QUESTIONS TO ASK A POTENTIAL AGENT

• Are you a NHLPA certified agent?
  (A non-certified agent can’t negotiate NHL contracts)

• What are your fees? Are they negotiable? How and when will you bill me?
  (*Standard Fees: 3-4% Salary, 5% Bonus, 5-15% Endorsements)

• What do you provide that separates you from other agents and agencies?

• How many players do you represent and in what leagues are they currently playing? Do you have the capacity to bring me on as a client?

• How will you prepare me for the draft? What is your strategy if I’m not drafted?

• Do you have a training facility? Who pays for that, and when?

• Have you ever been disbarred or suspended?

• How will you prepare me for life after hockey?

• 
  *Fee percentages vary from client to client and depend on the duration and amount of the contract and/or bonus.

NCAA vs Major Junior

There are different routes when choosing a path to the NHL. Every player is unique; they physically and mentally mature at different ages and will find their game at different times in their career. The main differences between the NCAA and Major Junior (CHL)are the age of the players, the number of games played and the lifestyle these players will live.

A player’s key years of development are typically at the Junior level. Playing as much as possible and in all situations will prepare a player for the next levels of hockey, and ultimately the NHL.

If a player is physically and mentally ready at age 16 or 17 to have an impact in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), then the CHL is a viable option. If a player is not physically or mentally ready at that age but has the skill to perform at the CHL level, Junior A and the NCAA may be a route worth pursuing.

When a player signs with a CHL team, it does not guarantee a roster spot or that they will play for that organization. In most circumstances, NCAA eligibility is lost once a player signs with a CHL team. In order to keep ones NCAA route open, a player should wait until they make a CHL roster before signing. This could be the difference in their hockey career.

Playing Overseas Info

Determine the league(s) you would like to play in and ask your Agent if they have an Agent/Agency connection overseas.
If you require an Agent, search The Sports Aux’s Agent & Agency Database to find representation.

Junior Hockey: Recruitment Info

Junior hockey is an important stage in a player’s development and there are two main paths a player may take on their way to the NHL. There is “Junior A” and “Major Junior.” Junior A (AJHL, NAHL, USHL, etc…) is not considered a professional league and allows players to maintain their NCAA eligibility so they can continue on to play College or University for a NCAA DIV I or III program. “Major Junior” also known as the Canadian Hockey League or “CHL” consists of three leagues (OHL, QMJHL, WHL) and they are considered semi-professional leagues. In almost all cases, signing with a CHL team will make a player ineligible to play in the NCAA. However, CHL players may be eligible to receive a scholarship to a Canadian College or University after they finish their junior career. In order to keep a player’s NCAA eligibility, waiting until they make a CHL roster before signing could be the difference in their hockey career.

Traditionally, players are scouted throughout the season and at tournaments. However, because of the competitiveness of hockey, many highly skilled players may be overlooked. Due to this, players have directly emailed coaches in an attempt to be recruited. The problem with this process is that coaches receive many of these emails, it is very time consuming, and the player has a low success rate of being recruited.

The Sports Aux solves this problem by allowing the player to directly contact a coach through the Sports Aux In-App messaging system.  This direct message streamlines the recruitment process and allows a coach to click that players’ profile to access exclusive personal and statistical player information within seconds.

Potential steps for playing Junior Hockey

Set up your Sports Aux profile with as much information as possible, especially uploading video highlights.
Research the leagues, teams and coaches you’d like to play for, and access coach reviews left by verified players on The Sports Aux App.
Directly message coaches of interest through The Sports Aux In-App messaging system. The message could contain information such as: who you are, why you want to play for them, and what separates you as a player from everyone else.

RFA/UFA & SALARY INFO

Expiry: The expiry field shows the free agent status of a player in a season where the player’s contract expires. Free agents can either be Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) or Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs). 

– Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) have rights that belong to an NHL team and that team has certain levels of protection. The only team that can sign an RFA with a standard player contract is the one that owns that player’s rights. Other teams are eligible to sign RFAs, but only via offer sheets. Offer sheets give the team that owns the player’s rights the choice to either (1) match the offer sheet and keep the player, or (2) allow the player to sign with the new team, and receive draft pick compensation based on the value of the contract.

– Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs) are completely free to negotiate and sign a contract with any team without any penalties or restrictions, rights of refusal or compensation to their existing team. Players automatically become UFA when their contract expires if they are 27 years of age or older (as of July 1), or have 7 accrued NHL seasons. Players can also qualify for UFA status if they are 25 years of age or older, have accrued 3 or more professional seasons while signed to a standard player’s contract but have played less than 80 NHL games (or 28 NHL games for goaltenders). Other scenarios where a player becomes a UFA are (1) when RFAs are not tendered a qualifying offer by the team that owns their rights, (2) players that are un-drafted in the three years they are eligible for the NHL Draft, and (3) drafted players who are not signed before their rights expire.

Cap Hit: a player’s cap hit is determined as the average annual value of their current contract. Cap hit is calculated by dividing the total salary plus signing bonuses of a contract by the contract’s length. Performance bonuses are not included in a player’s cap hit, but will affect a team’s cap and a player’s cap hit if the performance bonuses are achieved.

Clause: Clauses are additional parameters added to contracts that protect the player in certain transactions. No-Movement Clauses (NMCs) and No-Trade Clauses (NTCs) are negotiated by a player and his representatives to limit the types of transactions that can be performed by the team with respect to that player. Players are only eligible for these clauses in years when they would be eligible for Unrestricted Free Agency (27 years of age or older, or 7 or more accrued seasons).

– An NMC prohibits a team from moving a player by trade, loan or waivers, or assigning that player to the minors without the player’s consent. This keeps the player with the pro team unless that player permits a move by one of these means. An NMC does not restrict a team from buying out or terminating a player’s contract.

– An NTC is less prohibitive, as it only places restrictions on movement by trade. A player with an NTC cannot be traded by a team unless the player provides consent. A Partial or Modified NTC is often less restrictive than a Full NTC, and is defined by the conditions outlined in the player’s contract. Often these NTCs have conditions that give the player the right to provide a list of teams to which the player can or cannot be traded. Many players will have NMCs tied to their contracts with Partial or Modified NTCs. These prevent the team from moving the player via loan or waivers, but give the team options for trading the player.

TEAM SALARY TERMS:

Projected Total Cap Hit: Projected Total Cap Hit is a projection of the cap hit amounts for a team at the end of a season. It is calculated using pro-rated cap hits of all players and adjustments (buyouts, buried cap hits, etc) based on the number of days they impacted the team’s cap over the course of a season. Players and adjustments impacting the active roster currently are projected to impact the roster for the remainder of the season.

In the off-season, this is a simplified number that is a snapshot based on the current active roster if all players and adjustments were to impact the roster for the entire duration of a season. This includes all player cap hits (excluding potential performance bonuses) and any other cap hit obligations including retained cap hit, buyouts, deferred salary cap overages, buried cap hits, etc.

Salary Cap: The salary cap is a league-wide limit to the amount each NHL team can spend on its roster in a single season. Each team’s compliance with the NHL Salary Cap is based on the team’s active roster cap hits (averaged value of all players’ current contracts), but also includes any other cap obligations such as buyout amounts, deferred salary cap overages from previous seasons, buried player cap hits, cap amounts retained in past trades, etc. The current NHL salary cap is $75 million.

Projected End of Season Cap Space: Projected End of Season Cap Space is an estimate of the expected cap space a team will have at the end of the season. It is calculated using pro-rated cap hits of all players and adjustments (buyouts, buried cap hits, etc) based on the number of days they impacted the team’s cap over the course of a season. Players and adjustments impacting the active roster currently are projected to impact the roster for the remainder of the season. Note: The total here does not include an adjustment reflecting any LTIR credits used or projected to be used by the team.

In the off-season, Projected End of Season Cap Space is calculated based on a projected opening day roster, and that roster staying as is for the course of the entire regular season.

Cap Space Today: Cap Space Today is an estimate of the annual cap hit a team can add on the current day of the NHL schedule. It calculates the remaining number of days in the NHL season and uses this in conjunction with a team’s projected cap space and available LTIR to determine the total annual cap hit that can be added. For example, a team with $2 million in projected cap space at the midpoint of the season would have $4 million in ‘Cap Space Today’, allowing them to add a player with a $4 million cap hit to the roster.

In the off-season, ‘Cap Space Today’ shows a value that matches ‘Projected Total Cap Hit’ because there remain the same number of days in the NHL season throughout the off-season.

RFA/UFA & Salary Cap Information provided by puckpedia.com