Contracts & Extension

In order to participate in a game, a player must be under contract. A team cannot have more than 50 players under contract and the players who are part of the lineup must not exceed the salary cap imposed by the league.

From June 26, you can offer a contract to your players. The Contracts page and the Free Agency page allow you to extend your players or offer contracts to players without teams. A player becomes without a team, also called a unrestricted free agent, when he and his team have not been able to agree on a contract before July 1st. He is therefore available for all other teams.

You can offer a mid-season extension to players with one year left between July 1st and March 1st.

To make an offer to a player, simply press on his name on the Contracts or Free Agent page. A player profile with a contracr board is displayed. By pressing on the +/- your offer increases by $25,000, long-pressing it increases by $250,000.

When a player’s contract expires. He gets a contract status. The statuses are as follows:

UFA (Unrestricted Free Agent). If the player does not sign a contract before the deadline (July 1st), he will be available for all other teams. UFAs are players who are 26 years old or more.

RFA (Restricted Free Agent). If the player does not sign a contract before the deadline (July 1st), he will be available for the other teams. In this case, the team will have to pay with draft picks according to the salary of the contract. The higher the salary, the more numerous and expensive the draft picks will be. To become an RFA, the player must have obtained a qualifying offer before July 1st. This offer does not count towards the salary cap and the player is not allowed to play. However, he can accept at any time an offer from the team that holds his rights (past the deadline). If a player eligible for RFA status does not receive a qualifying offer before July 1, he will become a UFA.

Unsigned. Theses are players under 21 years of age who do not have a contract. These players cannot become UFA until the age of 21. Thus, even if the unsigned player has no contract on July 1, he remains the property of his team and cannot receive any offers from other teams. If the player reaches the age of 22 and still does not have a contract, he will become a UFA. It is strategic to wait until the age limit to offer a contract to these players. An unsigned player must sign an entry-level contract. This means that it must be for a period of 3 years of a maximum value of $950000.

Clauses

Contract clauses give you more options when negotiating contracts with your players. Here are the available clauses:

No Trade Clause (NTC): A no-trade clause allows the player to avoid being traded to another team.
Modified No Trade Clause (M-NTC): Modified no-trade clauses work similarly to NTCs, except that they apply to a limited number of teams. During negotiations, you can choose the number of teams to which the player cannot be traded.
No Movement Clause (NMC): No movement clauses function like NTCs, except that the player cannot be sent to another league (e.g., the minor league). This clause offers the highest level of protection for a player.

In the final year of their contract, players with contract clauses may decide to waive them. It is sometimes possible to trade players with a clause.

Clauses impact salary negotiations as they offer advantages to players. By offering a clause to a player, their salary demand will be lower.

Clauses are active for the entire duration of the contract. However, only players aged 27 or with 7 years of major league experience are eligible for them. If a player signs a 6-year contract at the age of 24, the clause will only be active for years 4 to 6 (starting at 27 years old).

Clauses can be added to players from the roster editor.

When making trades, you will notice that contract clause badges can have different colors. Here’s what they mean:

Gray: The player’s clause is currently inactive. The player is either under 27 years old or lacks 7 years of experience. Therefore, the player can be traded without considering the clause.
Green: The player’s clause is active, but the player agrees to waive it and be traded to the chosen team.
Red: The player’s clause is active, and the player refuses to waive it. Thus, the player cannot be traded to that team.