EDIT: I'm disappointed that this has been framed as some sort of attempt to circumvent the cap. I wanted to provide more than one option, for conversations sake, but neither of my suggestions are up to par. However, TommySalami's suggestion appears to be a much less significant change that would allow players who WANT to sign long-term the ability to do so anytime, without the team getting any sort of discount on a long-term contract. Anyway, I just wanted to emphasize that I'm only echoing the sentiment I've gotten from players in the past who were disappointed to find they had to earn 1000 TPE before they could sign a long-term deal.