Question on Farmteams/AHL and the salary cap

[MontyESA]

Hi,

I have an question regarding the AHL / ECHL teams. From the Football-Manager series I am used to reserve teams or loans, but I need some advice.

Especially because of the salary cap I'm interested in a good balance of prospects an experienced players. But I have problems to get an overview in the rosster system.

How important is the success of the AHL /ECHL teams for my NHL franchise? Do I need a minimum of players or can I concentrate on several prospects? In the FM-Series I used to kick/sell every unusable player or let them into free agency after one or two seasons. What happens, when a ECHL team is empty?

How is the impact on the salary cap, e.g. a player is listed with 0 § in the AHL teams, but in his contract he has 500k § salary? Does it count to the 69Mio?

Can someone explain the colors in the rooster list? (brown, blue, green.. names)

Thanks in advance
the Football-Noob

[Primis]

Your ECHL team has little to no effect on player development. It tends to be where players get stashed if they're not progressing acceptably, or there's just no room for them elsewhere.

AHL team is pretty important for development. You'll often get a stud prospect who still needs some seasoning at a lower lever, and a year or two in the AHL will help him round out his game and develop better.

You can have up to 50 players under active contract to you in the NHL. This includes your contracted players you assign to AHL or ECHL. You should probably have 40 - 50 contracts at all times, even if you don't care about the success of your AHL or ECHL teams. Just gives your organization good depth. I know some people when they play don't even bother assigning guys to the ECHL. I personally sign some guys usually specifically for the ECHL. It's personal preference.

When viewing an AHL or ECHL team, players in green are ones who is under contract with someone else and have been assigned there. White names indicate a player contracted directly to the farm team, so it's someone whose NHL rights are un-owned. If you're viewing the Reserve List, White names are contracted on your NHL roster currently. Orange names mean they're contracted to you but assigned to your AHL or ECHL affiliates. Green names are players you currently own rights to, but are not under contract to you (guys you've drafted that have not signed yet, restricted free agents you have no re-signed but have retained rights to, etc).

EDIT: Whoops I forgot. Blue names are players contracted to you that you have sent back to their major junior team (WHL, OHL, QMJHL).

[Tasku]

Yup, and if a player is sent down to AHL / ECHL his contract will not count towards the salary cap. Only players in your NHL roster count.

[lemming3k]

Is there definitely no reason for AHL players to count against the cap? Currently a month before the season starts and I have two showing as counting against the cap for this year and it's putting me over the top!

[nino33]

Is there definitely no reason for AHL players to count against the cap? Currently a month before the season starts and I have two showing as counting against the cap for this year and it's putting me over the top!

I believe the off-season calculation is done by adding up your top 23 contracted player salaries regardless of if they're on the NHL roster or in the Minors (and it doesn't really matter if you're over the Cap), and once the season starts only your NHL players will count (and it will matter if you're over the Cap)

[comatose]

Players with salaries in the millions and on a one way contract will count against your cap, but up to 925k of that cap hit will be removed while in the minors. At least, that's in real life.

[lemming3k]

Is there definitely no reason for AHL players to count against the cap? Currently a month before the season starts and I have two showing as counting against the cap for this year and it's putting me over the top!

I believe the off-season calculation is done by adding up your top 23 contracted player salaries regardless of if they're on the NHL roster or in the Minors (and it doesn't really matter if you're over the Cap), and once the season starts only your NHL players will count (and it will matter if you're over the Cap)

That seems to be it, just ticked into October and they have stopped counting. That was close, I have no idea how I'll cope when I need to renew McDavid and Hanafin next year. Maybe I'll trade Carey Price to the Kings since they threw away Quick... Nah...

[batdad]

oy this one again? lemming--you need to do a lot of reading.

[lemming3k]

In my defence I did a forum search (hence why I ended up in this thread rather than starting a new one) but yes, it may have been a while since I read the salary cap rules and probably didn't pay much attention to the off-season section as there's no games to worry about!

[comatose]

oy this one again? lemming--you need to do a lot of reading.

A simple 'did you do a forum search' in an early response along with a real reply would've probably sufficed. However, this wasn't an early response and the question has already seemingly been answered. Seems kind of rude...

Not trying to start a fight or be rude myself, sorry if it comes off as that.

[batdad]

It would? Because that has been done with several new people. Also it always makes me wonder when people read tones into someones notes on a message board.

[Asbeen]

Where's the shortcut to the farm team in EHM 1?

I've been playing since ehm2005 and can't find it on the new, maybe I'm just missing it?


Found it by luck! (Little arrow menu over team's name) Thanks anyway

[philou21]

I have a question regarding two-way contracts. I did asked that question like 6-7 years ago IIRC but I totally forgot about it since. And I prefer to use this thread than creating a new one for absolutely nothing.

I have a couple of players with two-way contracts. Aittokallio, Pickard, Everberg, Rantanen, Zadorov and Nantel. I can send the last four down without a problem but I can't send my two goalies down without them getting through the waivers. They both have a two-way clause though so I don't really understand what's the matter and I really don't want to put the two through waivers because I will clearly lose them.

Is that a question of contracts, age (really think not, they're all over 20), spots available in the AHL team or something I'm not aware about? Thanks for the answer if someone can.

[Asher413]

The two way thing went away in the most recent CBA, it doesn't impact waivers.

Probably (I'd have to comb the CBA) they have gone enough years after first contract for their age that they are now eligible for waivers- or they have too many NHL games for their age.

[philou21]

Well the first one never played a game and he's 24 years old and Pickard played his first game last year and he's 23.

[Asher413]

Looking at page 71 (Article 13) of the CBA:, Not sure which clause it is.

