free agent startegy

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:36 pm

Ok

here's the deal

I got Robyn Regehr who is asking me for a raise that i am not willing to give him. Problem is, he is going to be a UFA in less than a month.

What do I do?
1) Let him be a UFa and try t oget him with a resaonnable contract ($1M less than what he currently wants)
2) Sign him for his price and then trade him.

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:44 pm

If you are not willing to give him what he wants, or an amount you can accept, then he is unlikely to re-sign for you as a UFA. It is probably best to re-sign him and trade him if this amount is too much for you, but it depends on whether the other GMs also think it is too much. If he really is asking for more than he is worth then it may be that he will be hard to get rid of. IRL number 2 would make it much less likely that players would re-sign for you in the future, but this is not reflected in EHM.

I would probably go for number 2 if you want to get something for him rather than nothing

Post by **Shadd666** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:44 pm

Sign and trade should be painfull if you find yourself unable to trade him away... Should be the best option if you find someone to deal with, but there's a risk, which implies some damages to your salary cap, and so your capacity to sign interesting UFAs...

It's up to you to see if you want to take the risk or not, depending on your cap situation, the importance of Regher in your team, the possibility or not to put someone else of your organisation in his role, the players you should target at a reasonnable price on the UFA's market, etc

You should also try to give him a longer contract that what he asks for with few money (but not too few!). Most of the time the player will refuse it, but sometimes they accept.

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:08 pm

He asks for a 1-year $3.6M contract and refused my best offer of 3-year $2.6M contract.

I think $3.6M is too much, even though he is my best LD.

I didn't even make him play too much during the playoffs because he was injured in the game 7 of the first round and when I replaced him (with Ladislav Smid), Smid just exploded (10 points in his first 5 games and ratings of 8-9-10-10-10),and since with Smid I hadnt' lost a game I decided to keep him and let Regehr on the bench.

I had hoped it would show him I didn't really need him and make him reconsider his salary but it didn't.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:28 pm

vocquat wrote:I had hoped it would show him I didn't really need him and make him reconsider his salary but it didn't.

I don't really know if EHM players are that smart. But $3.6M isn't that much for him if you ask me, he gets to be a very very good dmen in the game, so if I were you I would sign him to what he wants and make it a 3 or 4 year contract if possible.

I find a lot of times that you can offer a player say $4M/season, and they will go and sign with another team for $3M so sometimes you really have no control over it even when you can offer big contracts. So with that point, it don't know if I would risk letting him go to Free Agency.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:37 pm

I've noticed that for the most part, in EHM you don't have much flexibility with contract offers and what a player will accept. If he wants 3years at $2.5M per year, you'll might get him to accept a little less (one "click" down on the arrows) or 1 extra year. They usually won't take both less money and longer terms. They also don't like to be offered too much less than their asking price. They don't really negotiate like they do in the real world.

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:56 pm

On a related topic

My first line LW (Samsonov) and my first line RW (gionta), just don't want to even negociate, even though I have won 2 straight Stanley Cups. I don't think they can find a better spot than on the top line of the best team of the best league. Or maybe they juste want to retire. (Or is ti they find it too easy to win with me and want ot try elsewere

)

Isn't there anyhting I can do?

Post by **Shadd666** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:09 pm

Sometimes players won't negociate before the playoffs are over.

However, they would still accept reasonable offers, so you can offer them a contract

Maybe they're just waiting to see how much you consider give to them...

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:39 pm

the playoffs are over and I already offered them a contract that they turned down

Is it normal that every one just want 1-year contracts?

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:37 pm

well regehr signed with the canadiens for $4.3M

Post by **Shadd666** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:04 pm

vocquat wrote:the playoffs are over and I already offered them a contract that they turned down

Sometimes players just want to leave the team, for a reason or an other. Or maybe they turned you offers down because they thought they should earn more money due to their contribution to the team. Or maybe they just want to "test" the market to see how much they can earn next season...

vocquat wrote:Is it normal that every one just want 1-year contracts?

Players are generally raised to resign, so the quickest way for them to make money is one year deals

They should also leave the team if it struggles or if they don't fit well with their teammates or with the staff. Maybe the cap era as something to do with this too...

vocquat wrote:well regehr signed with the canadiens for $4.3M

Well,as he was on your bench without damage for your team, it's not such a great loss

Now you have money to spend on the UFA market!

