Contract Offers Rule Change

[Virtual Jarmo]

To keep an element of realism in re-signing players, effective immediately, the maximum signing bonus will be 50% of the yearly base salary. Example: Team A offers Player X 3 years at 2M per season. The maximum signing bonus is 1M. The signing bonus can go up as the offer goes up, but this should greatly limit absurd lowball offers that would never fly with players.

This will be effective immediately and apply to all contract offers from here on out. Please note the change. The Rulebook will be edited to include this, change some unclear wording, and the injury exemption policy.

[Virtual Jarmo]

Rulebook changes:

E. Injury Exemptions to the Salary Cap: We will do what the NHL CBA does on long-term injuries. But, we will scale it back a little (the NHL is 10 games/24 days). If a player is going to miss 2+ weeks, you can exceed the cap by his total salary. So, if you're at 57.5 and he is a 3M player, you can go over our EHEC cap (58M) by 2.5M, until he returns. When he returns, however, you must get back below the cap. This includes him being activated as a DtD injury.

G. Contract Extension Signing Bonus Cap: Teams wishing to extend contract offers to currently rostered players may not offer a signing bonus exceeding 50% of the yearly base salary. Example: If Columbus offers Steve Mason a contract extension of $3M per season, the signing bonus for that deal cannot exceed $1.5M. This will keep extensions realistic and help to lower the likelihood of lowball offers being accepted.

And I cleared up the waiver wording.

D. To avoid drawn out waiver periods, we will enforce these rules:
1. Any player exactly 25 or under does not need to clear waivers to be sent down. Players who are 25 years and 1 day old are subject to waiver eligibility.

Please note these changes.