Question about call-ups

[Chris-Suffolk]

Hi all, I wanted to revisit this post...and of course I will try to keep my head!

At last we tawked ( Scott, Dane, Ian and I ), there were several good points stated by the parties involved. Well, without trying to re-write it all...I will just say a few points that I think really to be considered regarding the matter of Call Ups, especially as they relate to Injury Call Ups:

1- It was mentioned by Scott, that players who were on our Minor League Team earning salaries of 500K + were to be called up as replacement players first, and then subsequent players afterward if neccessaey. ( wording could be slightly off, but that is the jist )

If this is the case, as a GM I have a problem with this type of rule. Firstly, it is forcing GM's to spend foolishly, monies that they may need come seasons end for UFA's and RFA's as well as Draft Picks. Secondly, why should a GM be FORCED to sign "X-Amount" of 500K players, raising payroll dramatically, when there is a possibility that a team may never need to have Call Ups at all?

This is Paying JUST IN CASE a player is needed.

I personally feel that the Call Up Rule should be addressed sooner rather than later.

My thoughts are: Minor League players can play a total of 10 Games in the "F".

*I think that we should be able to sign players for as LITTLE as we possibly can, not for as MUCH as we can.

*If the need arises, because of injuries, to Call Up a Minor League player, The GM has exclusive right to choose whatever player he wants to call up. However, any Minor League player called up will be LIMITED to 10 Games Played with A Big Club per season. Once a Called Up player reaches the 10 Game plateau, the GM will need to make the decision of paying this player at 500K or Release the player to a "Free Agent Waiver Status".
( Player totals count even if traded ).

The Free Agent Waiver Status player will now be offered to each team, first to the team with the CURRENT Worst record before games are played on that date and having Cap room to acquire 500K will be able to acquire this player. If the option is passed, it will go down thru the standings as such.

GM's will have the onus on them to regulate the number of games played by Each/Any of the Minor League players. To avoid losing a player via this process, simply keep your minors from playing more than 10 Games or pay the consequences.

Glenn and Phil, Thoughts?

Chris

SCENARIO:

What if Im owner of Team X...Im up against the Cap ( with under 500k left to spend ) yet I still only have 15 guys in my Minor League team...I had to spend alot of money on this past off season acquiring UFA's and RFA's just to stay competitive. Unfortunately, the guys I was able to sign were expensive, but they were also low Fortitude guys whom are certain to spend time on the IR.

How is this GM ever going to stay afloat? How is he going to be able to sign UFA's at 500K per player come this off season? How is he going to fill his Minor League team? What is going to keep him in the league, what is his incentive to keep building?

I am not saying this for my own good, I feel as tho I have built a team which is competitive for now and the future. Im worried about the other teams that have new owners that need to build yet want to remain competitive and have fun as well.

We cant force dollar amounts on Gm's, the salaries are/should be based on the Market Value, not a determined amount.

It is as though we are paying a pre-determined dollar amount on an "Injury Call Up guy", as if there were a Market for that particular type of player.

A Flat Dollar amount is going to kill this type of Small Market team in a Big Dollar Market.......

PS.. this is not a fictitious scenario.

[Scott-New York]

One other point to make here Chris is that I see a lot of these under 500k players being a thing of the past as we fill our rosters with draft picks over the next few years. There may not be much room on rosters for these cheap players, however the salary cap will go up.

[Chris-Suffolk]

Oct 27, 2011 22:12:31 GMT -5 Scott-New York said:

One other point to make here Chris is that I see a lot of these under 500k players being a thing of the past as we fill our rosters with draft picks over the next few years. There may not be much room on rosters for these cheap players, however the salary cap will go up.

That IS a good point Scott. The raise in the Cap, I believe, is approx 3.5 mil to compensate the Draft Picks ( 1 thru 5 ).

There may not be alot of Free Agent signings either, because we have all pretty much loaded up our clubs ( Bigs and Minors ). But there are a few teams that still need to do so, and at least one is
under new ownership and follows the scenario I posted.

I dont want us to lose members, I want to help keep them interested and having fun.

[Glenn-Philadelphia]

Boys.

I am sure we will come up with a solution that is equitable and manageable. As I mentioned before, while this discussion on the board is great for floating ideas I think the best bet will be a TS meeting. I for one, do enough typing as it is.

My main points regarding this are two fold.

First, I am thinking that the situation that we are trying to avoid (a guy making 200k playing 2 or 3 years for a team while his card is a 45-30-42 is probably never going to happen. The fact that most if not all of the diamonds in the rough will be acquired via the amateur draft (for players under 25) and are all on fixed entry level contracts based on the round selected. So the guys we are discussing here for the most part are career AHLers over 25 years of age that were left un-drafted and unsigned at higher levels of FA. If my thoughts are accurate, this could equate to the government developing contingency plans for the sun rising in the West one morning.

Second, if I am incorrect and we do have a few cases where the sun rises in the West, we can make a change to how these players are handled.

My thought would be using one of two approaches.

The first is to base a players minimum salary on what he did in the pros the previous year. If he played 42 games or more in the bigs, and you have him on your roster, he will need to be signed to a 500K plus contract. This contract would be like any of the other contracts where a minimum yearly amount will need to be paid to sign for x number of years. If the owner did not wish to sign him to a pro contract, he would become a UFA.

The second would utilize the criteria above which would trigger the use of the asking price logic to determine what the player was looking to receive. The owner could accept, or walk away from the asking price at which point the UFA status would kick in again.

[Chris-Suffolk]

Yeah, A TS meeting is probably best...

But the whole question originally arose regarding "Call Ups"...thats got to be the main area of concern for this topic.

For ex: a GM signs a UFA who is 20 yrs old for 200K who has maybe 10 games of NHL experience, suddenly he is called up to the FHL bigs as an injury replacement, and sticks for a few FHL games. What happens with this guys salary???

Thats where this thread grew wings....Suffolk called up Urbom-Defenseman for 1 game to replace Gunnarsson and Sopel who were on Short Term-IR.

[John-Michigan]

are these minor league guys playing in the minors? are they compiling stats? Are they getting better or worse?

[Chris-Suffolk]

Oct 28, 2011 15:58:16 GMT -5 John-Michigan said:

are these minor league guys playing in the minors? are they compiling stats? Are they getting better or worse?

Yes, to all of those questions....

There is a possibility that this minor league player of yours will be an NHLer in a year or two.

There is a possibility that he will be a superstar, a bust, injured and never make it to NHL, a steady NHLer, sky's the limit kid...sky's the limit!

TS is probably best, this way we can all hash it out...I am hearing "good things" from everyone so far...and spoken words will probably sound better and get more accomplished in a shorter period of time rather than my lengthy wordy posts of redundancy.

[Ian-Halifax]

We need to come up with this solution quick because I have 4 forwards out already and am most likely going to be calling people from the AHL up soon.

[Scott-New York]

I see no reason why a team can't call up any player they choose as Chris has argued, the fact is, these players don't have good enough stats to make a difference. I, personally and am much more worried about the outcome of the contracts on these players after the season is over.

[Phil-Cornwall]

bumpage.....