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Henrik · 01-24-2022, 11:06 AM

I've now been part of this league for 15 seasons (9 of which I have been a GM in the SHL) and contracts is just one of those thing that always kills me. Its one of the most boring, one dimensional parts of our league and I think we can do better. Taking the minimum has become the norm if you want your team to have a fighting chance and planning out TPE earnings and matching contract length to earning rates to maximize the cap has become standard practice. With the fairly recent changes to contract tiers it only worsens this issue. I definitely don't have the answers but I am a firm believer in talking about things that we want to change. Discussion promotes reflection which in turn promotes new thinking and innovation. So in the spirit of this I'd like to start a conversation about contracts.

I have a couple of ideas regarding types of contracts that I have been thinking about for a while now that I'd like to share and see what the site as a whole thinks about stuff like this.

First up, the Veteran Contract.

What is the veteran contract?
The veteran contract is meant to portray something that we see quite often in real hockey. An older, still servicable player, that wants to extend their career but is fine with being payed less either in the interest of just staying in the game or winning a cup. Some examples of recent NHL players that have gone this route is Joe Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Zach Parise and Patrick Marleau.

Why have a veteran contract?
Recently, there's been a lot of focus on player turn-around as some of our players were just active for too long which created difficulties for younger players to break through into the SHL. I think this is for the better but I also really like the narrative of the old veterans that just keep on trucking. I think it adds a lot of flavour to the league and makes it feel more vibrant. When I first joined, I really liked the fact that this league had a real sense of history and that I could look forward to coming up to the SHL and play with veteran players that had been around and done it all. Big name players that were still around. Players like Mike Izzy, Joe K, Wagstrom, Winters or Kvalheim. Hell, Kvalheim is still playing some great hockey and Winters just retired. Again, it just makes the league feel more alive to me and I think its worth trying to keep that kind of longevity alive.

How does the veteran contract work?
In my mind, this is how I envision the contract working.

- Teams are limited to ONE active veteran contract. We want to keep this to a low number, it shouldn't be a way to circumvent cap. One is enough.
- Any team may sign a player to a veteran contract as long as that player is 18 seasons removed from their creation, or older. This is badly worded, I know, but English is my second language so you are just going to have to bear with me. This means that with our current 8 week schedule, this player has been active for 3 years. Thats a very long time. If you want to keep your career going with one player for a little longer, I think we should celebrate that.
- Veteran contracts may be signed at one tier bellow what is normally allowed under the rules, to a minimum of $3,000,000. Being able to sign a player that old to a cheaper contract is not uncommon in the real world and I don't think it is unreasonable in the SHL either. Even with the highest level of earning, I don't think anyone is going to be over 1600 TPE at this point, so for all intents and purposes this is a $1,000,000 discount. It could be worded specifically to be just that too, to futureproof it against more TPE inflation or a change to the tier system.
- The player must be considered active. This one is obvious.
- Veteran contracts can be traded, but no money can be retained. Again, this should not be able to be used as a sort of cap circumvention.
- If the new team that the contract is traded to already possesses a veteran contracts on their budget, the traded player will have their contract adjusted up to match the proper TPE tier, and they will be on a normal contract. This is more or less a word for word adaptation of the HTD rule.
- A veteran contract has a maximum length of one year. Its uncommon for older players in real life to get a contract that is longer than one year at a time and I want to reflect that in this rule.

Currently there are 32 (28 of whom would benefit from the discount) players in the league between S47 and S43, that would be eligible for a veteran contract, ranging in TPE from 1538 (Eko Van Otter) to 852 (Dominic Montgomery). These players will now have spent half of their career in regression and their seasonal regression ranges from 18% to 25%. The simple fact is that they wont be able to stay active for much longer, giving these players a chance to play another season or three for a discount in order to try and go for a record or fit in one more cup push is something I really like the idea of. It's worth noting that we have just tried to shorten player careers, as I mentioned earlier, but I don't think that a rule like this would matter all that much in the great scheme of things. The amount of players that reach this advanced player age is really quite few and I don't think that it would make it harder for younger players to push into the big league. A young player at 1k TPE is still much more valuable to your team than an old player at 1.4k in the long run and so what I hope that this type of contract will do is create a space where old players can almost become journeymen and be the last addition you make to a team that is trying to go for cup run.

Second, the Bridge Deal.

What is the bridge deal?
The bridge deal is a classic piece of hockey culture. A young player sign a short term contract, usually at a reduced salary, in order to get to UFA status and earn the big bucks. I want that to be portrayed in the SHL as well but since we don't really have the same system we'll have to tinker with it a little bit.

