Player contracts

Every player at a club plays under a contract: a salary, a length in seasons, and up to two clauses. You sign free agents and extend your own players in Contract offers, where you set the terms and see the player react. He weighs every club’s offer and decides in his own time.

Reading a contract

A player’s contract is under Transfer on his page: his salary per year, how many seasons are left, and his clauses. Entry Level marks an entry-level deal, and a new contract he has agreed shows as Pending contract agreed.

For the whole roster at once, choose the Contracts view on your team page. It lists each player’s salary, the years left and whether his deal is one-way or two-way.

The clauses

A contract can carry two clauses, and each one decides what happens when your club changes league. Before you agree to one, ask whether you might be relegated, and whether you want to send the player to your affiliate.

One way contract

If your team is relegated, a player on a One way contract becomes a free agent. He can’t be traded to a club in a lower league, and he can’t be sent to your affiliate: the Actions menu offers no Assign to affiliate for him. If you may want to send a player to your affiliate, or trade him to a club below, leave the One way contract out.

Two-way contract

A contract without the One way clause is a two-way contract. The player can go to your affiliate, he can be traded to a lower league, and he follows you down if you are relegated. While he plays for your affiliate, only part of his salary counts against your cap; see salary cap, and affiliate teams for how the affiliate works.

Promotion contract

When your team is promoted, a player on a Promotion contract gets a raise. His salary rises toward the same share of the new league’s cap as he had of the old one, within a ceiling for that league, and he always gets a raise. The clause is then used up. In the GHL there is no league above, so no player asks for a Promotion contract there and a GHL club can’t offer one.

Making an offer

To sign a free agent, choose Make offer… in the Actions on his page or in his player panel. It opens Contract offers, where you set the salary, the length, the clauses and, for a skater, his role. Contract offers… in the Transfer Center’s Actions opens the same screen with all your offers. A prospect whose rights you hold can be offered a contract the same way; see youth draft.

Beside each of your terms, Asking → shows what he wants; click it to copy his term into your offer, or use Match their demand for all of them. As you change a term he reacts at once: a word on each term, such as Spot on, Below ask or Demands a clause, and a verdict from Insulted up to Hard to resist. How he says it depends on his personality.

When the verdict reads Tempted or better, press Make offer. Below that he won’t consider the offer, and you have to come closer to his ask. An offer can stand in three places:

• Draft — terms you have saved to work on. He doesn’t see them, and they don’t count against your cap.
• Submitted — the offer is with him. It counts against your cap until he answers, or until you take it back with Withdraw offer.
• Pending — he has agreed to a contract that starts next season, such as an extension or a signing after the transfer deadline.

You can’t make an offer your cap has no room for; how offers count is on salary cap. In most worlds the board has a say as well: it won’t approve a salary far above what he asks for, nor one above the ceiling it sets for your league, which can keep you from matching the ask of a player far too good for your league. The screen then reads “The board won’t approve this offer.” Before the transfer deadline a free agent who signs joins you at once. After it, the button reads Make offer (next season), and he joins next season.

A young player is offered an entry-level contract. League rules set its salary and length, so the screen locks the terms, and the younger he is, the longer it runs.

What he asks for

Every player names his terms before you offer anything. If you want him, start from his ask and change one term at a time while you watch his reaction.

Salary. His ask starts from the league’s standard salary and grows with how his Overall compares with the level of your league. A player too good for your league asks for pay nearer the league he could play in. A young player can ask more for the same Overall, and a veteran asks less as he gets older. A bigger reputation raises the ask, and so does greed; see player reputation and player personality. One of your own players who leans greedy never asks for less than he earns now.

Length. How long he wants to sign depends on how good he is for the league, his age and his personality. He wants no deal that runs past the age he expects to retire.

Long or short. Many players take less per season on a longer deal. The length under Asking → is the longer deal he wants. Offer fewer years and he likes the offer less, and his Asking → salary can rise to what he wants for a shorter deal. If it rises when you shorten the deal, the longer deal is the cheaper one per season.

Clauses. Whether he insists on a One way contract depends on how established he is in your league, his reputation and his personality; a player below the league’s standard usually takes a two-way deal. Stars ask for a Promotion contract, and below them the greedier players ask for it more readily. If the clause marker reads Demands a clause, keep that clause in: leaving it out sets him back more than a modest salary shortfall would. A clause he didn’t ask for counts in your favor.

