UNDERSTANDING FREE AGENCY, RFAS AND UFAS

Jun 30, 2016

For all Iowa Wild fans July 1, 2016 is the beginning of the 2016-17 American Hockey League season.  The first order of business is the free agency period for all 30 NHL teams, which includes signing depth players, who in turn, play a pivotal role in the AHL until the time comes for them to move up and help the NHL club.

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With that said, there are different types of players that could be available once the free agency signing period begins.

·      Unrestricted Free Agents

·      Undrafted Free Agent rookies (from college or juniors)

·      AHL SPCs / PTOs

·      Players returning from Europe

·      European players coming to North America.

An area where fans typically get confused when it gets to this time of the year is the difference between UFAs and RFAs.  Hope this helps differentiate between the two.

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs)

An unrestricted free agent is defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement as a player that has seven accrued seasons or is 27 years or older by June 30th of the end of an NHL season. These players are UNRESTRICTED free agents and have absolutely zero restrictions on their negotiating ability. If they want to stay with their current team, they can sign a contract any time before, or after, July 1st; but once July 1st comes around, they are free to negotiate with any team they want without any repercussions.

Teams are not awarded any type of compensation for losing an unrestricted player either, which is why you see more and more teams trading a player’s negotiating rights.

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Restricted Free Agents (RFAs)

Restricted free agents are players with fewer than seven years of accrued seasons (language used in the CBA) AND is younger than the age of 27 as of June 30th of the end of a league year. So, if a player is 26 years old, but has been playing in the NHL since they were 18, they do NOT qualify as a restricted free agent because they have more than seven years of NHL experience – still too young.

What makes a player restricted is a Qualifying Offer. A qualifying offer is essentially an offer of a one-year contract and must be tendered by June 25th or by the first Monday following the NHL Entry Draft.

The player has four options after receiving this offer. They may sign the qualifying offer and accept it as a one-year contract; they may elect salary arbitration (something the team may do as well) where a neutral third party will hear salary requests from both the player and the team and then determine a one-year agreement; they may negotiate a new contract with the team; or they may test the market and potentially sign an offer sheet from a new team.

By giving The player a qualifying offer for a one-year contract, the team is given a “Right of First-Refusal.” This means that if a player does sign an offer sheet, that doesn’t necessarily mean that player is going to a new team. Their current team is then given one week to match the terms of the offer sheet, or let the player go. 

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The Minnesota Wild made qualifying offers over the weekend, with the following players receiving offers; C Zac Dalpe (RFA), D Matt Dumba (RFA), C Tyler Graovac (RFA), G Darcy Kuemper (RFA), D Zach Palmquist (RFA) and RW Jordan Schroeder (RFA).

The team did not make qualifying offers to restricted free agents RW Brett Bulmer (RFA), LW Raphael Bussieres (RFA), G Brody Hoffman (RFA), C Jared Knight (RFA) and RW Scott Sabourin (RFA). Defensemen Tyson Strachan and Conor Allen are also UFAs. All of the players that did not receive qualifying offers are free to sign with any team starting July 1.

 

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