Why have bridge deals?
I think it adds a little more spice to our very boring contract system. The more we can play with the different contract types the better in my opinion, because that forces us to be more creative and gives us the opportunity to uniquely utilize combinations of contracts to make some interesting decisions both as GMs and as players.

How does the bridge deal work?

- Teams are limited to ONE active bridge deal. Again, we don't want to flood the roster with bridge deals.
- A player that signs a bridge deal must sign it in their Rookie or Sophomore season in the NHL. So you are only allowed to sign this contract if you are in your first or second season in the big leagues. I think thats a pretty fair window.
- The player must be considered active. Again, self explanatory.
- Bridge deals may be signed at one tier bellow what is normally allowed under the rules. However, if that player is to sign with the same team again after the bridge deal has expired, he/she MUST be signed at one tier ABOVE what is normally considered the minimum. This follow-up contract MUST be signed at max length. Another badly worded clause, but hopefully you get the idea. You get to sign a young player for one season on the cheap after which you have to sign that player to a more expensive contract at maximum length.
- A bridge deal has a maximum length of one year.
- Bridge deals can be traded, but no money can be retained. Again, this should not be able to be used as a sort of cap circumvention.
- If the new team that the contract is traded to already possesses a bridge deal on their budget, the traded player will have their contract adjusted up to match the proper TPE tier, and they will be on a normal contract. Again, This is more or less a word for word adaptation of the HTD rule.

This one I feel could use a little more work than the veteran contract as it is way more susceptible to abuse but I do think that this sort of contract could make for some really interesting scenarios. There are times when you really really need to free up $1,000,000 for one season. Say for example you happen to have an old veteran that is coming off the books next season. In that case you wouldn't mind saving the money in the short term to field the best team possible and you would be able to take that cap hit the coming season assuming you could find a cheaper alternative to that veteran that I mentioned earlier. I don't think this is the sort of thing that would be used in every situation, but I think it can be an interesting choice in certain situations.

I am a little torn on if bridge deals should be tradable or not and if the clause for the next contract should follow to the new team. All in all I think that with some tweaking this could be an interesting add although maybe not in its current form as I feel like it may be too easy to just use it as a way to pay rookies less for a season and then trading them.

Finally, the Journeyman Contract.

What is the journeyman contract?
The journeyman is another classic piece of hockey culture that I feel is underrepresented in the SHL. The closest thing I can think of is either IA backup goalies or Ibrahimovic Jr who has swapped teams a couple of times earlier in his career. A player in the NHL are generally considered to be a journeyman if they played for 7 or more teams in the league during their career.

Why have a journeyman contract?
Journeyman are an integral part of hockey culture in my own humble opinion and I think this represents a great opportunity to try and add some of that flavour to the SHL. Some of the greatest names in hockey have had long and winding careers, including Jaromir Jagr. Then there is Olli Jokkinen, Matt Cullen and Mike Sillenger just to add a few well known names to the list. All of these players are considered journeyman. It is way too easy to just stick with one team for your entire career for no other reason that it being comfortable and I think some more player movement could be healthy for the league, so why not encourage it?

How does the journeyman contract work?
- Teams are limited to ONE active journeyman contract. We've been over this before.
- Any team may sign a player to a journeyman contract as long as that player has played a full season of hockey for at least 5 different teams in their SHL career BEFORE signing the contract in question. Hey look, another badly worded clause! Thats a bingo! I've shifted the number of teams down to 5 to account for the different amount of teams in the SHL and NHL.
- A journeyman contract may be signed at one tier bellow what is normally allowed under the rules, to a minimum of $3,000,000.
- The player must be considered active. This one is obvious.
- Journeyman contracts can be traded, but no money can be retained. Again, this should not be able to be used as a sort of cap circumvention.
- If the new team that the contract is traded to already possesses a journeyman on their budget, the traded player will have their contract adjusted up to match the proper TPE tier, and they will be on a normal contract. This is more or less a word for word adaptation of the HTD rule.
- If an unsigned player is at 1600 TPE or above at the time of signing, the contract is considered void. Hey, there it is again! The terrible wording! This is not meant to be an easy way to play kingmaker and is not intended provide a 2mil bonus to whomever can attract the big name journeyman. In the spirit of the classic image of a journeyman, he/she should not be a superstar.
- A journeyman contract has a maximum length of one year. Self explanatory.
- A player can not sign a journeyman contract with the same team more than once per career. This might be a little tricky to track, but I want to stop people from going between 2-3 teams over and over again with a discount and this is the best way I could think of.

