Cap Floor

[Richard_Tardiff]

A cap floor would add to the texture of this pool and get closer to NHL workings. Their floor is too high for my liking but I think 50% of the cap is a reasonable number to use.

Do we put in a cap floor?

1. Rick Tardif Russell Ruffians Yea
2. Chris Savard
3. Greg Nolan
4. David Murphy
5. Dan Hebert
6. Kelly Boisvenue
7. Jean Davignon
8. Mark Des Cotes
9. John Baird
10. Glenn Austen
11. Lorne Taillon
12. Jacob Dionne
13. Dean Eastman
14. Pat Shane
15. Jeff Bradshaw

Vote count: 1 yea 0 nay 0 abstain

[Jean_Davignon]

I will abstain on this one as I have no preference

Jean

[Glenn_Austen]

I think this sounds reasonable, however, I wonder if we should wait until September of year Two to institute a floor, giving us a better feel for the roster implications of navigating the cap?

[Dan_Hebert]

yes

[Mark Des Cotes]

I don't see the point of a cap floor, so I vote no.

[Richard_Tardiff]

Rick to Glen and Mark:
Instead of tossing posts back and forth I thought it would be easier to address items by email then I will summarise our discussions and post them to not lose that it was discussed.

Mark, the intent of the cap floor is twofold:
1. It aligns with what the NHL does. We don't follow exactly what they do but we are trying to adapt what the NHL does into the fantasy pool format.
2. When the HHFL started and recently my CFHL Cow Pucks could simply draft a bunch of players that are rookies and let them develop. That's a great way to build a team, I agree 100%, but it's not realistic to how things work in real life. Franchises always sign "guys that are quality in the room" and "have intangibles" to lead rookies and teach them how to be pros. Those 2 statements usually mean they are paying a guy too much to live through a rebuild.

Glen, invoking the cap floor for the initial draft is desirable specifically to force people to draft some vets. I would not change that rule in later seasons, we vote for a cap floor or not this summer and it doesn't change afterwards.

For this season, the NHL floor is $60.24M, that's why I set a cap floor of 50% of NHL cap rounded down to the closest 5M because theirs is way too high IMO. I think that's low enough to allow for rebuilds to mostly sign kids but forces them to also have some vets while still keeping aligned with the fact the NHL uses a cap floor. So 50% of 81.5 is 40.75 rounded down to $40M. We need 23 players on the Active roster and I think it would enhance the pool to have the floor. The floor could be lower too, 40% rounded down to nearest 5M is also acceptable to me. I just want people to have to have at least $30M (40% of 81.5=32.6 rounded down to 30) so year-1 yields mostly competitive rosters across the league.

I'm not trying to change your minds, I'm just explaining the thought process to begin with. You remain entitled to vote however you wish.

If you'd like to comment feel free to reply, I won't summarise/post anything until this discussion is completed.

Thanks for your interest and input, the pools belongs to all of us and discussion gets us in a better place to start, making for fewer changes later. I hate changes…



Mark:
My confusion was that I could not imagine anyone purposely drafting a roaster they didn’t think could compete in the first season. That’s why the cap floor didn’t make sense to me. In order to be viable, any team would need some veterans and that costs money. I don’t think a cap floor will ever be an issue so I’m ok either way.



Glen:
I like your reasoning regarding the cap floor and agree fully - I think 50% is reasonable.

I would still be interested in defining “prospects” as players who have actually been drafted by an NHL team and restricting their availability as such.

I am not 100% comfortable with the concept of owners “drafting” players not yet drafted by actual teams (for example, Shane Wright) as issues such as actual draft year (more so for European prospects) and lack of cap hit implications make the acquisition of such players a source of potential conflict between owners (debating eligibility) and thereby problematic.



Rick:
The "prospects" roster has been changed to "Farm Team" to make it clearer. The term was incorrect from the start and I should not have used it.

In looking all this up, I did note that I have to edit our proposed eligibility rule to say 21 instead of 20 to ensure they are clear of their 2nd NHL Entry Draft and thus, UFA. Edited proposed rule: To be eligible to draft, the player must be drafted by an NHL team or at least 21 years old at the time of the draft.

So for your example, Shane Wright is not 21 years old and as such, is not eligible for our draft. That is part of how the NHL works, below is an excerpt from the web. I wouldn't want any GMs to have access to draft generational players years in advance of their draft years either. Having said that, I think players that were passed over for 2 NHL entry drafts are not going to be elite players. Martin St-Louis being a notable exception of a player that was passed over at the draft, signed as a UFA and went on to a fantasy relevant career. Bryzhgalov is another example although he wasn't really all that fantasy relevant.

Does this and the below quell your concerns? It sounds to me that we are in fact in agreement but there may be some misunderstanding of what the limitations are to keep this in check. To be perfectly clear, our edited proposed rule complies with NHL UFA status rules. I'm certainly willing to tweak it as needed to ensure we have it properly covered.

Excerpt from https://hockeyanswered.com/how-the-nhl- ... ete-guide/
Who can be selected in the draft?

All players who will be 18 years old on or before September 15 and not older than 20 years old before December 31 of the draft year are eligible for selection for that year’s NHL Entry Draft. In addition, non-North American players over the age of 20 are eligible.
The players are drafted from three major pools:
1. Major junior hockey leagues in Canada and the USA: The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) in Canada – comprised of Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) – the United States Junior Hockey League (USHL) and Canadian provincial junior hockey leagues
2. European junior and senior men’s hockey leagues
3. NCAA teams
Players that are older than the 20 year old maximum can be signed as free agents to the team of their choice.



Glen:
Yes - that addresses my concern.



Chris:
I raised a similar concern and Rick gave me the same eloquent answer. Fine with me too.
It sets the stop watch on the kids at the same time for all of us.