EHM The Blue Line

Does anyone have some tips for me on this?

I am playing as the Islanders and obviously enough I want to extend the contract of Tavares and preferably one that will tie him down for 3+ seasons.

His normal demands are 4.4M a season for only a 2 year extension, the price is decent enough but if I try to add 2 more seasons to that extension at 4.5M a year he flat out refuses my offer.
Even though I am under the salary cap quite a bit, I don't want to throw a fortune at the guy even though he is a great player.

I have the same problem with other players, they want a wage hike but they won't even accept an extra year to their deals.
Does anyone have some tips? I really want to keep my talented guys like Montoya and Tavares, and of course don't want to lose them after the season ends.

I don't really have the most experience in the contract side of things, so I might not know some of the basic stuff that I can do to retain them (other than give them arab money)

Uhm I think I have a bit of a problem...

I offered Tavares the usual qualifying offer to keep hold of his rights.
So his contract runs out and I retain his rights, giving me exclusive rights to offer him a contract without being hunted by other teams for his signature...

But exactly the next day after Tavares' contract runs out I get this message...



Needless to say I am a bit scared now, if there is one thing I do not want to happen ever is that I might lose John Tavares to whoever wants him.
How could this have happened? I thought I would get the time to sign him at least until the end of pre-season.

Some quick tips would really be awesome right now, because I am afraid to continue the game until I know what's going on.

deknegt wrote:I offered Tavares the usual qualifying offer to keep hold of his rights.
So his contract runs out and I retain his rights

I think what you're talking about here relates to a player you're resigning, not an unsigned prospect (drafted player) that you've never before signed to a pro contract...IIRC the "rights" you have when you draft a player last for 2 years, and then the player becomes a UFA

The screenshot indicates you drafted Tavares but you never actually signed him to a a pro contract, and I suspect you likely lost the "exclusive rights" to sign him because he was not signed to a pro contract within 2 years of when you drafted him...

Well I know for sure I have had im on my team for the past years seeing I am playing with the new rosters and I Tavares has been playing for the Islanders for the past 3 years.

He has also vanished from my team report and he doesn't have NHL rights anymore, does that mean he is now fair game for whoever that wants to sign him?
I really dont want to lose my star player through free agency.

That is a bug in the game that happens sometimes.
And yes, he is now free-for-all

Well... aint that a pain.

Some way to prevent that from it happening in the future?

deknegt wrote:Well... aint that a pain.

Some way to prevent that from it happening in the future?

Nope. You never know when it happens.
Get him signed in time. IIRC, it is rather easy to re-sign guys during training camp

Happened to me as well.....once training camp came around, he signed rather quickly, and for less money than he initially wanted.

IslesEnforcer wrote:Happened to me as well.....once training camp came around, he signed rather quickly, and for less money than he initially wanted.

Yeah that's what I tried to do, but with lots of teams hunting for him I didn't have much choice but to give in to his demands... But still a 6M 3 year deal isn't THAT bad for Tavares, and I am still tickling the wage floor.

Also does anyone have any tips on signing players on longer deals? I can get people to sign 1-2 year extensions but I really would love to sign some guys to 4-5 year deals so that I can hold on to them longer. Even when I offer them more than 2M over their initial demands they refuse it.

Give them more money upfront, man! I usually have a fairly large signing bonus upfront, so if Tavares wanted 4.5 for 2 years I'd give him 0.5 million upfront then sign him to a 20 million, 4 year deal. Not a bad deal at all. Otherwise, just start negotiating with him earlier and maybe keep notes on players so that you're reminded to sign them in time.

If he ain't interested in signing a long term deal. Just sign the short term deal or let him go if you think it's too expensive. I always fix short term problems if I have too.

Now, I kind of wonder what the longest deals people on here has signed players to?

I think the longest deal I've ever signed is a 8-year deal.

I always get that bug with tavares and it drive me crazy. I stopped trading for him as a result.

