NHL-IIHF Agreement Ends, Creates "Open Season" on Free Agents

Daly Says Questions Still Remain In How To Proceed Following Expiration Of IIHF Deal

The transfer agreement between the NHL and the IIHF expired yesterday, meaning it "will be open season" on player movement between the six IIHF-affiliated European leagues and the NHL, according to the CP. European teams will now receive "no compensation when a player heads to the NHL." However, IIHF President Rene Fasel said that the NHL "plans to honour European contracts and the league expects European teams do the same with NHL deals." NHL teams also "won't pursue players under contract to a European club and there will be no negotiating a release fee with individual teams for contracted players," as that would violate the league's CBA. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly: "There are still some question marks we have to work out with the Players' Association on where we go from here. But to this point, it appears as if we and the Players' Association are on the same page vis-a-vis how we need to be dealing with the IIHF and the individual member federations" (CP, 6/17). The previous agreement had specified "how NHL teams could bring players over from Europe, with deadlines for transfers, limits on how many players could leave each season, rules for players returning to their IIHF clubs, and a transfer fee for each player" (Montreal GAZETTE, 6/17). The NHL will "no longer pay a $200,000 transfer fee to sign players who were not under contract." That could save NHL teams a combined total "of about $11[M] a year to sign between 50 and 60 young players" from the European leagues (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 6/17).