Free Agency Bidding

[Rangers GM (Steven)]

I noticed Pat(Colorado owner) has placed bids on Poitras(3 YRS 1.5M) yesterday and now LaCombe(3 YRS 1M). But he has only one player spot left on his farm team. If he wins Poitras, will the LaCombe bid be valid if he can't obtain him?

In the end, I was wondering if an owner who has no farm team spots left, will it be allowed for owners to keep bidding on more players and drive up other owner team salaries? 

[Dallas Stars GM (Andrew)]

I think Josh Norris is on the IR he just hasn’t moved him over to the IR on his pro board which gives him two spots. But he has him on the IR on Fantrax

[Rangers GM (Steven)]

But what happens when Norris comes back from IR and both main/farms rosters are maximized?

[Blackhawks GM (DJ)]

That will lead to my question but he will have to cut someone to make room.

Your original question though still stands. Can bid be made if you don’t have the room either roster size or cap?

[Dallas Stars GM (Andrew)]

He will have to release a player of his choice when the player comes back from the IR. To answer other question you must have a roster spot open to put a bid in.


Owners must have open roster spots in order to bid on Free Agents. No open roster spots no bidding allowed.

Directly from the rules

[Avalanche (Pat)]

That is correct, a team cannot bid on a player unless there is an open roster spot on their AHL or NHL roster. Its my fault i didnt show Norris or Tarasov on IR in the probaord, which i corrected on proboard. If a team win's bids and has injured players healthy they need to adjust roster by dropping players (may result in cap penalty) or planning ahead and making space before players are healthy.

[Devils GM (Troy)(LM)]

Oct 17, 2023 12:33:56 GMT -8 Blackhawks GM (DJ) said:

That will lead to my question but he will have to cut someone to make room.

Your original question though still stands. Can bid be made if you don’t have the room either roster size or cap?

If Norris comes back he will hopefully have someone else that can go on IR or he will have to drop and player and pay the penalty if he drops a players with a contract more than 1 year

[Devils GM (Troy)(LM)]

When bidding on FA you must make sure you have roster room if you don't and you win the bid you will be forced to make a decisionon who to drop and it won't be the player that was just won, also will have to pay the salary cap penalty if that players has more then a 1yr contract.