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Can players be charged with tampering?

mibs

Registered User
Feb 6, 2013
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Hey all,
Not sure if I phrased it correctly but we know I GM can be charged with tampering if he shows interest to a player under contract from another team (Kevin Lowe with Corey Perry a few years ago), but what a bout a player stating he wants to be traded and will only report to a few teams.

I know the player might have No trades clauses and such, but is it not tampering considering he is still under contract from his current team?

Any opinions or better, anyone knows the rules would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Eric Lindros publicly stated he wanted to be traded to the Maple Leafs during the 2000-2001 season when he had that falling out with the Flyers and the league never said or did anything about his comments.
 
I thought this was going to be able players poaching other players to join their team. I know a GM can't talk to other players under contract from another team but are players allowed to sway their upcoming UFA friends who are under contract?
 
Well, what you described is absolutely not tampering to begin with... and a player can absolutely do that. Team can still trade him wherever and he fails to report, he's not going to make his life any easier. New team can just suspend him without pay, terminate his contract, etc. You can't just make yourself a NTC.

As for actual tampering (speaking with players under contract with other teams about their future FA plans), players are actually also allowed to do this. Only team agents (GM, coach, etc.) are prohibited from doing so. Of course, that would also mean a team would get in trouble if their GM asked a player to reach out to another player.. but, for instance, Parise and Suter spoke about signing in Minnesota while they were both under contract with their respective teams. Nothing wrong there in the league's eyes.

@above post, they don't even need to be UFAs. Players are allowed to talk to other players who are still under contract about their future plans.
 
I remember before Phil Kessel had signed his contract extension with the Leafs during training camp in 2013, some people on here had said what if someone like Zach Parise had tried to talk him into leaving as a UFA during the USA Olympic Orientation Camp.
 
Yes, they can.

CBA Exhibit 1 - Standard Players Contract said:
10. The Player agrees he will not tamper with or enter into negotiations with any Player under SPC or reservation to any Club of the League for or regarding such Player's current or future services, without the written consent of the Club with which such Player is connected under penalty of a fine to be imposed by the Commissioner of the League.
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kdb209 said:
Yes, they can.
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Does saying that you only want to play for certain teams count as tampering? Even if you don't talk to that team directly?

You wouldn't see players doing it often either way because it ruins their value and give those teams the leverage.
 
kdb209 said:
Yes, they can.
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Yeah, but that's not the scenario presented in the OP. A player stating he will only play for a certain team is not tampering. If he then engages in negotiations with that other team while still under contract with his current team, then yes, that would be tampering.
 
kdb209 said:
Yes, they can.
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That's mostly to deal with a player who's acting as a conduit for his own management; it specifically says "enter into negotiations", which is pretty clear, while there's the more vague "tamper" that's more difficult to pin down since so many players are friends.

MapleLeafsFan4Ever said:
Since it was posted on here how Parise and Suter talked with each other about possibly signing in Minnesota while they were under contract with New Jersey and Nashville respectively, the league didn't do anything about that despite the CBA.
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The problem with this is that it's really difficult to prove; in theory there's a line between what players can do (what I've referred to as "internal tampering") and what management can do.

Suter and Parise were both pending UFAs. It may well have been a much different story if one was a pending UFA and the other one wasn't, or (as with other leagues, but not the NHL) there were player options involved that would change things.

I've said for years that a huge problem with the NBA under David Stern was their refusal to address internal tampering. There was Chris Webber giving an interview one time and openly talking about where he'd be willing to sign in free agency, but he was still mid-season with his current team and may have had still another year left on his contract. There was Dwyane Wade recruiting Lebron James to Miami during a season, which later became much more clear-cut when Pat Riley (a Miami team executive) got involved. And there have been other examples as well. The NBA did nothing about any of them.
 
Four Boilermakers said:
Neuvirth was a UFA, so he wasn't under contract with another team. So it's not tampering.
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Well he was a UFA for ~14 hours...

'I met Jake and we talked about things here and he said all good things about the Flyers. He wanted me to come here. I think it made him happy when I signed here… He was the reason I signed here.'

Though tbf during the 'wooing' period the week before Jake and Neuvirth were together for at least ~5 days in London, so while I imagine they certainly did talk before the wooing period they have an alibi! ;)
 
MapleLeafsFan4Ever said:
Since it was posted on here how Parise and Suter talked with each other about possibly signing in Minnesota while they were under contract with New Jersey and Nashville respectively, the league didn't do anything about that despite the CBA.
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Literally nothing you can do to prove collusion short of tapping phones/bugging a room they're in/getting text transcripts/covert surveillance, a lot of which would require consent or court orders.
 
Appleyard said:
Well he was a UFA for ~14 hours...

'I met Jake and we talked about things here and he said all good things about the Flyers. He wanted me to come here. I think it made him happy when I signed here… He was the reason I signed here.'

Though tbf during the 'wooing' period the week before Jake and Neuvirth were together for at least ~5 days in London, so while I imagine they certainly did talk before the wooing period they have an alibi! ;)
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While not technically a UFA, I don't see why players wouldn't be able to talk to each other in the week before July 1 when players are allowed to talk to teams.
 
MapleLeafsFan4Ever said:
Eric Lindros publicly stated he wanted to be traded to the Maple Leafs during the 2000-2001 season when he had that falling out with the Flyers and the league never said or did anything about his comments.
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Kipper also told his GM that he wouldn't report if traded to Toronto when they were making their playoff push (or was it the season after - I can't remember). But there was talk of TO getting Kipper and he quashed that - despite the fact that he couldn't block a trade there. CGY had too much respect for him (I'm guessing it was Burke there at the time?) and didn't trade him.
 
Sky04 said:
I thought this was going to be able players poaching other players to join their team. I know a GM can't talk to other players under contract from another team but are players allowed to sway their upcoming UFA friends who are under contract?
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Absolutely - and I suspect it happens often. But then it's not like the player (say Crosby for example) can make any promises to whomever he's trying to recruit. Say he's trying to recruit Stamkos to come play in Pittsburgh next season as a UFA. He could say what fun it would be, how good of a chance Pittsburgh would have as a team and that Rutherford would pay him well. And I'm certain that to a degree all those things would be true. But there's nothing there that binds Stamkos to come to Pittsburgh. And even if he tells Crosby he'll come, he still has to wait until July 1st to sign a contract - if he can come to an agreement on one.

Basically that's like you telling your buddy that your parents are looking for someone to do their lawn, and that he could likely get the gig... but he'd still have to sort out the details with them.
 
Mpata said:
Does saying that you only want to play for certain teams count as tampering? Even if you don't talk to that team directly?

You wouldn't see players doing it often either way because it ruins their value and give those teams the leverage.
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I think it would be very hard to prove that a player was tampering with someone under contract, vs just "fantasizing" about "what-ifs" or just generally asking a player about their future plans. I mean these guys all know eachother.
 
mibs said:
Hey all,
Not sure if I phrased it correctly but we know I GM can be charged with tampering if he shows interest to a player under contract from another team (Kevin Lowe with Corey Perry a few years ago), but what a bout a player stating he wants to be traded and will only report to a few teams.

I know the player might have No trades clauses and such, but is it not tampering considering he is still under contract from his current team?

Any opinions or better, anyone knows the rules would be appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...



as long as they are not doing it because the team askthem to doit--they wont be charged--players talk to each other all the time
 
Since Eric Staal did not get charged, I do wonder just how far would they have to go in order to get charged.
 
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