You can often sign players coming off thier ELC to a 10 year deal if you want. Its a bug in the system. Take a top prospect, sign him, and leave him in junior for the first 2 years of his ELC (or the minors if he is from Europe). In the summer between the second and third year of the ELC when you can extend him, offer a 9 year extension at ~2.9M-~3.2M (depending on the salary cap you have set) and most players will sign. You can even make it a two-way deal. If you are wrong and the player doesn't develop, you have to find another team willing to take that contract, but if you are right you get tremendous value.

But, if realism is what you are looking for, this trick is not realistic.

Wroom wrote:If he ain't interested in signing a long term deal. Just sign the short term deal or let him go if you think it's too expensive. I always fix short term problems if I have too.

Now, I kind of wonder what the longest deals people on here has signed players to?

I think the longest deal I've ever signed is a 8-year deal.

gcw_rocks wrote:I always get that bug with tavares and it drive me crazy. I stopped trading for him as a result.

You can often sign players coming off thier ELC to a 10 year deal if you want. Its a bug in the system. Take a top prospect, sign him, and leave him in junior for the first 2 years of his ELC (or the minors if he is from Europe). In the summer between the second and third year of the ELC when you can extend him, offer a 9 year extension at ~2.9M-~3.2M (depending on the salary cap you have set) and most players will sign. You can even make it a two-way deal. If you are wrong and the player doesn't develop, you have to find another team willing to take that contract, but if you are right you get tremendous value.

But, if realism is what you are looking for, this trick is not realistic.

I have been playing this game since it came out, and have never been able to sign guys for more than 4-5 years. Now I have something to think about, the Wings have some younger guys I would like to lock up long term (I don't want 10 year deals though, more like 6-7 years).

Actually part of that is because...back in the day EHM came out..the long term varying cap hit deals were not part of hockey. They came in (may have been very few prior to 2006 but not many) after EHM was already on the market en masse. So really it was not a bug, it was just something that had not really happened very much yet, so the players in EHM would not accept those types of long term, varying $$ amount per year deals. The backsliding long terms like Luongo and Kovalchuk came after EHM came out.

But yeah..for the future would love to see players a little more likely to take Long term deals.

For the record, I have NEVER been able to sign everyone over 5 years and I have tried what that gcw guy wrote several times.

We know that the game does not like having too long contracts at start up, as well, so we had to reduce a couple of contracts in length.

batdad wrote:Actually part of that is because...back in the day EHM came out..the long term varying cap hit deals were not part of hockey. They came in (may have been very few prior to 2006 but not many) after EHM was already on the market en masse. So really it was not a bug, it was just something that had not really happened very much yet, so the players in EHM would not accept those types of long term, varying $$ amount per year deals. The backsliding long terms like Luongo and Kovalchuk came after EHM came out.

But yeah..for the future would love to see players a little more likely to take Long term deals.

For the record, I have NEVER been able to sign everyone over 5 years and I have tried what that gcw guy wrote several times.

I knew this was how the game was structured due to the way contracts were signed prior to the new CBM right before EHM 2006-07 came out, but thought I would take some shots at it anyway, so.....

I actually got 2 of my guys to sign massive long term deals on the same day (this is with the 6.1 rosters):

Danny DeKeyser signed a 10 year contract at $3.2 million per year for the first 5 years (after his last year of ELC is done) and $3.5 million per year the remaining 4 years with a $20k bonus.
Riley Sheahan signed a 10 year contract at 2.9million per year (after his last year of ELC is done) with a $20k bonus.



I have never before been able to sign ANYONE for longer than 5 years and even that was rare. I am loving these deals because now I have 2 guys locked up long term with reasonable cap hits and I don't have to go through the contract negotiation garbage with them again in 2 years. Some people may feel these numbers are unrealistic, but look at it this way; Sheahan is only 21 and no way has he earned $2.9 million per year yet and probably won't for another 3-4 years. So yes, he will probably be underpaid the last 2-3 years of his deal, but he will be massively overpaid the first 2-3 years as well so it really balances out, at least imho.