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:29 pm

Oh I'm not worried. I have Smid, Vaananen, Morissonn, Lepisto, Kloucek, Methot, Pokulok to play left defense, but where's the loyalty.

Samsonov and Gionta also couldn't be signed by me. They each have a star reputation and they got $6M contracts. Don't even want to compete with that.

I guess i'll set a new record for stanley cup win with smallest payroll.
With guys like Smid, Malkin, Leino, Voutilainen, Semin, michalek, it could work

Post by **Shadd666** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:31 pm

...and you have a lot of room under the cap to fill the holes you may have on your team!

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:38 pm

call me cheap but i don't like spending $6M on anyone.

Last offseason, i didn't pick up anyone, and this time i got Josh Harding ($835k/y for 2years) and Mike richards($1.9M/y for 3years) through offer sheets. Pretty sweet.

Globally, i think it is a bit easy to get a great team with trades (the fact that i started with a fantasy draft also helped, i guess), but for my next game i think i a mgoing to only allow trades when tehy are offered to me, or when i select the offer to all option. It'll make things a little more difficult

flea · Post by **flea** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:46 pm

Josh Harding was absolutely BRILLIANT in my game!!!

Two pretty sweet deals u got there!!! Congrats!!!

What team are u playing??? If I may ask...

vocquat · Post by **vocquat** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:11 am

Washington Capitals

but since i did a fantasy draft, the roster was completely different. Only the unsigned prospects were those of the caps (Semin, lepisto,....) but i traded a lot at the beginning so i don't have many left.

Post by **Shadd666** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:44 am

vocquat wrote:call me cheap but i don't like spending $6M on anyone.

Aren't you an Arpagon GM?

(for those who read Molière...^^)

Totally off-topic, but i see you're from France

From where exactly?

Post by **Minstrel** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:44 am

Shadd666 wrote:Totally off-topic, but i see you're from France From where exactly?

Yes, you are. So that means if you want to ask them where they're from you message them instead. Just because you post a lot doesn't mean you can play by different rules, don't make off topic posts.

Post by **Shadd666** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:19 pm

Minstrel wrote:
Shadd666 wrote:Totally off-topic, but i see you're from France From where exactly?
Yes, you are. So that means if you want to ask them where they're from you message them instead. Just because you post a lot doesn't mean you can play by different rules, don't make off topic posts.

Yep. Sorry

I've realized it a bit too late to edit my post and remove this sentence

Forsberg · Post by **Forsberg** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:20 pm

Sign and trade at draft day, that way you have the cap space free for when other players become ufas.
Regehr isnt hard to trade at all as long as he makes under 4 million and the first or second round pick you can get for him is always welcome imo, especially since you most likely can get a similar defenseman come 1 july

.

Thundercleese · Post by **Thundercleese** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:09 am

Paying more than 4 mil for a d-man really isn't that much if you think about it. "Top" guys like Jovanovski are bringing in 7 mil and Regehr could eat that phony for breakfast. I have a hard time paying for defense in this game, on account of their impact isn't readily shown on the scoresheet as often as that kind of cost might warrant. I think one thing they should look at in the future (they being Riz/Graeme, the kings of awesome) is having the form ratings reflect defensive excellence in a game, like blocked shots, hits, takeaways, etc on a clearer basis.

Post by **Shadd666** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 10:26 am

Thundercleese wrote:I think one thing they should look at in the future (they being Riz/Graeme, the kings of awesome) is having the form ratings reflect defensive excellence in a game, like blocked shots, hits, takeaways, etc on a clearer basis.

I agree with you, and it has already mentionned on the SI boards many times.

The defensive part of the rating was better took in account in EHM05. But keep in mind that with the brand new 2D engine for EHM07, all things have to be retuned/tweaked! That's why the number of shoots in a game is sometimes a bit too high, that's why the ratings aren't that accurate as they were, etc Hell of a work to tweak those things, and it takes time.

By the way, some of those things are already tweaked for the upcoming patch. Maybe not perfectly yet, we'll see, but at least it starts to be tweaked. And we all know that SI guys do their best and we can be sure that things will be right as soon as possible

Post by **Minstrel** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:16 am

Shadd666 wrote:By the way, some of those things are already tweaked for the upcoming patch.

Indeed they are