I'm thinking it's possibly (c), where a 20 year old (in '13-14) plays in one or more Professional games will be exempt until '16-17. It also says that there is a 6 year exemption for an 18 year old goalie, or 5 for a 19 year old goalie, so he could have played professionally too young and be out of years?
It also looks as if Pickard was on the roster for 60 games in his '23 year old' year, he's no longer exempt from waivers.

But, I'm no CBA expert. From past experience, the game seems to be up to the CBA pretty well, but I'd have to comb through with a players specific history to see if there's an error. Hopefully someone better than me can take a look. (Also, what does it say for him under season's played on the information screen?) Can't do much more at work without opening up and looking at him specifically.

[philou21]

Pickard got brought up from the AHL for that one game. He stayed the whole season down and was the starting goalie. Aittokallio was playing in Finland and I brougth him to NA but I don't remember if in his past years he played in the AHL. Well, might be time to keep Pickard and trade Berra.

[matbur]

Just thought I'd add to this thread because if hockey isn't your first sport, it can be confusing to understand caps and waivers as there seems to be a lot of variables.

I do understand the basic idea of waivers to send players down to the AHL but what I don't understand is how does it affect the NHL salary cap? For example, if I send a player down to the AHL on a $5 million contract how much of that figure would still go towards my salary cap?

My second question is how do players who AREN'T Waiver eligible accrue seasons? A typical thing I'm seeing in the game on the 'Information' screen it'll say something like: 2 seasons accrued, 0 games accrued this season. (40 to a accrue a season). Ok, that makes enough sense... but, when I check the player's career history he will won't have played 40 plus games in any single NHL season so I don't get how he would've accrued two seasons.

[Shindigs]

Just thought I'd add to this thread because if hockey isn't your first sport, it can be confusing to understand caps and waivers as there seems to be a lot of variables.

I do understand the basic idea of waivers to send players down to the AHL but what I don't understand is how does it affect the NHL salary cap? For example, if I send a player down to the AHL on a $5 million contract how much of that figure would still go towards my salary cap?

My second question is how do players who AREN'T Waiver eligible accrue seasons? A typical thing I'm seeing in the game on the 'Information' screen it'll say something like: 2 seasons accrued, 0 games accrued this season. (40 to a accrue a season). Ok, that makes enough sense... but, when I check the player's career history he will won't have played 40 plus games in any single NHL season so I don't get how he would've accrued two seasons.

Certain leagues in the game incorrectly count towards waiver eligibility sometimes. I've had players accrue seasons from the CHL, AHL, ECHL and certain Euro leagues. But never consistently, so I'm guessing it's a bug. It's pretty rare though. Apart from those bugs the Waivers essentially follow the CBA to a point, just look it up on capfriendly. Works just like you'd expect based on the rules outlined there a vast majority of the time.

The exception to the waivers working as intended is how the game implements this rule:
A player does not need to pass through waivers if the player has not been on the NHL active roster for a cumulative 30 days since last clearing waivers, and has not played in 10 or more NHL games. CBA Reference 13.2(b)

Because it's only "active" for a restricted time, and I haven't tested exactly how long. But if you have a guy who already passed the waivers in the minors (like Pickard IRL) he will eventually "reset" and the game forgets he's cleared waivers. So if you call him up for 1 game or even no games and a few days; You still end up needing to waiver him again to send him down, which isn't at all what is supposed to happen. But it's not unlike EHM to forget things.

The minors/CHL will also sometimes count as a pro season towards stopping a prospect's ELC from rolling a year, which blows when it happens. But again it's rare and there isn't anything you can do about it.

Also I haven't really bothered to look into it deeper but when I tried to help the AI by eating all their brick contracts via waiver pickups in a challenge save I was doing the way cap works with buried contracts was flipped. Rather than keeping the cap hit-1mil I ended up keeping the 1mil and dropping the remainder. I had about 8 guys on 4-5mil a year contracts in the AHL which should have accounted for about 24-32mil worth of cap hit, in fact I was counting on that to hit the salary floor. But my total cap hit ended up being 36mil, which could only have been true if the cap contribution was flipped like I said before. But I didn't care enough to actually do the math and see what was really happening.

Unless something has changed with a ninjapatch in the months I've been gone there is one thing that completely ignores the CBA though, that's RFAs. It's supposed to be you stop being an RFA either once you've turned 27 and become a Free Agent or when you have played 4 seasons of pro hockey and become a free agent (at the time EHM1 was released). Now it's 25y/o and 3 seasons as it's changed. In EHM it's ONLY if the player is 27 years old by the time he hits free agency. Which allows you to get some really absurdly good 0 risk bridge contracts. In fact players will even ask for them in negotiation, to make sure they hit free agency at 26 and you get to keep superstar prospects on ELC->Low cap bridge contract for more than half their career. But since players ask specifically for those contracts that end the year before they become UFAs I assume it's intended, rather than a bug; Sure doesn't mimmick real life though.

Since players also forget their wage demands once they hit RFA you can sign your players on as little as half their wage demand they had while on your roster, when you instead sign them from FA at age 26. Which also lines up so that this final contracts ends at the same time they will start declining from age. It's really useful to get absurdly good teams under the cap, but it makes little sense.

Finally the ECHL does serve a purpose in prospect development, although quite niche; When you end up drafting very raw european prospects who aren't drafted to the CHL it's generally a good idea to sign them instantly so you can maximize their off-season training using your own practice setup. But often your AHL coach won't give them enough icetime and they are raw enough that the ECHL will give them very solid development for their first 1-2 seasons after being drafted. I've had guys start out in the ECHL to eventually end up being 60+ top 6 scorers in the NHL. The ECHl a tool in your arsenal, but you need to know when to use it. It's also great for European goalie prospects, as they can't be drafted into the CHL and you really don't want them to languish in the European junior leagues any longer than necessary.