GMs,
I’m hoping no one is totally opposed to this rule tweak, but sometimes we do things as a common practice and then later realize that we have been disregarding a written rule. It has come to my attention that we have a rule in place has been honored in regards to players we extended in the off-season, but has not been applied to off-season free agent signings.
Here is the current rule:
“Item AX B(1)-5.0
Free Agent signings cannot be traded until 60 days after they have signed. This date will be shown per each player in the official rosters section. In addition to our 60-day NTC rule, any players signed to extensions as well as FA contracts in the offseason cannot be traded until June 1st the following year.”
As you can see, the 60 day rule is noted when we sign a player, but on top of that, a June 1st prohibition is tied to off-season free agents because they are lumped together with rostered players who have been signed to extensions. In the interest of transparency, it would be reasonable to assume if we were going to enforce this rule uniformly, every free agent signed during the off-season would have a June 1st signing date instead of a date from which to associate a 60 day moritorium.
So, with all this, unless there is great opposition to this rule clarification, the June 1st Rule will only apply to rostered players signed to extensions during the off-season. With my involvement in trades affected by this rule change, this may seem self-serving, but this has a league wide effect in that it would prohibit the trading of all players signed during the off-season until June 1st, which I believe is a prohibition we can do without.
Please feel free to comment.