This one is pretty clearly my least thought out contract type and I think it is the most difficult one to make work, both logistically and rules wise but I really like the idea of encouraging movement between teams and LRs. I think it can only be postitive for the health of the League overall. Having to have played atleast one season of hockey for 5 teams and not being able to sign this type of contract if you are above 1600 TPE means that this will be a pretty niche contract but I think that the best specialty contracts should be like that. It shouldn't be a given to always use these, but if you can exploit them as a GM then good for you and as a player it gives you a pretty unique leverage as far as contracts go.

Thats all I have for now. And like I said, this isn't meant to be a serious article with well thought out contract types that are ready for implementation but rather it is an article that I write in the hope of sparking a discussion about one of the facets of our league that often goes overlooked.

So I ask you, SHL community, what can we do to make them a little more interesting?

Thanks for reading.

2500 words, ready for grading.

***HabsFanFromOntario*** · 01-24-2022, 12:11 PM

Just off the cuff, 18 seasons seems a bit heavy. They'd probably be dust by then so there likely wouldn't be a lower tier.
The bridge deal is usually a prove it contract, so contingencies on TPE gain or activity might make sense.
The journeyman contract seems over complicated but if we were going for it, you'd probably want a set number of games on playing with each team to avoid abuse.

***FuzzSHL*** · 01-24-2022, 12:40 PM

Maybe needs a few tweaks but I will say, this would definitely be a fun few additions to contract rules

Aleksi Kettu

canes2112 · 01-24-2022, 01:10 PM

I think to ever incentivize users taking less than the minimum, contracts need to be tied to TPE directly. Too many people have big enough bank accounts to afford it. This way there's an actual decision between team success and personal attributes.

PremierBromanov · 01-24-2022, 01:48 PM

i didnt read it but im 100% for it

***boom*** · 01-24-2022, 01:49 PM

These are definitely some interesting possibilities.

that said nonlinear contract tiers when

PremierBromanov · 01-24-2022, 01:49 PM

01-24-2022, 01:10 PMcanes2112 Wrote: I think to ever incentivize users taking less than the minimum, contracts need to be tied to TPE directly. Too many people have big enough bank accounts to afford it. This way there's an actual decision between team success and personal attributes.

there are minimum contract tiers based on TPE. That's why luffy (i think ?) retired and unretired for a TPE penalty, so he could be $1m cheaper. Not against the rules, but Im sure someone will get around to changing it.

canes2112 · 01-24-2022, 02:10 PM

01-24-2022, 01:49 PMPremierBromanov Wrote:
01-24-2022, 01:10 PMcanes2112 Wrote: I think to ever incentivize users taking less than the minimum, contracts need to be tied to TPE directly. Too many people have big enough bank accounts to afford it. This way there's an actual decision between team success and personal attributes.
there are minimum contract tiers based on TPE. That's why luffy (i think ?) retired and unretired for a TPE penalty, so he could be $1m cheaper. Not against the rules, but Im sure someone will get around to changing it.

Right, that example is clear circumvention. But for my idea I don't think I explained it well enough. Currently, contracts provide money which is used for coaching/training and many users have more than enough money from jobs already. Therefore, there is no incentive to sign more than a minimum contract. If contracts awarded TPE instead that would be otherwise unobtainable, then it becomes a decision of player progression vs. team friendliness.

SabresFan · 01-24-2022, 07:39 PM

I think the idea is cool to work with and I'd like to see veterans earn TPE in mental abilities to help balance drop off in regression. I think enough has been done to help younger players break into the SHL.

*Carpy48* · 01-25-2022, 02:03 AM

I'm definitely in favor of something like the veteran contract (I mean I would play for free too, but they don't let me).

**OrbitingDeath** · 01-25-2022, 06:27 AM

I like the suggestions here

charlieconway · 01-25-2022, 03:03 PM

Love the idea of veteran contracts. I would even like leadership buffs to players that have hit regression.

***RAmenAmen*** · 01-25-2022, 07:21 PM

01-25-2022, 03:03 PMcharlieconway Wrote: Love the idea of veteran contracts. I would even like leadership buffs to players that have hit regression.

Even outside of contract stuff, seeing different mental attributes go up based on experience rather than being locked in place or part of TPE spending would be really cool.

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