Roster lock during playoffs?

[Anthony]

D Dennis Seidenberg, $4m (2016-2017)  @.66  1 yr.,  5.3m.  ( i think i have the room)

Not trying to cause a stir, but shouldn't rosters be locked in the playoffs for everyone? Seems unfair to use that cap space after the season is over.

If not, great use of cap space Snug

[snugerud]

I thought we always allowed some time end of season to beginning of next season to move expiring contracts etc.  but I could be wrong. 

Pretty sure, Florida, buffalo and others have made some buyouts after they were out of playoffs.  as well. 

[snugerud]

checking league history.... http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?topic=206549.0  it looks like this has been allowed in the past and is consistent with prior years.  Many transactions of drops in late march which would have been same time as playoffs (mar 9 - april 11th).

[snugerud]

http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?board=1183.400  sorry sent the wrong link.

[GypsieDeathBringer]

Might want to drop Kovalchuk as well.  Dude is playing in China now.

[Anthony]

I guess I never noticed. Not trying to call you out this was just the first one I paid any attention too. Guess I'm just salty since I have no space to do that haha

[Capn Cally]

I think in salary cap leagues, it is a good idea to have an option like this for teams to buy out overpriced players if they have the cap to do so at season's end.

Overall I think in the long run it'll make for better teams and better competitiveness with more teams having more cap space in the summer rather than tied up with old players on medium to high salary cap hits.

It does suck when you're not able to make similar moves due to cap restraints though, so I feel your pain Anthony (not in this league, but others!)

[Rob]

Honestly, this issue occurred to me a couple weeks ago.  I can't recall ever debating this with myself in the past, we've always allowed current year roster moves right up until the playoffs are over, or when the current NHL regular season officially ends.  But for some reason this year it struck me as odd that we allow this.  A roster lock seems more natural, right?  But if we did that, playoff teams wouldn't be able to call up prospects or activate IR players.  A full roster lock doesn't make much sense.  What kind of partial lock would make sense?  Allow only free drops?  Allow only certain types of buyouts (where no future money could be added to the current year)? Suspend the buyout discount during the playoffs?  It starts to get confusing.  Where to draw the line on a partial lock is debatable and it's probably a waste of time. I think it's always worked out well the way we've done it and I don't really like adding extra rules.  So I'm going with status quo unless others feel strongly about this.

[Rob]

I split this conversation to a new thread from the transaction thread so that others can see it and chime in if they want. 

[dedreger]

My two cents are that it'd be an interesting strategic wrinkle to lock the rosters (no moves of any kind, including IR moves) of the *playoff* teams at the end of the bye week, but allow the non-playoff teams to continue to make moves freely and use available current-year cap space for buy-outs through the end of the playoffs.  I'm suggesting the end of the bye week as the cutoff rather than the end of the regular season because a team might not know until the very last moments of the end of the regular season whether it will in the playoff or non-playoff camp.