I am just amazed that these guys both agreed to a long term deal. After playing EHM for over 8 years, this is a shock to me.

I hand't heard the training camp thing before so I will have to try that in the future. Contracts are one of the most annoying aspects of the game currently for me.

Niether one of those players becomes a star of any import(key or core). So they think they won the lottery. At best they are fringe and depth players. So it would make sense they signed long term deals that they are always going to be overpaid on. That said, it is good to see it done somewhere.

But let us know if you get a top line guy in EHM to do it.

batdad wrote:Niether one of those players becomes a star of any import(key or core). So they think they won the lottery. At best they are fringe and depth players. So it would make sense they signed long term deals that they are always going to be overpaid on. That said, it is good to see it done somewhere.

But let us know if you get a top line guy in EHM to do it.

I did some editing in the 6.1 database and both of these guys are future top line players. Dekeyser is already a top-4 defenseman in Detroit and was a highly sought after free agent before signing with the Wings prior to last season. He projects as a top-2 defenseman down the road. Sheahan was a Wings 1st rounder and is a fantastic defensive player who is showing a lot of offensive upside in Detroit on a roster riddled with injuries. He has 10 points in 15 games with the Wings this year and looks to be a 2nd line center down the road.

The ratings for both of these guys in the database was wrong, and I don't say that because I am a Wings fan. I do a lot of research and have a very good idea of which players are rated highly and which ones probably won't develop into much. There are several Detroit prospects that suck and I made sure they were rated as such, but Sheahan and Dekeyser rated at -13 is not very realistic, as that is a rating for an average player in EHM. I rated them both as -9 due to a general consensus that they are potential top line players. It's ok if you disagree with me on the ratings, I use my own database anyway; and I don't create a bunch of superstar prospects like some people, I try to keep it as realistic as possible. The Wings have one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL, however, and these 2 players are just a couple of them.

Anyway, I am letting you know that I did, in fact, get a top line guy in EHM to sign a long term deal since both of these guys project to be top line players.

They are projected to be. How about Crosby or Ovechkin like real established stars of the NHL?

philou21 wrote:They are projected to be. How about Crosby or Ovechkin like real established stars of the NHL?

I don't have anyone on my team at this point that fits that category. Zetterberg is already signed to a long term deal, and I did extend Datsyuk another 4 years for $6775000/per season (which is less than his real life extension number). Nobody else on the team would be considered a Crosby or Ovechkin type star player, but I will make sure to update this if I get the opportunity to extend someone else.

But were u able to edit their reputation? Just asking because rep is what makes the player know where he is at. That and his status within the team. Not saying you have not done anything interesting as you have...but still can you get these guys to sign these deals without overpaying for the first few years?

Also these deals go to guys in the show who are already stars not the ones with potential to be stars. Hence my original question. And again this type of deal for stars was not around during the time EHM was made so the game would not really be coded that way. EHM stars would not want the deals of those in real life.

batdad wrote:But were u able to edit their reputation? Just asking because rep is what makes the player know where he is at. That and his status within the team. Not saying you have not done anything interesting as you have...but still can you get these guys to sign these deals without overpaying for the first few years?

Also these deals go to guys in the show who are already stars not the ones with potential to be stars. Hence my original question. And again this type of deal for stars was not around during the time EHM was made so the game would not really be coded that way. EHM stars would not want the deals of those in real life.

I increased their reputation a little bit but they are not stars (yet?) so I didn't bump it up too much. I get what you are saying, but this all came about based on the post earlier in this thread regarding signing guys to long term deals off their ELC. I still believe the contract will balance itself out since they will probably be worth more than what they are making the last few years of the contract while being overpaid the first few years. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don't have anyone on the roster that is a star with an expiring contract, but I don't remember ever being able to sign those types of players to 10 year deals (nothing longer than 5 years actually).