Waiting for Traded Players' Contracts to End

[Lumpylo5]

I'm playing a QMJHL team and traded for the rights to a couple of prospects. Now I'm trying to sign them, and it says I have to wait until their current contracts end. They belong to minor, non-playable junior teams, but they can't move up to the CHL? NHL teams have no problem signing players from lower-level teams once they draft/trade for their rights; is it not the same for the CHL?

It certainly looks like a CHL team can't sign anyone who isn't a free agent, even if it drafts them or trades for them.

[Shindigs]

This used to be a big issue in the CHL, I haven't played there in a long while so not sure if it's fixed. But yes, a player who plays bantam or w/e can't join you until his contract ends. In real life this presumably isn't an issue since someone who was drafted to the CHL won't be dumb enough to sign a 4 year deal with a non-CHL team (do you even have a contract as a bantam player IRL?). But in EHM they are dumb enough to do that, so your #1 draft pick would "go to free agency" but for some reason when a high reputation youth player goes to free agency in EHM what used to happen is that they are instantly assigned a new youth team, presumably so they won't retire due to no team being able to match their rep and sign them, which meant that they never became free agents until after they turned 18. So the guys you drafted in the Bantam draft were just chips to use for trading essentially. You could never actually use them in the CHL, hence why I stopped playing it. I don't know if that's been fixed by now since I did bug report it and attach a save, but based on what you're saying I guess it's still at least partially broken.

[Manimal]

Have you tried signing them in august or early September?
The Q has a deadline for signing young players somewhere in mid-September

[Lumpylo5]

I just started playing the CHL game, which means I started in September. If signings are possible in August I wouldn't know yet. However I doubt that a deadline has anything to do with the problem for a few reasons: first of all, the game makes no mention of a signing deadline in the league rules. Second, other teams have continued signing free agents through October (and I was also able to sign a free agent). The problem is with players who still belong to lower-level teams (junior or bantam), which means virtually every player young enough to play for more than two years.

This is especially a problem when just starting a game. Since you don't have a lot of scouting reports, you can't jump in and sign free agents. By the time you've done your scouting and know who you want, they've all signed contracts. Maybe in future years I'll be able to snap up young players before they sign any deals, but I still won't be able to use any players I trade for who have bantam/other junior league contracts.

[Shindigs]

There are some niche cases where you can actually instantly sign a player who is on a contract with a lower level team. I don't remember the specifics, but I know I've done it. Have you tried swapping their role to key/core/regular when signing them? I've yet to try it myself but I know that when you're signing Russians with a current KHL contracts to the NHL, if you pick "hot prospect" or "decent young player" they join at the end of their current contract. However if you pick key/core/regular they join you instantly (assuming the international trade window is open); Would be interesting to see if that would work in the CHL with Bantam players too. I know I've signed Cale Makar and William Reilly at the beginning of a 15-16db save in the WHL, and at least one of them starts in a lower team.

Also I personally always pick the early start date to deal with the scouting issue. That way you have a pool of knowledge in time to sign free agents and such before the season starts.

[Lumpylo5]

Yes, I 've started a new game and have noticed that I'm able to sign some players with existing contracts but not others. I'm not sure why, but maybe you're right about the assigned roles. I totally agree about choosing the early start date. I chose it this time and I have far more scouting reports to work with.