Compensatory Draft Picks - Should the NHL consider something like the NFL model?

[GASabresIUFAN]

I was thinking about the Tuch situation where the Sabres a little caught between a rock and a hard place; they may not be able to afford a new contract for Tuch, but can’t afford to trade him now that the team is in contention.  Depending on the size of his new contract would a NFL style compensatory draft pick be a smart way to balance both the interest of the team and the player?

I admit I haven’t worked through all the pluses and minuses of a system.  One minus is that it may limit transactions at the deadline. The system I thought of would be a max of 16 picks with no team receiving more than 2 or 3.  The picks would come at the end of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th rds depending on net contracts of a certain size possibly based somewhat on the offer sheet categories.  

For example, the Sabres lose Tuch to free agency. He signs a 6 year 66 mill deal. This would be a class 1 contract and if the Sabres didn’t sign someone else to replace him they might receive a 2nd rd pick in compensation.  If the Sabres sign Panarin instead then no pick is given.  Anyway you get the gist.

Thoughts?

[Taro T]

So, you want to reward the good teams that rent players via trading away draft picks for renting said players by giving them draft pick compensation when those rentals walk?

The system isn't broken.  If a player walks, the team gets cap space that they can use to sign someone else.

[GASabresIUFAN]

16 minutes ago, Taro T said:

So, you want to reward the good teams that rent players via trading away draft picks for renting said players by giving them draft pick compensation when those rentals walk?

The system isn't broken.  If a player walks, the team gets cap space that they can use to sign someone else.

No, I thought about that.  A player acquired at the deadline wouldn’t be eligible.

[shrader]

I'm not sure why these picks need to exist anywhere.

[GASabresIUFAN]

4 minutes ago, shrader said:

I'm not sure why these picks need to exist anywhere.

My thought is that it would give teams in the playoff chase a chance to possibly keep their FAs to remain competitive and still get some compensation for them.  The idea is that with less teams retooling it would enhance the competitiveness of the league in the stretch drive. 

The goal is not to give teams that buy rentals a bonus for buying rentals.  

[shrader]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

My thought is that it would give teams in the playoff chase a chance to possibly keep their FAs to remain competitive and still get some compensation for them.  The idea is that with less teams retooling it would enhance the competitiveness of the league in the stretch drive. 

The goal is not to give teams that buy rentals a bonus for buying rentals.  

So you want to kill trades?  

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I was thinking about the Tuch situation where the Sabres a little caught between a rock and a hard place; they may not be able to afford a new contract for Tuch, but can’t afford to trade him now that the team is in contention.  Depending on the size of his new contract would a NFL style compensatory draft pick be a smart way to balance both the interest of the team and the player?

I admit I haven’t worked through all the pluses and minuses of a system.  One minus is that it may limit transactions at the deadline. The system I thought of would be a max of 16 picks with no team receiving more than 2 or 3.  The picks would come at the end of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th rds depending on net contracts of a certain size possibly based somewhat on the offer sheet categories.  

For example, the Sabres lose Tuch to free agency. He signs a 6 year 66 mill deal. This would be a class 1 contract and if the Sabres didn’t sign someone else to replace him they might receive a 2nd rd pick in compensation.  If the Sabres sign Panarin instead then no pick is given.  Anyway you get the gist.

Thoughts?

I'm fine with things they way they are.

You 'lose' a guy because you don't pay him, you 'gain' the money you WOULD pay him to spend elsewhere.

[tom webster]

The biggest problem, besides those already listed, mid to late round draft picks in the NFL are worth a helping a lot more than similar picks in the NHL.

[GASabresIUFAN]

5 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I'm fine with things they way they are.

You 'lose' a guy because you don't pay him, you 'gain' the money you WOULD pay him to spend elsewhere.

It’s not that simple.  Losing Tuch really doesn’t create cap space next year as we have to re-sign Benson, Kesselring, and possibly Krebs and Malenstyn plus account for Doan’s huge raise.  The only real “new cap space” is from the increase in the cap.  I estimate that keeping the 4 aforementioned players will eat up most of our cap space and the only way to pay Tuch is to move from UPL, Greenway and someone like Danforth or even Quinn.

3 minutes ago, tom webster said:

The biggest problem, besides those already listed, mid to late round draft picks in the NFL are worth a helping a lot more than similar picks in the NHL.

That’s true.  All I’m suggesting is giving an asset for a lost asset.  

Edited Wednesday at 09:04 PM by GASabresIUFAN

[GASabresIUFAN]

11 minutes ago, shrader said:

So you want to kill trades?  

I don’t think it will ultimately kill trades.  Odds are that GMs will likely get more in the trade market than the pick compensation, but that compensation may be enough to convince a few GMs to keep their squads together for the playoffs

[mjd1001]

24 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It’s not that simple.  Losing Tuch really doesn’t create cap space next year as we have to re-sign Benson, Kesselring, and possibly Krebs and Malenstyn plus account for Doan’s huge raise.  The only real “new cap space” is from the increase in the cap.  I estimate that keeping the 4 aforementioned players will eat up most of our cap space and the only way to pay Tuch is to move from UPL, Greenway and someone like Danforth or even Quinn.

That’s true.  All I’m suggesting is giving an asset for a lost asset.  

Yes it does create cap space. It creates the cap space that will better allow you to sign those guys. They are different transactions.

If you sign Tuch to an $11m deal....you have $11m less in cap space to do ANYTHING with than if you don't have him (including or not including signing those guys).

[Big Guava]

Maybe make it so they have to have played in "X" number of games for a team or been on a roster for "X" number of days(so as not to punish teams where the player was injured)?

And then set up a sliding scale similar to the NFL in terms of contract AAV determining what round the pick would be in?

NFL doesn't have a lot of restrictions tho, I think teams absolutely manipulate the system to get players and then let them walk as UFAs to get compensatory picks.

[EM88]

No, it is not needed.  No offense to the idea, but I do think this falls under the category of a solution looking for a problem. 

If you choose to not spend $10 million dollars to bring back your free agent, then you are choosing to get that $10 million to do other things with it.

[xzy89c1]

It would give us something to complain about in offseason