Role. A skater also names the role he wants, and your offer names one too. See player roles.

How he decides

Once you have made an offer, he decides in his own time. Nobody signs on the spot: once a day he looks at every offer he is considering, and the better he likes one, the likelier it is to be the one he takes that day. A yes can come at his first look.

When more than one offer appeals to him, he picks among the best of them, leaning toward the one he likes most, and turns the others down. An offer he leaves waiting can be turned down after a few days, and the less he likes it, the likelier that is.

What makes him like your offer:

• How close your terms come to his ask, and salary above his ask, which counts most with a greedy player.
• A league at or above his level.
• How your team did in the standings.
• Your manager reputation, the league’s reputation and your club’s reputation.
• Loyalty: a player who isn’t greedy favors the club he plays for or has played for.
• Room at his position: a club already deep with better players at his position draws him less, and a young, ambitious player minds that most.

The standing line in Contract offers tells you where your offer stands: leading the bidding, in the mix, trailing, well behind, or with no competing offers. If you’re trailing, raising the salary above his ask lifts you most with a greedy player; with a loyal one, his old club has an edge you may not close.

When he is ready to accept your offer, your cap is checked again, and if it has no room the board rejects the signing; what counts is on salary cap. Every answer reaches you in your notifications, and Contract offers lists recent decisions.

Extensions

You can offer one of your players a new contract in the final season of his current one; the Overview of his page marks that season Final year. Choose Offer extension… in the Actions on his page, or pick him under Expiring contracts in Contract offers. If the action is greyed out, it tells you why. If it says he is on a one-year deal, talks open when the regular season ends.

When the regular season ends, you get a reminder listing the players whose contracts are about to end. An extension starts next season, and it counts only against next season’s cap; see salary cap. He weighs it like any offer, but no other club can bid for him while he is under contract with you.

Leave it too late and you lose him. An extension he hasn’t accepted by the last day of the season lapses, his contract runs out that day, and he becomes a free agent. A player whose Morale shows Concerned about contract, or worse, would not sign his current deal today; see player form and happiness.

Promotion and relegation

When your team changes league, the contracts on your roster change with it. How promotion and relegation are decided is on leagues.

Going up. A player on a Promotion contract gets his raise. Every other player keeps his salary, unless he is on an entry-level contract, and his deal becomes a lower-league contract. Promotion also takes the One way clause off the contracts on your roster.

Going down. A player on a One way contract leaves as a free agent. Most others take a pay cut to the same share of the lower league’s cap, and their contract gains the Promotion contract and One way contract clauses. A lower-league contract is the exception; see below.

An entry-level contract follows the league either way: its salary becomes the new league’s entry-level salary. A contract caught in a trade that is still going through is left as it is. A trade to a club in another league can change a contract the same way; see trades. After a promotion or a relegation, a notification lists the raises, the pay cuts and the players who left.

Lower-league contract

A lower-league contract is one signed in a lower league than the one he plays in now, usually because your club went up and he had no Promotion contract. It has two rules of its own: it keeps its salary if your team goes down, until he is back at the level he signed at, and it can be released with no dead cap. The release window usually names it as the reason.

Releasing a player

Releasing a player is the last way to part with him. Choose Release player in his Actions; he becomes a free agent at once, and any club can sign him. A release can be refused: during the season your roster can’t go below its minimum size, and the board can block a release that would leave the team too thin at his position. On his page, Release player is then greyed out and says why; from your roster, the release window tells you.

A release usually leaves Dead cap for the rest of his contract, and the release window shows the amount; how it counts is on salary cap. There is no dead cap when:

• he is in the last year of his deal and the regular season is over, unless he has agreed an extension with you;
• your team has won promotion and his contract has no Promotion clause;
• he is on a lower-league contract;
• you are over the maximum roster size.

If you want to part with a player in his last year and he has agreed no extension with you, wait until the regular season is over: the release then leaves no dead cap.

Worth knowing

• An extension he hasn’t accepted by the last day of the season lapses, and he leaves as a free agent that day.
• Promotion takes the One way clause off the contracts on your roster, and players without a Promotion contract, other than those on an entry-level deal, keep their old salary on a lower-league contract.
• A lower-league contract keeps its salary if you go down again, and it can be released with no dead cap.
• No other club can bid for one of your players while he is under contract with you, so an extension is weighed against no rival offers.
• A clause he didn’t ask for counts in your favor with him, but it binds you too.