A very common question I have been getting, he's a pretty detailed look at it. I will use my own players for the purpose of examples.

Q - How does the new waiver systems work? What is the waiver draft?

OK, the way the new waiver system is going to work is as followed.
1 - Players 24 and over must clear waivers before going to the farm
2 - Players 23 and under can go up and down as you please, ONLY if they played at least 5 regular season games outside of the NHL last year. (So NCAA-AHL-Junior etc)

Lets say I have Sam Gagner who I want to send to the minors. He's under 23, but he didn't play at least 5 games outside the NHL last season, so he CANNOT be demoted.

Lets say I want to send down Jack Hillen, he is 23 and under so he passes that test, He played 33 AHL games last season so he passes that test. So Hillen can go up and down as I please.

Lets say I want to send Fredrick Norrena to the minors, he played 5 games outside teh NHL (in the KHL). But he is 24 and over, so he would have to clear.

Lets say I want to send down Jed Ortmeyer, he didn't play a game in the NHL last season, but is 24 or older so he too must clear waivers.

Once we start the preseason, we will basically call every single player up to your pro rosters (like a training camp). You can demote guys as you wish BUT, if you send a guy down that would have to clear, he will be exposed to waivers for 48 hours.

At the end of preseason, we will do a mass waiver draft, were you can only protect 20 skaters and 3 goalies. Players 23 and younger do not need protected. Anyone you expose and who clears can then go up and down freely, up until they play 10 pro games.

If afterwards, you want to send someone down that you claim in the waiver draft, OR who was protected, they still have to clear waivers. the most basic rule of this system is that NO PLAYER 24 OR OLDER CAN GO TO THE MINORS WITHOUT CLEARING WAIVERS AT LEAST ONCE.

To monitor this, we will be placing 1 way contracts on all the players who you protect in the waiver draft. When they get demoted even if we miss it at the time. they will show up as a 1 way contract in the minors, and will be immediately exposed to waivers for 48 hours. Once they clear waivers, we will take the one way contract off.

As stated earlier, once a player has cleared waivers, they can move up and down freely until they play 10 pro games, at which time, they again would have to clear before going down.

If you demote a player making more than 1.5 million, and they clear, they can continue to go up and down like a regular player on waivers, but they will have a 1.5 million cap hit regardless of where they play.

The wiaver draft will be 3 rounds long. It is recommended if you are worried about losing a player to expose them there, as there will be more players, and less likely a chance they get nabbed.


Any questions? Examples? Specific cases you want answered? Let me know here.