Previous thread: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2036375
Some posts to get us started:
Some posts to get us started:
You are both ignoring the need to protect 2nd year pros and draft picks who are unsigned after 2 years. Those 2 provisions add a huge number of players to the pool. Players who haven't even made it to the NHL yet. For example if Connor stays in school he would have to be protected. AC, that is why I am arguing for the more literal use of the July 1 cutoff date. That date would remove Connor from the list.
The rules for unsigned prospects being exempt don't have to be identical to the contract salary provisions. It's not that hard really.
The way I understand things Connor Roslovic Foley Appleton would still be exempt.
Franklin Poolman Kraskovsky would not.
Quite frankly, I think the bolded is dropped.
What good is a bunch of collegiate players/Euro pros going to provide for a Las Vegas team that still needs to hit the cap floor versus how much it'll piss off the Leafs, for example, who are likely to litter the back half of their draft this year with tiny Russians on KHL contracts (though this year's draftees would be exempt and the Leafs don't have a hell-of-a-lot to protect anyway)?
True, as you have said before they can make any rule they like. Bettman is a lawyer. He thinks like a lawyer. I think they will be consistent. July 1 will be used and pending UFAs without NMCs will count as exposed. Their salaries will contribute to the 25%. Players whose 3rd year pro or 3rd year since being drafted doesn't start untill July 1 will be exempt. JMO of course but it makes the whole package of provisions make a lot more sense to me.
You disagree because no expansion team would waste a draft pick on a UFA. Fine, they don't get taken then. There will be lots of other players available. Maybe LV chooses to take 1 or 2 UFAs and try to sign them before July 1. They have lots of cap space. They have 30 picks. But if not so what?
Meanwhile it makes meeting the 25% requirement a lot more reasonable for most teams. Doing it that way gets to what you described. A team made up mostly of #4D and #8 F. Even so a few higher ones will slip in along with possibly 1 or 2 much higher UFAs. That would be very good by the usual expansion team standards.