EHM The Blue Line

So i am playing on CJ's 1998 roster (http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 16&t=13516) and cant for the life of me figure out why some players become UFa while others are RFA's

I noticed something was up when i had 2 players who had expiring contracts have different statues (One UFA the other RFA)

The first is a 24 year old defenseman with 5 season played (397 games) and the other is a 27 year old winger with 5 season played (393 games).

Can anyone explain why the 24 year old defensman was a UFA while the 27 year old forward was a RFA?

Also to add to the confusion i got 2 more upcoming RFA defensman
One at the end of the season. He will be 26 with 7 season and around 550 games played.
Another who will be an RFA at the end of this current contract(4 years left). He will be 29 with 7 season played around 550 games


Any explanation with this would be great. Hard to plan in advance when i have no idea what the UFA/RFA rules are.

"A player may only declare himself to be an unrestricted free agent if he is over the age of 27 or has played in the league for a minimum of 7 years."

A quote from wikipedia.

That's the only thing I know. Sounds weird in your case?

Based on CJ's post, perhaps the 25 year old has played 7 NHL seasons?

Also, keep in mind the 1998 DB uses the 2006 Rule Set (so the 2005 CBA, not the current CBA)

The other thing that comes to mind is, if the players in question were in the DB at startup, you need to have clicked "recalculate runtime data" when you started to ensure their "date of first contract" was correct

Well the 24 year old was Chris Phillips in the 2002 off season

He started his career in 1997-98 which means that his 5th season was 2001-02 (he went UFA after that)

caymanmew wrote:Well the 24 year old was Chris Phillips in the 2002 off season

He started his career in 1997-98 which means that his 5th season was 2001-02 (he went UFA after that)

Oops! I misread the age

Did you check off "recalculate runtime data" when you imported the database? Or did you get it via the Steam Workshop?

Also, do you know how the 2005 CBA would affect things? I don't (but I don't suspect it would make a 24 year old a UFA)

I suspect it might connect to the date of first contract...I don't recall this being an issue brought up much before (and the 98 DB seems popular, and has been used in two Challenges), but maybe I just don't recall it - if you have a save where the issue's current/present you could make a post and upload the save at SI and get Riz to take a look https://community.sigames.com/forum/292 ... ugs-forum/

nino33 wrote:

caymanmew wrote:Well the 24 year old was Chris Phillips in the 2002 off season

He started his career in 1997-98 which means that his 5th season was 2001-02 (he went UFA after that)

Oops! I misread the age

Did you check off "recalculate runtime data" when you imported the database? Or did you get it via the Steam Workshop?

Also, do you know how the 2005 CBA would affect things? I don't (but I don't suspect it would make a 24 year old a UFA)

I suspect it might connect to the date of first contract...I don't recall this being an issue brought up much before (and the 98 DB seems popular, and has been used in two Challenges), but maybe I just don't recall it - if you have a save where the issue's current/present you could make a post and upload the save at SI and get Riz to take a look https://community.sigames.com/forum/292 ... ugs-forum/

No idea if i checked it off. I got the database a while back and have played it multiple times. This is the first time i noticed this and one of the main reasons i did notice it was because Phillips did not want to re-sign with me at all. Had he just signed with me i probably would not of really noticed but because he made me go into semi panic mode over how i was going to replace him / why he was not signing i focused on it.

I have no idea what the 2005 CBA would do but i agree with you that it should not make 24 year olds UFA's (and i got older players who will be RFA's)

The thing that is truely confusing me is i can't see a difference between him and other players who have RFA later into their careers.

It ended up working out fine as i got him in free agency but it still scares me a bit as i had signed him to a bridge deal to save money rather then getting more year with more money.