done, allows his drafting team to retain the right to match an offer sheet made to him (but, unlike other RFA's, does not grant them draft pick compensation if they don't match.) Additionally, if such a player signs a contract in a league that does have a transfer agreement with the NHL, the rights are lost. Incorporating all of that into the game's free agency mechanics and AI logic would be very ugly - it's an exception to a general rule that's further modified by various other exceptions and conditions. And in practical terms, most of it rarely comes into play - most players stuck in defected status will never come over; those that do generally do so at an age where which NHL teams controls their rights doesn't materially affect the size of their contract, so there's no incentive to try to escape defected status. So we just use the default rights expiration for every league and don't bother with the special KHL/Swiss situations. I've looked at adding a simplified way of simulating the perpetual rights situations, but haven't yet come up with a way that's relatively lightweight in terms of the coding requirements and doesn't present a danger (e.g. wasting proected list spots) to the AI.

02-27-2019, 05:27 AM	#3
geisterhome Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 286	Ok that makes sense. thanks for elaborating. thinking about a house rule to apply for myself, maybe adding those players to the team they drafted if it makes any sense for those teams (and players). Suggestions anybody? Gesendet von meinem SM-G955F mit Tapatalk