No Variable Contracts: Each year of a contract must have the same salary amount. All contracts must be signed to at least $500,000 and must be in multiples of $100,000.
Contract Limits
Except for any contract inherited in 2011, all contracts must be no longer than five years. Also, for a given salary, all contracts have term limits (max years contract can be per the yearly salary) as provided below.
Salary - Max Years
$5m+ - 5 years (the overall limit)
$3.5 to $4.9m - 4 years
$2 to $3.4m - 3 years
$0 to $1.9m - 2 years
Contract Limits for Extensions
Contract extensions follow the contract maximum lengths as shown above as well as their own minimum standards.
Salary - Min & Max Years
$6.5m+ - 5 years (the overall limit)
$5 to $6.4m - 4 or 5 years
$3.5 to $4.9m - 3 or 4 years
$2 to $3.4m - 2 or 3 years
$0 to $1.9m - 1 or 2 years
Original Contracts
Other than prospects all players come in with original deals as of the end of the 10/11 season (6/15/11). Original contract values are taken from Hockeybuzz and rounded to the next $100k.
Prospect Contracts
To simplify things, all prospects (under 40 NHL games played) will inherit $500k/yr contracts. Prospect contracts are eternal, they will always make $500k and no extension is required. The contract lasts for two years after the point they accumulate 40 NHL games played. They may accumulate this over multiple years, but the two year rule does not take effect until the year they actually hit the accumulation threshold. A player becomes ineligible for a prospect contract when that player is released from a prospect contract that had its two year clock already start.
Example: Prospect X plays his 40th game in January of 2011. His prospect contract would now take him through 11/12 & 12/13 and he will need to be extended to a normal contract for the 13/14 season.
Prospects on the minor league roster do not count towards the salary cap. They only count towards the cap if they're on the NHL roster.
Prospect extension discount
Any player who is under an expiring prospect contract may be extended with a discount. Such an extension must be a 5-year deal where the annual salary is 70% of their normal extension value. The resulting salary must be no less than $2m. This extension can only be made once the player has exhausted their prospect contract, no earlier. The prospect extension is excluded from the contract limits rules on normal extensions. It is a 5-year deal no matter what. A prospect can be extended to a normal contract with no discount if the team does not want to sign the 5-year deal.
Extensions
Contract extensions may be offered for expiring contracts during the offseason "Extension Period" which is normally a 3 month period from when the NHL regular season ends in April until the entry draft is complete in June. The exact time-frame will be announced annually. Extension values are determined by looking up the player's fantasy points in both the current season and the prior season. The higher of these two values is multiplied by a static factor of $25K (EXCEPT FOR THE 19/20 SEASON WHICH IS MULTIPLIED BY $30K DUE TO THE COVID SHORTENED SEASON). The result is the players' extension value. Contract length follows the minimum/maximum rules stated above.
Extensions on non-expiring players are allowed during the entirety of the offseason. Extensions on non-expiring players must be equal to or greater than the value and length of the contract in force. You can't renew an existing contract for less than its worth currently.
NO EXTENSIONS ARE ALLOWED WHILE REGULAR SEASON PLAY IS ONGOING
The minimum contract extension is $800k - any player that falls under that value must be extended at $800k.
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